Cruncher

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This British fly fly gets heaps of mentions in the UK magazines that I read. When it all boils down the “Cruncher” isn’t that different to so many nymphs that you see but it does have a trigger point in the form of the front hackle and of course as you would expect it does catch fish. I tend to carry it only in size 10 and size 12 and use it when a big buggy nymph is called for in river fishing, loch style fishing or even when polaroiding.

Materials

 

Hook Thread Weight Tail Body Thorax Hackle
8-14 nymph  or streamer hook Brown Lead wire brown hackle fibres 5xSeals fur Peacock herl Brown partridge

Process

 

A
  1. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.

    2. [member Link=”p=10018″ Title=”Understanding hooks”]

  2. Tie in a tail equal 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the hook shank. Resist the temptation to make the tail too bulky and too long.

    3. [member Link=”p=1734″ Title=”Alternative tails”]

  3. Tie in a length of copper wire.
    Using 0.010 lead wire add a little weight on the front half of the hook shank. For size #10 hooks add about 10 wraps and for size #14 half that.
  4. There are of course other ways of adding weight to a fly.

    5. [member Link=”p=2372″ Title=”Alternative ways of adding weight to a fly”]

 

B
  1. Dub on a  body starting at almost nothing and gradually increasing in width in the middle and then decreasing to nothing a little behind the eye of the hook.

    2. [member Link=”p=2683″ Title=”Single strand method of dubbing”]

 

C
  1. Wind the copper wire along the body of the fly forming 5 or 6 segments.

    2. [member Link=”p=2656″ Title=”Body segments on flies”]

  2. Tie the copper wire off at the 90 mark and break off the excess copper wire.
    Tie in a couple of peacock herl at the 2/3 position.

 

D
  1. Form the herl into a herl rope with the thread and wrap a rope cover over the front third of the fly to represent the thorax.

    2. [member Link=”p=700″ Title=”Roping peacock herl”]

  2. Tie a hackle in by the tip. Selection of the hackle is often made difficult by what is available. I have used a small church window hackle here but other good options include partridge or hen hackle etc.

 

E
  1. Take just two or three full turns of the hackle directly behind the eye of the hook and secure it in place with a few wraps of thread.

    2. [member Link=”p=1738″ Title=”legs on flies”]

 

F
  1. Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread.
  2. Build up a neat head of thread.
  3. Whip finish the thread and varnish the thread head.