Orange Grizzly Chickabou Body Marabou Patch

Recipe 2: Orange Grizzly Chickabou Little Brook Trout Streamer

• Hook: 4XL streamer, #4–#6
• Thread: Black 6/0
• Tail: Green bucktail, short, with a few fibers of Orange Grizzly Ewing Chickabou
• Body: Cream dubbing, ribbed with flat silver tinsel
• Throat: Orange Grizzly chickabou, a full tuft
• Wing: Olive-green chickabou with a few black fibers on top (the vermiculations)

Tying: This is a soft chickabou version of the classic Little Brook Trout bucktail. The orange grizzly throat copies the bright orange fins of a spawning brookie.

How to fish: Big brown trout eat young brook trout in fall. Fish it on a sink-tip near deep banks and logjams. Strip it in short, quick pulses. Expect a heavy hit.

Recipe 3: Orange Grizzly Chickabou Sugar Momma

The Sugar Momma is Kisha Atkin’s jigged streamer, sold by Umpqua in white, tan, black and olive. This is my hot version for steelhead and fall browns: a ginger body with a barred orange collar that looks like a brook trout’s fins.

• Hook: Partridge Ideal jig hook, #8 (go to #6 for steelhead)
• Bead: 3/16″ (4.6 mm) slotted tungsten, copper or gold
• Thread: Orange or tan Semperfli Nano Silk, 50-denier
• Flash: Gold or copper Angel Hair or Ice Wing
• Wing: Two ginger or tan hen saddle feathers
• Spreader: Natures Spirit Predator Dub, orange or gold
• Hackle: Natural mallard flank, or wood-duck-dyed mallard
• Collar: Orange Grizzly Ewing Chickabou, spun in a dubbing loop

Tying:

1. Slide the bead on, set the hook in the vise, and lay a thread base from behind the bead back to above the hook point.
2. One eye-length behind the bead, tie in a thin bundle of flash by its middle. Fold the front half back, wrap back over it, and trim the ends ragged at 2 to 2.5 inches.
3. Match two narrow hen saddles by their tips, size them to about 2 inches, and tie one flat against each side, curves facing in.
4. Bring the thread forward. Comb a pinch of Natures Spirit Predator Dub into a flat bundle, center it on top of the shank, take two loose turns, then cinch it so it wraps around the shank.
5. Fold the front fibers back, add a small thread dam, and brush the spreader even.
6. Tie in a mallard flank feather by its tip and take three or four turns up toward the bead. Tie off and trim.
7. Build a 4-inch dubbing loop behind the bead. Fold one or two Orange Grizzly chickabou plumes in a Magic Tool or feather prepper, clip the fibers, cut off the stems, and lay them in the loop. Spin it into a brush.
8. Wrap the brush tight to the bead, tie off, whip-finish, and brush the fibers up and back.

How to fish: For steelhead, swing it on a sink-tip through soft tailouts and give it a twitch at the end of the swing. For fall browns, tight-line it through deep runs below riffles with short jerks and pauses. The orange barring shows in stained water when plain colors disappear.