Published Oct 23. 2013 - 11 years ago
Updated or edited Jan 10. 2019

Micro Tarantula Crab

A small and mobile crab fly designed with big, wary bonefish in mind. The fly is developed by the professional fly tyer known as Peter Xtremefly

The finished Tarantula Crab - The Micro Tarantula Crab in all its might.
A rear view - The Micro Tarantula Crab seen from the rear, which is actually the way the crab fly will move when retrieved
Micro Tarantula Crab
Pedro Pablo Yañez Duran

I designed this fly with one goal in mind: big, wary bonefish.
The primary idea was to create a crab looking fly full of movement, which won't spook the fish. Simple but at the same time with a good look. After a few prototypes I found the perfect appearance, which I was looking for in my new fly.

This fly was tested on one of the best locations on the planet for monster bonefish: Aitutaki, Cook Islands by my good friend Ian Dollery who runs an operation at this amazing bonefish paradise.

He is an important coworker who tests many of my new flies in one of - if not the - world's best spot for monster bonefish.
After many hours on the water and after being stuck in many bonefish mouths - as well as other species that were caught on this wiggly fly - I decided to tie this fly in four different sizes: #2, #4, #6 and #8,
For big bonefish I recommend sizes from #2 to #4. The sizes #6 and #8 are ideal for medium to small bonefish. You can use the small sizes on big bonefish but it will demand a lot of technique to stop the fish because they can break the small hooks if you put too much pressure and will produce a unnecessary stress for the fish.
The color ranges are almost infinite, but a good way to obtain a successful fly is to match the fly with the color of the bottom.

Micro Tarantula Crab
Pattern type: 
Warm saltwater fly
Originator: 
Pedro Pablo Yañez Duran
Species: 
Materials: 
Hook
Owner Fly Liner #8, Varivas 2600ST-V #8 or any similar strong short shank saltwater hook
Thread
Lagartun 150 denier Beige
Weight
Sparkle dumbbell eyes Red, size medium
Eyes
2 mm Red glass beads and 0.60mm fluorocarbon or monofilament
Legs
Loco Legs, sand
Leg base
Tan chenille
Body
Tarantula Hairy Brush, tan 0.5\"
Wing
Barred tan zonker strip
Resin
Clear Cure Goo Tack Free and Clear Cure Goo Hydro
Skill level/difficulty: 
Medium

Crustacean mono eyes

To make the eyes take a 3 inch piece if monofilament and then take two glass bead and pass them over the monofilament. Burn the tips and pull the beads to the melted monofilament tips before they go solid. To finish cover the glass bead with a little drop of Clear Cure Goo Tack Free and cure with UV light.

Step 1

Tie in the dumbbell eyes near the front of the hook with figure-eight wraps. Tighten the wraps down to the hook shank by wrapping the thread parallel to the shank at the base of the eyes. This pulls the thread even tighter and helps keep the eyes from spinning. Apply a little of CCG Hydro or super glue to secure them in place.

Step 2

Wrap the thread to the back of the hook shank. To add the eyes tie them on the inside of the hook shank. To obtain the right length keep almost 5 millimeters from the hook gap to the eyes. Make tight wraps to secure them in place and then pull them forward to create a V shape appearance.
For the rear pair of legs take one strand of Loco Legs and cut them in half and tie them in together with equal length using figure-eight wraps.

Step 2 - 1

Step 2 - 2

Step 2 - 3

Step 3

To make the front legs wrap the thread to just behind of the dumbbell eyes. Take two strands of Loco Legs. Cut them in half and take three pieces of equal length and tie them in with figure-eight wraps
Fold them forward and secure them with a piece of Chenille Craft Stem Pipe Cleaner just over the hook eye.
For the body, wrap the thread to the back of the hook shank just behind of the first pair of legs. Tie a piece of almost two inches of Tarantula Hairy Legs and wrap them to the front of the hook pretty close to the front legs. Then pass behind the legs and make just one wrap.
Secure the hairy legs with a few tight wraps. This way you will obtain a spider shape with the rubber legs full of movement.

Step 3 - 1

Step 3 - 2

Step 3 - 3

Step 4

Wrap the thread to the front of dumbbell eyes and take a piece of 1½ centimeters of magnum zonker strip and create the wing.
Tie-off and whip-finish and apply Clear Cure Goo Tack Free to finish the fly.

Comments

Martin Joergensen's picture

Paul, We don't se...

Paul,

We don't sell it, but Pedro who tied it and wrote the article does. Look at his author page for contact info.

Martin

Do you sell flies ? ...

Do you sell flies ? I don't see any prices

.

Log in or register to pre-fill name on comments, add videos, user pictures and more.
Read more about why you should register.
 

Since you got this far …


The GFF money box

… I have a small favor to ask.

Long story short

Support the Global FlyFisher through several different channels, including PayPal.

Long story longer

The Global FlyFisher has been online since the mid-90's and has been free to access for everybody since day one – and will stay free for as long as I run it.
But that doesn't mean that it's free to run.
It costs money to drive a large site like this.

See more details about what you can do to help in this blog post.