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ct.custom

Show us Your Shrimp!

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I hope it's not intruding on your thread CT, but I am brand spanking new to salt tying and so recipes would be really helpful to any inclined to provide them...

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Don't have a photo but the Gartside Gurgler in shrimpy colors (tan, brown, pink - or just plain white for night fishing...) makes a very good surface run shrimp imitation... from a size #2 all the way up to a 4/0.... Mustad 34007. I wouldn't be surprised to find at least one or two videos on tying the Gurgler on youtube or similar site... Many, many variations but the original one is very hard to beat....

 

Most of my patterns for feeding fish that are targeting shrimp really don't look very shrimpy at all - but they are roughly the same size and coloration. The key for me was to move them the exact same way that shrimp actually move (very slow with only an occasional twitch....). The only time that changes is when we're fishing shrimp runs at night - then I have my anglers work upstream and keep the fly moving slightly faster than the existing current... to places (mostly shadow lines) where fish are holding and looking for shrimp coming with the tide...

 

Shrimp spend their early development buried in the mud or sand only coming out at night to feed a bit - then back into the protective bottom... A shrimp run is just juveniles and a bit bigger (a 4" shrimp is a juvenile...) leaving the bottom to ride the tide out to the ocean to join mature shrimp...

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Thought for a bit and realized that I do have a few pics of shrimp flies (but for bonefish, then tarpon....).

 

Here's my version of Chico Fernandez's classic Snapping Shrimp...

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these are done with bear hair wings (cinnamon phase and ordinary black bear) on Mustad #34007 hooks (slightly bent) with chenille bodies, in size #4... the outrigger style weedguards are 15lb Ande mono, thread is monocord 3/0, super glued - then allowed to dry thoroughly before eyes are painted on... finish is Flexcoat...

 

These are cockroach style tarpon flies (my version of John Emery's classic tarpon pattern from years ago....).

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the Cockroach classic - my version done back when most tarpon flies were tied set back to be snelled... Typically done in two sizes a 4/0 and a 2/0 with heavy ex-sharp premium hooks (these days -Owner Aki...), tail is six wide, webby grizzly neck hackles (chinchilla often substituted...) tied in splayed out over a sparse spreader of natural brown deertail, collar - same bucktail, thread - flat waxed Danville"s in black. A tiny amount of crystal flash (maybe six to eight strands in pearl) over the tail added if desired...

 

 

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the Furnace Squirrel, a Cockroach variation done up with red squirrel and furnace neck hackle, fl. orange thread (see above...)

 

This is a comparison photo with an Apte II that was custom ordered with a double wire weedguard...

EttFxVB.jpg

the Apte is not done with a splayed tail - instead the badger neck hackle is tied in streamer style (curve inward on each side... What the photo doesn't show is body of gold diamond braid under the collar... Weedguard was made from #4 trolling wire, coffee colored stainless...

 

All of these tarpon bugs were meant for places and times when brown shrimp were the staple for feeding tarpon, with 3 to 6" shrimp present both day and night...

 

Note... most of my orders for these kinds of bonefish or tarpon flies were meant for folks fishing the Keys and points south...

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