Tip Dyed Rabbit Strips

The Rabbit Matuka

Pattern: Rabbit Strip Matuka
Hook: #1.5 Alec Jackson Heavy Spey Hook
Tying Cement: Hard As Hull
Thread: 6/0 Uni
Tail and Wing: Rabbit Zonker Strip
Body: Ice Dub
Collar Hackle: Schlappen , Guinea or Mallard Flank
Head Cement: Hard As Hull

The Rabbit Strip Matuka is a type of fly that can assume many different color combinations. The combinations available are only limited by your imagination.

Place the hook in the vice and secure your tying thread in the normal manner. Stop the thread at a point that lines up half way between the point and the barb. Give the wraps a coat of tying cement.

Wet and part the fur on the rabbit strip so that about 1/2-inch of hide will extend behind where you attach it to the hook. If this proves to be too long and the rear of the fly annoys you by becoming wrapped around the hook while you are fishing, you can always trim the leather with your leader clipper. We are using FS280 Peach Orange.

Secure the strip to the hook with about ten wraps of thread over the leather strip and then a couple of wraps in front of the leather strip.

Dub on a substantial body of Ice Dub. In this case we are using ICE271 Orange. Ice Dub is made from very fine strands of Mylar. It is easy to dub on a single thread or in a loop.

The dubbed body should taper at each end. Be sure to leave plenty of room to tie the rest of the fly.

We like to disrupt and train the dubbing fibers so that the body of the fly is surrounded by a glistening halo of fibers. The Ultimate Dubbing Brush is a great tool for this job.

Train the hair on the rabbit strip so that the gap where the rear of the strip was attached to the fly disappears. Pull the strip forward and hold it under tension and tie it to the hook in front of the body. This task is much easier if the hair is moistened and parted where the thread wraps are supposed to go.

Trim and discard the tag end of the rabbit strip. Comb and train the hairs on the rabbit strip until they suit you. The large end of The Ultimate Dubbing Brush is perfect for this job.

Wind on a pink and an orange (or any color) schlappen for the collar hackle.
Different effects can be had by using different parts of the feather. We like to leave some of the base fluff on the feather for the first turn.

Here are a few pictures, so that you see what took place:
The dismantling of Marmot Dam started in July of 2007 and by September of that year, the spillway and fish ladder had been removed from the river. This fifty foot tall structure was the largest dam ever removed from a river in Oregon. Below are some pictures so you can compare what the river looked like before and after the dam was removed. The coffer dam was breached on October 19, 2007. The major gravel bed load shift happened in the first seven days.
You can click on each picture to get an enlarged view.

One of the biggest worries was that the large amounts of sediments stacked up behind Marmot Dam would be released down the river and have detrimental effects on fish habitat. ODFW even captured a significant number of wild Sandy River Fall Chinooks and spawned them artificially as a hedge against a disaster form sedimentation released by the dam removal. This is the first hatchery rearing of Sandy River Fall Chinooks since 1977.  This may have been a prudent move against extinction, but completely unnecessary as most of the gravel and sand that was trapped behind the dam has only moved about a mile and a half since the dam was taken down.  So far all of the effects from removing the dam look positive. PGE has documented every step of the dam removal process. This should take a lot of the guess work out of taking down similar dams in the future. You can find many interesting facts at marmotdam.com.