[Rob Brownfield]

Ahhh, the Blob.

I find it a bit of an enigma. There are days I fish and it's nice to be on the water and enjoy it all. A fish is a bonus.

Sometimes I fancy a day of catching, and catching lots! All my fish go back, so from a conservation perspective, I have little impact.  Nothing wrong in wanting to catch lots of fish after a lean spell on the river.

Have I used the blob? Once, for a bet, and I caught a Grayling on it!!

Do I criticise people using the blob?..Hmmmm. If it is solely to fill the freezer with as many fish, then probably.

If it is to have a days catching rather than casting and the fish go back, no real problem with it.

If it is being used by one of those chaps that sees you catch a fish and suddenly appears right next to you and casts three blobs into the area you have been fishing with a small dry fly of delicate buzzer set up...he is going in head first lol.

[Dave Robb]

To me, using blobs on a stocked fishery is as bad as sitting all day with buzzers under a strike indicator. 

Seems like it’s all I ever see on the very rare occasion I go on one of these waters.

To me, its not really sporting, but then is it sporting anyway fishing on a pond that’s stocked for our pleasure, with fish that will probably be caught many, many times in their life? 

Personally I find buzzers under an indicator an incredibly boring way to fish, however I do upstream nymphing with a Klink so maybe I’m a hypocrite  .

[James Laraway]

The only way round stocky bashing is to introduce new fish, fewer and more often, meaning there should be more ‘naturalised ‘ fish about as oppose to big schools of really hungry and uneducated fish, but this would be hard and more expensive to achieve I think.  The only other alternative is have stocking densities that mean people catch less.. I can’t see me ever wanting to catch 20 identical stockies every day- I’d soon get bored (even if wild fish! )

[Allan Liddle]

Probably not the best time to admit i have fished a Blob under an indicator before 

[Terry Coging]

Gave you a like Allan for candour  ........and for knowing your reputation as a sportsman and master fly tier.
We all have to try things out and to accept or discard to suit our individual tastes. Yes, I have used blobs and bungs but not together. Had my fussy out of them and chose not to use them any more. Moved on to other, more interesting methods.
I am not against the use of blobs or bungs, but I am against hauling out stock fish one after the other like Mackerel. I have been there 

[Allan Liddle]

Thanks Terry, catching loads is fun for a wee while, then it can certainly get boring, to be honest i've even had this with dries and at times nymph on river however these tend to be few and far between and often short lived (hatch ends etc).
With stocked fish i tend to accept them for what they are, fish that have been hand reared to a size and newly placed into a fishery so i don't get excited by the size but do like them to be of good quality.

I used to fish through the winter for rainbows and up here we have some excellent fisheries, now i tend to only go out a few times and often then with friends for the social aspect but still find this style of fishing enjoyable (usually it's the craic amongst us that's the real draw).

As for the fishing style?  Well i do like the indicator, it's visual (my favourite way to fish), relaxing and takes me back to watching a pencil float in my very early days chasing perch.  I suppose essentially it's a case of each to his own and i look at it simply; if i don't like fishing a certain way then i just don't do it (i hate streamer fishing on rivers for example).

We're all Brothers of the Angle and we need to make sure we get as many bodies out there fishing as we can.

[James Laraway]

Well , at Glen Tanar I took a spanking, 15 fish to my one. My chum fished a squirmy wormy under a bung and I fished conventionally.
There were others on the loch who did as well as me...

 God I hate rainbows.....

[James Laraway]

session on the bench getting ready for a trip to Forbes on Kinglennie in Oct...

[Terry Coging]

They really are very pretty James      

[Graham Nicol]

I've yet to see a hatch of those but if, and when I do, suspect I will run back to the car.........

[James Laraway]

session on the bench getting ready for a trip to Forbes on Kinglennie in Oct...

Last night pink and chartreuse did the biz 🤣

[Mike Barrio]

Bright ....... 

[David James Murray]

A blob was just a short tied taddy unweighted to International Rules. Fritz has been on the go for near on 40 years, it’s not something new.
 Obviously they are deadly, but there’s plenty other pulling patterns that slam fish.
 If you want to just match the hatch with dry flies that’s cool, but each to their own.
 Fishing has become a bit of a numbers game to many.

[Terry Coging]

Fished the club contest today. On the last peg of the circuit I was joint leader (number of fish). I had bought a pink and chartreuse blob from the lodge before we started and tied it on for the last peg. Bang! It won the contest   
Credits to James Laraway chief blobber, Barrio Fly lines (#6SLX) and Mackenzie #6FX1

[Steven Sinclair]

I hummed and ha'd on how I wanted to respond to this one but here's my take on it...

I like to be in full tweeds when I fish the Dee and I love the traditional side of fishing and country sports in general.  Most of the rods I Salmon fish with or trout fish with "up north" would never dream of fishing blobs and the like (i'd argue many wouldn't even know what it was) and I am more than happy to be there and fish in the same "proper" manner as the rest of them.

Conversely  however, I am quite happy on occasion to turn up at a trout fishery with my lets see just how many I can catch in 4 hours head on and will happily throw anything at them so long as its within the rules of the fishery.

Do I get as much enjoyment from both? No. I'd happily take 1 Caladail trout over 100 stocked rainbows but here's the thing for me.

I kind of liken it to eating in a Michelin Star restaurant vs Burger King. The food/ambiance etc in the Michelin Star restaurant is obviously far greater than that of BK but if i'm starving and I want something greasy, fast and convenient then I will happily wander in for my fix.

Would I want to eat at Burger King every day? Well no, but on the flip side I A) couldn't afford to dine in fancy establishments for every meal B) couldn't be arsed with the faff of booking tables and wearing fancy clothes etc .

I guess what I am trying to get at is that there are Michelin Star folks and Burger King folks and then there's us that will eat anything and I think a balanced diet is a good thing but more Steak than chicken nuggets for me please 

One other thing I would to add is that the level of snobbery surrounding many fly fishing circles is unreal. Yes I wear my tweeds and fish nice beats but I wear them and fish there because I like them not to conform to some superiority complex over mere "stocky bashers".  Beings as we live in a world where the "Anti's" seem to be gaining more and more traction. I strongly feel that all anglers need to try and put this elitist bullshit aside, as without strength in numbers I can foresee recreational fishing for fun becoming more and more under threat. 

Just to confirm having zero issue with the "dark side" of trout fishing here is one side of a particular "box of horrors" as my Dad would refer to them 




 

Steven.