Taneycomo Green Crane Fly

[marcusearlt]

Ahhh, I see. Very cool fly, interesting R&D and design process as well. Now you need to give it some kind of official name like Johnny's Glue Bug or Hot Glue Larvae or something like that. Let us know how it fishes!

[John W Kelly]

I took the opportunity to use an 'improved' version of the Crane larva at Roaring River Sunday morning. I immediately started getting takes, and landed one, then landed another, then hooked into another...and my fly was gone . Luckily, I took a pic of it before I started using it. The first fish that I landed was quite a bit larger than the one pictured (2nd one), but it threw the hook while squirming around in the net. I previously tried several other flies in the same hole with minimal success.

This fly turned out a bit more fat than I wanted it, and I had to recycle the bead from another chewed up fly that I had (need to buy some), but I think it's on the right track judging from the reaction of the fish. I like the guts effect, and it could be a little more transparent; possibly a longer body/hook too.

[Big Brown Trout]

very nice, I was just about to make some variations of the Vladi worm. this has given me lots of inspiration. thanks Johnny.

btw do you know the time of year these larvae would be 'hot'?

[Big Brown Trout]

lol like I said I was motivated. I went straight to the vice and on my second attempt turned out this:

I still like yours better though.

sorry the pic is a little blurry, my camera sucks.

after I tied it a put a coat of Sally's on it for.......protection.

thanks again for your precise measurements and photos Johnny without them I never could have tied this.

btw for anyone interested the recipe is:

mustad #8 long shank

olive and dark green dub

peacock hurl (for the turd things)

black thread

4lb mono

and a durex condom

[John W Kelly]

btw do you know the time of year these larvae would be 'hot'?

I don't.

The worms were still active on the rocks during low water two weekends ago (Nov 16), and I landed several fish on the worm in post #7; including a 19"er. The worms may be active all year(?).

Yesterday (Nov 23), I made a few casts with the variations below. I had takes on the first one, but lost it on a backcast (doh!). It's probably a little too fat for the hook anyway. Lost the second one to a fish. Threw the third one several times, got nothing, and changed to something else. They started running 2 units at the dam, so by the time I could check the rocks for active wormsign, they were covered.

I've thrown the pupa in post #3 on 3 or 4 separate occasions and have never even gotten a take, so Im playing with different variations of the worm for now. I'll try the pupa again in the spring. Btw, your worm looks pretty gooey. Hope it works!

[Big Brown Trout]

oh man I love your latest three, mine should look gooey as I made it out of condoms (seriously though, I did). man I love your latest three, here is the couple I tied, the reference pics I found on google showed them with dark heads so I burnt the top to make dark heads. P.S. I sent you a PM

[Brian K. Shaffer]

WOW - excellent work here about the Crane fly - isolated to Taneycomo.

Good stuff.