Lafontaine's Single Marabou Egg

Single Marabou Egg Burnt Orange and Hot Pink

Truth be told I have never been a big fan of egg patterns. Does that mean I don't use them?  Hell no!  There is no denying their fish catching abilities. Most patterns are incredibly easy to tie, and are absolutely deadly on the end of the line. Maybe that's part of the problem, they can be too effective at times.  It's a stretch to call some modern variants of the egg patterns actual flies.  I recently caught a large rainbow with not one but two "egg flies" broken off in his jaw. These "flies" consisted of a gummy translucent egg glued to a hook.  Realistic? Yes.  Effective? Obviously.  Flies?  I'm not quite sure.  The person fishing obviously felt they were, as this fish was caught in fly fishing only water.

There is one egg pattern that I regularly fish without guilt. Gary Lafontaine's Single Marabou Egg.  It's guilt free for me because it feels more like a fly to me than your traditional glo bug style fly.  It involves multiple materials none of which have any egg like qualities on their own. But, when tied in combination they create an illusion of an egg at least to the fish. I have fished this pattern side by side with traditional glo bug style patterns and have found it produces as well, if not better, in most conditions.  One reason is the way the the fly performs underwater. Real fish eggs are naturally dense by design, nature built them that way. Once released from the fish they quickly settle to the bottom where they settle into the substrate and eventually hatch. The materials used in the Marabou Single Egg absorb water and in conjunction with the weighted hook this fly rapidly descends and rolls along the bottom realistically. Yarn style patterns are often made of hydrophobic materials which hinder the fly's ability to perform as well, at least when they are first tied on the leader.

According to its creator the fly is tied with three materials.  The hook is always a size 16. The color of the marabou "wing" changes to meet the needs of the angler to imitate the primary color of the egg. The pink sparkle yarn body and red hackle are constants.  I have strayed from this in my versions of this pattern. I have been known to change hook size, body and hackle colors even omitting the hackle at times. My most effective version is probably a chartreuse marabou wing tied over a white sparkle yarn body with or without the red hackle.

The Single Marabou Egg
Hook: Size 16
Thread:
Body:  Pink Sparkle Yarn (if tying on a size 16 unravel the yarn and use one strand)
Wing:  Several strands of marabou (color matching the primary color of the egg you wish to imitate)
Hackle: Red hackle (one turn, slightly oversized)