Something out of Nothing

I haven't been in the tying game very long and so when you don't have a lot of money you have to slowly build up your supplies. I had a decent amount of materials starting to get built up when my tying world came crashing down. Someone threw away all of my materials. Stupidly I had them in a big paper grocery bag, and so it's not surprising, but I'm still pissed. I had to go get a few things to start all over again.

When I sit down I usually have no idea what I'm going to tie. I just grab some stuff and think about it right then. I think that is a great way to be creative and learn how to use things differently. Anyway, I wanted to tie a couple streamers and all I have to work with is black and white zonker strips, a couple packs of dubbing, thread, and white and yellow marabou. That's it.

So here are three flies I tied with just this material. The first one is called the Heidi Fleiss because it's really easy. One white zonker strip wrapped around the hook and 7-10 1" pieces of peacock tail. That's it. It can be a little rainbow or any kind of fingerling or tiny baitfish.

The next fly is called the Gator. It's nasty looking, has a long tail, and is deadly. The side shot is a yellow gator. It is just yellow marabou tied at the hook shank, then a black zonker strip tied in front of that and then more yellow marabou tied in front of that. I then dubbed some white rabbit fur on right before the bead.

The shot from the back is a white gator with some yellow in it. Same technique, just different color marabou planted. The black zonker strip give is great lateral action and the marabou provides great body and color. Both of these patterns are great for post-rain, off-color water.

More important, I tied these with no materials other than zonker strips and marabou and thread.