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Fly Tying

> Spinners & Cripples

i got thinking about your observation of the cripples. i see that alot when i try to rear ephemerellids in the lab; and many of the non-cripples take a LONG time to get out of their nymphal skins. are there some effective fly designs for this that anyone has tried with success?

The subject of cripples is worth a serious study. I'm firmly convinced that the percentage of a hatch's cripples is directly related to various combinations of temp/pressure/humidity/surface conditions. Outside of these "perfect" combinations the percentage of cripples goes up dramatically. Many, many times I've seen the same species have a lot of trouble one day and mostly come off without a hitch the next. The problem is I've never been able to nail it down in any predictable way. Too many variables, and I've never been one to run tests and record data when fish are working.:) Do some species have a greater propensity for this? Perhaps... I think that hatches like PMD's and baetis have the reputation because of their density, which allows cripples to be more noticeable.

the subject of cripples has come up quite often in the last few years among a couple fishing friends that I have. One of the patterns that I tie that has worked pretty well is to tie normal looking dun with a trailing shuck or tails but tie the wings in at a 90 degree angle, seems that sometime specific fish will key in on those flies during heavy hatches. Hendricksons, and other ephemerellids are prime canidates for those patterns. Others I tie with both wings on one side like a normal dun but the wings are tied perpendicular to one side of the hook. Kind of like a spinner but with both wings all on one side. I'll try and post photos later.

Along the lines of your side mounted fly, a neat guide trick that sometimes works quite well if you don't have a matching cripple pattern is to take a standard tie, twist the wings and hackle with your fingers clockwise until they stick out to the side and trim the hackle underneath. Terrible thing to do to a beautiful dry fly I know, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!:)

Yesterday I tied up a knockdown sulphur dun to provide the same profile as the twisted wing/hackle fly Kurt describes above. I used one burned hen hackle tip for the wing. I also bent the hook as in Galloup's bent hook spinners. I'll give it a test and if it works be tying some more. Here's a site that shows Galloup's flies; my fly looks a lot like them, but with a burned wing:

http://northcountryangler.blogspot.com/2009/03/kelly-galloups-spinner-cripple.html

You know a silver bullet would work too :)

I can't see my fly and am fishing by sound and sometimes the sight of the riseform.

Maybe not Yoda