The Masters: Gordon Frazer

[maharg]

Gordon Fraser

I believe a man with great,forward thinking ideas ahead of his time. While most anglers were pulling lures, he had a rethink of his methods and took a different approach.
In his book, Mastering the Nymph(1987) he tells of how 16 blanks on the trot forced him to look again at what he was doing.
Unable to understand why a trout should take a lure, he decided to look at their food and adopt a more imative approach with both flies and tactics.

The Fraser nymph.
Devised to imitate buzzer at Grafam in 1976 this fly is his top nymph and still catches fish to this day.

• Hook longshank 10 to 14
• thread fawn
• rib domestic cotton,fawn coloured
• tail and abdomen hen pheasant tail.
• thorax creamy beige fur blend. (I have used bleached mole)
• thorax case and legs. Hen pheasant with the tips brought forward, split and folded back.

One recommended variant is with green cotton rib and olive mole.

He also used blends of furs to create more subtle and natural looking tones.
It was used to great effect in his BP Buzzer,

• hook standard shanks size 10-14, tied around the bend. (I have used a grub hook)
• thread black on black, beige on others.
• Rib clear polythene
• abdomen a blend of coloured seals fur and natural hares ear.
• Thorax as body
• Thorax case. Black fibers on black, ginger on ginger, hen pheasant on the rest
• colour ranges: black. brown,olive,green,claret,fawn,red and orange.

Another one of his flies was adapted from similair types to master a situation.
He wanted to fish buzzers deep on a sinking line without the flies snagging up.
This fly was fished on the point of a cast with 2 buzzers up the line on droppers.
Using this method he was able to trundle flies over snags and up dam walls without hooking the bottom.
What is this fly I hear you say?
Well you all know it. Here it is in its original form.
The Booby Nymph.



Tail, hackle fibres
body seals fur
rib fine silver or nylon.

You will notice no marabou tails,
No glitzy tinsels
a much more sombre fly.
The original used poly ball encased in nylon stocking. I couldnt find any so I have used modern booby eyes.

I hope you enjoy this and would urge you to seek out a copy of his book.

I am sure there are a few variations on the booby out there, feel free to post your best.

[mayflyjunky]

Fantastic nymph for an olive hatch on the lough.

Great post

[Wee Jimmy]

I have Frasers book in my collection Graham,very easy to read.He talked a lot of sense and you can tell he was a 'thinker' the way he explains solutions to certain fishing situations. Mastering the Nymph and Brian Clarkes 'Pursuit of Stillwater Trout' had a huge impact on my own fishing.Having said that I think both of them owed a lot to the true 'master'......the late Arthur Cove.....

[maharg]

Totally agree with you Jimmy. I also have both books and dip into them when I get overcome with a desire to strip a lure
Both thinking anglers, and as you say they must have learned from Cove.

[Old Jock]

Agree with everyone!. I too have his book. Anyone who reads this will undoubtedly change their approach in fishing for troot.

[Wee Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Old Jock

Les Toogood.... Thats a different cover from my copy Jock.

[maharg]

Originally Posted by Wee Jimmy

Les Toogood.... Thats a different cover from my copy Jock.

And mine

[maharg]

I thought I would have been awash with booby nymphs

[1973dereks]

The BP Buzzer was the first of it's type that I used and it was, and still is fantastic on its day.

[sabalos]

Jimmy is very shrewd, brian clarke attended the schools at grafham and was instructed by arthur cove.
arthur also gave richard walker an insight into stillwater fishing at grafham.
pete thomas asked arthur to show him a thing or two in grafhams hey day.

ta, dave