Tying The Goblin

I want to start off by stating that I cannot take credit for the invention of this fly.  I'm not sure where it originated from but I found this fly when searching for a new pattern to tie a few years ago.  Here is the link to the original Goblin.

Link: http://www.current-works.com/how-to-tie-fly/goblin-sculpin-goby-fly-pattern/

Here's where the story starts though and why I put my own touch on tying this pattern.

When I found this pattern, I thought it looked great.  I really wanted to tie it and wanted to come as close as possible to tying it right.  However, I was unable to do so because I was missing some materials and had to make some substitutions and modifications.  The resulting pattern looked similar but not exact.  I was a little disappointed in the fact it didn't look like the picture from the website, but it still looked like it might work.

Fast forward a few months when I was catching some bass in early summer.  I tied this fly on to see if it would work and the first thing I noticed was how it moved int he water.  While it gave a tall profile in the front and pushed some water, the tail had a lot of action that I thought would coax a bass into biting.  Sure enough, it worked really well that day and landed quite a few bass.  Knowing that the original Goblin was supposed to imitate a goby, I was curious why the bass were hitting it when they had never seen a goby in their lives.  (For the record, I now know better that bass don't care if they have seen something before.  They will eat it.  For example, I have never seen a 10 inch black and red worm with glitter on it in the water but I have caught bass on such a lure before.)  About an hour later when I was taking my boat out of the water, the answer revealed itself to me.  When beaching my boat, I spooked a large number of bullfrog tadpoles and one ended up stuck in the shallows.  With it's wide profile, white belly, and wiggly tail it sure looked a heck of a lot like my goblin.  At that point, I realized that I had a tadpole fly pattern and not a goby pattern.  Since that day, I always make sure that I have a few goblins (and by a few, I mean a lot) in my bass/streamer box.  It has produced so well over the years, I decided to go ahead and include it here on the fly tying page.  For your enjoyment and hopefully future success, I present to you MY Goblin...just not THE Goblin.

Materials:
Hook:  Tiemco 8089, Size 6
Eyes:  Yellow, medium, dumbell eyes
Tail: Olive Black Barred Variant rabbit strip- Hareline
Body: Same piece of rabbit strip used for the tail palmered to the eyes.
Fins: Pheasant body but other short, small feathers can be substituted.  The feathers can also be tied so that they angle inward toward the body or outward away from the body.
Head: Olive and white sculpin wool.

You can tie the fins angled inwards or outwards depending on the look you want.  Also, I have lost the fins over the course of the day and it didn't really matter.  I also substituted the dubbing and hackle for the wrapping of the rabbit strip forward.

Any of these feathers can be used.  I prefer the pheasant body on the right.