Well lately I’ve been tying alotta simple crayfish flies, tho the back is kinda hard to get with the shank facing up. So are there any simpler patterns? Right now I make mine using bead strings for eyes, rooster neck for claws, rubber legs and flash for antennas, tan marabou for body filler, and turkey tail for a back.
The D-bugger I have been tying and using for many years works just fine as a crawdad imitation, in either the mottled tan or the mottled green. I kept a 14" brown trout once for a demonstration on fish cleaning, and when we opened it up, it had a dozen little crawdads the same size and color as the bugger I caught it on in its stomach.
So I never bothered with claws, tails, antennae, and all that. The fish don’t seem to care.
Pan:
I make a simple craw using Kreel Claws for the claws; Furry Foam for the shell back; I-Balz for the eyes and Etaz or some long fibered chenille like Bill Skilton’s Woolly Bugger Hackle for the body. I then use thin D-Rib or some other vinyl tubing for a rib; no antennas, no extra legs.
The Kreel Claws make adding claws a 30 second operation and tying the whole pattern takes no time at all.
Oh yea; they work just fine too!
Burnt Orange Woolybugger.
Hook; size 12 long shank.
Tail; Burnt Orange Marabou & two Copper colored fibers of Krystal Flash.
Body; J. Fair- Burnt Orange Short Shuck (chenile).
Hackle; J. Fair- Burnt Orange Saddle Hackle.
Head; Copper Metal Bead.
This fly has been one of my favorites.
Doug
I make a really simple furry foam crayfish that is a producer.
Takes about one minute to tye.
It’s a silhoute pattern, and not an exact replica.
It was listed on the board some while back; chris’s crayfish
If you like I can send you one or two to try.
take care,
chris
I firmly believe that the more detail you add to a fly, the easier it is for a fish to tell it’s a fraud.
For crayfish, I use a woollybugger with leadeyes
Dudley,
I like the way you think and I have to agree with you. My flies are not a work of art but they catch fish.
Larry 
—sagefisher—
I can’t remember where I read it but someone did a study with bass and their reaction to crayfish imitations missing different characteristics. Some had no claws, no legs, or no tails. As long as the imitation had a tail the fish repsonded. Nothing else seemed to have any effect either way. I still add claws, but its definitly something to consider.
Hi,
I tend to use an olive wooly bugger with grizzle hackle for crayfish (called koura here in NZ). According to Keith Draper’s book on NZ flies, Fred Fletcher’s Fuzzy Wuzzys were intended to represent a Koura (they are basically a tail of black squirrel tail body length, and the body is cheneil or dubbed wool of colour of your choice, with two black colar hackles, one tied mid body and one at the front in the normal position). A Red Setter is basically a fuzzy wuzzy, but the tail is fox squirrel and the hackles ginger. Apparently the first fuzzy wuzzies were tied with a palmer hackle, making them very close to a wooly bugger (different tail material). You could split the tail to splay outwards to represent two sets of claws.
- Jeff
Try brown wooly buggers. I like tying in the smaller sizes since they catch small as well as Large fish.
I tie an easy crawdad imitation that I learned at my local fly shop. We call it a Gitzit . . . Anyways it’s as follows:
#4 Mustad 3366
Med Lead eyes tied on clouser style
Marabou tail, like a wooly bugger
Estaz or Ice Chenille body
A couple rubber legs tied in at the lead eyes
I tie them in olive and brown. Olive seems to be my favorite version. It’s an easy tie that works.
-wayne
Heres what I tie. These are my best 2, but they were my first attempts. The big one I put the eyes on underneath.:rolleyes:
And the little one I shoulda put more tail as a back. Though the tail can’t stay fanned out well, I’ll have to find a replacement material.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff111/Panfisha/crayflies.jpg
Hello Panfisha,
Here is another one for you. The Texas Crawdad:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/072103fotw.php
Easy to tie, easy to cast and easy to fish.
Cheers,
Richard in Plano TX
Wayne, do have a picture or link to your Gitzit? I’d like to try tying it.
Thanks,
Tim
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff231/bugman9/SNV30246.jpg
this is 1 i tie thate easy… the main underbody is bucktail, eyes are 2 beads tied on a 1/4" length of 15 or 20lb mono, overbody is rabit dubbing, claws are just 2 hen hackle tied on with the tips cut off, shellback is a strip of clear plastic (can use what ya have if ya aint got shrimpback), segmates are made from either a length of mono or wire…
One of the best and easiest to tie is the full motion crayfish developed by Stephen May and Ken Collins. Great looking imitation, first saw Stephen tying this at a show & sale, works very good on Big Browns.
http://flyfisherman.com/ftb/Full%20motion%20Crayfish.pdf
The only difference with the one I saw him tie was that he also added a pair of eyes at the claw end.