Zonker

The Zonker is one of the most alive streamers you can knot onto the leader. The secret is the rabbit strip, a zonker strip, that forms back and tail and pulses at the slightest movement. It looks alive even when you fish it slowly, which makes it a reliable searching fly beside the Woolly Bugger.

Why it catches

The rabbit fur soaks up water and moves all the time, both when you pull and when the fly sinks in the pause. That movement teases rainbow trout into taking, especially fish that have followed without committing. The body is often dressed in flashing tinsel or mylar, which gives extra glint that imitates a small baitfish. The combination of flash and soft, pulsing fur is exactly what a hunting rainbow trout reacts to.

Colour and size

Size 6 to 10 covers most of it in put and take. Think in two tracks for colour: natural (olive, brown, white) for clear water and fish that have been in a long time, and an attractor colour (black, pink, chartreuse) for coloured water and freshly stocked fish. If you have a white and an olive in the box you cover most situations, and a black or pink as wildcard for tough days.

How you fish it

Fish the Zonker like any streamer. Cast out, let it sink to the depth the fish hold at and retrieve in strips with clear pauses. Most takes come in the pause, when the fly sinks and the fur breathes. Vary the retrieve tempo until you find what the fish want for the day, and count seconds on the sink so you can repeat the depth that produced a take.

Zonker or Woolly Bugger

Both are searching flies, but they move differently. The Zonker has more flash and a fuller silhouette that imitates baitfish, while the Woolly Bugger is spikier and more insect-like. If one produces no take, switching to the other is often the simplest way to wake interest. More on the technique you find under streamer fishing, and more patterns for the species under flies for rainbow trout.