A few posts back I showed you a brightly colored, neon crab fly. Wow is it ugly. And then I went on to tell you why it may prove effective on the flats. Well I can now report back that the neon crab fly works, and works well.
The Neon Crab Fly Works
Today I was lucky enough to come across a school of redfish. I’ll venture to say there were upwards of thirty reds in total, milling in a deep trench off the sandbar. Now, these were small redfish, running 22″-26″. Still I was glad to see them. And the fact they were ganged up was great news. Schooling reds are often aggressive. You gotta love that, right? And schooling reds have a tendency stay to in one area, at least for a time. I’m not saying they’re motionless. Rather they typically circle slowly, coming back every few minutes. Which allows you time to prepare for another cast. You gotta love that too.
Neon Crab Fly
If you have been fly-fishing for awhile, you know that realistic flies can be deadly. At the vise, we often strive to be as exact to life as possible. But at the same time, you also know that “attractor” patterns work too. Something that looks all wrong can, at times, be totally right. And that’s where this neon crab fly fits in. It attracts fish, catches their eye, draws them over to investigate.
Over a period of hour I hooked and landed a handful of reds on this radioactive neon crab fly. It worked just fine. In fact the reds inhaled the fly deeply in their mouths. Yes, they wanted the crazy looking thing. My outfit was a Scott STS 6-weight fly rod armed with a floating fly line. My leader was 15 foot, tapered to 12 pound test. Why so long? The long leader provides not only stealth, it permits the fly to sink faster, get down where it belongs.
