Zonkers and A Nymph

AUG 28 2022

David Hutton
Installment 152

"I don't know jack about zonkers!"

There I said it.
One of the more fashionable tying materials to come along in recent years, and I've never used it for much of anything.
Being a "hair and feather" man myself, I guess I've always been kinda suspicious of the stuff, what with the skin still on it and all.

But, that changed recently, when I received some rabbit zonker as a birthday gift from my grandkids.
They picked it out - nice bright colors - and I'm gonna use that stuff!

For more on the story of The Zonker Strip Gift, go here:  The Jerannah Fly

Now What?
So here I sit with some zonker material, and no real experience with the stuff.
I know it came from a rabbit, and it is basically just a long strip of rabbit hide, with the hair still attached. 
Oh... and I know it is used for many different fly styles. 
Which is about all I know,,, but that's a start

What to do, what to do?




Well, we live in the digital age, don't we? When in doubt - go for the internet!

I didn't want to make this into a lifetime project, however, so I was looking for something entry level here.
Some people make a presentation out of the zonker flies they tie.
Carolina Zapata (Moscas Yungay), from Chile, she comes to mind in this regard.*

* Isn't the internet cool, that we can even KNOW of someone like Carolina?

To check out her Moscas Yungay, here is the QR code:



Simply Zonkers
Then, there is yours truly. I want to keep this down to a simple operation. Fortunately, as with all fly patterns, there are simple versions to get started with. These are what Martin Joergensen, of the excellent, "GlobalFlyfisher.com" calls, "mundane zonkers." 
Just as I didn't want to make these things into a career, I also didn't intend to spend hours searching the internet for zonker inspiration.

A few minutes with the web browser, however, and I had enough ideas to get me going.

I settled on the sort of thing seen below....

Foto credit: David Humphries, and "Guide Recommended"

What's In It?
This is the most basic sort of zonker fly - a streamer of no great purport.
I suppose Martin would call it, "mundane," and I like that.

It is comprised of these things:

• A hook 
• A body
• A zonker strip 
• A head

It cannot be much simpler than that.

Hook - I have hooks galore in my stash. But for trying out something new like this, I went with Ol' Reliable... a basic Aberdeen.
Its about a 3x or 4x long, and I chose a size #4.
In fact, I should admit that I use Aberdeens a lot.
I have a fly shop about 30 miles away, where I could get hooks. And I could get any sort of hook I want, online.
But I get these at my local Walmart, and they catch fish as well as I need.

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On a side note, I once tested these Aberdeens, to see if they could cut it - and found they are surprisingly robust. 
Here's the link to that test, including some surprises about cats...

The Great Aberdeen Hook Test

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Body - this part of the fly can be anything, from dubbing to tinsel, and pretty much whatever else you might want to use.
I wanted a bright sparkly body, to simulate the lower portion of a bait fish.
Rooting around in my bin labeled (what else), "tubing and ribbon," I found some corsair tubing, and some fancy trim ribbon from the sewing section of the craft store.
These form the bodies you see in the videos and pics 

The zonker strip - this is the stuff my grandkids picked out.
It is from Hairline and is labeled as,... drumroll please...
"Tiger Barred Rabbit Strips Blacked Barred Purple Fuschia”

Not only is it a mouthful, but this is unlike any fish found in Nature, at least not in South Carolina.
Maybe some poisonous Brazilian tree frog might sport such colors.
But no Dixie bass has ever seen anything like THAT. 
Keep in mind that color is actually pretty far down the list of what triggers fish to strike. If they only took natural colored baits and flies, then Firetiger and all the Fluorescent colors would be done for. Ditto the classic white and red head lures.
So the color is probably the least important part of this,... and it has kinda of grown on me.

Head - At the front end is the head. It is made from black thread wrapped on in the usual way. This finishes the fly, and gives it that "complete look."
The head is well coated with cement, and then eyes are added using the paint dot method.
No head is complete without eyes, after all. 

Tying Notes
Don't be afraid to use a little super glue when tying these. The zonker strip wants to slip around a little under the kind of thread tension needed for this job. 

Use 6/0, or 210 denier thread for tying these. The zonker strip can take it, and you'll need it.

The Nymph
I had a little piece of the zonker left over, so I cut the fur off of it, and tied up a Polly Rosborough, "fuzzy nymph," following the general method for the  "Casual Dress " pattern. 

Its not a hard tie, and it has a neat little dubbing loop trick for making the hackle collar from the rabbit fur. This is a technique you need to learn. It allows any soft dubbing or fur to become a hackle collar!

The silky rabbit fur works nicely for this style of nymph, too.
In fact, this is one of the best nymph-type patterns I use - great for panfish and bass. It is durable and has good inherent movement in the water.

This nymph is tied on a #6 hook, so its not some teensy little mayfly thing.
But don't be put off....I've learned that these larger nymphs work quite well in my warm water fisheries. Larger panfish go for them, as do bass, both of which are okay by me!
I highly recommend it for those that want a rugged pattern for panfish that uses common materials, and is also easy to tie. 

I've done THREE articles that include the 'Casual Dress', in fact, so that will tell you how much I value the pattern.
For one of them that leads you into tying techniques for the fly, you'll find that here: 

Casual Dress - Variation On A Theme

Zonker Strip Casual Dress

So that's that. I hope you liked this article that you learned something, and will share it with your friends.

Tight Lines

David

Palmetto Fly N Fish
© 2022 david hutton, Palmetto Fly N Fish. All rights reserved.

....By the way...come visit our group on Facebook, "Palmetto Fly n Fish." We wont bombard you with merchandise hustles, or the internet craziness you find on so many other pages.

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References

https://globalflyfisher.com/patterns-tie-better/zonker-patterns

https://guiderecommended.com/zonker-flies-fishing/

http://flyandlure.org/articles/fly_tying/9_zonker_fly_patterns_to_tie

 

THE JERANNAH FLY - Kid Inspired Zonker Pattern

AUGUST 14, 2022
Installment 151

If you're a regular visitor to Palmetto Fly n Fish, you might remember my grandkids recently got me some goodies for my birthday.
They took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, and while there, they went to the Orvis store in town.

Yes, believe it or not, there is an Orvis store in Myrtle Beach, SC.

You see, the kids know my fly tying, and they have tried it enough to understand the process. So, they wanted to get some "fly stuff" as a gift.

Here's the booty they scored:

Hareline Zonker strip, Tiger Barred, Fuschia and Purple
Danville thread , 210 denier Flymaster Fluorescent Pink 
UTC Ultra Wire, Gold
Orvis, Hot Tipped Sili-legs, Black/Red 

What Next?
Of course, at this point, the pressure is on - I must now tie a fly using these materials.

Tying Requirements 

1. The fly must use all the material they chose, and it has to be obvious.

2. The fly can use other things, but not in such excess as to detract from #1.

To say these material colors are not exactly in my usual palette, is an understatement. I tend to go for more somber, natural tones.
But they are kids, and one of them is a young girl... bright colors were bound to be selected.
Hey, I love them and it's a challenge, and I can work with that.

The Game Plan
I'm not really a zonker guy, and have little practical experience with the stuff, so I felt no need to rush into it. I let it percolate in my mind for a while, as I knew an idea would eventually present itself.
The decision for what to tie was made thanks to a video from one of my favorite anglers and fly tyers, Dietrich Bohnhorst in Donegal, Ireland. 

There it was - a pattern he calls, "The Rainbow Slayer."

Dietrich is humble, and he allows, in his usual German accent, that it is... "relatively easy to tie, and is more or less, just another zonker pattern, or variant thereof.."
But it has proven to be a reliable catcher for the big predatory rainbow trout in his region. (Link provided at the end)

If the Rainbow Slayer is good enough for Dietrich B., it is good enough for me. 

I adapted it for the materials the kids selected, and the game was afoot.

Materials
Hook: Aberdeen #6
Tying thread: black
Tail: Hareline zonker strip
Body:  Long section of Danville fluorescent pink thread, doubled in a loop. 
Ribbing: UTC ultra wire, gold
Head: Black ostrich herl

Tying
There is not a lot to the pattern. It follows the usual build progression from back to front.

1. Run a base of thread from front to rear - stop at the hook bend.
2. Tie in the wire.
3. Tie in a doubled loop of the thread for the body.
4. Tie in the zonker strip, so the tail end hangs over the hook bend about a hook shank in length
5. Move thread to front.
6. Wrap the fluorescent thread back and forth along the hook shank, to achieve a smooth body; end at front and tie off behind the head.
7. Wrap the rear end of the zonker strip with the wire to bind it down - then spiral wrap the body with the wire ribbing and tie that off at the front, behind the head.
8. Tie in the legs just behind the head, evenly spaced to either side.
9. Pull the zonker strip over the top, and pull it down tight to the hook, just behind the head. Secure it with several wraps of thread and a tiny dot of super glue.
Alternatively you could use the tag end of the wire to secure the zonker.
10, Tie in a couple of ostrich herls, and wrap them to form a rounded head. This covers up all the materials tied in at that point, and gives a finished appearance.
Tie off the herls behind the eye.
11. Clean up any errant hairs, fibers, and thread, and add a drop of varnish to he thread head to end the job.

Notes
- This will also work on a #4 hook, and I'll probably tie a couple in that size.

- I suppose you could also go down in size, to say, a 10?
You could... but I probably won't.

- Obviously, this can be tied using any combination of colors and similar materials as you may have available.

- The zonker strip was tapered to a point at the very end of the tail.

- Use as much thread as you like to make the body; I wrapped on two layers to make a smooth, low profile body.
You could also put in an underbody of yarn to bulk it up, if you like.

- The legs were all pulled up evenly, and cut off at about a full hooks length measure.

The Naming
Every fly deserves a name. It may not be an original, but it still needs that special something, its own, "j'e ne sais qua,*" ... by which it can be recognized.
So what about the name, "The Jerannah Fly?"
Simple; it's an anagram that combines the names of my grand kids.
That just seemed the way to go. 

* "Je ne sais qua" is French. It means, "an intangible quality that makes something distinctive or attractive" ...and is my small attempt to class up this blog.

Here is how the Jerannah Fly ended up:

The Jerannah Fly

...and, for the video from Dietrich Bohnhorst that provided the basic pattern, go here:
 

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Thanks  for following along. I hope you learned something, and that you'll share it with your friends.
If you didn't like it, forget you ever saw it. LOL

Tight Lines,

David
Palmetto Fly N Fish

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