St. Vrain Angler Presents

Helpful Fly Tying Tips: Tying the Zonker Streamer

This is a completed Black Zonker with painted eyes, which are optional but look beautiful.

Here are the steps to tying the Zonker. Enjoy!

Materials

    Hook: 3- or 4X Streamer hook.

    Thread: use red for tying in the rabbit strip wing; then switch to black. I like to use a heavier thread - UTC 140 - for the red, and then lighter thread - UTC 70 - for the black.

    Body: braided mylar in pearl, gold or silver, or color of choice. This material is easy to use, ties and wraps well, and looks great.

    Throat: ref rabbit fur.

    Top: Flash and/or peacock swords as you desire.

Options: weight the fly; use a conehead or beadhead, which would be attached to the hook first; use mylar tubing for the body; add more flash in the fly. Paint eyes, like the sample above.

Let's tie the fly!

Begin by taking the barb off a 3- or 4X long streamer hook. Mount in the vice. If you are going to weight the fly, now is the time to add lead wire to the hook shank, as you desire. It is a good idea, but not shown here.

Start red thread behind the head of the fly and cover the shank of the hook so thread is hanging over the barb, and then make three or four adjacent wraps back toward the eye.

Select a rabbit strip that is the proper width for the fly you'll tie. Even the tip of the strip with the front of the eye of the hook so the rabbit hair flows over the back of the hook. Wet fingers of right hand, and divide the hair above where the thread is hanging, as shown above; wrap thread around the bare hide until it is tied in well.

Pull the front area of rabbit strip back and move thread forward to 3 eye lengths behind the eye of the hook. As you can see, I've tied off the red thread with black, trimmed off the red tag and am ready to go.

Select a length of braided mylar and tie in where the thread is. If you added lead, you can either tie the mylar in over the lead, or just behind it to make a smooth body. If you'd like a fuller body, wind the mylar back over the hook shank until it is right against the rabbit strip; if a thinner body is more desirable to you, wrap thread over the mylar until the thread is tight to the rabbit strip, and the wind the mylar forward, tie off and trim excess close. Cover the trimmed end with thread.

Select a red rabbit hide and trim off a clump of hair to make the throat. Turn the hook over in the vise, move thread flush to the end of the mylar body - be sure you've left plenty of room for the head folks - and trim length of rabbit hair so it will extend to the point of the hook. Tie in, as shown. Leave thread against the throat tie in position.

Turn the vise/hook back over. Tie the rabbit strip in as shown. Use enough thread, but not too much. There's plenty of bulk in this fly due to the throat tie off and the rabbit strip, so be conservative with use of thread. Use enough to hold it in place.

Clip away excess rabbit strip, as shown below. Begin building the head of the fly with a few extra wraps of thread. At the same time you trim away the front rabbit strip, trim off the back. Decide how long you want the fly to be. When trimming the strip, clip it at a 45 degree angle to the length of the rabbit strip. This will help the fly to swim better and should keep the rabbit strip from fouling around the bend of the hook when fishing. Be careful to keep from trimming any of the hair when you trim the rabbit hide. The hair should continue flow off the back of the fly, creating a taper when wet.

When the head area is defined, select and tie in a few strands of Crystal Flash or Flashabou on top of the fly. Consider using a dark color such as black or blue to imitate the fact that most minnows are dark on top. Add a few strands of peacock herl or swords to dress the fly up. Sometimes, I even add a soft hackle on the front of the fly to give it more contrast and swimming motion.

After all the materials are tied in securely, trim away all excess material and begin to build the head. If the materials have trimmed away properly, there should be a slight taper to the head area. Continue building this by wrapping adjacent wraps of thread, covering all exposed materials. Do not build bulk, and keep from wrapping thread over itself as it might then collapse.

When the head is done hit it with a good drop or two of thin head cement that will penetrate the thread. When it dries, hit it again with more. If you paint eyes, now is the time to make a drop of white on each side. After it dries, add a small drop of black inside the white to form a pupil. When everything is dry, apply thicker head cement or other clear liquid to bring the eyes alive and to protect the paint.

Enjoy tying and fishing Zonkers. This method makes the fly easy to tie, and it will fish very well. Tie Zonkers in white, black, natural grizzly, dyed mottled colors, olive, red and so on. Be creative! If you can find a color of dyed rabbit strip to use, tie it into a Zonker and take it fishing: you'll be glad you did!

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