This Barred Surf Perch fell for the Sea Creeture

Background:

This is a fly pattern developed for the Pacific surf. While this fly is a weighted, "Clouser style" fly, it also has roots stemming from several great West Coast patterns and tyers: Jay Murakoshi 's "Rusty Squirrel" gets the nod for the fish catching Fox Squirrel Tail wing. Jerrold P. Shelton teaches that moving the dumbell eyes forward can impart a tail-up, burrowing action. Furthermore, using an ultra-sharp thin wire hook can improve hook-up rates. His Newport Special is proof of that. Glenn Yoshimot'o Surf Miki 3 has the forward eyes, the thin-wire hook and utilizes a special flash material. Glen Tagami's "Ruffy" uses a Tan tail, a good amount of flash and predominant gold eyes. In general, Chartreuse is a proven color that is used in a lot of surf fly patterns. The Sea Creeture is similar to dozens of popular flats and Redfish flies, as well as many FW Crawfish patterns no doubt.

The special feature of the Sea Creeture is the use of Cree Rooster hackles. Doc Knoll, who runs Knoll's Farm, had the following to say about the use of Cree in fly patterns:

"Capitalizing on the Cree Rooster's variety of multiple colors, all of your fly patterns can become just a little deadlier on the rivers and streams where you fish. I use this example quite often in the shop when discussing the Cree. If you tie a common light Cahill onto your line and drift it down a riffle you may catch a fish. However, if you alter the hackle of this particular pattern by using a light Cree variation that is barred with the Cree tri-color and cast this new variation of the fly within inches of the control Cahill, the chances are 80-90% in favor of the Cree Cahill being taken before the common Cahill. Don’t laugh I’ve done it. Doc Knoll "

With that challenge and bit of wisdom placed on the table, or tying bench, and the aforementioned inspiration from the the local tyers, I developed a fly that is catching fish.
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Tying Instructions for the Sea Creeture


Materials:

Hook: Saltwater Streamer hook, such as the Partridge C11/1, Daiichi 2546, Mustad Signature S74S SS in sizes #8- through #4

Thread: Red or orange Danville Monocord, Size 3/0 Waxed or equivilant

Tail: Cree Rooster Neck Hackles- one matched pair

Under Wing Flash: Cascade Crest Crystal Mirror Flash in red or orange

Wing: Cree Rooster Neck Hackle -Three (3) matched hackles per side

Bottom Wing: Fox Squirrel Tail

Flash: Gliss 'n Glo M.O.P. Rootbeer

Eyes: Spirit River Real Eyes Plus, Gold/Chartreuse, 3/16 for size #6-#4 hook.

Fluids: Pacer Zap-A-Gap Thin, Flex Cement, Hard As Nails, Epoxy (optional)

Hook- Partidge C11/1


Hackles- A Wonderful Cree Neck




Multi colored Cree Hackle Feather



Tie-in a matched pair of hackles "Deceiver style" on the top of the hook shaft located at the hook bend. Apply a drop of Flex Cement on the thread wraps.




Using two full length stands of Crystal Mirror Flash, double, cut in half, double, cut in half again and tie the 8 strands in on the top of the hook shaft as pictured



Add a small bunch of Natural Fox Squirrel tail. Secure wraps with a min-drop of Flex Cemet.



Locate and tie-in the dumb bell eyes. Use Zap-A-Gap to secure while X-wrapping over the eyes. Overcoat thread wraps with another mini-drop of Zap-A-Gap.



Prepare two sets of Cree hackles for the wings. Use 3 (three) hackles per side. Tack bond these lightly together to aide in assembly using Flex Cement or Zap-A-Gap. Prevent the adhesive from wicking into the fetahers. Trim Sets Blunt.



Tie-in the prepared Cree sets as shown. Build-up the thread to blend wraps into the back of the dumbell eyes. Add a drop of Flex Cement.



Fold two full length strands of Gliss 'n Glo flash in half and cut. Lay the four strands along the fly with half the length positioned forward of the eyes. Secure strands mid-point behind the head with two or three wraps. Fold forward 4 strands backwards and futher secure with a few more wraps.



Pull all of the flash strands forward to hook eye and secure with a few wraps.



Fold flash hank backwards towards tail, spreading it acrross the dumbell eye's width . Secure with three wraps. Do not crowd the dumbell eyes. Stop short with the thread wraps so that the flash will lay flat along the top of the fly. Trim thread and finish head by adding "Hard As Nails". Using Epoxy is optional for this step.



Completed Sea Creeture Fly

Fishing Notes:

Fish the Sea Creeture on the bottom using short, fast strips. Fish it in the suds, froth and near boiler rocks.



A Recent catch using a Size #4 Sea Creeture

Rich Lewis

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Loyd-Just look at what you have started!

Rich, your shots of the surfperch and the haibut impress me with the Sea Creeture's effectiveness. I'm intrigued by the pattern's relative lack of vibrant color aside from eyes, thread, and flash material. Can you speak a bit as to your design philosophy for the fly?

Richard-There is quite a bit of flash inside the fly and it shows through the hackles when they are wetted. That is a trick Don the Matuka Man revealed to me. It has been said that Surf Perch will hit anything, so perhaps catching that species alone is not indicative of an effective fly pattern. The Halibut seem to like Clouser Deep Minnows any way you serve them. I can only speculate that the Cree hackle coloration and matching Fox Squirrel Tail under wing is similar looking enough to the fishes natural food items to mimic a meal. Jay Murakoshi must have settled upon that color for his mainstay 'Rusty Squirrel' for a reason. The Sea Creeture's barred Cree Hackles may look like a baitfish and then again a crab.

Jerrold's dissertations on this board about fine wire hooks led me to try the Partridge Grey Shadow Streamer hooks. I had learned that lesson in my youth and had allowed that practice slip by the wayside. Easy to think Saltwater=Big Fish= Heavy Hooks. I once used fine wire Aberdeen style hooks exclusively in freshwater with impressive results. So I revisited that style of hook for this fly.

I literally combined elements from all of the best Pacific Surf flies and added the Cree hackles because Doc Knoll told me that they'd catch fish better than plain ole' grizzly hackle. So far it is working very well. I wish I could have seen and landed the bigger fish that I've hooked and dropped on this fly. That is what keeps me going back down to the Zone.



Sea Creeture tied on SW Size #8 Mustad Hook and using Green Crystal Eyes.

Rich

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Loyd-Just look at what you have started!

Rich:

A while back I started playing around with Indian Cock brown variant which is similar to Cree. Like Cree feathers they have a wonderful "shrimpy" barring to them. For the my local surf they are a less durable than synthetic hairs, but they do move very nicely.

Have you tried the Creeture on 413 jig hooks or as a keel pattern?

Rob

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The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

Rob- I have not. I do use the 413's for a lot of tying though. Just tied-up a half dozen Hayden Grub flies for the UPS driver this weekend on those hooks. I can see using the Cree variation hackle in a lot of patterns and on the EC413's too. Like you said-the durability may be less than pure synthetics or some types of hair; yet the effectiveness makes up for the extra cost and trouble. Beside they look so handsome

Thanks.

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Loyd-Just look at what you have started!

So impress from this awesome Sea Creeture..
Please do explain me about the patterns.. Any book related to this?

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