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The Gamechanger is a brilliant design. Like Popovics’ BEAST pattern, it can imitate really large baitfish, but crucially, Blane uses articulated “spines” that allow the fly’s “spine” to flex and swim in a manner remarkably reminiscent of a live baitfish. The Gamechanger allows anglers to fish a really big fly very slowly with that all-important erratic movement, and it can often illicit strikes from big, cunning fish that seem impossible to fool with more conventional patterns. Bob Popovics is now experimenting with the ‘spine’ technique, and his huge BEAST fleye tied with Blane’s spine concept is nothing short of a living thing. My great friend Luciano Saldise was my guide when I first tried the Gamechanger for myself, six long years ago – Lucio laughed when I produced a crudely tied, home-made version of the fly, but it proved an instant success, catching a magnificent 27 pound dorado for us at Untamed Angling’s Tsimane Lodge in Bolivia. There was more laughter the first
time I showed the Gamechanger to my friends, the guides at Untamed Angling’s Trophy Peacock Bass Lodge on the Rio Marié. The big bold chartreuse pattern I had tied up was huge – 10 inches long – and Rafael Costa and the boys were more than a little skeptical. However, when I showed them the same fly swimming in the clear water at the back of the big houseboat that we were staying on, they were genuinely amazed. Even when fished at ultra-slow speed, the fly had a sinuous, erratic living action that was unlike any fly that they had ever seen. Bill, a likeable veteran American angler, was also looking on. He laughed infectiously and pronounced with a grin: “You got yourself a one-way ticket to Monsterville right there!” The fly didn’t disappoint. It really was deadly, and caught a number of really big peacocks, even when fished behind other anglers that had used smaller, more orthodox patterns.
