Published Jul 20. 2012 - 11 years ago
Updated or edited Jun 15. 2016

The Ronker

Rubber legs and a zonker... in orange. The Ronker is a fly for deep dwelling trout, featuring some weight bright colors, mobile materials and not least rubber legs.

A row of Ronkers - Ready for the Swedish lake trout.
A row of Ronkers
Martin Joergensen

In a couple of days I'm off to Sweden to fish in Hökensås, a collection of nice fishing lakes in the central part of the country.

I was there last year

with my friend Hans Jakob and we had a great time. I fished various flies and teams of flies as I have already written about in my article from last year's trip. We had a lot of fun on the surface in the evening, and during the day I used my "emerging monster" technique and harling streamers.
But Hans Jakob used a technique that is often used by the locals: dredging a heavy Woolly Bugger on a sinking line, fishing close to the bottom. This can be a make or break method during warm days where the fish stay in the depth in many lakes. I tried it a couple of times and it worked. So I wanted to tie up some flies to use with this method, and since I'm currently writing a very thorough article series on zonkers for this site, I found it obvious to tie a zonker.

I wanted weight and color

, so my brown zonker strip was combined with an orange cone head for weight as well as color, and orange hackle and rubber legs for color and action.

Green Ronker -
Green Ronker
Martin Joergensen

There's no big deal in tying this fly as long as you are a little careful with the material sequence. I tend to sometimes leave a bit too much space behind the cone. The hackle and the rubber legs should ideally "spring" from behind the cone, the base being invisible. I actually like the fly more "compressed", but it doesn't do a big difference fishing-wise.
You can see both styles in my images of the fly.

Fishing the fly

is no big deal either. The fly goes down. That's the whole idea. It's meant to be fished on a sinking line close to the bottom, and the colors and moveable materials should be able to entice a lazy trout. I'm sure the fly would be able to lure a bass too, and I wouldn't be afraid of casting this fly to a coastal trout in my home waters.
Fished from a boat or a float tube, you simply cast out the line, let the rig sink and start retrieving slowly or even just drifting or sailing slowly while pulling the fly over the bottom.

Perch - On its maiden voyage the Ronker didn\'t produce any trout, but this nice perch liked it
Summer lake - On a warm summer lake the fish will often seek deeper and cooler water, and a deep fishing fly can be the key
Green in the green - A Green Ronker ready for action on a Swedish lake
On the lake
Martin Joergensen
Lake fishing - A Swedish lake stocked with rainbows
Ronker country gff
Martin Joergensen
The Ronker
Pattern type: 
Wet fly
Originator: 
Martin Joergensen
Materials: 
Hook
Down eye, long shank wet fly hook, size 4-6
Thread
Orange 6/0
Cone
Bright orange 3-4 millimeters
Rib
Copper wire
Body
Bright orange dubbing of your choice
Wing
Pine squirrel zonker strip, brown or black
Hackle
Bright orange hen
Rubber legs
Bright orange
Skill level/difficulty: 
Easy

Orange Ronker with feather hackle

Step 1 - cone

Step 2 - thread base

Step 3 - place cone

Step 4 - thread

Step 5 - rib

Step 6 - dubbing

Step 7 - body

Step 8 - zonker strip

Step 9 - start rib

Step 10 - rib

Step 11 - ribbing done

Step 12 - prepare hackle

Step 13 - tie in hackle

Step 14 - wind hackle

Step 15 - hackle done

Step 16 - rubber legs

Step 17 - tie in

Step 18 - second set

Step 19 - finish

Step 20 - trim tail

Green Ronker with yarn hackle

Step 1 - cone

Step 2 - thread base

Step 3 - place cone

Step 4 - thread

Step 5 - rib

Step 6 - dubbing

Step 7 - body

Step 8 - zonker strip

Step 9 - start rib

Step 10 - zonker strip

Step 11 - rubber legs

Step 12 - rubber legs in place

Step 13 - room for hackle

Step 14 - "hackle"

Step 15 - hackle done

Green Ronker

Green Ronker
Pattern type: 
Wet fly
Originator: 
Martin Joergensen
Materials: 
Hook
Down eye, long shank wet fly hook, size 4-6
Cone
Bright green 3-4 millimeters
Tying thread
Green or black 6/0
Rib
Copper wire
Body
Bright green dubbing of your choice
Wing
Pine squirrel zonker strip, black
Hackle
Tindra fuzzy yarn
Rubber legs
Bright green, mottled/striped
Skill level/difficulty: 
Easy

Read about the Tindra yarn in the article about the GYMF

Comments

I bet that would be ...

I bet that would be killer on smallmouth! Nice fly.

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