Crackleback

[Phil Lilley]

ecipe:

Hook: Dai-riki 300, Daiichi 1170, Mustad 94840, TMC 100 -- Size 12-16

Thread: UTC 70

Shellback: 4 strands of peacock herl, pulled full length over top of body.

Body: same as thread

Hackle: Metz brown/furnace to match hook size

Before we get started the crackleback. I would like to share with you what I show anyone before teaching a pattern. I hope this helps you with crowding your eye's when tying your favorite flies. (Note: try leaving a little space of metal showing right behind the eye of the hook. You will notice that in picture #1. I use this technique on every fly pattern).

Step 1.

Start the thread at the front of the hook. Once you have it locked in go ahead and tie in four strands of peacock herl.

Note: Always remember that if your tying a fly that is showing a thread body make sure you keep an even and smooth thread base.

Step 2.

Tie the peacock herl all the way to the bend. There is a lot of bad herl on the market so make sure you find some that has a lot of the greenish herl on the stem.

Step 3.

This is how the hackle should look after you prep it.

Step 4.

Repeat the same step you did when tying in the herl. Make sure you don't tie any of the hackle in that is at the start of the stem when you go to wind it forward. The hackle should flare the first turn. You will notice if you did the step wrong because the hackle will look like you tied it down on the shank.

Step 5.

Your thread should be at the front when you tie the floss in. This will also be tied the whole length of the hook shank. If you notice by repeating the same step with all three materials up at the eye you have built a nice foundation of thread along the shank. I'm using a white in 1x. Wrap the thread back up to the eye.

Step 6.

Wrap the floss side by side all the way up to the eye. I like to overlap the wraps a little.

Step 7.

What I do before I pull the strands of peacock herl over the top of the body is run my fingers up and down the herl to create a rougher look. You can also twist the herl to make it more durable. Fold it over and trim the excess off. Remember not to crowd the eye.

Step 8.

Grab the tip of the stem with the hackle pliers. When you grab the hackle with the hackle pliers make sure it's not at an angle (aligned with the hackle). This will prevent any twist in the hackle while winding it forward. The hackle cannot twist are you will have hackle in every direction and that's what you don't want. The more wraps you do the higher the fly will sit on the water.

Whip finish the fly and treat the hackle with water shed. I would let it dry over night and this fly is ready to fish.

Keynotes: Make sure your holding the hackle up when you cut it. If you get hackles going forward or crowding the eyes it is probably created by the way you cut and tied off your material. What ever you do don't cut the hackle stem on the underside of the eye.

[Brian Wise]

Tied a little different......nice.

Brian

[Phil Lilley]

Brian- you know there's not one way that's right... that's what is so great about tying flies.

How do you tie a crackleback?

[Packman]

Brian- you know there's not one way that's right... that's what is so great about tying flies.

How do you tie a crackleback?

Nice work guys. Just a thought I had, should we be putting an Ozark Anglers watermark on the pics to prevent people from grabbing them?

[Brian Wise]

Phil,

Brian- you know there's not one way that's right... that's what is so great about tying flies.

Exactly, tweaking patterns is half the fun!

I dub the body of mine with superfine in several different colors(I don't work with turkey rounds) and I use 1-2 strands of herl (2 for the bigger ones.)

Honestly I don't think you can have too much peacock herl on ANY fly . What I like about Jeremy using more herl is that it is that much lighter on the under side and it truly is more of a "shellback".....I had never thought about doing that. I'm thinking I'll dub the body of mine with the superfine and use more herl for more of a shellback like in Jeremy's, the best of both worlds!

I should say I use Cracklebacks as nymphs just as much or more than swinging them or fishing them dry.....75% of mine are either bead head or glass beaded, I love them as nymphs!!

Brian

[Lucky Fly]

The crackleback is a famous pattern in the ozarks.

I have fished it several times to represent a hopper, beetle, or just a searching pattern. For whatever, it is an effective pattern. I like to tweak my patterns as well.

For the body on my crackleback, I use metallic floss from the hobby stores in green. I also add four strands of midge flash tied short for the tail and grizzly hackle. It is an idea that I picked up at Tim's Fly Shop. The difference is Tim's patterns are tied with green tinsel. I could not get the wraps to look like I wanted it, not spaced correctly etc. With the floss, I twist it tightly (yong special style) and it gives a great segmented look to the underside.

I am going to tie some tonight with four strands of herl, I am with Brain, it gives it a clearly defined shellback.

Tight Lines

Steve

[Steve Smith]

Jeremy brings out a good point to watch hackle size as it causes missed strikes by sitting too high on the water's surface. He is absolutely right. However, over hackling [both in turns and hackle length] often gets the trout’s attention when they turn their nose up at a standard sized Crackleback wrap. Yes, they do often miss the hook, but I trade that off for more rises. I’ve not a clue as to what trout think they see, but I know slightly over wrapping often out fishes the standard tie. I wrap my oversized Crackleback using a completely herl wrapped body, and Badger hackle. Try it sometime by adding more wraps of hackle, and slightly larger than the hook gap. The badger hackle and herl body gives the fly a very dark center and gold edges out on the hackle tips.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I tie mine like the original, with turkey, more often then not. I have started tying the holographic green tinsel and its effective.

The pattern seems to have morphed into a peacock back palmered under a brown hackle, body optional.

I suppose its a question of whether its just a different look to the ageless and long successful Woolly Worm.

[Simsmarine]

Try Hareline's UV Cinnamon Ice Dub for the body.

[dave potts]

I agree with Lucky Fly-I tie a lot of them with holographic bodies and grizzly hackle. Another good way to fish them is stripping on a sinking line. I've watched them at Bennett and they almost always take them on the strip, that is, when the fly is moving as though they don't want it to escape.

Dave