ALL PUMPED UP

There is nothing new about "Booby Pumping" English fly fishers have been doing it for years. I first tried it a few years ago and had success with it in a couple of fly fishing competitions and on many a recreational trip. The technique as I understand it, and apply it, is quite simple. Cast a booby out on a sinking line, count the line down to the desired depth, and then fish the booby anything from dead drift right through to an aggressive pump. The pump is a retrieve technique. The booby floats and the line sinks. Once you have counted the line down to the desired depth give a couple of quick strips to get the booby down to the working depth. Hold the strip for a few seconds letting the buoyant booby pull the team of flies toward the surface then strip again pulling it back down and so on. The boobies I use are quite big and I don't reckon they look much like any thing found in the trouts food chain but gee the rainbows do like them. To increase my options I generally fish the booby in conjunction with a second (and third fly when legal) on droppers on the same tippet and this increase my strike rate. My favourite top dropper flies are English winged wet flies such as a Mallard & Claret or a fly tied to the same patter but in "Adams" colours. If you can use three flies legally I like to put a flashy fly like an Alexandra into the team on the middle dropper. This is one of my standard fishing techniques now when there is a lack of surface activity particularly in fisheries where there are suppose to be plenty of rainbow trout. I generally fish leaders between 10 and 17 feet with the longer ones working particularly well in deeper water.

	MATERIALS: Hook  - Size 8-12 long shank or jig hook Eyes  - Two bean bag beads tied in stocking material Thread  - To suit body colour Tail  - Marabou to match body colour Body  - Krystal Chenille is best but similar materials can be substituted
	MATERIALS: Hook Size - 8 to 12 long shank Thread - Black Tail - Red cock hackle slips or fibres Body - Flat silver Mylar      Throat hackle - Black  cock hackle fibres Underwing - Peacock sword feathers Overwing - Red cock hackle slips on each side
	MATERIALS FOR ADAMS BOB: Hook Size - 8 to 14 long shank Thread - Grey Tail - Golden Pheasant tail tips Body - Rabbit blue / grey underfur Palmered hackle - Brown / red cock hackle Rib - Fine gold wire Wing - Grey duck feather wing slips Front Hackle - Grizzly & Brown hackle wound together

I do however fish a lot of fisheries where there is good proportion of browns and I guess its not surprising that I have modified my "Booby Pumping"  techniques  to target them. I have also modified the technique to overcome a perennial problem when fishing along the bottom which was that the top and middle dropper flies sometimes fish too close to the bottom and consequently get snagged and occasionally cause me to break off my full team of flies.

I mentioned earlier that "Booby Pumping" as I did it worked particularly well for rainbows. Unfortunately it seldom scored a brown trout for me. I guess that browns are just not turned on by boobies in the same way rainbows are. Quite apart from my "Booby Pumping" for some time I have been experimenting with various yabby patterns. By adapting a patterns developed by my good mate Chris Mills in Kalkite I was able to come up with two ties of the same fly a floating yabby and a sinking yabby. I quickly found that the floating yabby was a good substitute for the booby and have caught a mixed bag of browns and rainbows using the technique since.

MATERIALS: Hook  - Size 6 - 8 3x long shank Thread - Black & strong Sieves - Barbules from a peacock sword feather Claws - Marabou, black over brown Legs  - Oversize black hen hackle Underbody - Black dubbing or for a more flashy version Krystal or Estaz Chenille Head & overbody  - 2 mm closed cell foam Ribbing - Thread Eyes  -  Burnt monofilament

I was still left with the problem of loosing flies on bottom structure and with the success of substituting the floating yabby for the booby under the belt I decided to solve this second problem.

If I were restricted to just one fly pattern I think I would select a brown nymph and so I set out to tie a brown nymph that floated. The design I have settled on is shown below and I have now extended it to versions in other colours including olive, black, "Adams" colours and "Red Tag" colours.

MATERIALS: Hook  - Size 10 to 14 Thread  -To suit dubbing Tail - Marabou fibres Rib - Tying thread or fine round tinsel Body & thorax - Thin layer of dubbing or peacock herl over closed cell foam Wing Casing - Closed cell foam Legs  - Hackle fibres

When fishing close to particularly snaggy bottom I now often use a booby as my point fly in rainbow dominant waters and a floating yabby as my point fly in waters where I'm also targeting brown trout and a floating nymph on my top dropper. This combination is working very well.

Having said that I have recently tied a salt water wiggle minnow in black and have found that its a further alternative to the booby and the floating yabby.

MATERIALS: Hook - 4 to 2 Gamakatsu SS15/T.                                               Thread - 2 kg monofilament. Tail - Zonker strip or marabou Bib - Sparkle flash Body - Krystal or Estaz chenille Back - 2 mm closed cell foam                   Eyes - Painted on

Gee when you think about it I guess that the possibilities are limitless.