Crayfish fly research...

[FishnDave]

I moved this out of the Crayfish Fly Swap thread, as I realized it might not have been the best place to post this info. But I thought it was interesting enough place it in a thread of its own.

I just read this on another fly-fishing website...(I'm not disloyal...I WAS TRYING TO RESEARCH CRAYFISH PATTERNS!!) ;o)

I'm reading the book Knowing Bass which is full of interesting scientic studies on bass, their habitat, food, spawning, etc.

I just read through a very interesting study and I guess the results are not that shocking but is something that I never gave alot of thought. The study was they took an anatomically correct platic crayfish and compared it to plastic crayfish minus different body parts. They tried 6 variations total; whole craw, no claws, no legs, no appendages, no head and no tail.

The results varied widely and they based the fact that the whole craw would eqaul a 100% strike response.

Here are the results

No appendages(tail only): 260%
No Claws: 160%
No Head: 125%
No Legs: 110%
Whole Craw: 100%
No Tail: 25%

This obviously shows that bass and probably other species are keying in on the tails. I have heard alot of people claim that no claws or small claws are the way to go and I can buy that but the claws in this study did not really make that much of an impact either way. Instead it was the tail of the crayfish that causes the strike response to swing widely to both extremes.

Makes me think I should try a clawless crayfish pattern...

[pdowney]

Hmmm....that's interesting. Maybe just another example of how a fish eye/brain keys on different things than a human eye/brain.

and here I have paid so much attention to the claws and was so proud of how they looked in the water and never even paid attention to the tail. Need to figure out how to make some sort of a tail thingy that bends and unbends as it's twitched thru the water and try it out this weekend

[dudley]

Somethin' like this maybe ??

[FishnDave]

To me, if it doesn't have claws, it really doesn't look like a crayfish. But of course I want to use something the FISH really like. Apparently they aren't as impressed by the claws as we are?

In the study, a tail with no other body parts elicited the most strikes from the plastic bait.

I wonder how often a fish see's a bodiless crayfish tail swim by?? I can only imagine a fly that looked like just the tail would be rather bizarre looking.

[pdowney]

Somethin' like this maybe ??

OMG!!! That's brilliant!!!! What do you call that!!!

Actually I was thinking something like a backwards WB. e.g. put a dumbell wt at the eye such that the hook points up, make a crayfish body (kind of WBish) and attach some sort of tail at the eye pointing forwards so that the shape bends in the middle as you strip it. I'll try it both w/ a small claw and clawless. I usually fish clueless, why not clawless?

[TB Wannabe]

I have recently read (can't remember where) that fish prefer crayfish in lighter colors as that is an indicator of a recently molted one and they are more defenseless and easier to eat.

Anyone have any real world experience to corroborate that?

[Janus]

Very interesting. I always thought the tail of a bugger simulated a claw. So by my thinking it would be a wolly worm with two antennas for a tail? a bigger, exaggerated, front weighted jitterbee maybe?