One of my favorite sand crab patterns for sight casting to corbinas over the last ten or so years has been the reinvented fly called the Surfin’ Merkin, created by my good friend Paul Cronin from Ventura. Paul cleverly adapted the classic Del Brown Merkin permit fly,
transforming it from a classic flats crab pattern to a sand crab (also known as a mole crab) by substituting Enrico Puglisi’s EP Fibers for the Aunt Lydia’s Rug Yarn in the original permit pattern. The fly still maintained the wide, flat appearance of a crab, but was tied on a smaller hook and trimmed to match the size of a sand crab. It was very effective. It landed softly in shallow water and when stripped over soft tidal sand left a V wake and buried itself, like a moving, fleeing sand crab.
When Paul started to play around with this pattern for corbinas, he began having uncanny success with it. He didn’t have a name for the fly and offered it up for suggestions online. The winner was the Surfin’ Merkin, out of respect for Del Brown’s pattern. I wrote the first article about the success of the Surfin’ Merkin in Fly Fishing for Saltwaters, and since then, we have not looked back. The most popular EP Fiber colors for it have been salmon pink and light gray. Over the past few seasons I have been playing around with a slight variation on the Surfin’ Merkin, which I call the Holy Moley Sand Crab. Instead of laying pencil-width clumps of EP Fibers perpendicular to the shank and X-wrapping them, giving the fly a wide, flat profile, I have been stacking the EP Fibers on top of the shank and laying them all back, similar to the Joe Brooks high-tie streamer style, giving the fly a narrower, taller, teardrop appearance. Because it sits up higher, I believe it might be a little more visible in soft sand, which may help a corbina track it down. It’s another variation on an already proven corbina pattern and seems to work very well.
Last July, I had a few epic corbina sessions on the beach using the Holy Moley Sand Crab. The most memorable one, a personal best for me, was hooking eight corbinas very early one morning in an hour and a half session before heading to work. Of the eight, two were lost to user error, one was foul-hooked just under the chin, and five were fair-hooked. It was then I realized this variation might have some merit, and I had a few other multiple corbina sessions with the Holy Moley, verifying my judgment. Sight fishing for corbinas during the early summer months, when they are foraging heavily on sand crabs in shallow coastal waters, can be challenging, to say the least. Give the fly a try as another option in your sight-fishing arsenal. Don’t forget to use a Loop Knot to the fly.
(Editor’s note: this pattern is certainly worthy of the attention of fly fishers who focus on the surf-zone of central and northern California, where corbinas are not found, but where mole crabs are a food source for surfperch.)
Materials
Hook: Gamagatsu SL15, size 6 or 8
Thread: Orange 210 denier for the base and securing the eyes, clear mono for building the fly
Eyes: Large bead chain or black 5/32-inch Dazl-Eyes
Rear legs: Hareline Round Barred Grizzly Legs
Body: Gray and orange EP Fibers, or all orange, gray, or salmon pink (sand crab eggs are bright orange)
Antennae: One piece of folded stiff orange Saltwater Krystal Flash
Side legs: Clear/pearl with silver flake Sili Legs
Cement: Thin Zap-A-Gap
Head and underbody: Epoxy or Tuffleye
Tying Instructions
Step 1: Place the hook in the vise, mount the thread, and secure the eyes. Wrap the entire length of the shank to the bend with orange 210 denier thread.
Step 2: Add one piece of Grizzly Legs, folded over your thread, then secured on top of the shank so the legs flare out to the rear to form a V. Use Zap-A-Gap glue to secure the eyes and legs to the shank. (Cut the legs before attaching so that each end is black.)
Step 3: Invert the hook in the vise and change to clear mono thread. Lay a small clump of orange EP Fibers on top of the shank, secure it in the middle of the bundle, then fold the front portion over toward the rear and secure.
Step 4: Add one piece of orange Krystal Flash, folded over your thread, and secure it to the top of the shank, again forming a V splayed rearward.
Step 5: As in Step 2, add two more small pieces of orange EP Fibers, one after the other, tied in and folded back, on top of the shank.
Step 6: Now continue down the shank in the same way with gray EP Fibers until you get close to the eyes. Leave enough space to add the Sili Legs.
Step 7: Add one folded-over piece of Sili Legs to each side of fly and secure with the glue. Add more gray EP Fibers in front of the legs, continuing toward the eye of the hook.
Step 8: Finish with a last piece of fibers in front of the eyes. Whip finish and then epoxy the head and the wraps beneath the fly for durability.
Tying Steps for the Holy Moley Sand Crab
