This is young Peter. Id been fly fishing for about 6 years at this point, my flies were shocking imitations of those patterns developed in the american south east. Seaducers, charlies, deceivers.
An even younger Peter had an obsession with crabs, which along with model cars were my favourite thing. I couldn’t watch people eat them or kill them. Today I still struggle to use a crab if bait fishing. I learnt my lesson in Mauritius once while carrying around a giant hermit crab in my pocket- no its not going there. Easily distracted I was walking around holding it when it must have eventually got too hot, or just fed up. It actually got through the flesh of my hand. So hermit crabs were no longer friends, but the usual sand based variety remained.
I should have known that at some point my youthful crab obsession would align with my fishing interests. Today Id rather fish a crab than any other fly. I can’t explain it. I like a strong take, so youd think id be a charlie or spawning shrimp guy, but its something about seeing that crab hanging out a fish’s mouth that ups the joy a notch. So its crustaceans and crustacean eaters for me. Permit, Grunter (yes), Steenbras (still evading me), and anything else that hunts slow and digs in the ground. Viva the sea spider.
Here are some of the more interesting crabs I’ve found trawling the net recently:
Pete, do you have an SBS of that crab you used with such success in Oman? I will be fishing there a lot this year and 2014 is now officially ‘Year of the Permit’ for me, so any help would be much appreciated…Cheers, Matt Cocks aka Beefy
Pure crab sweetness! Peter, you would get on with my Aussie mate Peter Morse who professes that any species can be caught on crab patterns including pelagic species like tuna, queenfish, mahi, sharks. He has the evidence and many published articles in FlyLife to prove it. Most unusual species I’ve ever caught on a crab pattern? Probably a mahi mahi!