The Ronker

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

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.

On the lake

Martin Joergensen

Ronker country

Martin Joergensen

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

Martin Joergensen

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

Martin Joergensen

Read about the Tindra yarn in the article about the GYMF