Yobs, Blobs and Boobies

One of the truisms about fly fishing is that it provides fodder for endless debate, self-limitation being inherent in the sport. Often the focus of disagreement is whether or not a particular piece of gear, technique, or fly is legitimate. Since there is no central governing body of all things fly fishing, no rules committee or international court of appeals, and since fly fishers are probably more inventive than most other sorts of anglers, every so often the classicists rise up in anger over the introduction of a “new way.” And that, many would say, is how it should be.
So it is with the latest fashion in England, which involves the use of “blobs,” balls of fiber that are stripped through the water and have upped the catch rate considerably on English lakes. (You can see blob fly examples here and here.) “England fly-fisherman Jeremy Lucas said while the use of the blob and the booby – a brightly coloured lure with polystyrene ‘eyes’ – could encourage novices, it was ‘repulsive’ to see them used by experienced fishermen. He said: ‘Most of us would wash our hands of it. It reflects fly-fishing in a very bad light.'” Keith Perry in the U.K. Telegraph.