Show quality zonker strip flies

[Sagittarius62 0]

I love rabbit strips and use them all the time for smallmouth flies. I never worry too much about how they look, other than that they are tied in securely, and tails are in proportion, and not much else quite frankly. If one was tying, say for the FTOTY contest, and wanted to make a zonker strip warm water fly a little more spruced up, what suggestions would you give? I get all my stuff from J Stockard, and they carry Hareline zonkers. They are great, but sometimes I notice that they have a little twist to them that is hard to get out. Also for the tip of a zonker tail would one cut the leather to a taper, or leave it blunt?

[ashbourn 0]

Any zonkers my have a small twist in spots due to the stretching of the hide. I look the strip over then cut out my sections around flaws like that.

As for the blunt vs tapered, it is a personal thing, I cut a point taking a little off each side to keep things balanced .

 

Joe Fox

[flytire 0]

try a little steam. works for feathers should work for rabbit.

[streamcaddis 0]

I love those rabbit strips. I use them for steel head flies also. When I tie them in I always clip the hide on an angle. For that steel head fly get a streamer hook. Tie a bit of Tan rabbit for the tail, tie in some ginger medium chenille for the body. Then tie in some orange or pink crosscut rabbit and palmer it from rear to the head and tie off. The fly doesn't look so hot dry but you get it wet and it looks fantastic. :yahoo:

[Sagittarius62 0]

Thanks for the replies. looking over the strips for better quality sections never even occurred to me. DUH! streamcaddis, your steelhead fly sounds very similar to what I use for smallies. It is sort of a cross between a zonker leech, a slumpbuster, and a conehead combo. If I can get it to the point where it looks good enough to submit, I am going to enter one in the contest.

[Bruce Derington 0]

Try something like this, taper the entire strip , then add some eyes. That should put you in good standing

[GPB 0]

I know exactly where you are coming from, I’ve had both good and bad quality zonker from all the major suppliers (Hareline, Wapsi and Spirit River), I find that the best thing to do is to actually take the zonkers out the package and look at the fur before buying. Also I look for different qualities in the zonker depending on they type and size of pattern I plan to use it one (damsels, baitfish patterns etc)

[Sagittarius62 0]

Bruce that fly lookd really nice. So you taper the width the entire length of the strip? I wish I could put my hands on materials before I buy them. Unfortunately fly shops don't really exist in my corner of the world. One more question. Most examples of rabbit strip flies I see in the better step by step instructions online and in books including Bruce's fine example, the tail stands out straight. Generally mine tend to droop. How is this effect achieved for photographing? Is the leather stiffened somehow? I know some folks tie in a bit of stiff mono to keep longer tails from fouling the hook. Is this used for photo quality flies too?