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A social group of dedicated fly fishers who are passionate about fly fishing in the tropical north of Australia and equally as passionate about the close camaraderie this sport brings. This passion and dedication led to the creation of the NT Flyfishers Social Mob blog site; an interactive and creative outlet where everyone can share our wonderful fly fishing adventures and link into the “after fishing” social events we enjoy in this incredible part of the world.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Mantis shrimp (Original fly by Andy Thomsen).rtf

Cyclone warning about last weekend, so no fishing due to bad weather but at least I could do some fly tying but what to tie?

Started searching web and found this fly



Fly Tying Mantis Shrimp Flats Fly for Permit, Golden Trevally, Bonefish - Andy Thomsen - http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7cTwRmfZTik -   If that link doesn't work search for the title of video clip on youtube.


If you go by his videos easily seen as a very talented angler and fly tyer!
Look for his 'toad fly' too - awesome!

Love this mantis shrimp fly - (could be prawn or crab too)
Conceptually, and the way it is tied - intriguing and inspiring to me
This fly for me is one of those breakthrough flies in tying styles
Eyes on stalks as a weed guard, other end of stalks to help the fly sit right way on the mud. Lots and lots of life, even sitting still, given the materials used.

So I had to tie some......... School reports are finished, so I used class time today to tie some while students doing chapter reviews.
Started making eye stalks yesterday which are simply a red bead on heavy mono, burn end into lump, push bead onto hot mono lump, cover with epoxy, set aside to set.

Differences with my versions are the feeler materials being all spinnerbaits lure skirt material and that I tied in rabbit zonker before eye stalks (not as in Andy's instructional video) as seemed easier




I also used magnum zonker strips as a slightly wider cut and more fur (not the olive one in the attached images though - you can easily see the difference in body size compared to white and natural fur versions)

Seems a very versatile fly a suited to many species of fish in the top end.
Flats Barra should scoff them down so too Brown/blue Bastards - I saw so many of these frustrating fish last time out when I was stalking flats barra, the BBs refused all my offerings - so I was looking for a more suitable fly and I think this one is it!

Can hardly wait for school holidays in two weeks so I can test these flies on fish rather than thinking about fishing while I teach middle school kids who for the most don't care about their learning!


See you on the water! - I will report on successful (hopefully) testing soon!

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