Saltwater Fishing, Saltwater Flyfishing, Saltwater Sportfishing, New England, Cape Cod, Striped bass, bluefin tuna, bluefish


The Defense Crab is intended to imitate a juvenile rock crab (carapace less than 1 inch long) agitated into a defensive posture against a foraging predator, claws up, tail down. In the Northeast, crabs this size are a staple for striped bass and other game species during the months of high summer when forage fish population movement is at a minimum. Frequently during this time, I have taken stripers on this and other crab patterns in very shallow water, their mouths rubbed raw from rooting through sand and gravel for crustacea. The enclosed examples are tied on a size 2 Tiemcoä 911s hook. The long shank is necessary to accommodate the "forward facing" crab body dressing and its dumbell eye weight. The pattern’s dumbell weight is relatively heavy in proportion to the size of the hook, which is critical to getting the pattern down quickly to the bottom. The carapace is ½ inch EZ Body ä with all three of it’s polyester reinforcing strips removed and stretched into a flattened oval shape. The claws are grizzly hackles curving inward flared over a spreader of Ultra Chenille. I palmer a grizzly hackle behind the claw assembly for additional movement. The eyes are 50 pound monofillament line melted on one end. The legs are Ultra Chenille. The eyes are coated with epoxy and inserted directly into the EZ Bodyä , a la Mr. Potatohead. The chenille legs are pulled into place throughthe EZ Bodyä with a bobbin threader pushed diagonally through the bottom of the carapace.Color is applied top and bottom with a light coat of epoxy on the bottom to secure the legs. The pattern sinks quick, has good static appearance, moves well underwater, and is easy and cheap to make. Besides working well in the Northeast, customers have reported some success much further south for Permit.
Detailed Recipe Figure 1	1. Position and secure a size 2 Tiemco 911s hook (or equivalent long shank, stainless steel hook) in your vise. Using 3/0 white, waxed monocord, wrap the hook shank from the base of the hook eye to the beginning of the hook bend. Apply a drop of superglue and spread over the length of the wrap.
2. Cut a 1 ½ " long piece of ½" EZ Body ä and remove all three polyester reinforcing strips. Fasten one end about 1/8 " from the hook bend. Whip finish the monocord..	Figure 2
Figure 3	3. Tie in a small bunch of short shanked Blue Dun marabou and about four 1 to 1 ½ " strands of Rainbow Krystal Flash at the base of the joint so that they extend about 5/8" beyond the base of the hook bend. Tie in a 2 ½ " long piece of tan Ultra Chenile behind them and wrap it around the hook shank to form a bulb, which will serve as a spreader for the claw hackles.
4. Select four webby grizzly hackles about 1 ½ " long, so that two "curving in" sets about ¾ " can be formed. Tie in one set behind the chenille spreader and wrap toward the hook point to flare the hackles out from the hook shank. If the flare is unsuccessful, try placing one or two thread wraps in front of the hackles and carefully pull them back, away from the hook shank. Repeat the operation on the other side.	Figure 4
Figure 5	5. Push the free end of the EZ Body toward the hook bend, compressing it flat with finger pressure while pushing. The plane of the flattened section should be perpendicular to the plane of the hook shank and point. Release the EZ Body and allow it to relax and expand back over the eye of the hook. Trim the excess EZ BODY extending past the hook eye as shown in Figure 5. Grasp the trimmed free end of EZ Body with the thumb and index finger of onehand and push it toward the hook eye. Tie in the free end by overwrapping with the monochord as shown in Figure 6. Be sure to provide about 3/8" is available between the now circular EZ Body and the base of the hook eye. Apply superglue to this joint and allow to cure. After the super glue as cured, stretch the EZ Body away from the hook shank as shown in figure 7. This should result in a flattened oval shape as shown in figure 8.
Figure 6	Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9	6. Form two eyes by melting the ends of a 2 " long piece of 50 pound test monofilament line. Allow to cool. Cut the eyes and about ½ " of the mono from each end. Push each eye shaft through the top of the EZ Body as shown in Figure 9 . Apply a drop of five minute epoxy to each shaft, insert and position the shaft so that the eyes protrude forward and away from each other. Allow to cure.

7. Fasten dark, medium sized lead dumbell eyes (or equivalent) within the space between the hook eye and the EZ Body carapace, Clouser style. I do it by making the initial fastening with figure 8 wraps, then 10 wraps around one eye shaft, 10 wraps around the hook shank immediately forward of the eyes, 10 wraps around the other eye shaft, 10 wraps around the hook shank to the immediate rear of the eyes, finally using figure 8 wraps to make sure the eyes are perpendicular to the hook shank. It seems that most tiers have their method for this operation. All that is important is that the eyes are firmly attached and perpendicular to the hook shank for balance underwater. Whip finish and trim the monocord.	Figure 10
Figure 11	8. Select a webby grizzly hackle about 3 ½ " long. Cut off the bottom inch of the hackle and tie in the remainder in front of the hackle claws. Palmer the hackle toward the EZ Body about 3 turns, tie in, and neatly trim as flush to the hook shank as possible. Apply superglue sparingly to the whip finish. See Figure 11.
9. Cut four 2 ½ " long lengths of Tan Ultra Chenile. Push a bobbin threader diagonally through the bottom half of the EZ Body so that the threader is about 30° to the hook shank and passes through. Attach one piece of Ultra Chenile and pull it back through the EZ Body. (See Figure 12). Repeat this operation three more times increasing the angle of the threader to the hook shank by 30° each time. This should result in the formation of two sets of four Ultra Chenile legs on each side of the EZ Body as shown in Figure 13. Finally trim the legs so that, on each side, the leg closest to the claws is about ¾ " long, each succeeding leg about 1/8 " shorter (see Figure 14). When the leg alignment is complete, work in a drop of five minute epoxy at the base of each leg where it emerges from the EZ Body and put a small drop of superglue at the tip of each leg to resist fraying.	Figure 12 Figure 13
	10. Apply color to the top and bottom of the carapace using permanent ink markers. I prefer to use a combination of sepia over bronze with pale orange highlights along the top and sparse light pink on the bottom, to simulate the colors of a rock crab, common to inshore Northeast waters.