Another simple to tie and effective for river fishing is the Grey Squirrel Zonker. I love to tie this fly, it is simple and fun and it is effective on trout in super fast flowing currents and big rivers.
Two things to take in consideration at this fly:
-front collar hackle – you can make it sparse as possible or dense. All these are depending how you like your fly to work and push the water in front.
-eyes- this time I simple glue on the collar but at the first trout attack is very possible to loose them The fly will work even with eyes but if you like to have eyes on your streamers then you can use tab eyes or just glue a piece of mono on the back of the eye and fix the eyes on the fly using the mono.
Materials:
*Hook: Demmon W633 in size #12
*Thread: Veevus GSP white
*Body: any white synthetic dubbing to imitate the belly of small fry fish
*Ribbing: medium or large tinsel wire – gold/silver or copper
*Tail: orange-red synthetic dubbing fixed as free fibers
*Wing: Grey Squirrel Zonker: in natural grey color
*Eyes: 3D eyes in s4mm size fixed and secured with UV Resin
Another aspect that I like is the turbulence provided by the mask. Seems to attract the fish. I tested this kind of streamers on lake fishing black bass and I noticed more catch with the same fly tied with fish skull.
September 29, 2024
Hello Lucian, very nice fly. What size is the Fish Skull Fish-Mask? Or what size would fit a Demmon W633 #12 hook?
September 30, 2024
Hi Hans, thank you, very kind of you 🙂 It is the smallest size from what I remember. The size 3.
cheers