Been playing around with crab patterns having found them very useful on a couple of occaisions this past season.
The body is EZBody 1/4 inch on the small pattern and 1/2 inch for the three larger.
The pattern bottom-right is my copy of the "beat-up" pattern bottom left which I got from a friend on Exuma. He swears by it for Bones and permit and reckons he "never had a bonefish refuse one". That might be an exageration but they sure look nice in the water.
I borrowed some ideas for improvement from Rich Murphy's "Defense crab". Unlike Rich's pattern, the dumbells are enclosed within the EZBody braid and the pattern is tied to move side-ways, but I like his use of chemile for the legs. I used some EZ Shape Sparkle Body to decorate the top and underside of the carapace.
The EZBody carapace seems to offer a nice combination of soft landing but still allows the pattern to sink quickly once its wet.
I fish this pattern very slowly - a couple of two or three inch strips and then let it sit for 5-10 secs. I found that fish often picked up the fly when static - you can actually feel the "schluuuuurp" :lildevl: One problem is they do tend to get deeply hooked so my next batch will be on circle hooks.
AWESOME! Yes I recall your success with the mesh body crab one day on finicky flat.
I've had some success with a store bought ez-body crab in the past as well and bought a bunch of mesh tube in various sizes. Seeing your work inspires me to give it a go (it's still in the package for 2-3 seasons). It's rather expensive stuff as I recall but the effect is unique and there are other good things about it - the felt or natural material approach seems to cause more rust on my hooks (even on stainless) and are clunky to cast. These are light and clean up nice. Also the way you've highlighted the mesh makes them absolutely flats candy.
Those are very nice! I'm not sure if you had thought too much about which circle hook you might use. I was curious what size and make circle hook you might switch too. I'd like to try making some of those this winter for next season.
I agree stripers tend to mash crabs in the crusher plates on either side of their throats so it's hard to avoid hooking them very deep, and unfortunate side effect of crab flies and a good reason to use circle hooks as Greg mentioned.
I found this out the hard way several years ago and here is an attempt to thwart that from the archives although the felt might get in the way of hooking effectively and my crab for next year has a way of (theoretically) dealing with the problem.
Works of art Adrian!!!! You have inspired me to head to the tying table in the basement! Heading for Florida soon......will attempt to replicate your design and give them a try. I particularly like the transparent one.....easy body would I believe reflect the natural colors of any flat and might lure a preditor to think that the crab was a newbee who just shed it's shell Easy pickins!!!!
Ron
Greg, still trying to decide on an appropriate circle hook design - I thought I'd wait for the shows and eyeball a few before making the decision. There seems to be a a trade-off with circle hooks between shank-length for a nicely balanced impression versus width of gape and hooking ability which might be compromised with the mesh body.
Steve, not too difficult to build - very similar to Rich Murphy's defense crab. I had pretty much figured it out from the pattern my friend gave me. I was interested to see other variations and Rich's pattern came up on a google search along with with a step-by-step. He sets the legs up so that the crab sits in the classic "bring-it-on" posture. I found that by playing around with the position of the lead eyes you can get the fly to sink "tail first" which gives a similar result.
I attach the lead eyes to the middle of the hook shank which leaves more room for fastening down the braid at each end - it helps if you can make a whip fininsh with your fingers :lildevl:
I'm thinking of using a dubbed underbody to provide a hint of color that would show through the braid instead of sparkle body.
Steve was one of the first to really adapt the Monomoy crab attack many many moons ago. My exploits were inspired by your successes in those days, how time flies.
Adrians are some of the nicest I've seen for the application.
Steve was one of the first to really adapt the Monomoy crab attack many many moons ago. My exploits were inspired by your successes in those days, how time flies.
Adrians are some of the nicest I've seen for the application.
Hi Juro, I'm often here -- I'm just shy :chuckle: I'm still fishing crabs and little else -- I guess I'm stubborn and shy!
Thanks for the kind words and bringing back fond memories -- those were heady days for sure! The worn-out Furry Foam Crabs and Swimming Crabs that I keep near my bench from the early '90s are a happy reminder of a time when the stripers around Monomoy made fools of themselves for a well-placed crab pattern. :lildevl:
Steve, the legs are pulled through the material using a bobbin threader and glued into place with a few drops of Loctite "Gel control" CA. I found it at the local supermarket and it comes in a nifty applicator that hasn't gunged up my me - yet.
The thicker consitency is great for this application. Epoxy would also work but very little is needed.
Steve, the legs are pulled through the material using a bobbin threader and glued into place with a few drops of Loctite "Gel control" CA. I found it at the local supermarket and it comes in a nifty applicator that hasn't gunged up my me - yet.
The thicker consitency is great for this application. Epoxy would also work but very little is needed.
Hi Adrian
I first saw your post on the UK board. The description is great, many thanks.
I will tie up a few of these and try them out on the trigger fish in the Seychelles in a couple of weeks.
Pete
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