TXH20man 0 Report post Posted November 26, 2016 I'm a 2-month-old tier (having a ball with it) and posted some stuff up over in the beginner's corner, but thought maybe this was a better place for this question ... I ran across a how-to video on the Martin shrimp fly and thought it looked pretty and useful and fairly simple to tie. I've tied a bunch now. And caught both trout and redfish (and ladyfish) on them. Questions: 1. Early on, I dispensed with the marabou tail, which was a pain in the butt to tie and didn't seem to offer much in the way of additional action. Thoughts on this? Would I get more looks with it? 2. Again, in an effort to simplify, I recently decided to tie some with Crystal Flash antennae rather than the monofilament antennae in the original. It seems to me that the mono antennae (i've used both 4 lb and 12 lb) are pretty stiff and probably don't show up well in the water. 3. Finally, fishing the fly, I've found the most effective method is a super slow strip (I imagine this allows the "legs" to flutter about) with the occasional panicked-shrimp hop. I guess it could be fished faster with a lot of long, sharp retrieves. Honestly we're just now seeing shrimp show up in our bays again in good numbers, so it hasn't been on the menu of the fish I've been targeting. Anyway, thoughts on fishing it? 4. Finally, other (better?) shrimp patterns I should try? For anyone not familiar, the recipe calls for mono eyes and antennae, UV polar chenille legs, bucktail body/horn and clear heat shink tubing cut to shape and tied on. Only place I could find the heat shrink tubing in clear was Amazon.com -- $9 for 200 pieces assorted sizes. Some examples below. Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
islander727 0 Report post Posted November 27, 2016 Keep practicing with the marabou. It'll get easier with time. You can get tons of it at your local craft store to experiment with (feather boa). It will add action. But, if it's already catching fish... Mono eyes are awesome. I use 20# mason, a marker, and some uv stuff. Here's a good how to: But, if it's already catching fish... I use clear shrink tubing to weld loops in my fly lines. Amazon was the best source that I've found. Nice flies, by the way. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saltybum 0 Report post Posted November 27, 2016 I love shrimp flies myself. Sea-Ducer variant being the easiest to tie. The supreme style shrimp takes me a while to tie. How ever I do prefer my patterns to swim forward on the strips vs the backwards swimmers. I've studied them in a bait tank many times and never seen one swim backwards. LOL I have never found a recipe for the supreme shrimp but did by a couple and figured out how to fudge up a couple myself. Judging by your skills already I suspect you'll be tying bout anything you want. Welcome to the forum. And keep posting your flies and fish. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saltybum 0 Report post Posted November 27, 2016 TX, check out the updated Baitfish SBS I popped back to the top of this page. Might help you save on material usage and costs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites