Branham’s Swimming Crab
Note:
During the early 1990’s George Anderson came out with his McCrab. The McCrab was probably the first really effective permit fly that was widely publicized. The McCrab was tied using antelope hair that was spun and trimmed to shape. To get the fly to sink, bar bell eyes were used as well as additional weight in the belly of the fly. This created a fly that was very heavy.
I wanted to design a crab fly that was effective but used materials that conformed to what the fly should do. Wool was the natural choice. The wool is translucent when wet, readily absorbs water and is easy to work with.
I wanted the fly to act like a crab so I added round rubber legs and used grizzly hackle tips as the claws. The rubber legs moved well in the water as did the hackle tips.
I designed the crab using these materials and called it “The Wool Crab”.
I had sent some samples to various people including Lefty Kreh and Randal Kaufmann. Randal Kaufmann contacted me and wanted me to tie this fly for his shops. We discussed this pattern and he wanted it tied in several colors and sizes and said that we need to change the name. Randall and his staff came up with the “Swimming Crab” and the name has stuck. Randal also said that he thought that the “Silly Legs” would be good for the legs of the crab and that he wanted to use egg yarn for the other colors of the crab.
The Swimming Crab was tied in sizes 4 and 1/0. It was a very effective bonefish and permit fly and has accounted for numerous of these species. It was tied primarily in a tan, tan/blue, tan/chartreuse, brown and olive.
Umpqua put the Swimming Crab under contract and it is still being distributed by Umpqua in sizes 2 and 4 and the only color it is tied in is tan.
While not as publicized as the Merkin and some of the other better known crab patterns, this is a fairly easy to tie and extremely effective crab pattern for any species that feeds on crabs.