Hook: Owner Mosquito #1-2
Tail: Marabou - color of your choice. These are off-white, so you can see I’m not too picky with colors, since they get torn up pretty fast if the fish are in the biting mood. Flash is optional.
Body: Pearl mylar braid (unraveled)/underwrapped with 0.20 lead - keep the lead towards the center of the shank, which makes the fly retain a more horizontal position.
Head: Deer (not too dense) - color of your choice

Tie in marabou fibers at the hook bend. Tine in about 2″ of 0.20 lead wire (or substitute). Cover with thread and cover with cement. Tie in the mylar braid and wrap forward leaving a gap at the head for the deerhair. I use a piece of unraveled mylar to reduce the body bulk. Tie in a clump of deerhair that has been trimmed for length (between matchstick and pencil thickness). Whip finish and trim into a cone.

Hook: Mustad 34011 (long shank), 3407 (standard length), or your choice
Tail: Marabou, white
Body (underbody): Closed-cell foam
Body: EZ-body braid, large
Gills: Marabou, green, pink, white
Head: EZ-body braid. 1/2″ section of tied at marabou gills and pushed back over itself to create pseudo gill covers anchored at hook eye.
Eyes: Red holographic stick-on eyes. Thread: Danville’s flat-waxed (white-tail, pink-head)

1. Tail - Mount a needle in the vice. Tie on marabou, lightly anchoring it with a few wraps. Wet shaft area to tame fibers, and slide a 3″ section of 1/2″ EZ-body braid over the shaft. Take two loose wraps of thread around the braid and slowly tighten. Tighten down the braid and tie off. Slide assembly off the needle and coat wraps with cement of your choice. I use a drop of Zap-a-gap due to its “wicking” properties. Once you get the hang of it, you can quickly do the whole thing just holding the marabou in your left and and sliding on the braid.

2. Body - Trim a section of foam into an elongated ellipse. Color the body in the pattern of your choice. In this case green top edge, followed by a pink strip down the middle. Small black dots create an illusion of a rainbow trout. Take a razor and make a very shallow cut along the bottom edge of foam to provide a guide for the hook shank. Slide the trimmed and colored foam inside the section of EZ-body braid. Work it all the way down to the tail. Take the hook of your choice and slide insert into the braid. Slide along the bottom of the foam. The foam and braid are flexible enough to allow many different hook gaps and lengths. The hook should exit roughly 2/3rds of the way down the foam. (Assuming a right-handed tier) With your left hand sweep the body assembly to the left exposing the head of the hook. Mount the pink thread. Slide the body assembly to its final position and take a few loose wraps around the open end of the braid. Tighten and trim off any excess. Try for at least 1/4 inch of free space at the eye.

3. Head - tie in the marabou gills/collar. Green on top, pink on the sides, white on bottom. The fly actually fishes better with “marabou overload” so don’t be afraid to tie it in heavy. Take the waste section of EZ-body just cut off. Slide it on and tie securely, Tie off the thread and anchor the wraps with cement. Push the braid back over itself to expose the eye and tie the thread in again. Pull the braid back towards the eye, while holding the back edge of the new gil cover assembly. This will tighten the braid slightly, making it easier to anchor it. Take a few loose wraps and slowly tighten down. Trim any loose edges of the braid that crowd the eye. Build up a head, tie off and cement.

4. Finish - Add eyes and coat the head with thinned Loons Hard Head, or the epoxy of your choice (to hold the eyes on better). You can also lightly coat the body to give a little more rigidity to the whole thing if desired.

It sounds much more difficult than it really is. After a few times you can kick these out in about 5 minutes, each.

Hook: Gamakatsu B10S Stinger
Tail: 6-8 Grizzly Saddles, 4 strands Opal Crystal Flash, topped with Peacock Herl
Body: Tan Marabou (palmered), followed by 2 Grizzly Saddles (palmered) for the collar
Head: Tan, Closed-Cell Craft Foam with 3D Holographic Eyes

1. Tie saddles in just in front of hook bend. Add flash and top with peacock.
2. Palmer marabou in front of tail materials while leaving enough room for the hackle collar.
3. Tie in saddles for hackle collar. You can either twist (wrap) or palmer together.
4. Cut a heart-shape out of closed-cell craft foam and coat the inside with epoxy or super glue (CA) gel.
5. While stroking the hackle collar back, pinch the head onto the fly. Focus on anchoring the front portion. Since mullet have fairly broad heads, the rear of the foam is allowed to flare slightly on top of the hackle collar. For a more streamlined profile the entire head can be pinched flat.
6. Add eyes and coat with Loons Hard Head or epoxy of your choice.