Hey all,
Just joined this forum.I am a member of various other jig and fly tying boards.
Mostly crappie boards.
Just started tying in Feb. of this year. I have a cheap Griffin vice and I recently got a Griffin Odessey.Have not tied any flies YET.
Been tying crappie jigs.
Does anybody have a link to how to ty a simple cricket?
I think all ya need is blk bucktail and round leg material.He used a # 8 hook and blk thread 210 denier(sp) I think.
A guy tied one at a local shop for my wife and I was gitting material and did not see him ty it.When we left he gave the cricket to us.
I have done a search here and on some other boards but no luck.
Mikeb, Hello and welcome to FAOL from SO CAL. I know someone will chime in here pretty quick with a pattern or a web link for you. You can go to the FAOL main page. On the upper lef,t below the fly of the week there’s a search box. Type in pattern and click enter. It should bring up a few patterns.
If going back to the shop and asking the staff isn’t an option, posting a picture would make it easier to identify the pattern and find instructions or just come up with a tying sequence from looking at it.
I don’t think I’ve seen a pattern with only deer hair and rubber legs. Most incorporate something for a wing in there somewhere.
I think I have seen the pattern you are talking about, but, for the life of me, I have not located it yet. I remember seeing a pattern where the black deer hair was tied in behind the hook eye with the tips facing forward and then the tyer took a plastic straw and pushed the forward facing deer hair back over the hook and then tied off about 1/3 of the way back from the hook eye to form a head. The rubber leg material was tied in on the sides. I do not remember if there was any other material involved. I will continue to search and if I find the pattern, I will either post it here or send you a PM.
Welcome to the finest web site for fly fishing, fly tying, rod building, warm water, cold water, etc. This is THE site for fly fishing anything.
Welcome to the best fly fishing/fly tying web site on the Internet. You sound like you will fit right in so let us hear from your regularly—ideas, questions, comments etc. As to your question, I’ve simplified a lot of my patterns and still catch fish regularly. When I need a cricket pattern, I tie an Elk Hair Caddis (EHC) in black or dark gray and call it a cricket. In yellow or green, it’s a grasshopper. In tan, medium gray, or green, it’s a caddisfly. Be sure to match the hook size to your specific needs. Once again, Welcome! 8T
Thanks for the welcome!!!
I did the search on the archives and spent bout 3 hours looking.To thepoint my wife said “Ain’t you got nothing else to do”…
If I git back to the local shop I gonna ax the man to ty me one.then I wil know.
mikeb
I think what your looking for is the Crowe Beetle, easy to tie, I cant find a recipe for it online, it is in the book “The Benchside introduction to Fly Tying”
A book I highly recommend to anyone starting out in fly tying.
you tie in the black deer hair from the front to the back of the hook then pull it forward to make the body,
tie it off at the front of the hook.
pull three or four strands back on each side to make the legs and tie them down
finish with a whip finish and cut the excess hair off to make the head.
If you look at this picture it should help you understand my awful instructions http://www.docsflies.com/images/fwbeetlelargea.jpg
Seems like I tyed that pattern up years ago when the disco cricket became the go-to fly for smallies back in the early 90’s, but can’t remember the name of it. Took some black sparkle braid to cover the back 2/3 of the hook after wrapping the hook shank with black flat-waxed thread, then tyed in some black deer belly hair facing forward like the Thunder Creek series of fly patterns & tied the tips facing back to create a head & the wing. Added 2 pieces of black rubber legs under the point where the deer hair was tied down to get the deer hair head & wing, then whip finished in the same spot. Trimmed the legs to proportion, shorter in the front.
I just went to have a look at the cricket pattern on the danica site danica.com/flytier
of which I’ve never had a problem before, however I just got a warning via Google Safe (an extension in FireFox) about the site. If anyone knows who to fire off this info to, let me know and I’ll get it off to them. I rely on that site quite a bit.
My intial thought was already mentioned - Al’s foam hopper tied in black. This is my initial go to - easy to tie (I add a wing) with good hooking capabilitity since all the foam is on top of the hook.
Shenk’s cricket always works.
Somebody was describing (use a straw to push the hair back) what is called a bullet head pattern. Deer or elk hair is tied in tips forward, then pushed back to make a bullet-type head and over wing. An underwing is tied in before the bullet head is made, and rubber legs tied in after.
I’m sure this goes by many names, but here in the Midwest it’s called a Wendelburg Cricket.
