Old School Zonkers

It seems these days any discussion about "streamers" usually involves large tandem jointed flies tied with rubber legs, marabou, synthetic hairs, and usually some sort of long fibered flash chenille - many with questionable PG-13 names. Big profile - big flash - big movement. It's a game of casting huge flies with heavy rods from drift boats - again and again - targeting the biggest carnivores in the river system. Quality of fish over quantity for sure, with truly "fish of a lifetime" opportunities coming with every cast.

There's another side to streamer fishing, however - involving smaller flies that are castable with standard trout rods while wading from shore. One style of casting streamer that seems to have lost favor these days is the Zonker. The original was simplicity itself - a rabbit strip wing and tail, a mylar tube body, and perhaps a hackle up front. The wing was tied down for and aft - on top of the same wraps used to secure the tubing. It was the movement of the rabbit fur and the flash of the body that would lend the fly life in the water - imitating a baitfish as well as any other fly ever created.

Zonkers

Bob Petti

I tie mine similar to the original with two main exceptions - I never liked using mylar tubing - and I spiral wrap a rib up from the tail to secure the wing. I will also add some flashabou or other flash material to mimic the unraveled tubing the original left as a tail. Even with those changes, I'm sure Dan Byford would recognize my versions as legit Zonkers.

My favorite is the natural gray rabbit wing with a pearlescent or silver body and a mixed red/grizzly hackle up front. I'll intentionally make the head large to allow painting big eyes. On some I've glued on solid doll eyes - but I like the full wound hackle and painted eyes better. Yellow is also a great color for brown trout - there are days they'll go nuts for a predominantly yellow streamer.

Zonkers

Bob Petti

I never weight these - nor do I put any beads or cone heads on them. Once the rabbit fur and leather get waterlogged, they're heavy enough and the point isn't to drag the bottom. Fish them mid column down and across with a stripping motion - and hold on.

Four simple zonkers

Bob Petti

I have had some wonderful experiences fishing Zonkers. One of my most memorable was a day fishing the outlet of the lower pond on Connetquot State Park - where a truly huge rainbow smashed a natural/pearl rabbit Zonker and took me for a ride. That was a big heavy fish - and it smashed that fly with a vicious take. Man oh man.

Tie up some old school Zonkers and keep them in your box.