Howdy All,

I am anxiously awaiting ordered material to tie up a bunch of the redfish crack fly for a trip to Galveston in a couple of weeks. This is my son's 14th birthday and I wanted him to experience a redfish on a fly.

I guess I am looking to make sure I am not loosing my mind, hopefully you guys can help. I found a YouTube video that shows how to tie the fly and another post on a different forum and the post referred to using a size 4 Mustad 34007 hook. I am just wanting to clarify that this is truly a size 4 and not a 4/0. These appear to be big flies, but a 4/0 would knock something out, lol. Any help is appreciated, also, if anyone knows of any other good fly recipes for reds or specks, please let me know.

FishyB

2's and 4's are popular sizes for that pattern.

Have a fun trip!

Clousers and gurglers in red/white. Gold spoon flies, crab and shrimp patterns will all work.

Bob

Hooks #2 & #4, like Rex said.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the confirmation.

So far, I have made clousers in gray/white and chart/white, both with flash in the body. Planned on tying up red/white this evening. I am thinking that the EP material should be arriving in the next day or two, then I will get busy on the Redfish Crack flies. Then I will be looking for a crab and shrimp pattern.

Tight lines.
FishyB

I tie all of my redfish crack flies on 4s and 6s. 4/0 would be a wee bit large.....

Hi Jim,

I was thinking a 4/0 might kill someone, lol! I bought a bunch of size 4 hooks, which I planned to use! Tell me, is there any other material to use besides the EP material or do they just have a run on this stuff?

FishyB

I like craft fur. I also use marabou for the front collar some times. You're allowed to deviate; it's not a case where only certain materials work. Have fun with them. They're your flies; tie them your way.

Good point Jim!

Redfish Crack is a very productive fly, no doubt about it. But reds will usually eat pretty much anything you set in front of them when they are feeding. Occasionally you have to match the hatch, but they generally just aren't that picky. I've probably had more eats from reds on a simple version of the East Cut Shrimp or a single-color bendback. I tie the bendbacks with white, cream, sand, grey, or (rarely) chartreuse craft fur. I'll admit that I get the most eats on those because I throw them the most; probably 95% of the reds I cast to would eat most any fly in my box. But I get all warm and fuzzy when I convince myself that I carefully evaluated all of the conditions and all of the variables, and brilliantly selected the absolute best choice in my fly box to throw at that particular fish. When in reality, all I did was toss the fly that I happened to already have tied on. But hey, ya gotta savor the moment, right?

Here is one we tied in class over at Backwoods in Fort Worth a little over a year ago. This was tied by Stephen Woodcock. I tied one too, but it didn't look as good as the one he tied

Thank you Jim for the G2 on the flies and logic! You are correct, we have to savor the moment when we can.

HMK, nice Redfish Crack! I am chomping at the bit to make them!

FishyB