Nick Thomas shares a great pattern for salt water fly fishing if you're hitting the beach this summer.
Summer is here and many anglers will be off to the seaside for a family holiday. Some will be hoping to snatch some time in the early morning or late evening when the crowds have departed to escape to a bit of peaceful fishing. If you’re one of them then the Credible Crab is a good pattern to have in your saltwater fly box. I’ve not been fortunate to try it further afield, but I’m pretty sure it would work well on the flats for bonefish and other tropical species if that’s where you are headed for a holiday.
There are lots of crab patterns out there in magazines and books, pretty much all of them developed for tropical waters. To my eye most of them suffer from the constraints of normal fly tying practice; they are generally symmetrical about the hook shank and don’t look much like crabs. Incredible crabs in fact. So here’s a tying method which departs from the usual wrapping of stuff around a hook; ladies and gentlemen I give you the Credible Crab.
I got the inspiration for this pattern from a second-hand book I found in Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon. If you are ever in Portland for a fishing trip or other reasons then make a point of visiting Powell's; it's got the best selection of new and used fishing books I've come across anywhere. The book in question is Fishy's Flies by Jay "Fishy" Fullum, in which he describes the construction of the Bead Chain Crab which makes very clever use of a length of small bead chain bent into a 'U' shape to form the body. The original pattern uses liquid plastic to build up the body around the bead chain scaffold. For my version I use stripped organza ribbon which gives a lighter easier to cast fly and a softer silhouette which mimics the soft algal and weed growth found on many small shore crabs.
Hook: Varvivas 2600 stainless size 2 to 8
Thread: UTC GSP100 to match organza colour
Body skeleton: Length of small metal bead chain
Legs: Rubber legs
Body: Stripped organza ribbon in choice of colour
- Run on the thread behind the eye and take down the shank in touching turns to just before the bend.
- Take a length of bead chain and lay it over the shank with the first bead in the chain on your side of the shank by the thread. Tie in the first bead with figure of eight thread wraps.
- Pull the other end of the chain towards you and bend the chain to form a tight 'U'; what you are looking for is the point at which the chain will not bend further and forms a solid loop. Push the free end of the chain down onto the hook shank and take note of which bead overhangs the shank on your side. Cut the chain in front of this bead (see drawing A).
- Bring the thread up the shank, push the bead chain into a loop and secure the end bead with several turns of thread pulling against the tension of the looped bead chain. You should now have a rigid loop of bead chain attached to the top of the hook with two beads on your side of the hook. These two beads will form the crab's eyes and the rest of the chain the skeleton on which to form the body. Colour the eye beads with a permanent marker pen.
- Now make a series of thread wraps around the shank and the outside of the bead chain loop forming a cross mesh of thread between the shank and the gaps between each of the beads. Finish the wraps with a whip finish at the hook eye and cut the thread (drawing B).
- Remove the hook from the vice and place the crab body on your bench hook point up. Push down on the body and twist the hook as required to get the bead chain loop flat and at right angles to the hook bend. This will ensure that the crab will fish correctly with the hook point up. Coat the thread wraps with superglue to lock everything in place and set aside to dry.
- Return the hook to the vice, catch in the thread and make thread wraps around the centre of the body. Take 3 or 4 lengths of rubber legs and lie them across the top of the body (this will be the underside of the crab when it's in action) and secure with more thread wraps around the centre of the body and towards the sides (drawing C).
- Cut a 12 inch length of organza ribbon and prepare for tying (see ESF #33). Catch in at the back of the body and then wind the thread to behind the hook eye (drawing D).
- Wind the organza around the body moving towards you, separating and securing the legs as you go.
- When you reach the front of the body take figure of eight wraps around the crab eyes with the final wrap of organza meeting the tying thread at the hook eye. Tie in the organza, trim the excess and whip finish.
I like fishing this pattern on the surf beaches in Pembrokeshire, it’s an ideal imitation for when conditions are fairly calm and there's not much surf running. Casting the crab out on a floating or intermediate line and a 10-15 foot leader into a couple of feet of water allows the crab to sink to the bottom and then be twitched back, each twitch raising a puff of sand from the body and legs which is very attractive to bass or flatfish hunting in the flats between the surf lines. The Credible Crab also makes a good anchor on the point of a two fly cast with a lighter shrimp or prawn pattern (see ESF #37) on a dropper a few feet above suspended in mid water being washed back and forth by waves or current.
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design, tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.