Papa Roach

Papa Roach

By  Marco Breschi

Materials

Tying Instructions

2) Tie in the eyes just behind the eye of the hook leaving sufficient space for tying off.

3) Select a suitable section of Zonker strip and measure off against the hook shank allowing only 3-4 mm skin to extend past the hook bend. This will help reduce/eliminate tail wrap. The rabbit hair will give the fly its length and shape.

4) Spread the hair fibers and tie in Zonker strip at the bend of the hook ensuring that only 3-4 mm skin extends past the hook bend.

5) Advance the thread forward to at least 4/5 of the way along the shank, spread the hair fibers and tie in the Zonker strip. Advance the thread further to within 4-5 mm of the eyes and complete the tie in of the Zonker strip. Apply some head cement to ensure the strip does not come undone when a fish is caught. This gap is necessary for you to tie in the wing case, the rubber legs and to dub the neck area.

6) Select 4 Mallard Breast feathers of approximately the same size and strip off only the bottom 2/3 of the feather, leaving the tip full. This ensures that no feather fibers extend below the hook shank.

7) Tie in 2 feathers on each side behind the eyes ensuring that the feathers meet up on top of the Zonker strip tent-wing style. The feathers should flank the Zonker strip along 1/3 of its length. This helps to contain the movement of the Zonker strip and to give the fly the correct shape.

8) Tie in a length of round rubber leg in the space between the eyes and the end of the Zonker strip and adjust/set to position the legs slanting forwards and backwards. Repeat this step on the other side of the hook shank.

9) Dub the neck area, separating the legs and between the eyes. Whip finish and tease out the dubbing so as to create a slight halo around the abdomen.

10) Nip out some of the long base fibers of the Zonker Strip to form a bluntish tail and adjust the length of the abdomen/thorax to 4/5 of total fly length. Rather have a longer abdomen than a too short one.