Krummy PMD Cripple By Bob Krumm, Sheridan, Wyoming
Tying and Fishing a Krummy PMD Cripple
A number of years ago I experienced the ultimate in frustration.
I was guiding a couple on Montana’s Bighorn River in mid-July.
Towards the middle of the day an incredible hatch of pale
morning duns (Epemerella infrequens) occurred.
The trout went on a feeding spree that was truly spectacular.
Everywhere I looked there were trout rising to the size 14,
little yellow sailboats.
I quickly switched my clients to size 14 compara duns and told
them to have at it. After 15 minutes of fruitless casting,
I switched them to a hackled PMD pattern but still no success.
All around us was a pod of feeding fish. The PMDs kept emerging
and the fish kept feeding but we were getting skunked!
Finally, I started observing specific feeding fish. I would
watch for a PMD to float over the fish’s feeding site. Most
of the time the dun floated through unmolested, though there
were often rises when I couldn’t see any duns.
I looked more closely, like ten to fifteen feet away. For every
two or three duns that floated by me, a crippled PMD would float
by with its wings stuck in the surface film. I deducted that
most of the rises were to the cripples. I quickly trimmed
the hackle off the bottom of the PMD pattern we were using
and my clients started to catch a few trout. It wasn’t sure
fire, but it was better than getting skunked.
That evening I sat down at the tying bench and worked on a
cripple pattern that would more closely resemble the PMDs
that I had seen in the surface film earlier. Most of them
had backswept wings stuck in the surface film.
I recalled a technique for tying thorax patterns that Dan
Byford had taught me several years earlier. I wanted to
make sure that the cripple I tied would lie flat on the
surface and I figured that the thorax tie would certainly
do that. I also knew how to create spent wing mayfly
patterns so I was pretty much in business.
I selected a size 14 dry fly hook, light yellow tying thread,
pale morning dun dubbing, light ginger hackle, and an old
white neck and went to work. What I came up with sure looked
like a crippled mayfly, but would the trout think so?
The next day on the river I had a chance to test my new creation.
I was guiding a fellow from New Jersey. He was a very good
nymph fisherman at the time and really preferred nymph fishing
to dry fly fishing, but once the PMD hatch started and he
saw the myriad of trout rising, he was easily persuaded to
fish to dry flies.
We were fishing along a small island. Where the side channel
melded into the main channel a perfect feed line was set up.
I could see at least three trout rising within 20 feet of one
another.
I stationed my angler thirty feet slightly downstream and to
the right of the lowest fish. His cast landed about 3 feet
above the fish but right on target for a good float. When
the fly was 18 inches from the trout, it moved upstream with
its back out of the water to engulf the fly.
After a two-minute tussle, I slipped the net under a hefty
18-inch brown trout. The PMD cripple was firmly embedded
in apex of his jaw.
I contend that there is a village idiot in every pool; so
catching one fish did not prove that the fly was a good one.
I instructed my client to try the next fish feeding about
ten feet further up the feed line than the one we had just
released.
My client’s first cast was three feet to the right of the fish.
The fish never saw it. My client cast again. This time the
fly landed about 2 feet upstream of the fish and about a foot
to the right. The trout moved over and ate the fly when it
was still 18 inches away.
Another good scrap ensued and after awhile, I netted another
18-inch brown trout.
I was beginning to think that maybe this fly would be worthwhile.
I dried it out and told my client to move up a bit and try the
last fish.
His cast was right on target- about three feet above the fish
and right on the feed line. The trout moved up a foot or
more and gobbled the fly.
It like the others was a brown of about 18-inches in length.
I could scarcely believe that in four casts my angler had
landed three very nice sized brown trout. I concluded that
the fly was going to be a killer for PMD hatches from then
on - I haven’t been proven wrong on that conclusion yet.
Materials: Krummy PMD Cripple
Hook: Size 14 dry fly hook.
Thread: 8/0 Light Cahill yellow.
Tail: Light ginger hackle fibers.
Dubbing: Pale morning dun yellow.
Wings: White or cream hackle points.
Tying Steps:
- Place hook in the vise and secure. Lay down a thread
base stopping at a line perpendicular to the back end of
the barb. Spin on a small amount of dubbing and create
a small butt of dubbing.
- Select a large ginger hackle with stiff fibers. Pull
off dozen or so fibers. Measure for two gap widths, and
tie the fibers in just ahead of the butt. Separate the
fibers to create two tails that are like outriggers. Use
your thread to X between the fibers and keep them separated.
- Move the thread up to about 3/5 the way toward the eye.
Select two rounded white hackles to use as wings. Face them
and even the tips, measure for the length of the shank or two
gaps, and tie in the wings with the hackle points toward the
hook eye using a thumb and forefinger draw loop. Make three
or four draw loops and then wrap several times. Pull the
wings back and wrap at the base several times to stand them
up vertically.
- Wrap the thread back to the tail, spin on more dubbing and
wrap it to about 1/8 inch from the wings.
- Tie in an appropriately sized light ginger hackle with
wraps of thread behind the wings and in front.
- Pull one wing down and wrap between and in front of it,
to get it horizontal and at a 45-degree angle to the hook.
Do the same for the other wing.
- Wrap the hackle behind the wings - this will take a little
manipulation of the wings but you can do it! Get in at least
three wraps behind the wings and then wrap the remainder in
front of the wings - make sure the first wrap is on the base
of the wings to reinforce the 45-degree angle. There should
be at least 3/16 of an inch of headspace left.
- Spin on some more dubbing and start wrapping. When the
dubbing is starting to go onto the hook, as you are going over
the top of the hook and down the back side, move the dubbing
to behind the hackle and wrap until you are starting down
the back side move the dubbing forward - essentially, you are
making an X under the fly. (see above) The dubbing should lift the
hackle to the sides of the hook. Make another X and then
wrap the dubbing close to the eye, whip finish, and call
it done. ~ Bob Krumm
About Bob:
Bob Krumm is a first-class guide who specializes on fishing the Big Horn River in Montana,
(and if there terrific fishing somewhere else he’ll know about that too.) Bob has
written several other fine articles for the Eye Of The Guides series. He is also
a commericial fly tier who owns the Blue Quill Fly
Company which will even do your custom tying! You can reach him at:
1-307-673-1505 or by email at:
rkrumm@fiberpipe.net
Originally published February 11, 2002 on Fly Anglers Online by Bob Krumm.