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Circle Crab

4K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Bob Pink 
#1 ·
As mentioned, I've found that stripers tend to get crabs into their crusher plates and so are deep hooked more often with crab flies than other imitations. Therefore I'm trying circle hooks this year for this fly...



Recipe:

Circle hook - in this case a 1/0 Gamakatsu black, but looking for other colors like green to match the green crab look. Gami is famous for chemical dye on hooks so I have hope.

Materials:
- 50# mono
- grizzy marabou tuft
- butane lighter
- tan and green felt (in sheets at craft store for peanuts)
- rubber legs (I like green with sparkles)
- goop or other adhesive

(a video clip will follow)

1) Tie in a pair of small weighted eyes in the clouser style. Go heavy on the thread to ensure sturdiness, put a drop of zap-a-gap on the thread and let it dry

2) Take a small length of 50# mono and make a fish-shaped loop. Tie the vertex against the center shank of the hook, on the side away from the point. This becomes the frame for the fly, so as you might expect it is tied in perpendicular to the bend. Wrap sturdily and put a drop of zap-a-gap on the junction to secure it.

3) Tie the grizzly marabou tuft's stem to the vertex of the mono loop so its barbs will extend beyond the felt body shell when that's added later.

4) Tie in four rubber strands in a madam-X fashion to the vertex of the mono loop on the shank of the hook.

5) Lay two sheets (green on tan) of felt together and cut the body shape out at the same time.

6) Apply plumber's goop to both sides of the felt and adhere to the assembly so that everything sticks out as desired... legs, eyes, filia, etc.

7) Use lighter to melt eyes into dark bulbs.

Let dry and fish it right on the sand. I have been amazed at the fish-catching ability of this thing. I've got some stories about it on Monomoy that I'll reserve for the clave!

enjoy,
Juro
 
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#3 ·
Thanks Fishhawk! My wife's got one of those hot glue guns and it does sound easier than the way I do it. I tried other adhesives but if the glue soaked into the felt too much it was very difficult to work with and the felt lost it's lightweight and natural look. I recall that the hot glue came in sticks and would be of the correct consistency for the job. I'll give it a try!

Bob - does fletch-tite have a strong enough bonding strength to hold two felt pads together despite some stuff crammed in between (legs, hook shaft, etc)?? I really like the way it held the <!--http--><a href="http://216.71.206.188/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=coastal_fly&Post=28" target="_blank"> double bunny</a><!--url--> together.
 
#4 ·
Juro,
No doubt fletch-tite has the strength but I'm not sure how well it will bond to a fiberous material like the felt. I picked up 3 squares of felt a craft store today ( @ $ 0.16 per ) to try on the circle crab!
Will experiment with the F-T as well as E-Z Sparkle body on top of the felt and report in later...
 
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