Fly fishing crab fly guru Drew Chicone and Umpqua's McFly Crab is a versatile and effective permit crab fly that can be fished as is or easily modified to adjust to picky permit preferences.
"The McFly Crab is a simple pattern that can be easily modified on the water and fished effectively anywhere. I like the Ultra Micro Chenille legs because they provide a little more durability, and they tend to hold color better than rubber. This provides a blank canvas that can be easily colored to mimic the vast majority of crabs you will encounter.
The materials that comprise this pattern are easily trimmed on the go if you need to shrink this pattern down for picky permit. Contrary to most conventional crab patterns, it is weighted with lengths of non-lead wire lashed to the shank rather than with lead eyes or a beaded keel. I wanted the fly to come down on the water softly, without the splat, and then to sink more uniformly like a real, unthreatened crab rather than plummeting to the bottom.
The second reason I opted for a wire weighting system is that it gives you a greater ability to tailor the amount of weight to the size of the fly. With the wire, you are not bound to two or three different sizes of lead eyes that may be slightly too much or too little weight. And the weighted wire foundation can be endlessly tweaked for varying water depths."
-Umpqua Signature Tyer Drew Chicone
