Considerations for Shrimp patterns

[btree]

So I usually do not go to a shrimp/scud pattern very often, but at times they can be deadly. Having had the chance to watch lots of them swimming around in some ponds at the golf course this spring, I've noticed that my patters (mostly baggie shrimp or werner shrimp) are not quite the right shape.

I found that the shrimp I was watching were not the cigar shape that most of my patterns are, and certainly when they swim, their bodies are not curved, so my patterns are good there. A curved shrimp is a dead, wounded or resting shrimp, so not bad under an indicator dead drifted.

The shape of the naturals that I observed were an elongated diamond shape, thin at each end and kinda fat in the middle, and certianly fatter in the front third than the tail end.

Looking into my box, a size 12 green spratley with the wing cut off looks much more realistic in proportion than any of my shrimp patterns.

Next time I'll take some pictures if I can, but all those curved shrimp/scud hooks are a bit misleading to novice tiers, and should be left to caddis and chronie patterns. They are also great for small drys if you can get fine wire scud hooks - I have a great article on this in a recent fishing mag -- cant recall which one tho.

[tbar24]

i totally agree with you, mainly because this weekend when fishing for cutties i saw a school or pod or watever you'd call it for shrimp and they all were straight bodied. the article i think your talkin about is in the recent fly fusion mag and if its the same one the article was called "scud hook advantage" and it is definetly worth reading

[btree]

i totally agree with you, mainly because this weekend when fishing for cutties i saw a school or pod or watever you'd call it for shrimp and they all were straight bodied. the article i think your talkin about is in the recent fly fusion mag and if its the same one the article was called "scud hook advantage" and it is definetly worth reading

Ya, I just was taking a dump (too personal? ) hehehe and reading up on it again.

I got a few boxes of scud hooks for tying caddis nymphs and never considered using them for emergers and all sorts of small drys.

As for shrimp, they are a funny bug to immitate. If I spent more time around kamloops or lakes where there arent big hatches of chronies, dragons, damsels and may flies, I'd focus more on them.

As it is, I find that a green halfback offers better proportions and overall shape than my baggie shrimp.

[Trout Tramp]

I like to very sparsely dub my shrimp body , then brush it out for legs. This givesthe legs a much thinner profile than the body & the tail end can be tapered.

[btree]

I like to very sparsely dub my shrimp body , then brush it out for legs. This givesthe legs a much thinner profile than the body & the tail end can be tapered.

Good idea! I'll give that a try. I'm also going to try to make a bit of a "lump" of dubbing at about 1/3 of the way back from the eye of the hook to get a stretched diamond shape.

The tapered tail sounds like a key point.

[SCUDMAN]

[Hookeye]

One thing I was told about shrimp is to tie them big. I tie them on a 6 or an 8 and they work for me when I use them. I don't fish them a lot but I do use them. I met a guy on Salmon Lake years ago and his logic was tie them to stand out among the crowd. It worked for him and has worked for me.