Viking Lars | Saturday, 12 October 2019
It's hard to claim that a fly design is one's own. There are only so many materials, so many different ways of combining them and so many different ways of tying them on. It's not that long ago I tied a yellow, oversized Irish-style mayfly for salmon that I thought was very original. And just a few weeks ago I discovered a similar, yellow mayfly-style salmon in Jan Grünwald's famous little book on salmon flies.
And that's even a book I've read and leafed through several times. Somehow I'd managed for completely forget about that yellow fly and then years after, tie more of less the same fly. Maybe is was lodged in ythe back of my mind somewhere. My fly's not exactly the same of course, but the predominant, yellow-dyed mallard flank hackle is the same.
Another pattern I call mine is my W/B Zonker, but there's nothing really truely original about is. To me, the main feature that sets it apart from most other zonkers is the very narrow strip of rabbit I use for the wing. I filmed the tying of the fly some years ago and it's linked above.
It's really quite an excellent fly - in fac tthe fly that has cought me most of my brown trout over the last 7-8 years. The very narrow zonker strip and the spun rabbit hackle imparts so much movement into this fly, and I'm sure that's one of the secrets behind its succes.
I really only fish it in this white/beige colour combination, but others would certainly do well. The white-beige colours make it an excellent imitation of several species of fry and small fish - and bog browns like small fish for dinner.
The tungsten bead is just there to add even more movement, and help pull the fly down.
I don't know if I've seen something similar in some corner of the internet - or book - at some point, but none the less, give this fly a go. It's really quite a good fish catcher.
Have a great weekend!
Lars