crabfly

Flyfishing with crabs

One of the latest developments in fly fishing circles has beenfishing with crab patterns. This is especially so when flatsfishing and has really come around with the recent captures ofpermit (snub-nosed dart) in areas like Weipa and the HinchinbrookChannel, but it is not only permit that will take a crab fly.

It was hard for me to believe until I started to regularlyfish crab flies that they can account for quite a wide variety offish species. Fish like flathead, trevally, queenfish, giantherring, and many others will readily take a well presented crabfly.

Go for a walk on the flats at low tide and you will see why.There are a large variety of crab species that live on the flats,and these form the staple diet of many species of fish that moveup on the flats at high tide to feed. Once you have establishedwhat types of crabs live on the flats you intend to fish, it isthen a simple case of tying a pattern to look like the crabs, andfool the fish.

Crab patterns can be quite elaborate and can take a long timeto tie, especially so if you are trying to directly represent thecrab. On the other hand, you can successfully tie a fishablepattern in a short time that will catch fish as long as it hasthe important characteristics of a crab, which are legs and abody (carapace) of some type.

*See the tying section for the crab pattern mentined in thisarticle, or clickhere to go straight to the page.

Fishing the crab: One of the most important aspects of flyfishing (and one that is all too often overlooked) is to make your presentation and fly look and act as natural as possible. To do this you must observe how they act and react in their natural environment. When looking at crabs, for most occasions, they do not run away or scurry along the bottom. In most situations, a crab will sit motionless or try to bury itself when a predator is sighted, and this principle must be adopted when flyfishing.

I remember an occasion when I was fishing the flats and had just cast a crab pattern out and was commenting to a mate how it was like bait fishing when I saw two large trevally approaching from the corner of my vision. I gave the crab a slight twitch and let it sit motionless on the bottom. Almost immediately, the two fish changed their behaviour and headed straight for the fly where one of them picked it up and started off with it. Fortunately for me I did not set the hook as I was fishing a #6weight in some rough country.

As a general rule, you are sight casting to fish and will cast the fly well ahead of the target fish which will give it time to reach the bottom before the fish sees it. From here, you can either let it sit motionless or give it a small twitch. This is usually all that is required- let the fly do the rest of the work.

Lets' take a quick look at tackle. For most of the part, standard flats fishing equipment is all that is needed. Choose an appropriate weight rod anywhere from #6 to #10weight depending on the size of the fish and the areas you are targeting them in. Keep in mind that a smaller weight line will make less of a disturbance on the water and this is a critical factor when targeting skittish fish in shallow water such as bonefish (which do eat crabs).

Use a line that will get the fly down quickly. In most cases a floating line is sufficient as you are fishing shallow water, but an intermediate line is sometimes needed and can be an advantage as it does not send out ripples on the water like a floating line can.

If you haven't tried crab patterns yet, give them a go and fish them with confidence as they do work. Keep in mind that in most cases when tying crab patterns it is the silhouette and behaviour of the fly that is the most important thing to reproduce, and if you do collect crab carapaces for reference, please be sure that they are not living crabs.