Bunny Game Changer

There's no question that Blane Chocklett's Game Changer has made a massive impact on the streamer world.  It's a great pattern and concept, but even the "smaller" versions of the pattern as it is traditionally tied is a bit big for the water I fish most often.  I wanted to downsize it a bit more for the creeks I often fish, make it castable on a 3-4wt rod, and maintain the fly's action in the water.  My first attempt at this idea made use of four hooks: two mustad 3366's in size 10, a 3366 in size 6, and a Gamakatsu B10S in size 6.  The tail hook and third hook used would both have their points snipped.

I chose to use rabbit strip and some fine Ice Dub in holographic silver, combined in a dubbing loop, spun and wrapped for the body.  My thought was to use a Petitjean material clamp to bind the fur and flash together, and also to adjust the length of the fur used in the loops to maintain some taper to the fly.  I used some Laser Dub coated in UV Knot Sense for the tail, and topped the fly with a size 6 Fish Mask.  Flash forward to the first trial, and this was the solid white version, 3" long on the button.

Immediately after snapping a few quick photos, I had to see this thing in the test tank.  I was pretty pleased when I got the fly in the water.  Below is a short video of the Bunny Changer swimming in my small test tank.

Last night, to test another thought with this pattern, I tied a yellow version that I wanted to attempt two-toning with permanent markers.  After testing a small chunk of rabbit strip, I was convinced that the fur would take the inking.  I also swapped the second size 10 3366 with a B10S in size 10 so that the tail hook would have a little bigger gap.  Here's a sequence of photos as the fly went together, starting with some rabbit and flash clamped together in the material clamp.

I'm going to stop at these two versions for testing on the water, hopefully this weekend.  The fly should cast easily with the lighter rods I like using in the smaller streams, and if the fly behaves in the water as it did in the test tank, I expect the Bunny Changer to snare a few fish.