Hunt’s Hybrid Crayfish

[Phil Lilley]

Hunt’s Hybrid Crayfish

Jeremy Hunt

Recipe:

Hook: Di-Riki 700b size 4,6

Thread: 6/0 Uni- thread color to match body

Mandibles: Spanflex SX4 color to match body

Antennae: Sili legs (speckled flake)

Claws: Barred squirrel (Wapsi product)

Shellback: Swiss straw

Body: SLF (Dave Whitlock) The crayfish color blends

Legs: Grizzly Hen saddle

Rib: UTC wire size (BR)

Tail: Swiss straw

Weight: .25 lead wire

TYING INSTRUCTIONS

Secure the lead on the bottom portion of the hook shank. I do about twelve wraps of .25.

Tie your thread at the bend of the hook and do enough turns to get the thread started. Cut the tag end off.

Cut two strands of span flex and tie them in at the bend of the hook. You will otice how long mine are. You can trim the excess off or tie it in around the hook shank. I like to cut mine off. Make sure the antennas are cut even at the tips.

This is an easy technique to learn if you don’t know it already. If you look at picture six you will get a idea about this step. Fold the sili legs around the thread with one hand. You’re going to hold the bobbin with the other hand and the hand holding sili legs you’re going to hold it while turning the bobbin around the shank. If you keep tension as you go around with the bobbin (thread). By making that first turn around you will see the sili legs slide down the thread as you make the turn. Look in picture seven. The sili legs are going to be on top of the hook shank once you made a complete turn with you’re thread. You will be able to adjust them once you tie them in. You will notice that they are sticking straight up . Go ahead and wind on top of them once you have tied them in. This will force them to lay back with the spanflex.

Cut a strand of swiss straw to the length of one fold on the card. Poke one end of the swiss straw thru the hook point. Make sure that when you poke this thru the swiss straw you’re at the end of the swiss straw. If poke it in the middle of the swiss straw you will not have enough for the shell back that goes across the whole fly. You also will have a tail hanging off the back with the same piece to.

This step is kind of complicated at first. Since you don’t have a lot of excess swiss straw to tie in around the shank after you poke it in the hook point. I have notice that you have to make sure with the first wrap that it grabs all the swiss straw when you go to tie it in.

Now if you’re going to add eyes now is the time to do so. I don’t mess with them so I skip that step all together. Now dub a little ball of SLF dubbing around the thread. You don’t need a lot, just enough to make the pinchers flare out when you tie them in.

You will need to cut two pinchers the same length using squirrel. This is a newer material, but you can find this in shops now.

If you notice, I like to strip a few hairs from each end of the hide and tie that hide piece in.

Tie in the squirrel strips right behind the little ball of dubbing make sure that you really tie them in securely and butt them up to the ball so you get that flare from the pinchers.

Split the barbs evenly on each side of the feather at the tip section of the of the grizzly hen saddle and tie it in with tip end of the feather hanging concave to be palmered up to form the legs later. Note when tying the feather in make sure not to wrap any of the barbs that form the legs when you start to wind the feather forward. Tie in the feather where you split it.

Once you tie in the feather and its hanging off the back, form dubbing loop. You will need to make a fairly good loop because you will need a lot of dubbing to fill in the loop. I like to make the loop about three to four inches long. And you will fill that whole loop with dubbing. Make sure you don’t put to much in one area. You will need to spread it out evenly.

Spin the dubbing with some kind of dubbing twister. Once you got the loop tight and dubbing secure. Tie it around to form a small to big and back to small tapered effect. Tie it along the whole half of the shank until you get to the first bend in the hook. Which is the middle section of the hook. That is key to the fly. That is your main reference point to proportioning the fly correctly.

palmared the hen saddle forward to create the legs. I do about four to five turns until I get to the middle of that first bend on the hook.

Cut a piece of wire. Tie it in at the bend in the middle.After you have tied in the wire go ahead and advance the thread up to the other half of the shank where you see all the lead wire and tie that in. Build thread dams on each side of the wire so it doesn’t slide or move, make sure that you don’t push you’re lead to close to the eye or you will not have any room for the swiss straw to be fold over and tied in. Always Leave a space of metal showing between the lead and the eye. advance you’re thread back to the middle where you see the bend.

Grab the swiss straw and fold it over and tie it at the bend in the center of the hook. You only need to tie it down with two to three turns. If you tie anymore you defiantly start to see your thread wraps on the outside of the straw.

Fold the swiss straw back after you make your two or three wraps. Go ahead and dub the fly up and make a smooth even body all the way up to the eye.

Fold the swiss straw over the dubbed body and tie it down at the front of the eye.

Wrap the wire up until you get to the eye and tie it off. I do about six to seven turns of wire and you should be at the eye. If you’re not it’s because you wrap the wire to tight to the next wrap. Make you’re angle bigger abd that will fix the problem.

I don’t like to use scissors to cut the tag. Please use dull ones or bad ones. Or you can move the wire back and forth fast and it will brake off from the heat of moving it. It will make a clean brake with no tag end hanging. Fold the swiss straw over and tie off. Whip finish the fly.

With some curved scissors cut the swiss straw.

Note: I epoxy the whole swiss straw to make a nice shell back plus a durable fly that will not tear up. I also like to brush out the dubbing on the under side with a dubbing brush (if you have a gun cleaner wire brush that will work the best.)