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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.

Materials

Process

A	Using tight touching wraps tie in a base of cotton thread where the lead shot is going to be located. Understanding hooks Tie the cotton thread off and trim the excess.

B	I should say at this point that between manufacturers of lead shot there is not set sizing. So whilst one manufacturer may regard 'size 1' as 4mm the next may regard 'size 0 as 4mm'. Other manufacturers measure their lead shot by weight and that is just as dodgy. The sizes I have given above are the diameter of the lead shot along the split. Take a lead split shot and if necessary using a knife blade open up the split. Adding weight to a fly Turn the hook over in the vice. Put a drop of super glue in the split of the shot or on the base of cotton thread and firmly crimp a lead shot on the shank of the hook leaving a space in front of the lead shot about as wide as the lead shot itself. Tie your clear monofiliment thread in behind the lead shot.

C	Tie the overlocking thread in directly behind the lead shot and tie it along the bottom of the hook shank until directly below the point of the hook.

D	Build up a cone shaped body of overlocking thread directly behind the lead shot applying a little glue to the thread as you build up the body. Take the clear monofilament thread forward to a position half way between the lead shot and the eye of the hook, Managing synthetic fibres

E	Prepare a set of burnt monofilament eyes that are equal in length to the gape of the hook. Monofilament eyes Tie the monofilament eyes in half way between the front of the lead shot and the eye of the hook.

F	Using the table above as a guide count out the required number of strands of Super Hair and strands of Krystal Flash. The fly I am tying here is on a 1/0 hook. The Super Hair I am using is 27cm long so I have counted out 60 strands of Super Hair which will become the required 180 strand of Super Hair when tripled up. In the same vain I have selected 3 strands of Krystal Flash that are 34cm long that will become the 9 strands of Krystal Flash and when I finish tying the fly I carefully trim one of the 9 strands of Krystal Flash out of the fly reducing the Krystal Flash in the finished fly to 8 as required in the table above.

G	I like the Krystal Flash to be evenly dispersed through the Super Hair so I do that manually whilst both are still their full length. Trim the mixed Super Hair and Krystal Flash in the gap between the lead shot and the monofilament eyes.

H	You will notice that I have a white marker on my vice with shows me how long the mixed Super Hair and Krystal Flash has to be to create a 8cm fly as per the table above.

I	Trim the Super Hair and Krystal Flash at the marker and repeat step G2 twice tripling up the mixed Super Hair and Krystal Flash. So at this stage the fly has body / wing that as per the table above, given that it's tied on a size #1/0 hook, it now has a body / wing that is 9cm long constructed of 180 strands of Super Hair and 9 strands of Krystal which is fairly well dispersed throughout the body.

J	Tie in a set of legs on each side of the fly "Chernobyl" style in the gap between the lead shot and the eyes. Legs on flies Wind the monofilament thread forward to in front of the eyes whip finish and trim the thread. Mix a small quantity of 5 minute epoxy and put a generous coating over the eyes, the lead shot, along the bottom of the gut and all the tie ins. Be careful not to allow the epoxy to encroach down the body as you want the body to be free moving. Working with epoxy Rotate the fly whilst the epoxy goes off so as to ensure a nice symmetrical and round head.

Work in progress

This 2/0 9cm fly is a barra variant of my mud prawn that I am testing.

It is different to the original mud prawn in that:

1. Bib added to impart movement
2. I have swapped the flash over to gold as this is a favourite colour for barra lures.
3. I have swapped over from epoxy to UV cured resin. This has gone very well except that on hot days the UV resin runs too freely. Need the air conditioner on and the epoxy stored in a fridge for 10 minutes before use.
4. Trialling using squirmy wormy for legs. In have worked out so far that best to Uv resin the fly in two steps. The first to create the body shape and to coat the abdomen and lead shot and the second after tieing in the squirmy legs. For that step only apply a smear over the in of the legs and a drop on top of the legs to lock them in position.

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