Out of the box “fly tying”

Straw shrimp fly tying uniqueSometimes when I’m at the tying bench, I get an itch to try something new. I discovered a how-to video that describes how to make a shrimp out of a straw. The end result looks very good! The only question is will it fish well?

 

The hardest part was getting the hook inside the shrimp positioned correctly, I had to re-seat it a few times. Getting the antena to curve properly actually took a few shrimp before I got it right. Adding dubbing to the tail helps to make it more “shrimpy” in colour. I didn’t cut the underside of the shrimps tail as deep as the how to video because the dubbing kept falling out. You can also use different coloured straws if you want to make shrimps in different colours. Now that I see the image here, I think the legs are a big on the long side.

The video can be found here. The guy making the shrimp “flies” is using them for cuttlefish. We unfortunately don’t have those in Atlantic Canada, but I’ll test this guy out on some flounder for fun.

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