Bright Pink Chickaboo Body Marabou Patch

Bright Pink Ewing Chickabou Marabou Body Patch

Bright Pink is a loud, hot pink, and Pacific salmon love it. Pink salmon, chum and coho all hit pink flies, and steelhead anglers have caught fish on pink prawn patterns for decades.

Bright Pink Ewing Chickabou gives you vivid pink fibers for salmon flies, prawn and shrimp patterns, and hot-spot collars. In off-colored water, pink stays visible longer than almost anything.

Pink salmon, chum, coho, steelhead, sea-run cutthroat and bonefish.

Recipe 1: Bright Pink Chickabou Pink Salmon Clouser

• Hook: Saltwater #2–#4
• Eyes: Small chrome or pink dumbbell eyes
• Thread: Pink 6/0
• Belly: White bucktail, sparse
• Flash: Pink and pearl Krystal Flash
• Back: Bright Pink Ewing Chickabou, short

Tying: Pink salmon like small flies. Keep this one 1.5–2 inches total. The chickabou back moves at the slowest retrieve.

How to fish: In odd years in the Pacific Northwest, pink salmon flood rivers and beaches. Fish it on a slow sinking line with slow, steady strips. Pinks eat slow flies better than fast ones. Watch for a soft take.

Recipe 2: Bright Pink Chickabou Steelhead Prawn

• Hook: Spey hook, #2–#4, or a tube with a trailing hook
• Thread: Pink 6/0
• Feelers: Bright Pink Ewing Chickabou tuft, plus pink Krystal Flash
• Eyes: Black bead-chain or burnt mono, tied at the bend
• Body: Pink Ice Dub, palmered with pink saddle hackle
• Shell: Several Bright Pink chickabou plumes tied flat over the back

Tying: Build it back to front: feelers and eyes at the bend, then body and hackle, then the chickabou shell laid over the top. It should look like a shrimp swimming backward.

How to fish: On a sink-tip in the fall and winter, swing it slowly through tailouts and soft seams. Steelhead often grab the prawn hard and turn. Let the fish pull tight before you lift.