Steel Shrimp
Another Nick Thomas fly using bead chain for weight and orientation
In a previous article I described how I use metal bead chain to add weight and internal structure to my Chain Worm pattern. The Steel Shrimp uses the same principle, the metal beads forming a skeleton which is covered in dubbing and organza ribbon to form the shrimp’s legs and shell respectively. The colour of the orange thread and the beads mimics the parasitic worm which infects some shrimps and changes their behaviour making them move out of cover into open water, all the better to be eaten by fish and continue the parasitic cycle.
The weight of the chain turns the shrimp so that it fishes on its side or on its back, which is just fine as that’s how Gammarus shrimps actually swim. It’s not a heavyweight like shrimps tied with tungsten shrimp bodies so it’s easy to cast and doesn’t plummet to the bottom. I like to fish it in fairly fast shallow runs where shrimps can get washed out from the gravel and stones.
Related articles
Read more about why you should register.
Related content
More content from the front page
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.
Comments
Steel Shrimp
Nice one, Nick.
Cheers!