TYER Frank Reid
HOOK Mustad 37160 size 2/0 to 10
WEIGHT lead wire
THREAD contrasting color, heavy
FEELERS about 10 to 20 deer hairs
ANTENNA Matching color rubber legs (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long)
EYES plastic bead chain
BODY chenille
SHELL plastic raffia covered in 5 minute epoxy
CLAWS Zonker (rabbit for size 6 and larger, mink or pine squirrel for 8 and smaller)
COMMENTS Colors of the thread and body parts are what you want to match the local crawfish. Tan is a good general color.
Hook up in the vise, tie in the deer hair on the bottom of the hook, just back of the point.
Tie in the rubber legs on top of this (if you stretch it away from you at a 45 degree angle going down, it will come out even).
On top of the hook (inside), tie in two plastic bead chain eyes. I have about 100 yard of the stuff in orange from the craft store. Figure 8 two in (one either side of the hook). Its easier to leave them as part of the chain until you've tied them in, then snip off the rest.
Tie in about 2 inches of plastic raffia right behind the eyes. Bring the raffia forward between the eyes, along the top of the hook and tie in again forward of the hook. Bring the thread back behind the eyes.
Tie in a six inch piece of chenille behind the eyes.
On top of that tie in two pieces of zonker, fur up at a 45 degree angle from the hook. On a size 4 hook, these are about 3/4" long. On a size 10, about a half an inch. I add a drop of super glue on top of the thread here to hold them in place.
Bring the thread down to the second bend (towards the eye).
Wrap the chenille around the base of the zonker, then forward, between the eyes, around once and back around the base of the zonkers again, continuing down to the second bend (towards the eye). Two wraps of thread go around the chenille at this point.
Lightly loosen the hook in the vise, and bring it down so that the shaft with the eye is parallel with the tying bench. Wrap thread to the eye and bring the thread back to the second bend.
Wrap the last third of the shaft with lead wire. Don't use much more. I'll explain later.
Continue wrapping the chenille to the eye (the thread is at the second bend).
Bring the raffia back along the top of the body to the second bend and give it a couple of wraps of thread. With the raffia laying along the shaft to the eye, use the thread to section this in about three sections to the eye, with the final wrap just behind the eye.
Lift the raffia and tie off the thread behind the eye. Clip the raffia PAST the eye, and splay it out. This makes a nice little tail.
You can now use head cement, fingernail polish or epoxy on the raffia to give it some sheen and harden it up. Epoxy works the best.
I use a loop type knot on this fly. That gives it a bit more wiggle. The weight at the last third of the hook sends the eye down and the zonkers hold the front up. Thats also why I use plastic beadchain for the eyes. I don't want extra weight up front. This imitates a crawdad in the defensive "fightin'" position, which is how a fish would see it. Also, the hook is up. I've dragged it through brush many times without a snag. The bottom part of the hook is now an instant hook guard. Fish it in short jerks, let it settle and then jerk it again. This immitates a fleeing crawdad.

The size 10 works real well on large trout where there are crawdads in the stream or lake. The size 2-4 is great for smallies and largemouth. I have one friend who caught an 8 lb rainbow and a 6 lb bass on two successive casts with a size 4 in a southern Utah resevoir.
A picture is at [url=http://www.gula.org/roffswaps/recipe.php?page=FS2000&id=2:7320a]http://www.gula.org/roffswaps/recipe.php?page=FS2000&id=2[/url:7320a]
Good luck.
Frank Reid