Has anyone fished with a game changer just trying to see if I want one

They're expensive. Looks amazing. The fluid motion is sick. It may be cheaper to buy the material to make them.

They take a lot of time to make. They do get heavy when wet. Great action though.

'In The Riffle' has a great YouTube video of how to tie one of these behemoth flies.

I can see several ways to cut costs on tying one. To start with, EP Fiber brushes are expensive. Making your own dubbing brushes with whatever fibers & colors is a start.

JR

Tied this one after watching the video, my Blue Gill but have not tried it out yet.

First one I tied, with original minnow body wrap. Very heavy to cast, it soaked up water. Swam great tho!

After the heavy minnow body wrap they came out with Gamechanger Chenille made for the Game Changer. I tied up some white shad color and this little dude. This is only 3 sections of articulation...I wanted a smaller version to cast with a 5 weight.

Instead of using the body wrap use hackle to build the body. That is the lightest and easiest to cast GC.

I'm calling this one 'Life Changer'. LOL

JR

I saw a diagram somewhere of how these guys are supposed to look - looking at them straight on - and it's like an upside down rounded triangle. I think it was in the book "Feather Brain" by Drew Chicone. Critical to get them to run right. Fantastic book by the way.

In watching 'In The Riffle' video of how to tie, he was saying how he would get a lot of short-strikes. He tied a red stinger hook onto the backend of his fly.

I pinched the barb a little bit on the leading hook and built up a thread 'bump' to keep the trailer from coming off.

Like BBT said in his post, there are materials that are lighter & shed water quicker than EP Fibers. I haven't tried casting this fly, but with the medium dumbbell eyes, I'm sure it'll ride with the hooks pointed up.

The marabou should give good pulsating action when stripped. Red tips & gills should make this fly deadly.

JR

Personally after fishing a Zoom Fluke for bass for many years(my goto lure in the tournament scene for certain lakes), I don't think it matters if it darts upside down, or what. It's the side to side erratic action that drives the bass crazy(you would be amazed the action I could impart in a fluke, I twitch mine harder than most people and slay the bass..I really like to get it to spin 180 degrees and look at the bass in the face....oh it's ON THEN!)....sometimes when they aren't active it's more less "dead sticking it" and fishing it like a senko.

I would assume the Gamechanger is the same, since it's basically a Fluke/Swimbait Style bait.

Now Swimbaits are fished with a steady retrieve, you don't want the bait flipping, darting, ect...never stop reeling was always the "lesson" with conventional fishing and swimbaits. BUT that is a specific deal, timing, location, water clarity, ect.

Flukes work in a wider variety of conditions. That is how I fish the Gamechanger (since we really can't have a constant retrieve fly fishing).

Food for thought! Bass are like House Cats!!

Side Note - I built a test tank and tested mine, they look good. One thing I notice on the Gamechanger Chenille, is if you sparsely use the material the fly will have more action and sink faster, more material slows the action and slows the fall. You would want the slower moving, slow sinking one in winter when its cold, erratic one during the warmer mouths.

You can simulate a steady retrieve by tucking the rod under your arm and retrieving with over hand pulls on the line. Some ocean fly fishing or for Tiger fishing this is done to retrieve at a brisk rate.

I swing my 11' rod to the side, while this works for a small distance for a longer "strip"...cranking a gurgler down like a crankbait.

It sure would be hard to get a retrieve that like smooth, Traditional Swimbaits are retrieved slow and steady. If you stop the bass stops and will turn away. Often times the distance of the long cast is what will catch the fish. Slow, long steady retrieve. I love throwing Swimbaits on certain lakes, big fish game, you don't catch numbers.

California is where they got popular, before coming to Texas in the tournament scene down on Amistad years ago.

I could be mistaken about the fly rod retrieve, if you can find a video I would love to see it....

This is a bait, when it first came out(years ago) I thought would smash the fish, but I never had any luck....gar would come out of no where for it....but not bass. It reminds me of the gamechanger.