With the Easter weekend upon us, it signals the opening of 2025’s winter trout season isn’t too far away either! With a very wet ending to summer, our watercourses are absolutely bursting their banks – a very welcome inverse to what we’ve experienced in previous years.
As fly fishing folk we’re intrinsically linked to the water, it being the element that completes the circle of life, so speaking in a linear fashion more water = more life. Adding to this thought process is a relatively cool start to Autumn, speculating here, but we should be feeling positive about the Trout fishing going into the coldest months of the year.
The fly of the month is a jig streamer tied with a lot of in-built triggers, aiming to target both newer stocked fish for the holidays as well as one or two of those old hardy salmonid soldiers that have managed to survive the summer. It’s been dubbed (if you’ll excuse the pun) the “This n’ That”, because sometimes you fish it like “this”, and sometimes you fish it like “that”…
Tying the fly on a jig hook inverts the pattern, helping prevent it from hooking too much of the weed that can be around at this time of year as well as catering for better hookups. As the name suggests, the inverted style of the pattern also imparts a jigging action to the fly with variations on the strip. This erratic jigging action can be important to predatory fish as it imitates prey movements very closely. Using the zonker to create a lot of static movement (movement of the fly when not being stripped) and a combination the Fulling Mill UV straggle string and Fulling Mill Micro Flex Floss for the body, the fly is the perfect imitation of what the prey items might do as opposed to an imitation of what prey items might look like. This appeals to the predatory instinct of the trout which will be heightened in their activity due the cooler conditions.
Another plus point for the “This ’n That”, is that it’s a reasonably easy tie to whip up when you need to fill up your box in a range of different colours. Finally, it’s a great searching pattern you can tie on with confidence when you’re first getting on the water and need to figure out what the fish want.
With patterns that are tied with inherent reactionary triggers, the faster the fly moves the better it typically does – you want to force a reaction – so getting the fly moving with purpose is a good way of starting your efforts with the “This n That”. If that’s not yielding results, don’t be shy to mix it up as this fly has caught fish on a variety of different retrieves alluding to its name of sometimes working on a faster retrieve like “this”, and sometimes working on a slower, consistent retrieve, like “that”.
STEP 1
Place the slotted bead onto the hook and secure the thread and bead at the eye. Tie back to the bend of the hook.
Cut a strip of Zonker that is roughly the size of the hook shank and tie it in at the bend of the hook, most importantly, inverting the zonker so that the hair faces in the same direction as the hook bend. Remember the fly will invert in the water so the hair needs to face up.
STEPS 2 - 3
Cut off a section of straggle string as it is very cumbersome to try and tie with it still attached the cardboard holder. Stroke the fibres back and tie it in at the base of the zonker strip.
Cut off a single strand of Flex floss and tie your thread forward on the hook shank. You would Ideally like to get two sets of legs on the pattern so position your first tie in point accordingly. Take the flex floss and lay it perpendicular over the hook shank and X-wrap it in to secure it. Don’t worry too much about the angle of the legs off the shank as the palmering of the straggle string sets their position. Tie forward again and repeat the tie in process with another piece of flex floss.
STEPS 4 - 5
Tie your thread to behind the bead and now palmer the straggle string forward making sure not to trap or wrap you flex floss legs onto the shank. You want to use the straggle string to set the position of the legs with them ideally facing outwards and downwards, opposite to the bend of the hook. Palmer the straggle string to the bead and whip finish and add a bit of varnish or glue to secure the thread. Take the flex floss up one hand above the hook shank and trim to your legs to the desired size, making sure you don’t trim them too short.
MATERIALS SHOPPING LIST:
- Fulling Mill Jig Force Black Nickel #12 hook
- Grip Slotted Tugsten Beads 3.5mm
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Fulling Mill Rabbit Zonker Standard - Black
- Fulling Mill Straggle Chenille Medium - Golden Olive
- Fulling Mill Flex Floss - Sunburst
- Nano Silk 12/0 - Copper
As with all our Fly of the month patterns, please tag us on our socials with your tie’s and you catches. And lastly, we at Mavungana Flyfishing, wish you all a safe and fish-filled Easter.