It’s not uncommon for new flies, styles and patterns to emerge from combinations of other well established ones. Some turn out really well – some not quite as well. But when you combine the superior mobility of a zonker with the basic principle of the upside down properties of a a jig hook, I say we’ve got something good.
Continue reading “Jigs and zonkers”
Dry fly fishing is fascinating and I’m quite certain that all fly fishers agree. Watching a fish slowly and confidently sip down an imitation is, for me at least, the pinnacle of fly fishing. But alas, trout don’t always rise. In fact I suppose it’s correct to say that most of the time, they don’t. If you’re a die hard dry fly fisher, you wait (and perhaps cry a little) and you stay home during the cold months. I personally love dry fly fishing for trout and grayling, but I don’t stay home during the cold months, and I don’t (always) spend a day at the river, waiting for the 45 minutes at noon when the temperature rises just enough for a short burst off insect hatches.
Jigs are interesting flies and very popular in some parts of world, and the French have developed an entire style of fly fishing, called French nymphing, which revolves around small, heavily weighted flies – often tied on jig hooks. The Spanish competition teams had great succes with their style of jigs called Perdigon flies, which I think originally were tied on normal hooks, but now often are tied on jig hooks.
