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Spent a bit of today topping up my #10 weight fly box with a batch of Large Mud Prawns.

It’s hard to believe just how many salt water species will take a well-presented prawn bait.

If your looking for a great all round salt water fly this one, in one of the sizes below, is more than worthy of consideration.

My original Mud Prawn was designed by me as a prawn bait to target whiting flathead and bream on the tidal sand flats of Lake Illawarra in NSW close to where I lived at that time.

Progressively bigger versions were tied and they have caught not only those original target species in other locations but all sorts of other fish.

This Small Mud Prawn is the perfect size for whiting, flathead and bream and smaller other temperate and tropical salt water species.

My recipe for my Mud Prawn remains basically the same today as it did in 2004 except for a couple of alternative materials choices being substituted on Medium Mud prawn that was added to the web site in 2010 and the Large Mud Prawn that was added in 2014.

If your going to tie some mud prawns I suggest you read the materials lists for all three versions and decide which materials will work best for you.

This Small Mud Prawn was my original Mud Prawn. It was developed over a couple of seasons and finally after proving itself in that initial role which was chasing whiting in the entrance of Lake Illawarra was was to my web site in 2003.

In water of only a meter or so fish it on an intermediate line. In deeper water I prefer to fish it on a fast sinking line. The best retrieve is a jerky but slow retrieve leaving plenty of time between strips for he fly to settle back on the bottom. Used in this way it's a good representation of a prawn fleeing from its sandy retreat after being disturbed. Pumpkin legs work best in very clear water and red or orange barred legs are my choice in dirtier water.

This crossover Medium Mud Prawn works well in temperate and more tropical waters and is my goto size when targeting bigger bream and flathead in and around mangroves and drowned timber, rock walls and rock bars. I generally fish the Medium Mud Prawn on one of my #8 weight fly outfits matched to an intermediate or fast sink line depending on water depth and find that the same retrieve that works on the Small Mud Prawn also work well on the Medium Mud Prawn.

The Large Mud Prawn was added to the web site in 2017 just a year after I started spending a lot more time targeting larger estuary species and salt water barramundi in and around Gladstone in Central Queensland.

The #3/0 version of the Large Mud Prawn is the biggest of my mud prawns. It’s accounted for Giant, Golden and Common Trevally, barramundi (may largest to date on this fly being 98cm) and a wide range of demersal species.

My preferred set up when targeting barra, grunter or fingermark is a #10 weight outfit an intermediate line and a 9 foot 30lb maxima leader. I find that it's best to cast well into structure or where the fish are holding and then give the fly plenty of time to settle. Sometimes on barra a slow retrieve with fairly long pauses works well whereas for fish like GT's and queenies faster retrieves often bring fish unstuck.

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