Tying a belly weighted Shrimp - Saltwater version

Tying a belly weighted Shrimp – Saltwater version

This is a shrimp pattern created with a more realistic Shrimp look, with hook point up, and weighted at the belly that enable for both mid water and bottom fishing, targeting Bonefish, Trigger and also Permit… I”m sure any species that feed on shrimps will be on the list.

The challenge of this pattern is the balancing of the shrimp .. unlike pattern that commonly tied with dumbbell weight at hook eye, this pattern will rest sideways. So what I did was introduced a pair of short mono line as support near the belly ( why a short pcs? – too long the rubber legs will foul on the mono and the longer the mono, the more water resistance which will affect the action ). We have seen many who use mono line or vinyl string as legs to support the shrimp, but to my opinion… these are very important components of the pattern which supposed to moves and gives action to attract fish attention.

I also notice, most shrimp are semi translucent in water, I find that natural material like Snowrunner Dubbing did well in this as it have long and fine fibers, which give a great semi translucent effect on the body, where the color under the dubbing will appear once wet. Long fibers when brushed out will also give a great buggy look too.

Some long natural material with guard hair was introduced in the pattern, sort of like their antenna or legs, mainly for more movement and ‘life’ build into the pattern. Even the material for legs, soft sililegs and small rubber legs which moves was used for this reason.

Material List:

Hook – Ahrex SA250 #4 – 1

Opossum Fibers

Mink Fur

Deer Creek Mega Lazer Dubbing – Orange

Deer Creek Faux Bucktail

FTN Shrimp Eye

UV ICE Dubbing and Krystal Flash

Tungsten Belly weight

SnowRunner Dubbing Mix – White

Surgical tape

Markers

Step by step picture tutorial

Always build a good thread base on your hook.

Tie in the Tungsten belly weight at the mid of the curve.

I always like to use some surgical tape to wrap around to create the taper of the body, this saved me a lot of thread.

Now tie in the UV ICE dubbing

I would color the belly now, or you can choose to color it before you put in the dubbing.

Tie in some Opossum fibers

Fold the fiber and tie down.

This is optional, I tie in some orange rabbit zonker fibers.

Turn the hook over and tie in some Mink fur.

Now tie in the UV krystal flash.

Prepare the sililegs, tie in at top of both side, this is to lift the legs from the ground, give it a chance to move.

Wind in some orange DC Mega Lazer Dub

Now tie in some Opossum fibers, make sure you select those with guard hair.

Tie in a pair of FTN crab eye, continue to tie down the mono until the hook eye, keep the balance of the mono.

This is optional step, I’ve tie in some rabbit fur to act as hot spot.

Now cover the head with Mink fur.

Tie in the 1st pair of rubber legs.

Continue with the 2nd pairs.

You will notice I tie them on the top instead of commonly tie below. This is also to lift the legs high so the have the room to moves in water

Tie in the opossum fibers. Trim the extra and tie down the balance on the hook shank.

Now I would tie in some DC faux bucktail in shrimp tan color, this will give the shrimp the color and also to limit the natural fiber from fouling around the hook.