Tying a Dangermuffin Crab
by Doug McKnight
The permit curse had haunted me for more than a decade, and all I had to show for it was a pile of shots and memories of a mid 30-pounder that I lost after a 40-minute battle.
This all changed in 2009 on a DIY trip to Honduras. I hit the vise hard before the trip with great anticipation, and with the Bauer flats crab as a basic template, the effort spawned the Dangermuffin Crab.
The trip produced a pair of permit in the mid teens that I caught while wading. Since then, this crab has been sealing the deal all over the Caribbean, often in jaw-dropping fashion.
In place of the standard wool, I stumbled into a happy accident of mixing rabbit fur and deer hair on those first few Dangermuffins that I tied. Between these two readily available materials, the sky’s the limit when coming up with different color combinations to match any type of crab you would ever want. When Pat Cohen came out with his super-realistic crab claws cut out of synthetic suede, I added them onto the DM. I was sold after seeing what they did on the water.
I typically tie these from No. 2 to 8 in a variety of colors, with mottled white (shown here), olive, tan, and brown covering most occasions. I’m not really sold on magic flies for permit fishing. But I’ve seen some non-typical permit behavior when the DM is presented. Tied in smaller sizes, it’s also a killer bonefish fly for big, picky fish.
Recipe:
Hook: Umpqua X506H- #2-8
Thread: Flat waxed nylon white
Weight: .025 lead wire and small dumbbell eyes for a #4 hook
Shell: White rabbit fur, bleached, and golden brown deer body hair, roughly mixed
Legs/eyes: White micro ultra chenille (legs), tan for eyes
Claws: Pat Cohen crab claws (extra small for #4)
Belly: Single layer of cream furry foam
Adhesives: Zap a Gap for lead wire and eyes, Zap Goo for crab assembly
Markers: tan and orange permanent markers
Steps:
- Roughly mix rabbit and deer hair.
- Place bead of Zap a Gap on hook shank and wind lead wire; attach lead eyes.
- Stack clumps of hair blend on the point side of the hook shank.
- Trim crab shape.
- Cut 8 pieces of white ultra chenille for legs and two tan pieces for eyes.
- Squeeze out a pea-size drop of Zap Goo and spread all over the underside of the crab shell.
- Place legs, eyes, and claws as shown. When those are in place, add another small amount of Zap Goo.
- Cut a single layer of furry foam into an approximate crab shape and place over legs, claws, and eyes.
- Pinch and squeeze the tip and bottom of the shell to ensure a tight seal.
- Trim legs; singe with a lighter.
- Paint it with markers.
