[longball]

I don't know if this is a question for the fly tying or Hybred forum but I am sure someone here would know. A couple of years ago I was bluegill fishing and this old man had a whole flybox with these little flies in them that was a cricket harness, for lack of a better term. They were in an assortment of colors and from the little time I got to look at them they didn't look manufactured. ( he slammed the case shut when I looked to long). He said he ties them and they had a cricket harness on them so he could hook up his cricket without sticking a hook in it and killing it. He used a cane pole and just sat it around brush and had a huge stringer. A little info would be great, I have been trying to tie this for 2 years and don't have anything close.

[VARick]

At first I thought you might be trying to describe a gurgler. Let me see if I can find a pic of a cricket type gurgler and post it. Do you have a pic of what you have been trying to tie to resemble what you saw?




The gurgler above is not a cricket imitation.. but you could always tie it up in black .. use black rubber legs.. black antenna etc... probably leave out the hackle underbody, and use just a black tinsel underbody.. black flash tail.

[VARick]

Give this one a try... very realistic cricket fly



this one in black is what I was thinking about in the previous msg.

[longball]

It kinda looked like a very tiny jig. The head part I could tell was epoxy that had been painted. The interesting part of the fly was that it was a holder for a live cricket. He put a cricket on the hook without poking it with the hook. It was almost like a cricket seat belt. Was very cool and interesting. When I offered to buy one or atleast hold it the old fart slammed the box shut and said I can't look anymore. He had it tied to the end of a canepole and just floated around letting the live cricket sit on the water beside bushes he would hold it very close to a bush and it made a commotion trying to get on a leaf and he ended up with the best stringer out there. He said he does it all the time. He had gills in a basket that I know he had to fold to get in there. I can make something close but the wire to hold on the cricket looks like it would hinder a bite. Don't know. I was just wondering if anyone here had or even knew of something like it. Thanks.