On Tuesday, I was fishing a small stillwater using two home-tied flies – I had a triple-tone blob on the point and an orange hot head buzzer as a dropper.



I was using a 9 foot rod with a six weight floater and catching steadily on both – using a very slow retrieve.

After a couple of hours, I noticed that the ribbing had been chewed loose on the buzzer, so I clipped it away leaving the seal’s fur body and continued fishing.

Even later I realised that the dressing on the buzzer had loosened and was virtually undone, so I simply cut it all off, leaving the bare hook with the hot head bead (which had been glued in place).



As it was getting close to going home time, I couldn’t be bothered to replace the buzzer so went on fishing.

In the next half hour or so I caught another three fish, all on this bare hook buzzer.

Now I ask myself, why go to all the trouble of blending fur to get the correct texture, dubbing it onto the thread and then stretching ribbing material to produce a nicely segmented body when a bare hook does just as well?

For information, the hook is a Knapek Grub/Czech nymph Code G size 10 and the bead is a Firefly Hot Head Bead 3mm Orange.