Flyfishing, flytying and hooks
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Zoo Cougar

Hook: Ahrex NS110 Streamer #4
Tail: Yellow marabou
Body: Silver/flash
Underwing: Squirrel
Overwing: Yellow mallard flank
Head and collar: Yellow deer

I’ve always fished dry after trout, done some nymphing, but streamers have never been a big part of my boxes. There have always been some zonkers available, but they have mainly been used when fishing after searun browns on the coast, so this year I’m tying up some streamers to bring with me, and I’m going to do some more active streamer fishing after trout when heading into the river.

The zoo cougar is a good pattern to start with: the collar and the deer head will push a lot of water and make it swim high in the water (unless fishing with sinking line) and be a versatile pattern to fish with. I have not done any weighted versions yet, but that will added later.

The pattern can be done in different colours to adjust to your waters, a olive version:

A white version:

And while tying it I had to do a articulated version to get my large streamer box going. I know: it is not big by all accounts, just big for what I’ve been tying so far! The version is tied with A.Jensen Danish Seatrout hooks in #2 at front and #4 in rear

As normally when I start investigating a pattern: a set of zoo cougars

 

Apollo 11

Hook: Partridge M2 #2/0
Tag: Veevus small, Lagartun yellow silk floss
Tail: GP
Butt: Ostrich
Body: first half yellow with red veiling, second half silver, separated by ostrich herl
Rib: Veevus small
Hackle: Yellow over silver
Front hackle: Red
Wing: Yellow swan underwing, 2 yellow rooster back to back, red GP tail feather
Sides: Black&white + Blue Guinea, CDC toucan, JC
Topping: GP

A while back I got a request from a person I know from Facebook if I could help out with a pattern that he had a magazine clipping of, but never had seen in real-life. The pattern was created by Alex Simpson and was a pattern inspired by the moon landing in 1969: the silver body being the rocket body, red and yellow tail was the flames, the blue/black guinea was the surface of the moon and the JC the windows out to space.

The original pattern calls for Indian Crow (veiling) and Toucan (sides), but I don’t have that, so going for some substitutes in the spirit of the idea behind the pattern instead. The picture included (a very small one) also shows what appears as IC veiling on the tail, but it was not in the pattern description that I was sent, so I excluded that.