When snorkeling for lobsters this summer and dropping shorts, I noticed there are 2 styles of getting to the bottom. There are the lobsters that just float down in a defensive position, and those that swim down using the tail flapping to propel them. Stripers would follow me around and ignore the floating sinkers but attack the flapping sinkers and tear them apart. It’s no secret that lobsters are a food source for Stripers so finding a similar fly was easy. There are a bunch of great lobster flies out there but I couldn’t find any with the tail action I was looking for so I went to the vise. The idea is that with the hook eye location between the tail flap and the carapace, the tail would flap as you strip, imitating the swimming motion. Good luck and happy tying!

Tying Sequence

Step One

Take the old shirt and cut a liberal sized Lobster pattern. Keep it bigger than the size you think you would use, you will trim it down later so it does not need to be pretty. Keep the tail 1/8 inch longer than you think you would need (to hide the weight later) and exaggerate the space (in black) between the tail flap and body. Next coat one side of the cut shirt in a flexible cement, any will work. Use the BBBQ skewer to spread a liberal coat of cement. This piece needs to be flexible. I colored the section of the tail black to illustrate, DO NOT get any cement in this area. It needs to stay limp! Let this dry and start on step 2, we will come back to it after the cement sets up.

Step Two

Insert hook in vise, backwards and upside down. Start by coating hook shank around the bend with thread as with any other pattern. Add a liberal amount of red Krystal Flash or Red Golden Pheasant plumes leaving a length of about one inch.

Step Three

Next, cut your 3 inch length of heavy mono or flouro in 2. Burn the ends with a lighter. Tie in on top of the Red flash or plumes. Pic as seen from above. Now set aside

 

Step Four

Go back to your carapace. By now the cement should have dried or be close to dry, and the fabric will have curled. No big deal. Knead it a little to flatter some, but the next application or cement will flatten it out. Curl over the tail end of the tail flap. Place section of Solder or wire along the edge of the tail (underside of body), and roll over fabric. Cover with some super glue to seal weight in fabric. Now flip back over to top side. Pluck out a bunch or Pheasant neck feathers for body coloring. Make sure you have a decent amount plucked before proceeding and cut off base of feather . Now coat the carapace, a section at a time, with a liberal amount of flexible cement. Push pheasant feathers into the cement and flatten them out to create a color pattern. Feathers can overhang fabric because you will trim to size later. Cover body and tail section with one coat of feathers. Little at a time is best. Again, DO NOT get cement or feathers on the tail flap section as before. Once covered, lay flat and set aside. Go back to hook.

Step Five

Back to hook, in the same area, add in a sparse amount of dark brown bucktail, and 4 or 5 strands of Silver Krystal Flash. Keep the same general length, about 1 inch. Tease the mono eyes up through the bucktail and flash so they are visible from the top.

Step Six

Tie in the 2 peacock herls on top of the flash and between the eyes.

Step Seven

Take 2 Pheasant wing feathers and snip the stem near the tip. This will cause a V shape. Next, behind the head, wrap in the claw feathers one at a time. Once secured, add wraps inside the feathers so they flare out. Tease them along the way. Over exaggerate the flare, as the carapace will push them back in line. Add a few final wraps and add a dab of super glue to seal. Pic shown from above.

Step Eight

Go back to carapace. Liberally coat feathers with another coat of cement. Again, be sure NOT to get cement on the flap section colored black. Set aside to dry. Once dried, add feathers and cement to underside of tail flap if desired in same fashion.

Step Nine

Set hook in vise the normal way. Start thread by hook eye, add a small base. Tie on dumbbell eye weight near hook eye, but not on the hook eye. Leave 1/8 inch of space. This allows room for the tail flap and will make more sense later

Step Ten

Tie on yarn, set thread off to side. Now, wrap yarn to build body to desired thickness. Be careful not to build too much body near the hook gap or when you add the carapace you will fill it. Once body is built, work yarn back to hook eye

Step 11

Use coarse light colored deer hair and spin sparse amounts along underside of fly where legs would be. This will fill space where carapace will not cover.

Step 12

Now the hard part. Start playing with the carapace. Bend it around the hook shank body. Trim a little off and do it again. Keep trimming until the size is right. You want it to wrap around the body and leave some hair exposed underneath. You also want to set the hook eye in the uncemented gap between the tail and carapace. Keep trimming to size. This will take a while. Once you have it where you think you want it, careful not to fill the hook gap, secure with superglue. You may have to hold it in place for glue to set up. This step takes a while and some patience

Step 13

– Last step is clean up. Trim down the deer hair underneath to desired length. Poke hole in fabric for hook eye and pull tail over hook eye. That’s about it. You can add another coat of cement over the carapace and tail for strength, and a coat of hard as nails to preserve the carapace.

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