Equipment Outfitters

The Zonker is a time-consuming and elaborate pattern to tie and requires a fair deal of practice before its proportions are correctly mastered. The underbody, which gives it its underslung shape, is normally formed with aluminium or lead tape, which is bent around the hook shank and then cut to shape. If a translucent mylar is used as an overbody, I like to colour the underbody with floss or waterproof marking pens. When tying several Zonkers I have found that it is most time-efficient to shape and colour the underbody tape before starting. Because of its mylar body construction, the fly is quickly shredded by the trout’s teeth, so I now coat all my Zonker bodies in epoxy.

As small baitfish will often be found along the shallows of our stillwaters, it is here that the fly-fisher should concentrate his efforts. My technique is to wait for a disturbance to erupt and then cast the Zonker as quickly as possible into the area of feeding activity. This requires a powerful, fastactioned rod. My previous favourite was a nine-foot rod designed for a seven-weight line; however, with the graphite fly-rods on the market today, a five-weight outfit is more than capable of handling these patterns. A stiff, fastactioned rod is required to cast the Zonker, because once its rabbit strip ‘wing’ has soaked up water it is difficult to cast the pattern efficiently with a light-line rod. Read the rest of this entry »

The muddler minnow, or ‘Muddler‘ as it is usually called, is justifiably famous and is used throughout theworld with great success. It has its origins on the Nipigon River — famous for its large brook trout — in Canada, where it was developed during a fishing trip by the late Don Gapen, a well-known Canadian angler whose ambition it was to catch a world-record brook trout. After clamping his vice to a boat beached on the banks of the river, Gapen set about tying flies for the following day’s fishing. Little did he know that the pattern he was about to tie would become legendary.

The q was known as Gapen’s Special Fly or simply Gapen’s Fly. Gapen tied these flies by the dozen and sold them at his fishing lodge (called the Chateau Bungalow). Because of the pattern’s incredible popularity, his friends urged him to give it a name. He decided to call the pattern the Muddler Minnow in memory of the small sculpin minnows that lived in the Wisconsin streams and rivers he fished in his boyhood. These small fish were commonly called muddler sculpins or muddler minnows by the locals, and they produced large brown trout when fished as bait. Read the rest of this entry »

The Zonker, a baitfish imitation, is one of my favourite streamer patterns and has accounted for someof my largest stillwater trout. When trout begin to concentrate on small baitfish in the shallows, the action can be fast and furious, with strikes that leave the angler shaking with excitement. The Zonker is a superb searching pattern, especially during winter when trout aggressively hit streamer and attractor patterns, and it is also a good fly to choose when trout are visibly chasing minnows.

The Zonker was invented by Dan Byford of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and is one of the most realistic yet suggestive baitfish imitations available. It demands a fair deal of patience during tying and can prove a tricky patternto tie properly, particularly for novices. As with all patterns, the only way the fly can be mastered is to tie several, until all the problems associated with its tying are overcome. Read the rest of this entry »