With having dealt with a ton of refusals of various crab and crabby type flies the past few days I thought maybe more realistic may be better than not. I remembered a few years ago while at The Fly Fishing show I was walking the back row and someone was selling plastic crab bodies with a shell sticker for the top. I hadn't touched it since then and found them when I was digging through my stuff while the guys sat around tying at dinner.
Here's what I came up with. I tied them several different ways and with different weights. They look great in the water. I gave each one of the guys one and an early critique was that it spins on a faster retrieve. Steve suggested putting the tungsten on the bottom into a teardrop, kind of a keel that would keep the fly flat. Also, I wonder if the combo of weight on the bottom with the barbel eyes adds to the negative action.
This trip starts with a daily strategy and tactics meeting at the table with all the guys surrounding the MV map. Where's the wind? Is there sun? What's the tide? Where are the fish? So I decided that early Friday morning, 230 am, I would hit the pond hoping to see the big fish exploding in the dark on the same flats I see them on during the day. Same tide, different time.
I went into the pond and walked up to the flat. No wind, flat, dead calm...the hour or so I was there. I decided around 430 am to hit Lobsterville and see if anything was popping. Soon the light arrived and so did the shad. I fished for about two more hours before I headed into town, well three
towns to find a cup of coffee and a bite . The below pic is Lobsterville as I let it. You can imagine what it might look like if bass were on sand eels or some either bait.
