Recently, my long time friend Tom Merker, sent me an e-mail regarding some bonefish flies he had just tied using a new material. Tom is a very experienced bone fisherman having fished all over the Bahamas, so I was very curious what he had just come up with. Tom said he would mail me some samples. The flies came in a few days. When I opened the envelope, I could see this was something new and innovative and definitely merited closer attention.
The Shrimp & Cray Tail™ is a stainless-steel, weight molded in the shape of crustacean tails.
In the company's words:
Quick and easy to tie, the Shrimp & Cray Tail™ is a simple alternative to bead chain eyes and dumbbells – two general-purpose fly tying materials which add the needed weight to shrimp and crayfish flies, but require ungainly tying methods and lack the distinctive tail profile of these creatures.
Not that bead chains are bad [and lead eyes]... in fact, bead chains or small dumbbells have been one of the most successful and enduring fly tying materials ever since they were first popularized several decades ago.
However, their sole purpose on shrimp or crayfish patterns is purely as a weight. On these flies we're trying to imitate shrimp and crayfish that typically swim backwards (often assuming a diving, defensive posture), their purpose is purely functional. They simply add weight to the fly, and being tied in underneath the hook shank, they play an important role as a weighted keel, helping to keep the hook oriented upwards.
Think about it – as fly tyers we put a tremendous amount of creativity and innovative use of materials to realistically imitate the appearance of shrimp or crayfish eyes, feelers, mandibles, and other body parts, and then blow it by placing an unnaturally shaped piece of metal in the place where the tail of the fly is supposed to be.
