Ben Treppa is a saltwater fly tyer and fisherman from Michigan. He does tie warmwater flies too, but he concentrates mainly on saltwater. Ben writes a nice blog called Waiting on a bite… and he’s a Pro Team Member for Deer Creek. Ben said this fly he was naming “FrankenShrimp” to honor FrankenFly (which was very cool!) and it’s a variation of several flies he ties and creates.
Material list:
Mustad 34007 1/0
Uni-Thread Black 6/0
Lead Eyes (size Small)
Purple Finn Raccoon
Black Krystal Flash
Purple Saddle Hackle
Pearl Sparkle Braid
Black Bucktail
Big Fly Thread Fire Orange (optional)
Head Cement
Step 1: Start thread about 1/4″ back from the hook eye.
Step 2: Tie in lead eyes using cross wraps. Add a drop or two of superglue to help keep eyes from rolling around hook shank.
Step 3: Cut a small clump of finn raccoon off the hide/zonker. Tie on to hook shank behind lead eyes and work back to the bend.
Step 4: Cut several pieces of black krystal flash off the hank. Tie krystal flash in on both sides of the hook shank. I tie in the full length of the krystal flash at the middle point then double over and secure.
Step 5: Prepare mono and glass bead eyes. These particular eyes were done with 1 min two-part epoxy. You can make your own or buy them.
Step 6: Tie in shrimp eyes to the desired length. I prefer about 1″.
Step 7: Prepare strung saddle hackle by stripping off webby feathers from the bottom.
Step 8: Tie in just in front of the finn raccoon like so.
Step 9: Tie in piece of sparkle braid. In order to keep the body somewhat smooth and un-tapered I tie it in from behind the lead eyes back to the finn raccoon.
Step 10: Palmer sparkle braid forward up to the lead eyes. Tie off and trim. Do not advance the thread just yet!
Step 11: Palmer saddle hackle forward and tie off and trim behind lead eyes. Advance thread forward to the front of the lead eyes.
Step 12: Trim ends even on the bucktail clump and tie on in front of the lead eyes. Do not whip finish and cut thread yet.
Step 13: The following step is optional, but something I like to do. I do it on a lot of my flies. Using bright colored thread create a small accent stripe in front of the lead eyes. Whip finish and trim accent thread. Clean up from portion of thread head with black thread, whip finish, trim, and coat thread with head cement.
Step 14: fly is finished.
