Bungee Butts – What are they and how do you use them ?
Early season fishing has been incredible recently. The combination of 1000s of fish being stocked across the country, lockdown preventing fisherman getting near the fish and the weather gradually starting to warm up has resulted in some reports of huge catches.
I was recently fortunate enough to spend the day on the boat at Draycote Water and had an amazing day fishing buzzers with 18 fish reaching my net on the day. This number would have been much higher, had I not been snapped so often.
Despite the average stamp of fish coming in at around 3lbs on the day, my 10lb flourocarbon leader droppers were regularly smashed on the take. Buzzer takes can be vicious and if a line is too tight, or the rod too straight or not flexible enough, then the leader or dropper can be easily snapped.
Besides being frustrating to lose a fish, leaving a hook or even an entire leader in a trout’s mouth is not a good thing at all.
So what do we do to protect ourselves from losing fish and the trout from being left with unwanted and potentially deadly hardware ?
There are several answers to this, including:
- Ensuring your rod is flexible enough to take a rapid buzzer pull
- Using a flexible and durable fly line. One with a little give in it’s construction
- Keeping the rod at an angle to the line, so the flexibility of the rod tip absorbs some of the impact of the pull
- Leaving more slack line than necessary to give you time to react and lift the rod (although not so much you deep hook the fish)
- Using stronger leader flourocarbon (although this may reduce the takes)
- Reduce the number of droppers, so double and treble ups are avoided
However, I’d like to focus on a rather more unusual approach to this, which is the eponymously named Bungee Butt.
These were available from Drennan, but are no longer sold. However, it is relatively easy to make one. You’ll need 2 braided leaders and a 5 inch (approx) piece of 22lb power gum (or equivalent).
First, take one of the braided leaders and slide the
power gum up to 1 inch in to it, just as you would a fly line.
Secure the sleeve over the power gum with superglue.
Repeat the process with the other end of the power gum
Once you have the completed item, simply attach your leader to one end and your fly line to the other and you’re finished.
But how does it work in reducing breakages on savage buzzer takes ?
Well, the power gum is extremely flexible and stretches easily and durably. It will not snap, even under extreme and sudden pressure. The power gum will absorb the impact of a hard trout take and reduce the stress on all other areas of your buzzer set up, from leader to reel.
I’ve tried this system on Rutland recently and found it to be extremely successful, so why not give it a go and see if this method improves your buzzer catch rate.