The Whisperer’s Fly Box
Foam Bodies
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The Booby
The booby is a contraption, which would have Skure and Hardy turn in their respective graves. Resembling an insect? What insect?
The booby is in my humble opinion just between the impressionistic and the abstract resemblance of a fly and I have talked about that in Chapter II of my book.
The design of the booby allows you to fish a sinking line at the bottom and have the booby - remain above the bottom, thus avoiding snagging.
Yes you can go and buy booby ‘eyes’ (which are not really eyes but little cylindrical foam sticks) in any good fishing shop and you can pay $5.00 for a packet of about 10 or so. Green ones $5.00 a packet, red ones $5.00 a packet, yellow ones, ah you might want some orange and white ones – just in case….. and there goes $50 bucks in the bottomless pit of fly-fishing. And that’s not all, if your wife is like one of my mate’s wife, she demands $50 worth of cosmetics for every $50 dollar worth of fishing gear he buys. She says: “a dollar for a dollar”. If you spend $50 for YOUR hobby, I can spend $50 for MINE. Don’t let the Old Girl read this; otherwise you’re starting a whole new way of fishing, budgeting and marriage counselling.
If you’re an ‘ole’ miser or scrooge like me (so ‘SHE’ says), or if you want to avoid these tit for tat fishing-cosmetic situations proceed as follow:
1 Wreck/dismantle an old (or new) car aerial, picture #1
2 sharpen one or both ends on a grinder, picture #2
3 Put a section into a drill (battery drill is ideal, if you have one)
4 Drill into a thong, or any foam packing material of suitable thickness, colour and density. Picture #3
5 Pull out booby eyes – “voila” or as the French would say: “hey presto” you saved yourself 5 bucks. Picture #4
I take NO Credit for this do-it-yourself money saving method. Credit is due where credit belongs, to Heppy (John), one of our club members, which turned up at a fly tying evening with this idea.
The thickness of the foam/thong determines how many booby eyes you can make from each cutout.
If your foam is too dense, it might not be buoyant enough to float, if it is too light or to porous, it will not float either. So a medium foam density is best, but of course you can experiment.
If your wife still listens to the car radio while driving and you fear unforseen and dire consequences after mutilating her car aerial, you can make a cutting tool by using a section of an old hollow carbon fibre fishing rod that you can sharpen on the small end. The foam will fall out at the bigger end, but it will be tricky to hold the taper in the drill chuck, a) because it is tapered and b) because it crushes easily. You can twist the cutting tool by hand, but the booby eyes look a bit ‘screwed up’.
A second hand junk shop or a recycle centre is always a good option for a car aerial.
ExP’s
Besides the booby, I use my foam on a Dun I named ExP1 – ExPerimental vers. 1. (I am so imaginative with names) Picture #5 & #6. Picture #7 shows ExP1 from the trout’s point of view, eg. the close inspection test – looking up. I fished ExP1 in tandem with Moles nicely tied much more realistic dun. See “The Trout Whisperers Diary” December. When the fish struck the fly, the HI-VIS that is tied over the top seemed to get dislodged, making the fly look somewhat untidy but this didn’t seem to deter the fish. I took two fish with it and had several hits. However I changed the design slightly (ExP2 – another imaginative name –see Picture #8 and #9 this had several reasons:
1 The red/yellow/orange foam made the dun very visible in rough water
2 Increased the buoyancy of the dun
3 It acted as a strike indicator if fished with a nymph
4 It allowed me to ‘gink’ the foam without greasing the HI-VIS, thus sinking the fly a bit deeper in the water or alternatively gink the HI-VIS as well and allowing the fly to sit higher on the water, specially in rough wate
5 And I could finish the dun with a red/orang/green thorax
I have fished ExP2 since on several occasions with a possum shaving brush in tandem and have caught fish with it. (see “The Trout Whisperers Diary – February 05)
The ExP2 is virtually indestructible, highly visible, has excellent buoyancy and is easy to tie.
It is rewarding tying your own flies and very satisfying when they catch fish.
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any
more than going to a river makes you a fly fisher.
Postscript
G'day Helmut
That is exactly how I make the foam bodies on my dun. I suggest using a
small radio aerial for smaller diameter tubes. I have even used "chupa
chup" sticks for drilling. It also helps to use a bit of soapy water
as cutting lubricant. I drill mine out in a drill press, as it is easier.
It is amazing how many bodies, booby eyes etc you can get out of a $2 pair
of thongs.
Chupa Chup sticks are the plastic tubes (About 3-4 mm OD with an 2mm ID)
that you get out of kids lollypops. Ask your grandkids (if you have any)
or go to the milk bar and ask or just go to a kid's playground as they are
usually lying around everywhere.
The small radio antenna is better but I was just experimenting and they
certainly worked and are readily available. Try different foams. I sourced
some industrial black silicone rubber, which makes great beetle patterns.
You can also use hole punches (the tradesman type you hit with a hammer
for making gaskets etc) by putting them in the drill press as well. A
"Chinese" cheap set (3mm-12mm) is about $10 and you can drill
anything from mayfly extended body through to large beetle or whatever.
Cheers Pres Mole
If you would like to contact me for comments or contributions click here: thetroutwhisperer@bigpond.com