Flyfishsaltwaters.com - RM Soft Short

The RM Soft Short is an impressionistic imitation of a molting juvenile American Lobster (Homarus Americanus). This crustacean is prolific in rocky coastal waters of the Northeast (particularly north of Cape Cod). They can grow to over thirty pounds. They range in color from Olive Green to Blue to Albino. Immature specimens (carapace less than two inches) in molt are much favored by Striped Bass.

Lobsters have been used as live bait for Striped Bass for centuries. Indeed, towards the end of the 19th century, Striped Bass clubs had evolved such prime inshore fisheries as Martha’s Vineyard, Cuttyhunk Island, Block Island, Cohasset (Massachusetts), Cape Ann (Massachusetts), and York Harbor (Maine) where the preferred technique was live lobster cast by hand line.

Lobsters are no longer used as bait. They are too valuable as food. Lobster fishing in the Northeast is a significant and well-regulated aquaculture industry. To be legally harvested, a lobster must have a carapace greater than three inches (measured from the base of the eye socket to the tail joint). It is not illegal for Striped Bass to gorge on "shorts" (those young with a carapace less than the legal limit), particularly during their molt, when the lobster’s external hard shell (carapace and tail) is discarded to expose the soft beginnings of a larger armor structure.

The Soft Short is tied primarily with soft webby grizzly hackles, trimmed to the approximate proportions of a 2 ½ - 3 inch long juvenile. It is soft to touch, but not so soft as to induce immediate rejection when inhaled by a greedy Striper. The pattern could be tied larger, but at the expense of more throw weight and air resistance on the cast.

To achieve swimming stability, the hook eye is weighted with a large dumbell weight and the hook bend is buoyed up with Live Body foam eyes and floating running line antennae. This design approach increases the separation between the pattern's center of buoyancy and it's center of mass sufficiently to provide the pattern with the ability to right itself after it has been bumped about (a self righting moment) which is absolutely necessary if the pattern is to be actually retrieved rather than dead drifted. The claws, which consist of game bird neck hackles inserted into a length of small EZ Body, contribute to underwater stability by flexing in towards the hook plane on the retrieve. If they were rigid, they probably would induce the fatal beanie boy propeller effect.

The body is formed by palmering grizzly hackles down the length of the hook shank to the dumbell weight. The lobster’s characteristic shape is formed by trimming the relative upper half of the palmered hackles. The base color of the pattern could be natural grizzly, olive, or reddish brown, with color accents added with permanent ink markers. No flash is necessary.

I prefer to swim the Soft Short over relatively shallow rocky structure that is agitated by surf or tidal currents, using three short quick strips followed by a pause. If you prefer, you can dead drift the Soft Short, nymph style. It’s full three dimensional "buggy" profile underwater provides a good static impression of a short lobster suspended in the water column, helpless in strong wave or tide related currents. At night, the same presentation techniques can be used. However because lobsters are active nocturnal feeders, the target area can be expanded to include the open spaces around the periphery of a rock or ledge outcrop.

TYING PROCEDURES

1. Select a size 2/0 Tiemco 911s hook. Use fine monofilament thread, to barrel wrap the hook shank from the hook eye to a point above the hook barb as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

2. Tie in 3/16 " diameter black Live Body foam or equivalent eyes (use a 3/8 " long piece, tie in at the midpoint), a six inch length of orange floating running line (antennae), and a 1 ½ inch long ¼ inch diameter bunch of olive/brown bucktail (carapace crest) as shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4. The eyes should be fastened to the outside of the hook shank bend, about 1/8 up the length of the bend.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

3. The claws are formed by inserting and fastening two game bird ( your call) neck hackles into the ends of a 2 inch length of small EZ BODY (Figures 5 and 6). The hackles should be selected and positioned in the EZ Body so that they curve towards each other. Remove the polyester reinforcing strips in the EZ Body to increase it’s flexibility. This assembly is then fastened to the hook shank about 3/8 of an inch behind the eyes with figure eight wraps. It is important for the swimming stability of the pattern to make sure that equal lengths of the claw assembly extend from the hook shank. Folding the claws into equal lengths and tying in along the fold point can facilitate this operation). The claws should be mounted along the same "outside" of the hook shank as the eyes and then twisted so that they point up toward the hook point (See Figure 7)

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

4. Tie in a large dumbbell weight (large Spirit River I Balz are a cool choice) Clouser style to lower the center of gravity from the center of buoyancy. The eyes should be mounted immediately below the base of the hook eye as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8

5. The body is formed by palmering grizzly rooster hackles down the length of the hook shank as shown in Figure 9. The hackles should be webby and about 4-5 inches in total length (with bottom "fluff" trimmed off) . The first hackle should be tied in between the eyes and the claws and palmered back over the claws. Hackle pliers can help this process. Whip finish the tip end of the first hackle and apply a drop of superglue to the joint. Apply the two or three additional hackles (dependent on the length of the hackles) in a similar manner, advancing the palmering operation to dumbbell weight. Note in Figure 9 that a medium plastic rattle has been fastened to the upper hook shank. The rattle is optional, but quite useful when the pattern is used at night. The completed palmering is shown in Figure 10

Figure 9

Figure 10

6. The lobster’s characteristic shape is formed by trimming the relative upper half of the palmered hackles with scissors as shown and coloring the upper half (including the claw arms) with a Pale Sepia permanent ink marker as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11