First off, this fly can be tied on either a shank or a tube, with or without weight. I prefer to tie these on tubes both with and without weight. This allows for fishing in a variety of conditions.
1 1/2" plastic tube.
After attaching thread, create a large dubbing ball near the rear of the tube and tie in a collar of Arctic fox tail in front of dub ball. Easier to take tow small chunks and tie them in one at a time to evenly spread around dubbing ball.
Tie in a schlappen feather and hackle 4-6 turns closely through a dubbed body(I like Ice Dubbing).
Tie in a long thin stemmed marabou feather and make 4-6 turns, picking out and combing back marabou with each turn.
Take anywhere from 12-18 ostrich herls and clump them together. From here, wet them and then using a black sharpie color 6-8 bars to give the ostrich a barred look. Using 3-4 herls at a time tie them in and around the fly, evenly spreading out the herl.
Add some flash to the top of the fly. I prefer flashabou, krinkle flash, or krystal flash. All look good, another personal preference.
Tie in a golden pheasant tippet to create a collar. Schlappen can work as well but I really like the golden pheasant tippets because they are naturally barred and give the collar a unique look. Finish the head, burn the end of the tube and finished!
A few of the reasons the Crippler is so effective is the large profile created by the arctic fox and hackled schlappen. This allows the marabou to breath and keep a big profile in the current without collapsing. The other thing to notice is how the ass end of the fly with the dubbing ball/arctic fox glows in the light(see pic below).
Rob Elam photoAnother pic of a big profile in the water...the sink test!
3 comments:
Do you have a bigger picture? It looks like a nice fly, but it is really hard to see whats going on.
You can check out some bigger photos here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42959397@N08/
great, thanks!
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