Fingernails and crabs

[Traditionalist]

Instructions coming up...........

This fingernail crab pattern has proven very successful for cod, when fished from a belly boat on a sinking line. Of course, you can use it for other fish too. I have taken quite a few species on it, and it can sometimes be very very successful indeed. Fished without any weight ( except the epoxy), it can take a number of fish "on the drop", and takes are usually quite definite. The fish simply inhales the fly. I have even had Zander on it in the Elbe estuary. I only tried it for a laugh, and had a field day with it. I have since repeated that a few times. Practically any fish that takes crabs will take it quite confidently.

The "fingernail" part of the description is because artificial plastic fingernails are used in the construction. I got a few boxes of these at a local "dollar store" ( everything for a dollar. In this case a Euro). They come in a range of sizes, as shown here, and can be used to make some very interesting and useful patterns.

There are ten various sized fingernails in the boxes I got, and they are of course easily trimmed or shaped with fingernail cutters if desired. They are amazingly tough, and it seems the plastic imitates the hard crab shells very well, as these crabs are not ejected so quickly by the fish, as some yarn and similar crabs. This is what the boxes of "beauty nails" look like. There are several sets ( thirty nails) in each box. There are also "sticky pads" in the box for applying the nails, which you may use if you like, but glue works well, and the last step is to epoxy the crab anyway;



The result is very durable. In my experience, one does not really need to carry very many crab patterns either, so a couple of boxes of nails will set you up with a whole range of sizes for the crabs. Whatever you do, don´t nick your wife´s! Or girlfriends!!! They get dead narky about it! If you are obliged to stoop to this, don´t tell them you need them for crabs! The possible repercussions are indescribable!!!!!!!!!

You can use any suitable hook, but the crab is finished first, and epoxied to the hook afterwards. If you want weight on the crab, then bead chain or dumbbell eyes may be added to the hook before epoxying. or you can just wrap it with lead wire, or drop some shot in before you epoxy the bottom. You may also use various plastic instead of the nails. Cut up washing up liquid bottles and similar are very good for this. They have a natural curve, similar to the artificial fingernails.

OK. You have chosen your fingernail in the size you want;



( This looks a bronze colour, but that is a trick of the light, the nails are translucent "white" ).



You need to cut this carefully to size, as the nails are too long for most crab imitations. You can do this with scissors , or nail clippers. If you cut carefully, you end up with two pieces of nail. Don´t discard the piece you cut off! It can also be used for various things!

You now need some 2mm "ultra chenille" in white. It has to be "ultra chenille" also known as "Vernille" and several other names, as this is extremely robust, and can be shaped using the technique I will presently explain. If one holds a lighter flame below a length of the material, it softens, and takes on a taper automatically. This also melts and seals the end of the piece. This can be used for lots of things, but we are going to use it for legs here. Here is a scan of some material, ( I didn´t bother with colouring here), in order to show you;



You may use any colour you like of course. Red legs are often very successful, but I have used white here, for a specific reason which will eventually become apparent! I just did this quickly and roughly, in order to show somebody how to do it. If you don´t want any traces of "burning" or discolouration on the stuff, hold the lighter further away from it! You can also affect what occurs by tapering the warm stuff with your fingers. This also seals the body. This is very quick and easy, and makes robust and realistic flies. You can make a few dozen tapered lengths in a very short time. ( I use this stuff for quite a few things).

So, you can just keep melting the tip as shown, and cutting off a length, or cut off eight lengths as shown;



about an inch long, depending of course on the size of your crab, and taper them all at once. You may allow the end to melt and burn here, and then blow the flame out. This gives a realistic end to the leg



Cut your finished tapered "legs" to the desired length. Now take your nail, or other piece of plastic, and place a dab of glue at the rear of the "shell". Now arrange your legs as desired on the dab of glue. I have used UHU here, but any glue will do, it is only to fix the legs in position. You should end up with something like this;



Put this body on one side, and allow it to dry, while you make some more! When the legs/body construct is dry, then you can pull the legs gently into whatever exact position you require. Here is a top view;



I was doing this in rather a hurry to show someone, and taking photos at the same time, and I messed up!  The "Shell" is the wrong way round in the finished crab. Unlikely that the fish will notice of course, but if you want to show these off it's best to get it right! The rounded side of the shell should be towards the rear of the crab.

The vernille is flexible, and can be "bent" easily, and will retain it´s shape quite well. It also has a very good "action" when the crab is moved. OK. We need some "eyes" ( optional, I don´t think the fish care at all! But they look nice!
Just dab some glue on, and use a couple of pieces of mono with burned ends;



You can use red or black mono, or clear of course. I have used a clear yellow here.



The claws are made in exactly the same way as the legs. Take two pieces of the prepared vernille, and place them together. Add a spot of glue, and allow to dry. Of course you may also use feathers and the like, and this looks nice , but they are not too robust, and may be ripped off after a fish or two. The vernille is more or less indestructible in normal use;



Claws mounted on a spot of glue;



So, now we are getting to the exciting bits! Once the construct is dry, you can colour the shell as desired, and also the legs and claws. The reason I do this, although I could use coloured legs and claws to begin with, is because all the crabs are dark on top and paler underneath. The shell and the vernille take magic marker very well, and gives a better imitation, although some of the " coloured vernille leg" versions have also worked very well, especially the red ones. Most immature crabs are green/brown on top, and pale yellow/green etc to white underneath. This is what the fish see when a crab is swimming. Also, the fish seem to like "short hairy legs" !!!

So we get out our ( WATERPROOF!!!), magic markers and begin colouring! Use a colour scheme common on your local crabs. This is a fairly standard scheme I have used, and works more or less everywhere. Use the lighter coloured pens first, and then the darker colours, as otherwise you will ruin the pens!



Bottom view;



If you need to see some various natural colour schemes, have a look here;

http://images.google.com/images?q=shore+crab+swimming&ndsp=18&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&start=36&sa=N

That was basically it! All we need to do now, is mount the hook, and put a dollop of epoxy on the bottom. You can make any final adjustments to leg positions etc before you do this. The hook is mounted from front to back!!! You can mount it sideways if you want, and if the crab is weighted, but I have had more success on unweighted crabs with "in-line" hooks like this;



Mount the hook with a dab of glue BEFORE!!! you epoxy the bottom of the crab! Don´t try to mount it using epoxy. It will fall over and cause a mess! The hook used here is a Gamakatsu LS-5213N, but you can use any suitable hook. If you don´t want to faff on with epoxy, use hot melt glue. Works very well, but it is not quite so robust and may soften in warm weather, depending on the type you use.

I have been experimenting for a while with mounting a tube on the crab, instead of a hook, and using this as a "tube -fly", but this is still experimental. Looks very promising though, and of course you may then easily change a hook that is blunt or broken etc. Although this may seem complex and as if it took a long time, if you prepare your materials properly, you can easily make a dozen of these in less than an hour. You may also use rubber legs and stuff like that. I even made a couple using red rubber bands and they worked, but the rubber perishes in time.

Have a go, they really are very easy to make, durable, and THEY CATCH FISH!!

One may faff on with a lot of things here, and make the result very very lifelike indeed, but this takes time, and the fish don´t care. The vernille has a very good action, and it certainly fools the fish.

Some pics of the finished article from various angles are shown above ( You don´t need a a vice for this of course! I only used it to do the photos).The bottom of the crab is still white, as I mixed in some white colour with the epoxy. When it is completely dry, I will colour it as required. Usually a pale green yellow.


The second crab, which is also a first class crayfish imitation in the right colours is similar but easier, and  very effective. It relies mainly on the fact that fish can´t count! And on various triggers. It does not look quite as lifelike on the bench, but it really is attractive in the water. Cod go mad for it, and I have had quite a few seatrout on it, but curiously nothing very big. Unfortunately, I would need several lifetimes to try out all the flies I dress, very thoroughly, but I only show those I have caught fish on.

Mount your hook in the vice, ( LS-5213N size 4 here) run thread on, and then tie in two bunches of red fox hair, ( or one big bunch and split it evenly), and a little crystal flash in the middle ( six strands here),as shown;



This is one case where more is better! The fox hair is extremely mobile and when wet it has much less bulk, so I use generous bunches here. Use your material spring here to keep the hair and flash out of the way;



Now you need to wrap some lead around the rear of the hook. I have used twenty turns of thin lead wire here, ten turns forward, and then ten turns back. Wrap over and varnish;



Tie in a length of red wool, ( This is more of a magenta colour mohair wool, but this is not critical here, use what you have), wind in,forming a nice tapered body up to the eye. Tie off, whip finish, and varnish;



Again, you can tie up half a dozen of these, and put them on one side. It is unlikely that you will want more than half a dozen of these flies in your box, and many amateur dressers don´t have the time to spend dressing up dozens of flies anyway. You should take this into account when obtaining material as well, Do you really need enough bucktail for five hundred flies?

To business again! Choose your fingernail to suit the hook size, and place a dab of glue on the nail centre. Press the hook into this and allow to set.This is a size 2 fingernail here, ( it is stamped on the nail, all these plastic nails are stamped with a size.). Wet the tails to keep them out of the way. You can tell whether the fly body is central on the nail, as the nail will balance itself exactly level if you get it right. It should be central of course;



Now you need to prepare your legs. You may use rubber legs here if you wish, but I prefer the vernille legs as shown previously, they look more lifelike, are far more robust, and have a better action for some flies. here I have used red vernille. You need pieces about 5cm long, burned at both ends. Fold the pieces in half, and lightly singe the centre, This makes the vernille retain the bend;



Dab some glue on the fly body, and place the legs as shown;



Leave to set, and then make any final leg adjustments you feel are necessary, before epoxying the underside. When the epoxy has set, you can varnish the nail with red varnish. This is Margaret Astor red Nr. 488, this is the closest I could find to the "Japan Red" which is so successful on many soft plastic baits. A friend of mine made some of these up, after I showed him the pattern, and he used an orangey coloured varnish, he could not catch anything on it! he changed to one of mine and caught cod immediately, changed back, and caught nothing again! I could not catch anything on his flies either, although I was getting a "fish a chuck" on mine. This is the underside of the crab after epoxying, and being brushed out with the "intimate area" comb and brush described elsewhere!  ( Yes, I know, funny looks again!  It's only a hard life if you don't weaken ).



This is the top view after varnishing with the red varnish;



This is of course neither anatomically nor colour wise an "exact imitation", it is highly impressionistic, and is partly a result of my studying the rubber jigs and colours used by myself and others over the years. It is often remarkably effective. If you find a shoal of cod for instance, you can get a fish every cast. As ever, you can faff on putting eyes on it, and drawing various patterns on the shell etc, but this is largely superfluous. A green version of this fly has also been successful on occasion, but the red version is much more so. Of course, you may experiment at will ! The photo at the start shows the silhouette well as a shadow;

Once again, although it looks complex, it is very easy indeed to make. You can manage a dozen in an hour quite easily. Just prepare your materials well.

With only relatively slight variations you can make excellent prawn imitations and suchlike as well:



All these "fingernail flies"  are also extremely robust and you can catch loads of fish on them before they even show signs of damage.

To give you an idea of sizes etc;



Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor

[River Chatter]

What a brilliant idea!!!  They'd make great little permit/bonefish flies. 

[corsican dave]

nice stuff, mike! i particularly like the singed chenille; looks great. thanks for the patterns!

[Traditionalist]

My pleasure, hope you enjoy making and using them!

Regards and tight lines!

Mike

[Wildfisher]

These are just brilliant!  You know even if I don't tie these patterns just reading  this and similar posts from other members is pleasure enough. What a contrast to some of the downright destructive and negative idiots we sometimes have to put up with!  

[Inchlaggan]

These are just brilliant! 

Wholeheartedly agree, I can't wait to give them a try both on the vice and in the water.
(Note to Admin- Make him tie a Peter Ross, that'll learn him proper.)

[Traditionalist]

Wholeheartedly agree, I can't wait to give them a try both on the vice and in the water.
(Note to Admin- Make him tie a Peter Ross, that'll learn him proper.)

You reckon?



Few things are more steeped in tradition than some of the old standard British Sea-trout and lake patterns. Just looking at them in the box conjures up days long past on dark peat stained Scottish lochs, stony English spate rivers, the tongue twisting, and to us, strangely named rivers of Wales, or the great Irish sea trout fisheries of yore. Even the colours are more reminiscent of the livery of knights and royalty than those of most natural flies. Or even of so many uniformed soldiers on parade for our especial pleasure. Be that as it may, many of these patterns have stood the test of time, and still today bring many good fish to their downfall. Perhaps for that very reason? Or perhaps the fish respect tradition too? Abstruse thought!

Often I take out my fly boxes in winter and peruse my collection of flies. I always linger a little longer over my boxes of traditional patterns, even though nowadays I use most of them relatively seldom. They never fail to fire my imagination and enthusiasm. How many thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions of fly fishermen have taken out those self same flies year after year and wondered about those who went before, what they thought and felt when doing the very same thing season for season over generations of fly fishing. Some have gone down in the annals of fly fishing history as the inventors of many of these patterns.

What fly fisherman has not heard of the "Peter Ross" or the "Butcher", the "Mallard and claret" or the "Teal blue and silver". Many of these traditional flies were tied by unknown anglers, whose name and rightful claim to fame has long since disappeared in the mists of time. Others, whose history is more or less well documented, many which have not stood the test of time and lapsed from the memory of most if not all men, and still others about which the arguments and discussions as to their origins, creators, and recipes still rage. How many thousands upon countless thousands of fish have succumbed to these evocative creations over the years, how many great men have fished with them, and how much water has flowed down those hallowed rivers since these creations first saw the light of day?

Fascinating to ponder these and other questions while admiring the jewel like objects responsible for their occurrence. What criteria did the original dresser use for designing his creation? Was it based on a natural creature, or was it just one of those whimsical flights of fancy we are all prone to indulge at the dressing bench? Were the materials chosen according to some unknown arcane scheme of things, or simply because they were available? Was the resultant pattern really design or just fortuitous chance? What thoughts and plans went through the original dressers mind as he created that special pattern? What waters did he fish, what fish did he catch? Was he rich or poor, educated or ignorant? What sort of rod did he fish with, what sort of line, a diaphanous strand of twisted horsehair or a mighty piece of gut? Did he fish a team of flies, or just one?

Whatever, a combination of all these things perhaps, or none of them. We shall never know in many cases. The fact remains that lots of these flies have retained their effectiveness over the years, and remembering this and with all due reverence we will now proceed to construct a few of them, and perhaps learn a little of their histories in the process.

The following instructions should serve as a general "step by step" for the majority of these flies. The fly used for this here, is the Peter Ross.

Hook: Nr. 14 to whatever size takes your fancy! (even sixteens are sometimes good!)

Thread: Black silk.
Tail: Golden pheasant tippets.
Rib: Oval silver tinsel, or silver wire depending on size of fly.
Body: Rear two thirds, silver tinsel, and then a "thorax" of crimson seal fur. (Sometimes half the body is silver and the other half red.)
Hackle: Black henny cock or hen hackle. (Henny cock is soft cock hackle).
Wing: Well marked Teal flank.
Head: Black varnish.

Run your tying silk down to just above the point of the hook. Tie in the Tail of tippets, four to six strands is usual. The tippets should be of a size that the black bands on them are both visible when the tail is of the correct proportions for the fly size being tied. Be careful to tie the tail in evenly and with the black bands matching perfectly for length and position. There are some differing opinions on how exactly tippets should be tied in, but I learned to do it this way;



Now carefully catch in your ribbing tinsel and let it hang. Tie in the body tinsel and wind it in abutting turns, without gaps, to about two thirds up the body, and tie off. Lurex is often used nowadays as it does not tarnish, it is not as durable as the metal tinsel, but less prone to breaking when tying in, and easier to manipulate as well.



Wax your silk and apply a small amount of crimson seal fur as dubbing to the thread. Wind this carefully a further third of the way up the body and tie off. Rib the whole of the body including the fur with the oval silver tinsel or wire and tie off. At this stage I like to tease out the seal fur with a  velcro strip to obtain a fuzzy hairy effect, this definitely enhances the killing properties of this fly.



Prepare your black hackle, a natural black if possible, which is really a very dark smoky grey. If you have to, you may use dyed black hackle, but experience suggests that this is not quite as effective as a natural black. Tie the hackle in by the tip, and wind two full turns around the shank of the hook and then pull the Hackle back and own with your left thumb and forefinger so that most of it is under the hook. You may also use a beard hackle if you like, this is a bunch of hackle fibres tied under the hook as a hackle, I prefer a full hackle myself, I just think it looks better.



Take the silk a further two or three turns towards the eye simultaneously tying down the hackle in the position you pulled it into, and thereby also making a good smooth bed of thread for the wing.



Now take a well marked teal duck flank feather, and remove a generous strip of feather from each side of it. Fold these and place them together as shown in the photo. You may also use a bunch wing here if you wish, although you should try and maintain the symmetry of the black banding on the feather if you do so.



Tie the wing in using the pinched loop technique. Whip finish and varnish the head with thin clear varnish. When dry varnish again with black varnish, and if a very high gloss is required, when this is dry use another coat of thin clear varnish overall.



The fly should appear as in the photo. The finely tapered and proportioned wing may be obtained by carefully stroking the wing with a little saliva on your finger and thumb.

Study your finished fly carefully, hold it up to the light see how the colours flow and blend into each other. Put it in the bath and pull it through the water, it looks much like a small fish when fished correctly in a flashing darting manner. Let it hang on a piece of nylon from your hand, and cause a little current by moving your left hand to and fro while holding the fly stationary with your right. It responds to every little movement of the water, creating a realistic semblance of life. You see?

Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor

[Traditionalist]

Quite a few people asked for the names of these flies, and the dressings. They are just a few random flies picked from my traditional sea trout box. Some are well used, and a bit tatty! Practically all the flies in the plates are size 8, and primarily for sea-trout in streamy water. They will of course also work on lakes etc.These are my dressings and may differ somewhat from various "originals".






Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor