“Going back more than 10 years ago, I got invited by a good friend and client to Guanaja, Honduras for a weeklong DIY saltwater trip and sat down to tie some permit flies for the trip.
I had talked with a bunch of people that had been down there to fish and researched all kinds of crab photos.
With all the standard stuff I began to play around with a more imitative Reef Crab imitation. Looking for a more mixable alternative to wool, I tried using rabbit instead- which ended up working nicely. By adding in some deer hair, we got a fantastic, mottled effect.
Long story short, ended up with two DIY permit that week on that initial olive version. Over the past few years, we have had this fly do very well everywhere, Bahamas, Belize, Mexico, even made some in roads with a handful of Florida Keys guides.
When Pat Cohen came out with the laser cut claws I played around with a few and thought they looked like a great fit. After fishing with them, I am convinced they work even better.”