Fly Tying Instructions for Bait Fish Patterns

Trout flies imitate two types of fish food, insects and bait fish. Bait fish are imitated by streamer and bucktail flies. There are many patterns of each; some are local favorites, while others are popular from coast-to-coast. One of the most popular bait fish imitators is the Marabou Streamer. Every species of trout have been taken on a Marabou, plus it has the added advantage of being a good streamer for warm water fish like crappies and bass. It is also one of the easiest and least complicated patterns to tie.

  1. Materials

    • The Marabou is tied on a 4X streamer hook, with a down-turned eye, in sizes 6, 8 and 10. Tie a few in each size to copy whatever baitfish the fish are feeding on wherever you are fishing. Use a pre-waxed mono-cord thread in red color. The body will be white ice chenille to give it a bit of sparkle. Embossed silver tinsel can be substituted if you can't find the ice chenille. The material over the back is referred to as the wing, however it is not a wing like on a dry fly. The wing is white marabou feather strands topped with peacock herl from a peacock eye feather. There is a short tail and throat on the streamer made from the wisps of a red saddle hackle feather.

    Tying

    • Lock the hook in the vise. Wrap the thread from the eye, back along the hook shank, stopping at the barb of the hook. Pinch a dozen wisps of the red saddle hackle feather between your thumb and forefinger. Cut the wisps off at the stem of the feather. Without letting go of the wisps, wrap the butt ends down on the hook shank above the hook's barb. The tips should only extend out the back of the hook the length equal to the distance the hook's point is from the hook's bend. Trim off the butt ends. Wrap in the chenille or tinsel at the point where the last wrap of thread was made on the tail. Wrap the thread back to the eye of the hook. Wrap the chenille toward the eye, making each wrap snug against the previous wrap. Using the hook's eye as a gauge, stop the chenille back from the eye at a point double the diameter of the hook's eye. Wrap the chenille down with the thread and cut the remaining chenille off, leaving the thread at this point. Take one of the white marabou feathers and pinch the strands from one side of the fluffy feather between your thumb and forefinger, cut them off at the feather's stem. Wrap the butt ends down on the hook shank over the wrapped end of the chenille. The tips of the marabou should extend past the tips of the tail an equal distance to the length of the tail. Cut off a second bunch of marabou from the opposite side of the feather and wrap it down in the same fashion. Trim off the fluffy butt ends of the marabou. Cut six full-length herls from the peacock eye, line up the tips and wrap the butt ends down, tips to the rear, on top of the wrapped marabou for the same length. Pinch a dozen wisps of the red hackle as you did for the tail and wrap them on the underside of the hook shank where the wraps are holding the marabou and herl. The hackle tips extend back on the underside of the streamer 1/3 the length of the hook shank. Make the head by wrapping from the last wrap on the wing to the hook's eye. Wrap back and forth creating a cone shape and making sure that all the fluffy bits of the marabou and herl are wrapped under the thread. Tie the thread off with three half hitches on the head and apply fly head cement. Do not cut off the thread until the cement has dried. This pattern can also be tied with black or yellow marabou.