Welcome to July’s Tie One Off challenge. Remember, in order to be eligible for the prize you must be signed up for our SWC Newsletter. You can sign up under the Newsletter heading on this page half way down on the right hand side of the screen.
You have until Sunday night at 8pm to tie the fly posted below to the best of your ability. Post it on Instagram with the hashtags #tieoneoff #hcft #skinnywaterculture. Or post it directly to our Tie One Off posts on the SWC or HCFT Facebook pages. The winner will be selected at random, quality of the fly does not matter as long as you put forth the effort. Winner of this weeks challenge will receive a one of a kind HCFT Mossy Oak hat and other goodies.
For this months challenge we will be a tying a variation of a Merkin Crab.
Materials list
- Orvis #2 saltwater hook
- 210 Denier Thread (tan)
- Enrico Puglisi 1″ tarantula brush (tan or olive)
- Steve Farrars Wild Olive Flash Blend
- Enrico Puglisi crustacean eyes (medium)
- Metz Grizzly Hackle
- Hareline Dubbin legs (Brown/Pumpkin)
- Medium dumbbell or bead chain eyes
Start your thread at the middle of the shank and working back to the bend of the hook.
Take your Steve Farrar flash blend and cut a thin 1 inch length section and tie it to the top section of the hook.
Grab your eyes and tie them in evenly on either side of the hook shank. Be sure to tie these in tight, you can cap them off with head cement to prevent movement of the eyes.
Next take your Metz hackle and pluck out small 2 even and straight feathers. Tie them in on either side of your eyes.
Tie in you tarantula brush right at the base of where your eyes and feathers were tied in. Pull the brush back and out of your way and proceed to the next step.
Take your legs and cross tie them in to the top shank of the hook. You can tie in whatever number of legs you want (2,3,4). For this pattern I like to use 3. Once you have your legs tied in go ahead and tie in your dumbbell or bead chain just behind the eye of the hook. Tie further back from the eye if you wish to tie in a weed guard.
Now this part can be a little tricky. Grab your brush and work it forward towards the eye of the hook, spinning around the shank. Be sure to pull out any caught up material when doing this process. Also be aware of where your legs are and they aren’t getting caught in the brush.
Whip finish your fly and hit it with some hard as hull. Be sure to pull out all materials and cut to desired shape and size. This is a great redfish fly, be sure to let it sink to the bottom and work it with slow 1 inch strips at tailing redfish, should do the trick. Thanks for your entry, hope you enjoyed the tutorial.
Winner of this months HCFT challenge will receive a one of a kind HCFT Mossy Oak hat along with some killer SWC and HCFT stickers.
