Black Chickabou Body Marabou

Black Ewing Chickabou Marabou Body Patch

If I could only keep one color of chickabou, this is it. Black Ewing Chickabou is the silhouette king. It shows up against a bright sky, in tannic water, at dawn, at dusk, and at midnight. Fish see it before they see anything else.

This patch gives you dense, consistent black marabou fibers from #12 soft hackles up to 3/0 tarpon flies. It’s the tail on the Woolly Bugger that’s probably caught more trout than any streamer ever tied. It’s the collar on a winter steelhead fly. It’s the tail on a tarpon toad that a 120-pound fish eats like a donut.

Trout, bass, steelhead, muskie, tarpon, snook. Black catches them all. Buy two.

Recipe 1: Capt. Grumpy’s Black Chickabou Woolly Bugger

• Hook: 3XL streamer, #4–#10
• Bead: Black or gold tungsten, sized to hook
• Thread: Black 6/0
• Tail: Black Ewing Chickabou, one full plume, hook-shank length
• Flash: 2 strands pearl Krystal Flash each side
• Body: Black chenille or Semperfli Straggle
• Hackle: Black saddle, palmered
• Rib: Fine copper wire

Tying:

Tie the chickabou in by its tip so the stem never shows, and keep it on top of the shank so the tail doesn’t foul. Wrap chenille forward, palmer the saddle back over it, and lock it with the wire counter-wrapped forward.

How to fish:

On a sink-tip, cast down and across, mend once, and strip short and fast with long pauses. The pause is when the chickabou pulses and the fish eats. In lakes, count it down and use a slow hand-twist retrieve.

Recipe 2: Black Chickabou Tarpon Toad

• Hook: Saltwater 2/0 (Gamakatsu SC15 or similar)
• Thread: Black 140-denier
• Tail: Black Ewing Chickabou, two plumes stacked, plus 4 strands purple flash
• Body: Black Ice Dub or Semperfli Dubbing, figure-eighted to build bulk
• Head: Merino wool or EP fibers trimmed into a flat toad head
• Eyes: Medium lead or bead-chain eyes, tied on top so the fly rides point-down

Tying: 

Keep the tail short — about one-and-a-half shank lengths — or it’ll foul on the cast. Build the head wide and flat so the fly swims level and “breathes” on the pause.

How to fish:

Lead rolling or laid-up tarpon by 6–10 feet. Let it sink to eye level, then make two long, slow strips and stop. When the fish turns on it, keep stripping until you feel weight, then strip-set hard. No trout sets.