
Roots: Bauer’s Flats Crab
The Bauer’s Flats Crab is a staple in the arsenal of Caribbean and Central American permit anglers & guides. This fly was popularized for its effectiveness in Belize and has become a must have fly for permit in lagoons and shallow, off-color water.
Roots: Flexo Crab
The Flexo Crab is a staple in the arsenal of Seychelles and Indian Ocean angler & guides. The fly’s effectiveness on a variety of bottom feeders from permit to triggerfish and parrotfish has gained it notoriety worldwide.
The blend
Umpqua signature fly tyer Drew Chicone has taken key features from each fly and blended them into the new McFly Crab from Umpqua which is sure to become a go-to destination crab fly.
Inspiration: the McFlyFoam body
Like the Bauer’s Flats Crab, the McFly Crab uses McFlyFoam for the crab shell. The color and appearance of this material are super natural looking and its slight buoyancy helps the fly fall and sit correctly.
Inspiration: the chenille legs
Legs are main features on a crab and chenille is a much more realistic representation than rubber. The opacity and rigidness of chenille allows the legs to stand out as a trigger point that registers the crab shape in fish brains.
Inspiration: the weight position
Bauer’s Flats Crabs, Flexo Crabs and McFly Crabs are all centrally weighted instead of weighted by the eye of the hook. This allows the crab to sink evenly like an unthreatened crab would. You would want to get this fly out in front of the permit enough so that the fish can see the fly sink and (if permit could think) think the crab doesn’t know it’s there.
Evolution: the weight material
The McFly Crab uses lead-free wire for weight as opposed to the lead eyes the Bauer’s Flats Crab and Flexo Crab use. This allowed Chicone to break free from the constraints of which lead eye size to use and gave him the freedom to use the exact amount of weight he wanted to get the perfect sink-rate he envisioned.
The size
On a hearty size #1 hook, the McFly Crab is perfectly sized for permit, redfish and large bonefish.
The weedguard
In theory crab flies sit perfectly upright and don’t usually need weedguards. But there are so many variables in fly fishing. If you’re fishing turtlegrass even the most perfectly upright crab fly is going to get stuck. The two-prong mono weedguard on the McFly Crab is a great length and stiffness for keeping the fly unstuck.
McFly Crab
Load up your permit, redfish or deeper-water big bonefish box.