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Game Changer
A streamer, tied #2–6, carried year round. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year. Blane Chocklett.
A jointed streamer that swims on its own, the Game Changer is Blane Chocklett's design, built on Chocklett Body Tubes over a shank series in sizes 2–6 with white or olive 6/0 thread. Multiple articulated shanks are each dressed with brushed synthetic fibre and trimmed to a fish profile, the trailing hook carries marabou or synthetic, and the head is a Fish-Skull or dubbing head with eyes. The result is a fly that moves side to side on a pause rather than only on a strip, and the pause is the whole point — the segmentation keeps the body working when the line is still, which is why it suits slow water and asks for a lot of patience. It is tied here against sculpin, present all year in water from 33 to 72 degrees, and it also serves as a searching pattern when no hatch is on. Trout and smallmouth bass are the target species.
- #2–6Hook size
- streamerType
- AllSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
It is also tagged for no hatch at all — a searching pattern.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades; Blane Chocklett. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Chocklett Body Tubes on a shank series, sizes 2–6 |
|---|---|
| Thread | White or olive 6/0 |
| Body | Multiple articulated shanks, each dressed with brushed synthetic fibre and trimmed to a fish profile |
| Head | Fish-Skull or dubbing head with eyes |
| Tail | Marabou or synthetic on the trailing hook |
When to fish it
A jointed fly that swims side to side on a pause rather than only on a strip. The pause is the whole point.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 72°F.
Target species
- Trout
- Smallmouth bass
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Circus Peanut streamer · #2–6 — Articulated, rubber-legged, unapologetic. A Michigan big-brown fly.
- Muddler Minnow streamer · #4–10 — Sculpin sunk, hopper skated. Older than the sport's opinions about it.
- Peanut Envy streamer · #2–6 — Big articulated meat for the hour either side of dark.
- Woolly Bugger (Black) streamer · #2–12 — If you could only own one fly. Leech, sculpin, big nymph, all of it.
- Woolly Bugger (Brown) streamer · #2–12 — Brown with a bit of copper reads as a crayfish. Hop it along the bottom.