I have some strips that I bought and up to this point haven’t used. I was thinking of tying up a Clouser style fly, for smallmouth, using olive estaz for the body and a zonker strip for the wing. I was wondering if anyone might have tried this already and if so, has it been a sucessful pattern for you.
By the way, I am not very creative when tying. I normally just work off of a recipe, or pattern sheet. So this is a big stretch for me.
Dave, that is a patterrn that will work just fine. If you have a problem with the zonker strip wrapping around the hook you can add tail of bucktail off the bend before tying in the zonker strip. Were you going to tie down the wing like a matuka? I would.
Dave,
I have an incredible smallmouth pattern that uses zonker strips, and it’s VERY easy to tie…
Hook: 3-4XL size 4-10
Thread: any 6/0 you prefer, color of choice
Weight: Dumb bell eyes
Weed guard (optional): 17-20 pound mono.
Tail: Zonker strip-length of hook
Rib: fine wire, color of choice
Body: chenille, color of choice
Hackle: palmered front to back and secured/reinforced with wire rib-color of choice.
Eyes: stick on ‘dome’ eyes or painted
Instructions:
Tie on dumbbell eyes on top of shank, leaving about 3 hook eye widths behind eye.
Tie on weed guard and wrap down onto bend (optional).
Tie on zonker strip tail by the end, right above the barb of the hook, hair side DOWN (fly rides in the water hook point up).
Tie in rib and chenille.
Wrap chenille to back of dumbell…tie down well but do not trim.
Tie in hackle by it’s butt, and palmer back to to tail tie in point.
Secure hackle with two turns of ribbing wire, then spiral wire through hackle and tie off with thread. Trim wire and hackle tip. Advance thread to just behind hook eye.
Make figure eight wrap of the chenille over/around the dumbell forming the head, and tie off/trim the chneille. make a few tight wraps and tie off and trim the thread.
Either affix pre made domed eyes, paint on your own, or leave this part out. Up to you. I like the eyes.
All this really is is a wooly bugger with a zonker strip tail with enlarged head, but it works well for smallies, both stillwater and in current. I tie it in black, olive, brown and chartruese and usually use red eyes. I get a lot of strikes from this as it falls. and it’s got enough ‘meat’ to it that the fish hold it well.
Good Luck!
Buddy
Hi Dave,
Harry Murray’s book Flyfishing For Smallmouth He has several patterns using zonker strips, including a leech that is a great fly.
I’ve tied up a couple the way you described, with the addition of a few sparse bunches of deer hair flaired around the head to make it look more like a sculpin. Olive zonker strip, white chenille/estaz body, silver rib to hold the strip down along the body, olive deerhair head spun over dumbell or beadchain eyes. The deer hair gets spun on the bottom of the hook shank because the weighted eyes force it to ride hook point up.
Just make sure to use a hook long enough to prevent the deerhair from blocking the hook gap too much although a little bit of interference will make it somewhat weedless.
Great pattern Dave, but there’s NO SMALLMOUTH BASS in the Des Moines area. (ssssshhhhhh). 
That should work well for the smallies but as rainbowchaser mentioned, watch for the rabbit strip wrapping around the hook. I’ve tied, standard clouser’s using the rabbit strip for a tail and those have worked well. A pattern i’ve done extremely well with, uses lead eyes, estasz, for the body and a rabbit strip tail. It’s a real simple and very effective pattern.
I’ve had good success with this fly - sounds similar to what you’re planning.
if you put the hook thru the zonker strip first this will help stop it from wrapping around the hook
