Z1. The Black Zonker Streamer Lure Fly

ZONKERS - BIG FISH FLIES
The American fly fisherman Dan Byford invented the "minnow" shaped Zonker as a lively imitation of small baitfish fish. It is now a classic streamer fly pattern. In the 1970’s when Dan’s design was first publicized streamers were only tied using feathers or bucktail for wings. Dan’s use of Rabbit fur strips as a wing fly tying material was a radical move. He observed that the fur gave the fly a natural swimming movement when retrieved or fished dead drifted. The fly wiggles and undulates realistically when wet. Because the rabbit fur was tied still attached to the skin it provided a strong robust wing. The body on Dan Byford’s original fly design used metal sheeting folded over the hook to mimic the shiny under body of most baitfish and the rabbit fur strip imitated the fish’s darker colored back. Many smaller fish like Sticklebacks Kokenee, Suckers, juvenile larger fish, White fish, and Squaw Fish have a distinct line along their body between their darker back and a lighter tummy. This is why the Zonker is such a good design. The junction of the rabbit fur strip and the silver or gold mylar imitates this effect exactly. With the arrival of Mylar tubing in gold or silver as a fly tying material and its use on the Zonker fly pattern a more realistic imitation was obtained due to the weave of the Mylar tubing resembling fish scales.

The Red and Yellow Zonkers are attractors streamer fly patterns. Attractors do not represent a particular baitfish. They are designed to excite a predatory trout into striking using brightly colored and reflective materials in their design. Some fishermen call them ‘piss them off flies’ If you can get this type of fly to invade your target fish’s territory or personal space he may be stimulated to attack it. The Black, Olive, Natural and White Zonker falls within this group of streamers called imitator streamers. They try to represent a specific type of food, which is preyed upon by the trout. Trout are territorial and will defend their territory against invading fish. This fact can be used by fly-fishermen to their advantage. A brightly coloured attractor fly retrieved past the nose of a large brown trout in hiding in an undercut river bank can excite a trout into striking if it thinks its feeding territory is under attack. Trout also appear to strike out of simple curiosity just to see if it is edible even though it does not look like their normal food. Sometimes bright, flashy flies drive them crazy or just annoy them.

One of the biggest mistakes committed by fly fishermen fishing streamers is to retrieve the fly so it appears to swim directly towards the fish. This is guaranteed to spook a large fish who normally expects to see smaller fish fleeing from the vicinity of its hungry mouth. A three inch baitfish charging a large fish is not normal and will terrorize even the biggest trophy fish. You have to think like a small fish who is constantly in danger of being eaten by bigger fish. You must make your streamer fly behave like it is under attack and trying to escape from a hungry charging predator. Small fish instinctively know that they cannot swim against the current up stream to escape from a fast moving predator. So make sure it flees down stream. If near large rocks, an undercut river bank or thick weed they will swim for protective cover. Some will even hurl themselves out of the water to try and escape being eaten.

Do not cast a streamer across and down and then strip it back. This causes the fly to behave exactly opposite from a natural bait fish by swimming directly against the current. It may take the an occasional fish but it does not give the hunting trout a good broadside look at your streamer fly. All it sees is the back of the fly. Zonkers have the general shape and colouration of a real fish. Try to place your fly sideways onto the fish. Most streamer flies look the same from the rear. Let the fish see that your fly looks like a baitfish that may taste good. When it moves towards the fly that is the time to imitate the escaping spooked baitfish.

I have observed that many large trout first hit a small fish to disable and stun it. They then come back for the kill. It seems they like to disable their prey so they can devour it head first. Rather than getting the tail and fins stuck in its throat. A number of inexperienced fly fishermen end up with "short strikes" because the try to set the hook the first time they feel a hit. Waiting to strike at the proper moment for a sure hook up. Many fish don't like to move from their resting positions when the sun is high. I have found that streamer flies work best when the sun is off the water, or during the early morning and late evening. Zonkers are ideal for Largemouth Bass, Small Mouth Bass, Bull Trout, Brook Trout, Pike, Rainbows, Brown Trout, Steelhead, Coho, Chinook, Tarpon, Stripers, Snook, Jacks, Bonito and Mackerel.

HOW TO FISH WITH A ZONKER
Zonkers work well in both rivers and lakes. Try to mimic the darting escape of a spooked small fish. You should be fishing somewhere between two to six feet deep. On rivers with undercut banks by letting the fly drift under the bank, as deep as you can, then strip it fast. Vary the retrieve from slow and steady, fast, strip-and-pause, or quick, short two-inch strips until you find what works best at your location

On five separate fishing trips over the past ten years I have had my catch attacked and eaten by a much bigger fish. On each occasion the fish on the end of my line was small. It had caught the bigger fish’s eye as it was acting differently to the rest of the other smaller fish. Next time you are fishing in a location with clear water observe how smaller baby juvenile trout and other fish co-existing with the larger trout who do not seem to notice them until they suddenly change direction in a darting movement or swim too close. This is the action you want to emulate with your streamer fly to provoke your target fish into taking your fly.

I like to imitate a crippled fish be moving my rod tip from right to left which will make the fly swim in a zigzagging motion. It is a great tactic to use in situations where large adult trout smash through a school of juvenile fish feeding on mayfly hatches. These big fish use their size and speed to knock a few of the smaller baitfish senseless. I have seen them make one to three passes before returning to gobble up the cripples that were hit in the initial attacks. I aim to cast in the area of the disturbance and make an erratic zigzag retrieve hopefully in front of the returning hungry trout.

When fishing a deep pool I cast upstream and retrieve the fly back down. I make the fly swim slightly faster than the current with flicks and strips. With each flick the fly darts ahead and on the pause it starts to dive toward the bottom. I have observed that sulking trout will whirl and charge downstream to attack a streamer fished in this way. This tactic is a very effective method for sculpin or crayfish imitations, which need to fished near the bottom to be effective. Remember that when attacked these small fish will try to escape down stream and not fight the current.

When fishing near the outwash of reservoirs or dams again try to imitate a crippled minnow by fishing zonker dead drift if you. Baitfish get stunned, injured or killed when they are flushed into the river below. Some of these baitfish are just disoriented and swim around aimlessly until they find their bearings again. The larger hungry predatory trout know this and will quickly make a meal of any crippled or injured fish.

BASS FISHING WITH A ZONKER
I like to wade into a river just below a riffle and cast across and slightly downstream. I give the Zonker time to sink and then strip the line to make it swim along the bottom a good six inches every five or so seconds. I normally make about six casts to the same location and make each one about four feet longer than the last. If I still do not get any nibbles I wade about three yards downstream and start the same sequence again. By taking time and doing this overlapping casting system it enables the zonker to be seen by nearly all the bass in front of me.

Sculpins like to live against a three foot deep shaded bank. This is therefore a prime feeding location for bass. I like to wade into the middle of the river and cast downstream tight against the bank. If I do not get an immediate strike I normally move down stream about five foot. Smallmouth Bass often patrol around gravel bars and grass beds on overcast days at dawn and dusk. Look out for minnows splashing through the shallows they are probably trying to evade predatory bass or trout. Cast your fly about three feet in front of the minnow and to the side of the minnows. Aim to strip your streamer through the middle of the shoal in the hope of presenting it in front of the oncoming bass. 

CUSTOMERS COMMENT
During a two week fall convention I was invited to go fly fishing at the weekend in Connetquot State Park on Long Island, New York by a fellow Doctor. I was very impressed with the Connetquot River, it wasn't a river but a fantastic limestone stream. It had a number of clear pools and lots of rising fish. Although most of the trout were stockies from the park hatchery they took on the characteristics of wild trout after only a few weeks in the stream and were feeding on nymphs, mayflies and fry. I had been reserved a section of the river in advance for half the day. I had looked on the information sheet and was surprised that the fishing fee was minimal considering that your are allowed to fish in a first rate spring creek that is only a half hour from Manhattan. On my section of water I spotted three big brown trout in the fast current. They were going to need a fly that was substantial to tempt them. I tied on one of your natural grey rabbit fur winged Zonker. I cast across the swift current and mended the line upstream to keep the fly drifting broadside so the fish could see the zonkers fish like profile and swimming action. The nearest trout moved over and took the fly. It crashed down the pool and headed for the overhanging bushes by the bank. I managed finally to ease the fish into my net in a backwater. It was a beautiful six pounder. I unhooked my catch and released it back into the clear waters of the Connetquot. I still cannot believe I caught a six pound trout in New York.

CUSTOMER'S COMMENTS
The Natural Zonker is my number one fly. It has over taken my favorite as it used to be the Gray Wulff. I wrote to you last year to see what flies you would recommend to use in our dams as all my streams were very low because of the drought here in Australia. You recommended large wet flies such as the Zonker which worked very well. In October we had good rainfall and the streams were flowing fast. I fished on with the Zonker. Second cast two twitches on the line and the water exploded with a large brown. I had a very successful morning with the largest fish weighing three pounds. Peter Wilson. Australia.

STREAMER LURES
In Britain this type of fly is called a 'Lure'. Streamers (including hairwings/bucktails) represent various small fish, and are tied on long-shanked hooks. They may be tied as deceivers, imitations of local small baitfish or as vivid colorful attractors that suggest something alive, edible or a threat. The attractors are also designed to stimulate a predatory fish's aggression. They are usually a little heavier than the nymphs, and the wind resistance can vary depending on the particular fly. A streamer is tied with soft feathers, such as cock saddle hackles or marabou, and is intended for fishing in relatively small and calm waters. By contrast, bucktails are tied with hair wings instead of feathers - originally hair from a deer's tail, hence the name but also squirrel hair. They are more suitable for fishing in broad, fast waters.

Historically, streamers belong to the American east coast, while bucktails come from the west coast. All these flies are fished in the same way. It is both the easiest way of flyfishing, and the method that yields the biggest fish! This may sound paradoxical, but it isn't. There are two reasons: you can do nothing wrong with a big streamer or buck-tail, and the fact is that big fish prefer big flies. The nice thing about small fish compared with tiny insects and crustaceans is that, to a great extent, they can oppose the current. Being strong swimmers, they commonly dare to enter more open and rapid water As a result, the fly-fisherman can fish his flies almost anywhere he likes: up or down or across the stream, either fast or slow. The fly will be equally attractive in all cases, and you need not worry about whether the fly will drag. Really large fish have long ago given up eating small insects in favor of more substantial young fish. Otherwise they would never have reached the size that makes them so desirable to us!

Trout are the commonest guests of our fly rods when we fish with streamers and bucktails. Grayling prefer insects and other small creatures, although this does not prevent large grayling from occasionally taking a small streamer When it comes to trout, one can get the feeling that not even the largest streamer is large enough. The great majority of small fish in flowing waters are definite bottom-dwellers. They not only live on the bottom, but actually spend most of their time resting on it. All this means that the flyfisherman's long-shanked flies should be fished as deep as possible. You can fish rather daringly with these big flies: fast or slow, upstream or downstream. There are unimagined possibilities of variation, in contrast to the usual fishing with wet flies or nymphs.

It is more than a matter of using your imagination. If the fish does not take a freely drifting streamer, try instead taking home the line very quickly. Make your fly look like a darting small fish. Now and then you can even "awaken" a lazy trout by letting the fly splash down right on top of its head. One must admit that this is not an elegant manner of flyfishing, but it can be extraordinarily productive. Trout are aggressive fish that defend individual territories in the stream. They are aggressive all year round, but this behavior becomes ever more apparent as the spawning time approaches and they defend their territory with fury against any intruder. The fly fisherman can take advantage of this situation when the fishing season is coming to an end and the trout's spawning time arrives. Then the fish may be hard to attract with ordinary imitation deceiver flies since, having feasted all summer, they are less interested in food and increasingly concerned with spawning.

It is then time to serve a big, colorful attractor streamer or buck-tail - a fly whose size and hue can, by themselves, give the fish an impression that some possible rival is encroaching on its territory. This method of fishing can be pretty exciting. It is important to have a good knowledge of the locality, so that you know exactly where the fish are holding. You have to seek them out with streamers and bucktails of large size, and present the fly right in front of them repeatedly until they react. Often nothing happens on the first cast, so you must continue stubbornly. For the more glimpses the fish gets of the fly, the more irritated it becomes. Finally it cannot endure the temptation and tries to chase away the fly.

At first you frequently feel only a strong blow against the fly, without hooking the fish. The fly has thus only been hit, not taken in the fish's mouth. Yet there is a good chance that one of the following casts will result in a solid strike by what may be the season's largest trout. In any case, such fishing is fascinating once the quarry has been aroused. In Alaska and British Columbia, every year sees a rather special kind of streamer fishing for large rainbow trout and Arctic char. It takes place when extensive schools of baby salmon smolt, which emerge from lakes upstream in the water system, begin their migration downstream toward the Pacific Ocean. The trout and char gather at the outlets of lakes to feast on the young salmon. If you stumble upon such a smolt migration, you are sure to have exceptional fishing experiences for quite a while. Sparsely dressed streamers and bucktails are the only thing worth putting on your leader. Towards the end of the season trout go on a feeding spree to build up strength for their annual orgy. More trout show cannibalistic tendencies at this time of the year than any other and eat trout fry (baby fish). These small fish congregate in areas that suit their needs like marginal weed beds or entrances to feeder streams. The streamer lure now comes into its own. 

One of my favorite use of smaller streamers is the sport of trying to coax trout that lurk in deep plunge pools to rise up to the surface and take my presentation. They normally will not do so for a dry fly. It has to be a more substantial meal to be worth the effort. I try to imitate a small fish that has been temporally stunned as it swam over the waterfall and landed in the plunge pool. Cast your streamer as near to the waterfall as you can. Give it a few moments to sink and then begin the retrieve to imitate the fish recovering and quickly swimming away from it's vulnerable static location to safety. Using the same idea look for deep slow pools near where a stream is forced to drop suddenly due to a narrow rock channel. Small fish will be forced down with the strength of the current before they can quickly swim off to the relative safety of the bank. Drop your streamer into this current and let it sink. Then start you retrieve. Trout can be teased into chasing your streamer.

FISHING STREAMERS IN SPRING FLOOD CONDITIONS
There are two things that work in the fly fisher’s favor when fishing streams and rivers in flood in the spring. The first is that because there is so much fast moving water around the fish are not spooked by wading fly fishers. The second is that the fish are on the feed again after winter. In the early part of the season you have to select a fly which will make a trout think it is worth spending the energy to attack it. It is still very cold. Try to work out where the trout are holding up. Trout turn to eating small minnows when the water is in flood as it is hard for them to detect insects to eat. If the water is discolored tie on a dark colored streamer to lure the trout to an attack. There are a number of streamers you could try ranging from black zonkers, woolly buggers, matukas to black ghosts. Try sheltered area of the river first. Look for pockets of water that are not moving as fast as the main body of water. That is the best place to go hunting fish.

Normally I try the traditional down and across presentation when fishing with streamer lures. In flood conditions I like to try and imitate the minnow swimming upwards, pausing and going to the bottom again. I do this by using the tip of my fly rod and lifting the fly up about one meter (one yard) and then down on a streamer lure cast up stream. It looks like an easy meal to the hungry full size trout. When you get a strike you know about it and instantly get a set hook as the fish is biting on a rising hook on a tight line. In larger rivers I wade downstream slowly and fish down and across. I use a slow six inch retrieves on a fly line with a moderately fast sinking tip with a rate of about three to four inches a second. Remember always take care fishing water in flood. Wear proper wading boots and a life vest. There are too many fatalities each year. Don’t become the next statistic.

SEA TROUT
A Sea Trout is simply the migratory form of the brown trout. (Steelheads are migratory rainbow trout.). Lures and larger hook size wet flies are ideal for fishing Sea trout. The female sea trout lays her ova in October or November in the gravel river beds of fresh water streams. It is later fertilized by the males. She will lay about seven or eight hundred eggs for each pound of her weight. Only a small percentage will reach the small sea trout stage and even fewer will return to the river to spawn. The eggs hatch out into 'alevins' -small fish with the yoke-sacs still attached below their bellies. One of its greatest enemies at this stage is the Dragon fly larva. After a few weeks the fry become what is called 'sea trout parr'. They stay in freshwater for two to four years and then one spring their color turns to silver and they move down stream as a 'sea trout smolt' to the coastal waters of the estuary where they feed well and grow rapidly without moving from the coast.

The smolts grow and become what is called a 'finnock or whitling'. They return to their native rivers during the summer. Some spawn and some feed on the spilled ova of spawning salmon and sea trout. Finnocks return to the estuaries at various times during the year. From there they enter the saltwater sea. Adult sea trout return to the river at any time from early summer to early winter. When the adult sea trout has spawned it is known as a 'kelt'. Most remain in freshwater until the spring when they return to the estuaries. Sea trout can live a long time and return year after year to the same rivers and streams of their youth

When fishing for salmon you will often catch sea trout. Sea Trout and Salmon differ subtly in behavior and sometimes different tactics are needed. Unlike salmon they feed after starting their spawning migration. They tend to take flies decisively and can be quick, even violent. Those that have been in a river for some time are very shy. On the first run into freshwater they may be easy to catch but only after a short while you may only be able to catch them after 10pm at night. At times a dry fly is effective for sea trout.

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