oldguide
Well-known member
Material List and Tying Instructions for Miss P. No 2
before I give the tying instructions for this shrimp pattern, please let me inform you about a serious problem that occurred the last time I was using this fly.
as mentioned in my intial posting, on my last trip to Belize in 2013 I had problems of hooks breaking in the bend; this may have been caused by a reaction of the stainless steel hooks in warm saltwater with the metals used for weighting and/or ribbing my flies. I have saved a total of 4 flies with broken hooks - on one the breakage could have been caused by tin-lead or silver wire contact with the stainless steel of the hook; on two it looks as if the tin-lead contact with steel wire was causing the damage. and on one, you can clearly see that the break occurred at exactly the point where the silver wire for ribbing touched in two turns the steel of the hook.
just today I set up a little experiment to possibly identify the point of weakness. I used 4 hooks from different manufacturers and put two turns silver wire around each hook - the same wire I used to rib my shrimp flies back in the winter of 2012/2013. I put these hooks in 3.5% saltwater at room temperature. after the first 24 h of incubation, I will test the hooks with a 10lb weight and the point put in a piece of wood to see if any of them will break at the point where the silver wire was wrapped around.
so for this tying instructions I have modified the two points where I believe the weakness may have been caused. it is up to you to find and try out other methods of avoiding this problems. and if you should ask why not leave out the ribbing or the weight, the body material is boyant, an unweighted fly will swim (which could bring a whole new dimension again to fishing these flies on sinking lines a la boobie flies).
the ribbing is needed to prevent the shell back from falling off. the first flies all were not very durable; some lost the shell back just from casting, others from catching a few smaller fish. for this reason, a ribbing was included on the last batch of flies I tied up during the winter of 2012/2013 to increase durability.
as mentioned, this fly is taken by almost all kinds of small and bigger fish hunting the flats. for example, a very common problem are small barracuda taking the fly off your leader without even causing so much as a tiniest tug. other species I caught with this fly were different kinds of jacks and snapper, as well as bonefish, ladyfish and baby tarpon.
here we go.
Material list:
Hook: Partridge CS52 (Tiemco 811S or 800S (for a wider gap in smaller sizes), MUSTAD 3407 or 34007, or any other kind of saltwater hook in suitable style) #2 - #8
Thread: Danville or uni, 6/0, white; alt. Gudebrod rod winding thread size A
Underbody (weight): 3 pieces of tin-lead solder covered with tying thread; well varnished
Tail: white rabbit fur, 4-6 strands pearl flashabou and 2-4 strands red crystal flash in the middle of the tail
Hackle: a big grizzly hackle (from lower end of cape, not saddle!)
Body/shell back: clear hot-melt glue
Ribbing: original - medium silver wire; new - 10lb fluorocarbon
Tying instructions:
Step 1:
attach tying thread behind the eye and wind back in close turns a little into the bend
wind back again in close turns and varnish well (this should prevent a direct contact of tin-lead with steel wire)
Step 2:
cut 3 pieces of tin-lead solder (alt. lead) wire as shown; two a little shorter than hook shank lentgh, one about ½ shank length
(Note: for this demo I made a #4 fly, my preferred size. the weight used is app. 0.2 gram. the hook weighs app. 0.3 gram, the finished fly weighs from 0.8 - 0.85 gram; a #2 fly weighs between 0.9 and 1.0 g with the hook at app 0.4 g and the weight app 0.3 g.)
place longer pieces on top of hook along both sides, fix with 4-5 turns, place shorter piece on top of the other and fix with 4-5 turns
wind back and forth; smooth the edges with tying thread (opt. varnish for increased durability)
Step 3:
cut a small piece of white rabbit tail (original was with white marabou, have replaced with rabbit for durability) and attach at the end of the underbody a little into the hook bend
tie in 4-6 strands of pearl flashabou (1 strand doubled up, tied down in the middle, and double up again) and 2 strands of red crystal flash (this is to bring a little color to the fly; you can try different colors or even leave out the flash completely)
cut the flashabou a little longer than the rabbit fur, and the crystal flash a little longer than the flashabou
cover flash with another piece of rabbit fur (opt. put a drop of varnish on hair butts)
Step 4:
select a grizzly hackle from the lower ¼ of the cape (fibers should be at least 50% longer than hook gape width), remove the fluffy part and
tie in; tie in the ribbing and bring thread to hook eye
wind hackle, tie off and cut
I usually tie up 4-6 flies to this stage, sometimes 10-12
Step 5:
heat up hot melt glue gun and put on gloves (initially I used bare fingers wetted with saliva to keep the glue from sticking; this can get quite hot. later I used gloves, and now I use a cotton glove under the single-use glove)
bring down all hackle fibers from top of the hook to underneath, hold between two fingers as shown
first put a small amount of glue all along the back (when cooled, this should hold down all hackle fibers)
some of the glue may stick on the glove(s) - use scissors to cut off excess filaments (try not to cut any hackle fibers)
put fly again between your fingers and apply a second layer of hot-melt glue
form the shell with wetted fingers - slight pressure is all you need as long as the glue is still warm - work fast at this step
some glue will stick to the gloves (and hopefully not much elsewhere), this will result in some filaments (which everyone who ever worked with hot-melt glue knows)
cut off all glue filaments and also bring shell back in form by cutting off rough edges on the sides as needed; try to avoid cutting off any hackle fibers as much as possible; the body or shell back should come down on both sides to bring together most hackle fibers to the underside, forming some kind of weed guard for the hook point
(sometimes I put in 1 or 2 strands of pearl flashabou between the first and second layer; this gives nice little flash effects in the translucent shell)
Step 6:
cut out the hook eye (if you tend to overload your fly at the head, you are not alone - this is one of my biggest problems even after more than 30 years of tying flies) trying to get a slope on the shell back and attach thread
wind the ribbing through the hackle trying to trap as few fibers as possible
tie off the ribbing and cut (since the mono is quite slippery, I leave about ¼ inch of mono sticking out of the head; with all the hackle fibers, this will not be visible and gives some additional security to prevent the rib from coming loose; I even did this with the silver wire)
Step 7:
cut thread and varnish head
a view from the other side; not perfect, but OK, I think, considering this is the first fly of this kind I tied in the last 3 years or so.
Step 8:
let dry and catch a permit
Note: many variations of this fly are possible.
you can use hot-melt glue with glitter in it which is offered from some shops for fly tying (the only one I tried so far is an olive-green with gold glitter and olive marabou as tail to imitate a mantis shrimp over grass).
you can change the color of the tying thread, e.g. gray, brown, olive-green, pink, orange all may give the fly a special touch for areas where such a color is known to work; similarly, a cree or badger hackle will give a different appearance.
you can leave out the flash or use different colors; e.g. gold, silver, black, green flashabou as well as crystal flash can give the fly a quite different look - again, use what is known to work in the area you are fishing. please keep the flash light, little is a lot here; do not add too much.
you can try other kinds of weight; I think it is important to weight the fly to make it swim about even, no head- or into the hook bend-style of weight application.
for production of larger amounts of this fly I was even thinking to make up pre-formed shell backs according to hook size in special forms and press these down into the still hot first layer of glue.
as you all know, this fly started as an improvised permit fly in February 1994 in Placencia, Belize. back then, a crab fly fished in the let-it-sink-when-the-permit-sees-it-and-do-not-move method was the accepted way to make permit take a fly. only years later (at least in publication) there showed up a second method of fishing for permit - the shrimp.
today it depends on the guide as well as on personal experience which fly/method is used, but I think the "shrimp fishermen" have caught up to the "crab fishermen" in recent years.
for my second trip to Belize in 1999 I tied up more than 2 dozen Merkins and some smaller green crab patterns said to work best in Belize. I never had much faith in all these, and admittedly, never gave them a good chance to catch a permit for me. as with many other lures for fishing, you have to believe in the fly you use. this alone already makes you a better fisherman.
in case of questions, comments, hints for improvement, whatever ... please do not hesitate to ask or let me know.
thanks and tight threads,
Wolfgang
---------- Post added at 02:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------
sorry, pictures do not work. will try to fix and edit.
W.
before I give the tying instructions for this shrimp pattern, please let me inform you about a serious problem that occurred the last time I was using this fly.
as mentioned in my intial posting, on my last trip to Belize in 2013 I had problems of hooks breaking in the bend; this may have been caused by a reaction of the stainless steel hooks in warm saltwater with the metals used for weighting and/or ribbing my flies. I have saved a total of 4 flies with broken hooks - on one the breakage could have been caused by tin-lead or silver wire contact with the stainless steel of the hook; on two it looks as if the tin-lead contact with steel wire was causing the damage. and on one, you can clearly see that the break occurred at exactly the point where the silver wire for ribbing touched in two turns the steel of the hook.
just today I set up a little experiment to possibly identify the point of weakness. I used 4 hooks from different manufacturers and put two turns silver wire around each hook - the same wire I used to rib my shrimp flies back in the winter of 2012/2013. I put these hooks in 3.5% saltwater at room temperature. after the first 24 h of incubation, I will test the hooks with a 10lb weight and the point put in a piece of wood to see if any of them will break at the point where the silver wire was wrapped around.
so for this tying instructions I have modified the two points where I believe the weakness may have been caused. it is up to you to find and try out other methods of avoiding this problems. and if you should ask why not leave out the ribbing or the weight, the body material is boyant, an unweighted fly will swim (which could bring a whole new dimension again to fishing these flies on sinking lines a la boobie flies).
the ribbing is needed to prevent the shell back from falling off. the first flies all were not very durable; some lost the shell back just from casting, others from catching a few smaller fish. for this reason, a ribbing was included on the last batch of flies I tied up during the winter of 2012/2013 to increase durability.
as mentioned, this fly is taken by almost all kinds of small and bigger fish hunting the flats. for example, a very common problem are small barracuda taking the fly off your leader without even causing so much as a tiniest tug. other species I caught with this fly were different kinds of jacks and snapper, as well as bonefish, ladyfish and baby tarpon.
here we go.
Material list:
Hook: Partridge CS52 (Tiemco 811S or 800S (for a wider gap in smaller sizes), MUSTAD 3407 or 34007, or any other kind of saltwater hook in suitable style) #2 - #8
Thread: Danville or uni, 6/0, white; alt. Gudebrod rod winding thread size A
Underbody (weight): 3 pieces of tin-lead solder covered with tying thread; well varnished
Tail: white rabbit fur, 4-6 strands pearl flashabou and 2-4 strands red crystal flash in the middle of the tail
Hackle: a big grizzly hackle (from lower end of cape, not saddle!)
Body/shell back: clear hot-melt glue
Ribbing: original - medium silver wire; new - 10lb fluorocarbon
Tying instructions:
Step 1:
attach tying thread behind the eye and wind back in close turns a little into the bend
wind back again in close turns and varnish well (this should prevent a direct contact of tin-lead with steel wire)
Step 2:
cut 3 pieces of tin-lead solder (alt. lead) wire as shown; two a little shorter than hook shank lentgh, one about ½ shank length
(Note: for this demo I made a #4 fly, my preferred size. the weight used is app. 0.2 gram. the hook weighs app. 0.3 gram, the finished fly weighs from 0.8 - 0.85 gram; a #2 fly weighs between 0.9 and 1.0 g with the hook at app 0.4 g and the weight app 0.3 g.)
place longer pieces on top of hook along both sides, fix with 4-5 turns, place shorter piece on top of the other and fix with 4-5 turns
wind back and forth; smooth the edges with tying thread (opt. varnish for increased durability)
Step 3:
cut a small piece of white rabbit tail (original was with white marabou, have replaced with rabbit for durability) and attach at the end of the underbody a little into the hook bend
tie in 4-6 strands of pearl flashabou (1 strand doubled up, tied down in the middle, and double up again) and 2 strands of red crystal flash (this is to bring a little color to the fly; you can try different colors or even leave out the flash completely)
cut the flashabou a little longer than the rabbit fur, and the crystal flash a little longer than the flashabou
cover flash with another piece of rabbit fur (opt. put a drop of varnish on hair butts)
Step 4:
select a grizzly hackle from the lower ¼ of the cape (fibers should be at least 50% longer than hook gape width), remove the fluffy part and
tie in; tie in the ribbing and bring thread to hook eye
wind hackle, tie off and cut
I usually tie up 4-6 flies to this stage, sometimes 10-12
Step 5:
heat up hot melt glue gun and put on gloves (initially I used bare fingers wetted with saliva to keep the glue from sticking; this can get quite hot. later I used gloves, and now I use a cotton glove under the single-use glove)
bring down all hackle fibers from top of the hook to underneath, hold between two fingers as shown
first put a small amount of glue all along the back (when cooled, this should hold down all hackle fibers)
some of the glue may stick on the glove(s) - use scissors to cut off excess filaments (try not to cut any hackle fibers)
put fly again between your fingers and apply a second layer of hot-melt glue
form the shell with wetted fingers - slight pressure is all you need as long as the glue is still warm - work fast at this step
some glue will stick to the gloves (and hopefully not much elsewhere), this will result in some filaments (which everyone who ever worked with hot-melt glue knows)
cut off all glue filaments and also bring shell back in form by cutting off rough edges on the sides as needed; try to avoid cutting off any hackle fibers as much as possible; the body or shell back should come down on both sides to bring together most hackle fibers to the underside, forming some kind of weed guard for the hook point
(sometimes I put in 1 or 2 strands of pearl flashabou between the first and second layer; this gives nice little flash effects in the translucent shell)
Step 6:
cut out the hook eye (if you tend to overload your fly at the head, you are not alone - this is one of my biggest problems even after more than 30 years of tying flies) trying to get a slope on the shell back and attach thread
wind the ribbing through the hackle trying to trap as few fibers as possible
tie off the ribbing and cut (since the mono is quite slippery, I leave about ¼ inch of mono sticking out of the head; with all the hackle fibers, this will not be visible and gives some additional security to prevent the rib from coming loose; I even did this with the silver wire)
Step 7:
cut thread and varnish head
a view from the other side; not perfect, but OK, I think, considering this is the first fly of this kind I tied in the last 3 years or so.
Step 8:
let dry and catch a permit
Note: many variations of this fly are possible.
you can use hot-melt glue with glitter in it which is offered from some shops for fly tying (the only one I tried so far is an olive-green with gold glitter and olive marabou as tail to imitate a mantis shrimp over grass).
you can change the color of the tying thread, e.g. gray, brown, olive-green, pink, orange all may give the fly a special touch for areas where such a color is known to work; similarly, a cree or badger hackle will give a different appearance.
you can leave out the flash or use different colors; e.g. gold, silver, black, green flashabou as well as crystal flash can give the fly a quite different look - again, use what is known to work in the area you are fishing. please keep the flash light, little is a lot here; do not add too much.
you can try other kinds of weight; I think it is important to weight the fly to make it swim about even, no head- or into the hook bend-style of weight application.
for production of larger amounts of this fly I was even thinking to make up pre-formed shell backs according to hook size in special forms and press these down into the still hot first layer of glue.
as you all know, this fly started as an improvised permit fly in February 1994 in Placencia, Belize. back then, a crab fly fished in the let-it-sink-when-the-permit-sees-it-and-do-not-move method was the accepted way to make permit take a fly. only years later (at least in publication) there showed up a second method of fishing for permit - the shrimp.
today it depends on the guide as well as on personal experience which fly/method is used, but I think the "shrimp fishermen" have caught up to the "crab fishermen" in recent years.
for my second trip to Belize in 1999 I tied up more than 2 dozen Merkins and some smaller green crab patterns said to work best in Belize. I never had much faith in all these, and admittedly, never gave them a good chance to catch a permit for me. as with many other lures for fishing, you have to believe in the fly you use. this alone already makes you a better fisherman.
in case of questions, comments, hints for improvement, whatever ... please do not hesitate to ask or let me know.
thanks and tight threads,
Wolfgang
---------- Post added at 02:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------
sorry, pictures do not work. will try to fix and edit.
W.
Last edited:
