The Sand Shrimp came to the market thanks to Ed Story from Feather Craft in St. Louis, Missouri. Ed liked to fish at Port St. Joe, Florida and this was his favorite redfish fly. Ed, who passed away early this year was a very helpful guy and very nice. He knew I was a competitor and told me it was OK to have them tied but not to use the FC in front of the pattern because that stood for Feather Craft. Later I would have a company in Asia tie them for us. I called it the Sand Shrimp.
I started tying my own after talking to Ed. On one trip to Port St. Joe it was the only fly a redfish would take. The water is clear there and this fly works better in clear water. Paula and I were fishing at the point where the bay meets the Gulf of Mexico and we had redfish follow our flies but they would shy away before eating them. I tied on a Sand Shrimp. When a redfish followed the fly I would speed up my retrieve. They would get more interested and move faster toward the fly. Just when they got close I would strip even faster. They slammed it then. We had a great day.
The Sand Shrimp has also worked on other saltwater species. In the photo above I am fighting a big Sheephead at Horseshoe Beach, Florida. Sheephead are hard to catch on a fly. This one saw the Sand Shrimp and swam three feet to eat it. I would not be on the water in the Gulf of Mexico without several of these. I probably have at least 50 tied up right now waiting for their day.
Hook: Standard Saltwater Stainless, TMC 811S or equilivent. Size #1 or 1/0
Thread: Unithread 6/0 Red
Eyes: XLarge Bead Chain Eyes Black
Body: Estaz or similar Chenille - Rootbeer
Markers: Red and Black large Sharpie with wedge tip
Tail: Off White Polar Fiber and Pearl Krystal Flash
Wing: Brown Hareline Craft Fur