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There is no doubt about it Andy's destroyer is a very good saratoga fly and I am confident it will work on other species too.

My variant does not include the shroud of mara wool tips around the zonker tail. I have left that off because for me the currents around the body of the fly produce more movement in the tail when it is not shrouded. I like hot spots on flies and accordingly have added a hot spot of red Wapsi palmer chenille under the tail. For my deeper water flies, as many other users have done, I use bead chain eyes rather than the unweighted plastic chain eyes as on the original.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread 5mm down the hook shank in tight touching turns and then take the thread forward half way up that base of thread. Understanding hooks Tie in a set of eyes using figure of 8 wraps of thread. Apply a drop of super glue to the tie in of the eyes. Super glue runs so make sure not to apply too much. Continue winding the thread to the bend of the hook.

B	Tie in a length of Wapsi palmer chenille at the bend of the hook.

C	Take 2 wraps of the Wapsi palmer chenille, tie the palmer chenille off and trim away the excess. Stroke the palmer chenille fibres back and tie them in place as a rudimentary under-tail.

D	Select a section of zonker strip with the skin about 2/3 as long as the hook shank. Tie the zonker strip in at the bend of the hook with the hairs facing up. Create a dubbing loop at the bend of the hook. Wind the thread forward and out of the way.

E	Cut a reasonable bunch of mara wool of the patch. If it is long enough you can split it into a couple of pieces so as to reduce wastage.

F	Load the fist bit of mara wool onto you loop and then attach your loop to your dubbing tool.

G	Using you dubbing tool twist up you dubbing to create a looped dubbing rope. Wind the looped dubbing rope forward in touching turns taking time to stroke the dubbing fibres back between each wrap of the rope so that the fibres of the previous turn of rope don't get trapped down.

H	If as in this photo the looped dubbing rope does not complete the body of the fly lock the first looped dubbing rope off with a few tight turns of thread and trim away the excess of the first looped dubbing rope. Create another looped dubbing rope in front of where the first looped dubbing rope ran out and continue winding that new rope forward. When the final looped dubbing rope gets to the the eyes take a single figure of 8 wrap of the looped dubbing rope around the eyes and then tie if off in front of the eyes. Trim off any remaining looped dubbing rope.

I	Whip finish the thread the eye of the hook and the eyes. Rather than varnishing the whip finish I generally apply a drop or two of surer glue. Super glue runs so make sure not to apply too much. With a sharp set of scissors trim the mara wool body intoa uniform acorn shape. Apply 2 drops of white fabric paint to represent the eyes. Remember that the ears and the eyes are more for the fisherman than the fish because when viewed from below, as fish do, it will only be the profile of the fly that fish sees and not the shape of the ears or the colour of the eyes.For the fly fisher however the eyes and the ears do make the fly more visible. The bottom section of closed cell foam (the snout) is still sticking out in front of the fly untrimmed. Trim that off to create a mouse inspired snout. I err on the side of the snout being wide and round rather than quite ling and thin as on the natural as the wider snout disturbs more water and adds a little extra buoyancy to the fly.

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