Here is a fly of my own creation. I wanted to create a crab that was very life like and kept searching and thinking while checking out pictures and actual crabs down the cape... All crab patterns seem to be the right shape but not what I was looking for... While watching Rich Murphy at UFT two years ago I watched him tye his lobster fly and observed his use of partridge feathers for claws... I thought that the coloration was perfect for a brown crab. This is the only crab pattern I have in my box and use regularly picking up stripers on a dead drift. No luck on the flats yet but I will not give up. Hook- 3/0 short shank Varivas..... Thread- white...... First I tye the dumbell up toward the eye.... then, a mixture of olive and tan Krystal flash at the mouth... then a little fluff from the base of the partridge feather.... I want realistic eyes so I melt 40 pound mono, darken the tip for a pupil and cover with epoxy to enlarge the eye...then tye in..... I take two partridge Neck feathers ,trim and cut to form open claws and tye in in a defensive position.....Leave the hook in the vise and now work on the body off the vise. Then I cut brown foam to shape and coat with very light epoxy and set in three partridge neck feathers on top of each other.. one to one side the other to the other and one over the mouth... I let a little of the feather ends hang over the foam. let set... Then dot in spaces not covered totally by the feathers with an olive magic marker....now.... turn over and epoxy in olive grizzly hackle tips for legs...very light and let set...all of this is done OFF the vise jaws.... then when set glue on the hook shank... then apply another light coat of epoxy on top...let set and turn over and epoxy over the shank to lock in the foam on the hook shank.Thats it.. I tyed this fly at the Fly show in Marlboro and showed some of the FFF participants in our fly tying table last year. I think you will like the results and if you drop this in the water among like size crabs you will lose it. I call it the Crab Apple.