orange crush fly

The Orange Crush is simply an orange estaz or krystal flash woolly Bugger on a 4X, down-eye Tempco streamer hook, weighted in various ways. The exact hook is unimportant so long as it’s 3 or 4X long.

Hook: Size 2 to 4 Tempco TMC 300 4X
Thread: 6/0 white Uni-Thread
Tail: Cream Marabou
Flash: None, built into body
Body: Krystal Flash hot orange chenille.
Legs: Rubber


To Begin...Tie on some thread and start a small end piece of lead. Tightly wrap back the lead to just above the curve of the hook.
Weighting the FlyIf you leave the lead in the front half of the fly, it will tip forward, if that’s what you want. I like to dead drift a lot of these flies at times and find a body length wrap keeps them floating in a neutral position rather than diving down. If I’m looking for diver types, I’ll usually tie in dumbbell heads.

Tie in the Marabou
Lay in about two inches of one stalk of marabou, don’t cut off the excess. I use it for body filler, saving on chenille. Simply palmer the marabou stalk forward to near the head area.

Quick Streamer: You can actually make a “quick streamer” with just the marabou body that offers a thinner profile than the Orange Crush. Just wrap the excess marabou body stalk forward, leave the strands of marabou alone and then palmer the hackle forward - DONE!

Back to the Orange Crush..
Start an end piece and work it forward the the head, leaving about 1/4 inch on the end.

Rubber Legs:
I tie in the rubber legs using a square knot. I’m sure there’s better ways of doing it, but this seems to work OK. Wrap the chenille cross-says around either side of the rubber to help maintain a nice “outrigger” profile. Then continue forward to the head area.

Palmer hackle and finish.
Then come forward with the hackle starting with the narrow piece in the rear and wrapping forward with the longer hackle strands toward the head of the fly. See finished fly above.

I use nail polish as head cement. It doubles as a head cement with enough sparkle to avoid adding consuming eyes and epoxy.