Lavender Grizzly Chickabou Body Marabou Patch

Lavender Grizzly Ewing Chickabou Marabou Body Patch

Lavender Grizzly is pale purple with fine black bars. It’s soft enough for clear water and barred enough to look like something alive. On the Pacific coast, it matches the faint purple and pink tint of shrimp and amphipods in the shallows.

Lavender Grizzly Ewing Chickabou gives you barred, pale purple fibers for shrimp tails, salmon flies and steelhead collars. Pair it with pink or white for a soft, natural shrimp color.

Sea-run cutthroat, chum, coho, pink salmon, steelhead and trout.

Recipe 1: Lavender Grizzly Chickabou Sea-Run Cutthroat Shrimp

• Hook: Saltwater #6–#8
• Eyes: Small burnt-mono or black bead-chain eyes
• Thread: Pink or purple 8/0
• Tail/feelers: Lavender Grizzly Ewing Chickabou, short tuft, plus 2 strands pearl Krystal Flash
• Body: Pearl-pink Ice Dub, thin
• Legs: Lavender Grizzly chickabou fibers, a few on each side
• Back: Clear Scud Back, ribbed with fine mono

Tying: Keep it small and slim, about 1 inch. Tie the eyes out past the bend with the chickabou tuft between them as feelers.

How to fish: On Puget Sound and other Pacific beaches, fish it on an intermediate line along gravel beaches and oyster beds on a moving tide. Use short, quick 3-inch strips. Sea-run cutthroat follow and hit near the beach, so fish every cast all the way in.

Recipe 2: Lavender Grizzly Chickabou Chum Salmon Fly

• Hook: Salmon or saltwater hook, #2–#4
• Bead: Small cone or bead-chain eyes, silver
• Thread: Purple 6/0
• Tail: Lavender Grizzly Ewing Chickabou, full plume, plus purple and pink flash
• Body: Purple or pink Estaz, wrapped
• Collar: Lavender Grizzly chickabou, 2 turns

Tying: Chum flies are simple and bright. Keep the tail long and full so it pulses on a slow swing.

How to fish: In fall, chum hold in slow, deep runs and side channels. Swing it slowly on a sink-tip or strip it with short pulls through the school. Chums are aggressive and pull hard. Bring a stout rod.