Umpqua's Improved Merkin crab fly is an update to a saltwater fly box staple. We love this crab fishing fly for fly fishing bonefish, fly fishing permit and anything else in saltwater that can't resist a crab.
In the early 1980's permit were targeted with crab flies using round foam or epoxy bodies. By the mid 1980's the late Del Brown and Captain Steve Huff designed the revolutionary Merkin crab which called for Aunt Lydia's Sparkle Yarn tied perpendicular on the shank, #1 or 1/0 hooks and large lead barbell eyes. The yarn was trimmed to a trapezoid which reduced casting flutter and greatly improved the sink rate. Sandy Moret soon found that the jumbo bonefish of the Keys were fools for the same pattern by scaling down to #4, and switching the rubber legs from solid white with red tips to creamed colored rubber barred legs. Scores of bonefish over 12 pounds fell for this revision as did well over 100 permit on the larger versions.
As Aunt Lydia's Sparkle Yarn became difficult to obtain, Sculpting Fiber has proved to be an excellent replacement. The Improved Merkin is a much welcomed addition to Umpqua's growing inventory of innovative patterns. And who better to be in charge of the quality of these flies than our fly specialist himself? "Dave Student always tied thousands of the finest Merkins I had ever seen for over 20 years!"
-Sandy Moret
