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mitch

Relevance of Legs

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Been away for a while, but have a little time to tie some flies before disappearing again with a 5-piece #8 and a few boxes of flies. I have plenty of gotchas, charlies, and some bigger flies for bigger species. I have made about a dozen #6 Merkins and have left the rubber legs off some of them. Are the legs vital in duping a bone/flats dweller and if so, white legs? Does the red paint really help out on the legs.

Was going to post in the Tying Bench, but thought this was mainly a salt thing.

 

Thanks,

Mitch

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From what I have learned over the years - the fly does not necessarily have to look like an actual crab but it HAS to act like a crab. With that in mind, the legs add to the overall effect of the crab and they have movement in the water.

 

As to the legs being white, I have not seen tan legs but they should match the color of the crab body or the leg color of the natural that you are representing. Then on the other hand, I have tied them in numerous colors and have used the off white legs on them and never had any negative comments about the color of the legs.

 

When I was tying for Jeffery Cardenas in Key West, he had me put blue legs on the crabs that I tied for him. The crabs were tan with blue legs.

 

Ken Bay brought up an interesting observation about crabs and how he ties them up. The rubber legs will eventually deteriorate because of the sun and heat so he does not use rubber legs. He uses a type of velvet chamois or similar material and does not have the problem with the legs. Of course you could just cut the old ones off and tie on new ones.

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Guest

Joe,

 

from your experinece or chats with other salt tiers, do you find that rubber "wastes" quicker in salt water than in freshwater? dunno.gif

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I agree with Joe..here ..it does not have to LOOK exactly like crab...but should act like one... The difference for me is that Bonefishing is different in a way from Striper fishing.... Since a lot of stikes come from stripers grabbing a "stantionary" crab...I will tie them to LOOK like a crab.... but thats it. If you look at Dick browns Book on Bonefish flies you will see the variations from something that looks like whatever and others that will look like a crab. I use feathers for legs since they are more durable than rubber and the action will happen without necessarily striping the fly. Then again... on a good day your fly, no matter how it is tied , will have seen it's best days. Rubber or not.

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Good points all around. Thanks for the quick turn-around.

Some of the lessons learned that I've been applying to this recent batch has been to hide the barbell eyes in the yarn in order to ensure the hook rides up, but minimizing the explosion of the fly entering the water.

I've tied some with #20 burnt mono eyes w/ stalks and some with plastic bead eyes tied in up on the bend. Mainly all have been #6, with changes to color (white/tan/dk tan/sage) and combos of all.

Hard to say what the fish will go after, or if they will even eat my imperialistic flies.

Take care all,

Mitch

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It's my opinion that at legs on Del's Merkin are an important factor in the "liveliness" of the fly. Del did occasionally tie his famous pattern without the legs and caught fish on them too. Del didn't use red paint to accent the tips of the white rubber legs he used. He actually used a marker. This revelation blew me away!!! At one point, I believed I had unlocked the secret behind the deadliness of the Merkin. You see, I tied some up and used as you suggested..."Red Paint" with a coating of epoxy for durability. Well, when I was manipulating the fly for no good reason other than to admire and daydream...the painted/epoxied tips "Rattled". The hard coating and alignment of the tips created a rattler. Del responded to a post of mine on Dan Blanton's board. He loved the idea but let me down gently when he told me he used markers...DOH!!!!!

 

Recently on Eleuthera Bahama's, I had good sucess on his pattern tied with speckeled tan "Sili Legs" barred with brown marker..."Go figure?"

 

PS...nice thing about the Sili-leg material....if the diameter is too thick for the pattern you're tying...just give it a stretch and the diameter is easily reduced to 2/3 of it's original diameter...it also accepts and retains permanent marker ink without bleeding or fading.

 

Regards,

 

Hank

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