I picked up a handful of zoo cougars last year, which I convinced myself would finally help me lose my undisputed title as the world's worst streamer fisherman.

However, I find that I have a hard time sinking them. Even with a couple big split shot (which I'd rather not use) and/or a sinking polyleader, they still float until they're halfway through their drift and/or swing.

I'm fishing for trout, so I'm not going to throw a 10' head of T-10 on to get these things to sink, but, to be honest, I'm not sure what else would.

Anyone else experience anything similar, or did I just buy super floating zoo cougars?

That was your problem. Buying them, no weight was added most likely. I would squeeze them in our hand underwater to saturated them.

everybody knowws cats don't like water even big cats....just presoak em in a ziplock bag before ya go out also use some snake river mud an rub it through it

I don't think this is a streamer fly designed to be fished deep but rather swung high in the water column. If your flies are unweighted there isn't really much you can do short of piling a bunch of split shots on the leader right before the eye of the hook. If the deer hair head is really clumped, you might want to trim it down if possible as this will help a little bit.
If you want streamers that fish deep, clipped hair patterns aren't the best bet.

Yeah, I wasn't hoping to scrape the bottom with it. But I also don't expect it's a pattern meant to be skated on the surface, either.

That is one of the frustrating things when buying flies. Patterns that are supposed to be weighted should be weighted.

I've bought czech nymphs before that were completely unweighted. Annoying.

Never used one, but I have used muddlers, and they look and are tied similarly. What I do with the muddler is I weight the fly, when I first tie it on I give it a good dunking and then squeeze the water out and dunk it again. This gets most of the air out from between the hair and feathers.
Keep in mind deer hair is hard to sink so it will probably not get to the bottom, but by weighting the fly and using split shot you get it down in the water column which is the intended use of deer hair wet flies. I've caught fish on muddlers but not a lot. But they swim nicely in the water, and you'd want to cast down and across and fish it like a wetfly. By wet fly I mean a wetfly, not a softhackle.

I talked to a funny old-school, country flyfisher who talked about fishing some hairy monstrosity of a streamer at night. He said before fishing, he put the streamer in soft mud along the stream and "stepped on it."

True story. You might try that technique.

Although, there are probably instances where weighted streamers are necessary this fly was not designed for those situations. The Zoo Cougar in my opinion is one of the finest one hook streamer designs out there. The problem is probably not so much in fly design but in both technique (not yours personally but overall technique), and also situation. I have found that the Zoo cougar is a great fly to fish with a full sinking line, especially when fish are aggressive and actively eating stripped flies. Prespawn Browns, evening bass, etc. Generally a down and across retrieve versus swinging. This fly was made to be animated and manuevered in the top 1/2 of the water column. Quick strips with pauses and what not. If you are looking for a slow deep retrieve change patterns, you'll never fully sink the thing w/ a 10' head. Sorry for lengthy post. Hope this helps.

PARA

Yep, the zoo cougar is perfect fished on a short leader and full sink line. The big rainbows love the purple ones.

Heres my ZOO COUGAR tutorial I did a couple of years ao on this site. PACO'S ZOO COUGAR TUTORIAL.....Its how Kelly tyes "em

If you watch Galloups video he ties them unweighted and fishes them with a full sink line. They are supposed to float upward during the pause in the strip.

I have seen a few cougars I wouldn't mind sinking !!!!!

I don't even have a full sinking trout line.

Best I can do without picking up a new line is 15 foot T-10 heads. Can't imagine that casting well on a 5 weight. :)

Time for a new line!

buy some polyleaders

Quote:

The zoo cougar is definitely not supposed to be weighted. Galloup doesn't tend to weight most of his streamers. He strips them fast and the fish are supposed to come up to get them.

How long are your leaders? The best technique for the zoo cougar is to use a full sink or sink-tip line with a very short leader (2-3 feet of 12-20 lb mono). The longer the leader is, the longer it will take for the sinking line to pull the fly under.