Over time i have expirimented with many types of crawdad patterns but to no avail. I cant find a craw pattern thats fairly easy to tie and works. Does anyone have a pattern that they like peticulary well? Please include the recipe if you dont mind?
Quitcha B****IN and lets gooooo fishin
Bass, I learned a simple crawfish fly that works from the guys at Wapsi. They were tying these at the Sowbug Roundup 2 or 3 years ago.
Hook: 3X or 4X long streamer hook size 8
Weight: lead dumb-bell eyes
Claws: short section of a crawdad orange pine squirrel strip
Antenna: rubber leg material
Body: brown pine squirrel strip wound up the hook shank
After attaching the dumb-bell eyes, wrap the thread back to the bend. Tie in the rubber leg material extending past the back of the hook. Wrap a small ball of dubbing to separate the claws and then tie in the claws. Tie in the brown pine-squirrel strip and wrap it on the hook shank, stroking the fur back as you make each turn.
When you get to the front take a couple of wraps around the lead eyes and tie off.
That’s it. Simple, but the smallmouth bass around here love it.
Steve
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went”-Will Rogers
BA-04… check in the archives here. There’s a bunch of crawdad patterns. Just go to the left column under fly tying. Then go to the fly of the week archives and scroll. I think there’s about 5 or 6 patterns listed…
Mike
You can observe allot by watching…
Yogi Berra
There is a pattern in the archive called the Texas Crawfish. It’s easy to tie. I did up a bunch of them last week. I haven’t used them yet - will give them a try this spring, but it looks like it will do the trick.
CJ
The only limitations we have are the ones we put on ourselves.
I looked at the Texas Crawfish and plan on tying a couple, but was wondering it the hook used had some specific benefit. Will the bends in the shaft make it fish better, tie easier, or whatever?
Adam
vox clamantis in deserto
i use the same hooks to tie large poppers so that the cork doesnt rotate and stays in plays. Im not really sure for the purpose of the crinks but i used the Mustad 33903 hook when i tied mine in case their was a purpose. The person to ask is Richard Komar.
Quitcha B****IN and lets gooooo fishin
[This message has been edited by Bass_Angler_04 (edited 11 January 2005).]
E-mail me with your address. I will send you a sample, & recipe of a craw pattern that is not only dang realistic, but works better then any I’ve used !!! I call it Whitey’s Craw (nicknamed after a local friend that showed me how to tie it). Takes 30-45 minutes once you get the recipe down; so you won’t tie or want to lose a lot of them. (Do use an olive, or a brown/amber ???)
I have to agree with Castwell. The plastic mini-crawfish (3" and below) work the best for largemouth. They are weedless, cheaper than “real flies” and the action you can give them on a fly rod is outstanding. For river and smallmouth fishing a lighter (weight wise) craw fly works well with split shot up the leader. Use a nymph or dead drift method on these. The bucktail craw fly would do nicely. But don’t over look the virtues of soft plastic on a fly rod.
I find tying a small version of Al Campbell’s shrimpf in red and black with a little flash works well enough as a crawfish imitator in my dingy central Lousiana lakes. It’s a quick and easy tie and I think the fish interpret it either to be a small minnow or a crawfish. I also like that the body and winging material is very flexible based on what I have. I can use yarn, chenille, dubbing, antron, or whatever I have on hand for the body and bucktail pieces, squirrel, craft fur, or kip’s tail for the wing to customize the fly to mimic local colorations of crawfish and/or minnows. Do a search for “shrimpf” on FAOL and you’ll find the pattern.
Kevin Smith
Central Louisiana
My favorite crawfish pattern–
Weight: clouser style
Body: root beer estatz
tail: brown marabou
attenae: copper crystal flash, left a little long
I like to use a #4 mustad baitsaver hook on this; it has a nice short shank and hooks extremely well. The root beer body on this fly looks surprisingly realistic crawling over a rock. Most of the smallmouth writers say that fish prefer softshell crayfish without pincers. I am no expert, but this fly did account for my biggest riverine smallie (18").
Russ
Here is a “Sugar Creek Craw” that I developed using siliskin and Knot Sense. Never caught a fish on one yet and too hard to tie anyways.
I’m voting for the one Biot Midge posted because it sounds well proven and straightforward to tie.
They all sound fun to tie though.
Rich
[This message has been edited by flymaker2 (edited 11 January 2005).]
I like Whitlock’s Near Nuff Crawfish. I can’t lay hands on the recipe right now but the video (which also has the Near Nuff Sculpin on it) is my favorite flyfishing video.
Chuck Hitt
ive tied the Near Nuff Sculpin and have liked the results. Somewhere i heard about the Near Nuff Crawfish but i cant find the recipe either.
Quitcha B****IN and lets gooooo fishin
I cant believe that u have yet to catch a fish of that Sugar Creek Craw. It looks good enough for me to eat (i eat crawdads like popcorn, being raised in southern alabama)It just proves what can be apealing to our eye can be the exact opposite to a fish’s
Quitcha B****IN and lets gooooo fishin
Bass_Angler_04,
It is more me than the fly. I was fishing for some pretty picky trout. The local guru said to use a craw, so I made some of these. When he saw them, he steered me towards one tied with softer materials and mostly Rabbit Fur.
That Sugar Creek Craw will most likely work, but maybe for smallmouths or LMB. I don’t get to fish for them much. Someday!
Thanks,
Rich
Hello Helicopsyche,
The “humped” hook is to aid in holding the “exoskeleton” in place. To make the Crawdad extra-durable, when you wind the chenille to the hump, bind it there with a few extra turns of thread, then finish spiralling the chenille. This is helpful in securing body dresings for tying large, long shank flies.
Will it catch fish if you do not use a humped hook? Yes, most definitely. The weed guard does help quite a bit. Bead chain or dumbell eyes can be substituted for more weight.
Thank you for your interest in the Texas Crawdad. If you need a frog to go along with your crawdad, may I suggest the Texas BullFrog?
Cheers,
Richard
Plano TX
Richard that Texas Bulfrog is just crazy. I can’t believe I have overlooked it.
Are any of you Dallas guys coming up to the Little Missouri Festival that Jeff Guerin puts on?
Chuck Hitt
Hello Chuck,
The Little Missouri event is on the Dallas Flyfishers’ calendar:
[url=http://www.dallas-flyfishers.org/Misc%20New%20Pages/Outings.htm:cb5d5]http://www.dallas-flyfishers.org/Misc%20New%20Pages/Outings.htm[/url:cb5d5]
Some club members will be going. I have to pass myself.
I will be at Sowbug 2005 in Mountain Home AR in March. On Thursday afternoon, 17 March, I will be tying BIG Texas BullFrogs (size 1/0, 18mm doll-eyes and 5 inches long). Come on by my tying station (look for the Dingo vise) and I’ll tye one just for you. You can get it in any color as long as it’s olive 
.On Friday, 18 March, I will be tying another FOTW of mine, the Raptor.
Cheers,
Richard
Plano TX
This has been a great help to me and thank everyone who posted. If anyone else whould like to post feel free.
“Quitcha B****IN’ and lets goooo fishin’!”-COOL CHANGE, Capt. Joe Nash
BA-04… I have a woolie type pattern that I tie that has worked EXTREMELY well on some local waters. Tie a brown over rust marabou tail, a peacock herl body tied thick and a VERY webby Silver Badger hackle. I get mine off a cheap Indian neck I have had for quite awhile. I tie mine with a bead head and a heavily weighted body. I tried a furnace hackle with the same body and the fish wouldn’t touch it. I think the biggest problem with that though was the hackle was almost a dry fly quality and I think it made the pattern act a little differently in the water. I fished a creek where we found a rock shelf. We threw the flies onto the shelf and slowly pulled them off and let them drop. The hits were vicious. Tie plenty of these if you use them because they will get ripped up. You may want to counter wrap the hackle with a copper wire to try to improve the durability.
Mike
You can observe allot by watching…
Yogi Berra