After seeing the Crackleback fly in the Feather Craft catalog for several years I have decided to make a few for fishing trout. Until yesterday I have not seen them in a flyshop here in Colorado.
In the list of the 5 go to flys I see that it is listed several times.
Feather Craft talks of using it on the bottom of the river and using it as a dry fly. One question I have is: do you use a different hackle for the using it on the bottom of the river?
The recipe calls for a furnace hackle which commonly is brown. Is that what works best?
I presume then that you are saying you have tyed them in all those sizes and those colors and you find them equally effective.
Furnace feathers you can get dyed in different colors. What color? The recipe does not say.
I presume you are saying that you fish it up and across and find that more effective than “skipping” it on the bottom. What ever Ed Story means by “skipping” it.
one: I did not think about a fly tying forum being on here. I have not visited it much.
But mainly the references to the crackleback was on the post about 5 best trout flys. I don’t think most people tie their own flys. I think I would get a wider view of the flyfisherman here.
The Crackle Back fly that would be a wooly worm would be the Miller’s Woolly. It is tied very similiar. It has no tail. The body is dubbing(usually yellow dubbing at the back with gray in the thorax area), wire rib, peacock herl pulled across the back, grizzly hackle palmered through and lead wrap on underbody. It is a very good fly. The creator was Charles Miller.
Other times I fish it as a streamer - cast it downstream and across about a 45 degree angle and let it swing across the top, pull it under at the end of the swing and let it sit for a while and retrieve it back as an emerger
I tie mine using red thread
a poly floss under body - usually yellow
peacock hearl back
brown hackle
I have also cross or reverse palmered copper wire over the top of the hackle to give the fly durability.
Crackleback pattern as taken from page 41 of Ed Story’s book Missouri Trout Flys How to Tye and Fish Them 1991. In the original book Ed used black thread and size 10 Mustad 94840.
Hook: Dai-Riki 300 size 12 (my [Ed Story] favorite) TMC 100, Daiichi 1170 or Mustad 94840
Thread: prewaxed 8/0 or 6/0 (I [Ed Story]) tie with 8/0 white and later color the fly head.
Crackleback: 2-strands of peacock herl pulled full-length over “top” of fly body.
Body: Spin-dubbed pale olive continuous type; synthetic material (Flyrite #41)
Hackle: I [Ed Story] use saddle hackle from Metz furnace saddle.
Ed now uses turkey biots for his body, rather than dubbing.
Now, in Missouri, the Crackleback is like a woolybugger. People tie it using mylar body material, cream hackle, size 8 to size 22–LOTS of variations—but always palmered hackle with peacock over the top of the body.
This pattern has “evolved”, with Ed and everyone who ties it. I believe Ed still uses size 12 most often.
I tie the crackleback on a size 18 dry hook using 8/0 black or red thread, tie in 3 strands of peacock herl (untwisted), yellow wool body (dull colored), furnace hackle palmered about 5 wraps, and then pull the peacock herl over the top, tie a tapered thread head, whip and finish.
This fly caught 3 rainbows in about a 30 minute time frame at Roaring River, MO this Father’s Day. I was casting in on top dry. Then, after that wasn’t working too well and the wool became waterlogged, I was pulling in line to recast the fly when it dropped just under the surface. A rainbow charged it from about a foot away, the water boiled up in a swirl, I set the hook after only a second, had it hooked and the game was on.
The other 2 bows were caught the same way, but I was determined to fish the fly dry before I gave them what they wanted… They never hit the dry hard enough to hook up, they’d waterlog the thing and then they’d hit it again. It was like watching a cat play with a toy mouse.
Well, Scruffy Fly, your getting off to a great start here. 54 posts at this time but you didn’t think there would be a fly tying forum? What have you been reading? And it would get more ‘views’ on the top forum? Might be true, but why should you get special treatment? Is this a problem? Yes. Post things where they are supposed to go; the rest of us do. Thank you.
Though it can be fun It does not take big fish to enjoy fishing.
Small fish is what you will find in High Mountain Streams.
But it is rare treat to catch an almost extinct fish in such bright mating color. Well, not so almost extinct these days but was thought to be extinct in 40’s.
Ed Story uses Fibers from Turkey Round feathers for his Crackle Back bodies…and most of his dry flies…Turkey Biot’s are much different than the fibers of the “Rounds”…These fibers are my second choice for quick dry fly bodies…Dyed Quill would be the first…
I also am of a much different opinion of most fly fishers buying their flies…I only know 1 ff’er of the 30 I frequently converse with that does not Tye his own flies…he is currently working on getting started though…just seems to naturally flow into that realm…
