Crackleback

One of the flies you see us mention alot in our reports is the Crackleback. This pattern was originally developed by Ed Story of Feathercraft in St. Louis, MO. We thank him for such a great pattern. Not sure where we came up with the version we fish here, but we consistenly have good success with the one we call the holographic green Crackleback. The great thing about this pattern is that it can be fished several different ways depending on what the fish want at the time. It can be fished as a dry, an emerger just under the surface, either stripped or on a swing, or even using the accelerated downstream presentation by putting a small split shot about 1 foot above the fly and letting a big downstream bow get in the fly line to accelerate it’s drift along a bank line. Last, but not least, it works great stripping it under an intermediate sinking line or leader. So, with this in mind, we tie the sinking version using a heavier hook. We found that the dry fly hook used on the dry, or subsurface pattern, will sometimes bend either when you set the hook or are playing in the fish from the depths.

Recipe:

Hook: TMC 100 (or equivalent) sizes 16-12

Thread: Black 8/0

Body: Tinsel, or Uni-Stretch, or Dubbing, or Flat Braid

Back: Peacock Herl

Hackle: Furnace micro barb

If you intend to use sinking line or leaders, we recommend you change the hook to a TMC 5262.

Holographic Green Crackleback: Body is holographic green tinsel or the holographic red will be holographic red tinsel.

Silver Bullet Crackleback – body is holographic silver tinsel. Be creative…lots of different tinsels will work somewhere at some time!