crackleback mania

[fishinwrench]

What for eons was a wooly worm... is now a crackleback. The original dressing of pale yellow silk and brown hackle has morphed into anything with palmered hackle it seems. Well listen, who has the time to try every possible variation, body material, color, and hackle type....this could take 15-20 years.

So, what's your most productive "crackleback"? Size, Body material/Color, Hackle ? And how do you get more bites topside, under the film, or down near the bottom ?

Saw one with lime green flat-braid body, and pinkish-red dyed grizzly hackle the other day....guy swears by it and fishes it on 4x with shock gum...cuz he gets big bites

Do we have a "cracklebugger" out there yet ? or can I be the first? LOL

[jdmidwest]

I posted a while back about the same thing. Ed Story would have had the patent on the pattern if there was such a thing. Although, Feather-Craft has deviated from the original pattern over the years, you would only have to look at the current catalog/newsletter for the current materials necessary.

The pattern from the original "MO. Trout Flies, How to Tye them and Fish Them" 1991 edition 2 is as follows:

Size 12 dry fly hook

Prewaxed 8/0 or 6/0 thread

2 strands peacock herl for back

Spin Dubbed pale olive synthetic material Flyrite #41

Furnace hackle

I have always thought the pattern resembles the Catalapa worm in coloration, a deadly bait if anyone has ever used them as live bait.

Ed calls the pattern a Dry Wooly, but later on he refers to a method of skating them subsurface like a wet fly. I always grease them good and fish them dry. I use a yellow micro chenille for the body in lieu of the dubbing.

[timsfly]

we tied some cracklebuggers years ago for the park (roaring river) they worked fine, my favorite crackle back is tied on a

#14 or #16 dry fly hook, dry fly hackle, holographic green body and of course the peacock pulled over the back for the crackle.

I put the moss green tail on my crackleback and it made a nice bugger.

[flyfshn]

I start with a #12 or #14 dry hook, use 6/0 fire orange uni thread and red or chartreuse Lagartun mini flatbraid for the body and finish with grizzly hackle. I normally start them as a dry fly and at the end of the drift, I start stripping them, which is where most of the hits take place. I have also tied them with yellow or pearl Lagartun mini flatbraid, but the red and chartreuse work best for me.

[Danoinark]

Instead of thread or dubbing for the body I use floss. I like light olive and pumpkin colors for the bodies. Dano

[fishinwrench]

The current trend seems to be going away from furnace hackle....toward various natural, and dyed, grizzly.

Do you think that is an "improvement? or is it one of those "doesn't matter" or "might matter today, but not tomorrow" things.

My issue is: I don't wanna carry three boxes of cracklebacks.

3 patterns (variations) would be ok though.

[Phil Lilley]

Funny that you brought this up...

I was in Bass Pro here in Denver the other day and was looking at their flies. The cracklebacks were tied on a 200R hook, not a 100 or another dry fly hook. I thought all BP stores ordered from the same lot but I don't remember the MO stores making this mistake... and I do call it a mistake. This crackleback would ride as well on the surface and would act differently when retreiving.

The fly shop in Estes Park (Kirk's) recommended a fly that was tied exactly like a crackleback but it wasn't called a crackleback. I bought 6 just because the gal said they'd work and they did. They had a light hackle and fl red bodies, #18.

Lots of variations and names in the fly world. Who's right? Everyone and no one. ??

[Zach Bearden]

I personally just tye them with a grizzly hackle and chartruse floss body (I like it because I think its an attractor color) and the peacock herl over the back.

I actually have taken a split shot about a foot in front of it and make a large mend upstream then swing it infront of a place where I think that a trout may hold and it normally produces quite a few trout... I also like to do that when a mayfly hatch is going on and the trout havent keyed in on the adults or the cripples just yet.

[trout fanatic]

Guess I am getting lazy in my tying, I leave off the peacock herl. Just use superfine dubbing for the body (all sorts of colors) and normally either grizzly or brown hackle. Fished both dry and wet seems to work equally well for me. Definitely one of my go to patterns.

[Terry Beeson]

A rose is a rose is a rose...

Does it really matter what you call it as long as it catches fish? As far as I am concerned there are really no new flies out there.