The warmth of the coffee, black and steaming, feels good in my hands on this icy-cold winter morning. Behind me, there is the soft, soothing hum of warm air exhaling from the wall heater. I’ve taken a time-out from my tying vise where a fly designed by Brett Jensen is taking shape. It’s called a Klamath Intruder, a small, but unusually productive streamer. Made of flowing rabbit fur and scintillating rubber legs and hackle, it has lured many steelhead and trout throughout the year as it swings pulsating through the current.
I complete another tying step, sit back, and sip a little more coffee as it begins to cool. After my third attempt, this one is coming along to my satisfaction. I’ve been tying for thirty years, and frequently it still takes multiple attempts at a pattern before I’m satisfied. I’ll share with you how to tie the Klamath Intruder, but be patient. It might take you a few tries, too, but it will be worth your time.
Begin by clamping an Aquaflies shank or a Waddington shank 15 to 26 millimeters long in the vise and attach the thread a little behind the eye. Next, figure-eight a small black barbell eye just behind and underneath the upward-sloping eye of the shank. This fly uses a stinger hook extending behind the shank on a wire arm to help hook short-striking fish. To fabricate this extension, cut a piece of Senyo Wire two and a half to three inches long. Choose a size 4 Owner SSW hook and, holding the hook upright, thread both of the wire ends through the hook eye, creating a length of closed loop half an inch long that captures the hook at the eye. Evenly pull on the wire ends until the closed loop snugs up against the eye. Now fasten the wire-looped stinger hook to the shank in the vise by securing, with thread wraps, both lengths of the wire side by side and centered along the top of the shank, running the wire up to, over, under, and back behind the barbell eyes on the shank. About halfway back along the bottom of the shank, stop and tie off. The hook should extend about half to three quarters of an inch behind the shank’s end.
For the body, reattach the thread to the shank one-third of the way back behind the barbell eyes. Dub a little ball of bronze or orange dubbing (or, for more contrast, peacock Ice Dubbing) and tease out leglike tentacles around the hook. Select and secure 8 to 10 barred rubber legs or strand or Flexi Floss behind the eye and against the ball so that half are on top and half on the bottom. They should reach back to the hook bend. Repeat this step with six or so Amherst pheasant feathers extending back shorter than the rubber legs, and finish with three strands of Flashabou on each side of the ball.
The last step is to form a body from two colors of rabbit Zonker strips, olive and orange, although to save time, you can use a two-tone Zonker strip, orange with olive tips. The rabbit strips are tied as hair hackles in a dubbing loop, wrapped around the hook shank much like a dry-fly hackle. The starting point is right in front of the leg element. Create a dubbing loop. Take a length of olive rabbit Zonker strip with the hide still attached and insert it, hair tips first, into the loop, pulling it forward until the hide is just outside of the loop. Carefully trim the hide from the hair and then spin the loop, trapping the hair. Comb the hair in the loop back and make three turns forward toward the barbell eyes. Trim away any excess hair. Repeat the process with two turns of hair from an orange Zonker strip. Or just use the hair from a two-tone Zonker strip and make five turns. Whip finish and carefully cement the thread. As I said, this fly takes some practice. Hang in there.
The Klamath Intruder can be tied in other colors to fit your fancy. I fish it for winter steelhead on the American River and neighboring valley streams, where I swing this little Intruder with a Spey rod for steelhead, but it will work equally well on single-handed rods on your favorite trout stream. Most of the time, I hang it from a 10-foot sinking leader, the sink rate depending on water depth, speed of the current, and where in the water column the fish are holding. This fly can be a little difficult to tie at first, but worth the effort. If you’re having trouble with the written instructions, you can go on YouTube and watch a video for clarification, though some of the techniques vary a little. (Editor’s note: see, for example, the video accessed with the adjacent QR code.)
— Andy Guibord
