Crawfish pattern

[Leo C]

I'm looking for some fairly easy to tie succesful crawfish patterns. I've never tied any nor fished one. I already looked at the ones in the fly of the week archives.

Bass would be the target. The spot I've been fishing the average size is 1.5 to 4 lbs. Also what size hook would you recomend.

Thanks,
Leo C

[ozarkflyflinger57]

Leo,

Here is a fly I made using typical stuff you'd have for tying a woolly bugger. Additions are leads dumbbell eyes and round rubber for the antenna, the rest is marabou, chenille, and hackle.
[url=http://members.cox.net/dwest6/CB.htm:c7858]http://members.cox.net/dwest6/CB.htm[/url:c7858]

Dan

[northjerseyflyguy]

I've done all right by tying regular woolly buggers in crawdad colors and separating the marabou tail using the same technique you use on hair wing dries. After quite a bit of frustration over the tail unwinding, I also add a drop of a cement that penetrates well to the base of the tail where I've wound the thread to creat "craw-claws".

[Richard Komar]

Hello Leo,

If you are still looking for a simple crawfish pattern for bass, you might want to take a look at this Fly-of-the-Week from the FAOL archives:
[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/072103fotw.html:20fda]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/072103fotw.html[/url:20fda]

It is called a Texas Crawdad.

Cheers,

Richard
Plano TX

[Rodney]

Harry Murray has a nice crawdad pattern in his book, "Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass". I did a google for the pattern online but did not find it. He uses fox squirrel tail for the claws, shell and tail; chenille for the body and soft hackle for the legs. Some ribbing for the "sections". I am a new tyer and knocked off a decent version after a few tries. I plan on using it soon here in the streams of northern Ky for smallmouth. The book is very helpful for all aspects of smallmouth fishing and has several patterns by Murray, Whitlock and others. Well worth the $16.95 to me. Good luck!

[Rodney]

Also, Murray recommends hook sizes 2-8 for his crawdad.

Leo... I've done real well with a woolie variation I tie. I use a brown over burnt orange.. or rust .. marabou tail, a THICK peacock body, usually 4-6 herls, a very webby silver badger hackle and a bead head and I tie it very heavily weighted. I also use a copper wire rib counter wrapped on the peacock and badger hackle. One of the keys is the hackle has to be very webby so the action on the retrieve isn't affected. I use a cheap Indian neck I bought and it works great. Trout, smallies, rock bass, and a bunch of bream will attest to how it works. I use either a 4XL or 6XL hook if I can.


Mike

------------------
There is no greater fan of flyfishing than the worm.


Patrick McManus

[Leo C]

Thanks to all who took the time to offer suggestions. The info.is most helpful. I'll tie some up and give them a try.

Leo C.

Here's something to look into.


[url=http://www.mcflyshop.com/articles/:85fe5]www.mcflyshop.com/articles/[/url:85fe5]


Mike

[This message has been edited by maddog48 (edited 16 October 2005).]

[James Smith]

There are many crawfish patterns available and most of them work faily well, many of them are just a pain to tie. I like simple patterns especially when I'm planning to toss them into timber or rocks. That being said, you might look at this pattern as it looks very simple to tie and looks fishy.
[url=http://www.onlineflytyer.com/article_mudbugs.asp:fb9af]http://www.onlineflytyer.com/article_mudbugs.asp[/url:fb9af]

If you can't get the link to work, go to onlineflytyer and look for the Statler's Mud Bug.

Good luck.

Jim Smith


Jim Smith