Marabou Is King For Streamers (And Don't Forget The Sharpies)

 

"There's no such thing as a "best fly" or a "guide fly".  After the hatchery truck rolls away just about ANY fly will work and everyone is an expert.  Give it a month and you will see that presentation is King.  The well placed fly wins every time.  Remember, there are some fish hawks out there who only fish a few patterns but they catch the most fish." - Ken

The Painted Brookie

I have a love/hate relationship with streamers.  Standards like the mickey finn, with it's body of yellow and red, just don't seem natural to me because they are not natural (it's an attractor). Also, the wing material be it bucktail, fixed hackle wing (becoming rare these days), or even craft fur is usually too stiff and lifeless for my taste.  That is why my freshwater (trout) streamers went over to Marabou about 30 years ago.  It's action in the water can't be beat, period!!!  But there is a problem.  Marabou comes in solid colors and not too many of them either.  I wanted to blend colors and that's where the use of sharpies come in.



The fly above has an orange dubbed body with mylar for the rib.  The wing is WHITE marabou that I colored in sections.
First, a thin bunch of white marabou is tied to the top of the hook.

Second, a thin strip of white marabou is cut and then colored with a reddish brown sharpie (hold the marabou in one hand placing the feathers on a piece of paper to color it). Then tie it to the fly.

Third, Do the same thing with a purple sharpie and then finish the fly.  I think it has some important brookie colors. A size 10 or 12 standard streamer hook will work.

Did I mention that I don't like the traditional way of fishing a streamer?  Well I don't. I like fishing streamers like a nymph - upstream and then a high stick drift downstream on a short line.  Most streamers are fished too high in the water column and too fast in the water.  Little bait fish don't swim that fast. The great Catskill legend Harry Darbee used to imitate large stonefly nymphs with a streamer called a Dark Edson Tiger.

Go figure!!!!

It's Cold
I've lived on the banks of the Mill River (an ok trout stream) in Northampton for 14 years and this is the first time I've seen the ice thick and safe enough to ice skate on.  Most years it never really freezes.  Is this the coldest winter? If the photo that was in the town paper is true then we are not even close.  The paper published a photo of the river behind my house in 1905 that had about 50 people posing for  a photo while standing on the river ice.  The day was Thanksgiving Day!!!!!   Sounds like the start of a cold winter!!

Well, it seems that Covid beat the Marlborough Show again.  That's too bad because the show had become a mid winter fix for long suffering, frozen out fly fishers.  Now it's moved to April. Three things could happen: first, Covid, in one form or another, will still be on the rampage come April.  Two- the lure of a balmy April day will be too much to resist and fly fishing will win out or Three- the urge to shop for something that we really don't need will win out!!  Ladies and Gentlemen - place your bets!!!