I haven’t fished crayfish flies but find myself at a new lake that’s proving to be a little tough and I’m thinking crayfish and streamers may be the way to go.
When fishing crayfish does it always have to be on the bottom…or there abouts…or will they work higher up in the water column?
fish like the little puff of silt and dirt that a crayfish stir up when it moves a long the bottom
There will be a lot of flack about this, but a well respected warm water writer/publisher told me recently that fishing crayfish flys was a waste of time.
Time to sink in…
When a game fish attacts a crayfish it will strike it repeatedly to stun it and try to avoid the pinchers.
If you strike when you feel the fish hit the fly you will rarely connect, as the fish may not yet have the fly in it’s mouth.
Minnow imitations are always a better choice
Fire away…
fishing will do a lot for a man, but it won’t make him truthful
I do have a pattern that I use in burnt orange (not a crayfish pattern, but more a baitfish) but, I have used it on a Lake we have here that is full of crayfish. I used my depth charge line and quick jerks-pause-more jerks. I have caught a lot of big fish with this, even in 55+ feet of water. The fly is a multi tasking fly however. LOL
My experience with crayfish flies is limited to fishing them on moving water so I can’t say this will be directly transferable. I dead drift them about 80% to 90% of the time. In really big, deep, slow pools I’ll bump them along the bottom a couple if inches and let it sit. I’ve taken fish this way but the dead drift in moving water has been far more productive (at least for smallmouth). I can’t say I’d put much stock in what this "well know writer/publisher,? says 'cause my experience as a completely unknown and unpublished fly fisher tells me other wise.
While I wouldn’t be without some streamer, minnow patterns, sculpin and woolly buggers for that matter, you’ll not find me on a smallmouth river without a crayfish pattern in my box and most likely on my line!
If nothing else has worked what do you have to lose? Only few bucks on the flies and some quality time fishing. I fail to see the down side.
Good luck ducksterman, give a crayfish pattern a try or two, you might be pleasantly surprised!
Joe B
SW Ohio
“I grew up in PA, I work in Ohio. My heart still belongs to PA.”
[This message has been edited by alra195 (edited 05 March 2006).]
Duckster,
Crawfish are night feeders so they are best fished on overcast days. Usually the fish tend to stay away from the ones with the big pinchers. I have only fished them in moving water for smallies dead drifted and hopped along the bottom over rocks. The water is usually the deeper slower pools. Everything after that is clousers and minnow imitations. There was just a periodical out on crawfish flies and their habits. If you email me I will try and look for it.
Seege
Dudley
Please take no offence but a crayfish pattern I tie is one of two primary flies my buddy and I use in warmwater fishing(occationaly we will use a popper). The crayfish fly not only slams LM bass, but crappie, warmouth, catfish, and it is the only fly we use for carp. My buddy fishes over 200 days a year and it is his favorite fly.
Ducksterman
Crayfish live on the bottom. Here in OK
we fish a crayfish on every trip in warm weather. We fish them from a boat casting to the bank and retrieving with slow 6-8 inch strips, just pulling it across the bottom. Pause for a 1 or 2 count ( longer ocationationaly if you can stand it). Once in a while we will give it a short quicker strip. By moving it slowing you give the impression that it has molted and is just getting its movement back and is vunerable.
Keep your crafish simple , no legs and small pincers , and a color that will has contrast with the bottom of the lake. The fly should also be weedless so you can throw it into cover.
I hope this helps.
[This message has been edited by okflyfisher (edited 06 March 2006).]
[This message has been edited by okflyfisher (edited 06 March 2006).]
No offence taken at all OK’
The opinion in my post was something John Lakakis spoke of recently.
I mentioned it only as a little fuel for the fire.
The recent article about fishing crayfish
Fly Fisherman Magazine
March 2006 issue.
“Fishig Crayfish: 7 Best Patterns”
I cleaned some bluegill a couple summers ago and found several of them with various small crawfish parts in their digestive tracks. A claw here, the tail there…looks like they ganged up on a couple crawfish and picked it to pieces.
One of the bluegill had an entire crawfish in its digestive track. The mudbug was maybe an inch and a half long and the bluegill was maybe 6 inches long. I was surprised it could even get the crawfish in its mouth (or that it was still hungry for what I was tossing).
I haven’t tried crawfish flies yet mostly because the trout I’ve seen in the water close to crawfish just ignore them. Maybe it’s because the crawfish is too big or has full sized claws or hasn’t molted recently enough?
Seems like a “cripple” pattern would do better here than one with life-sized claws. Maybe even leave one entire claw off the pattern and undersize the other one?
Not firing!!!..Just stating as to how I tend to fish a Crayfish pattern.
which is a primary fly for me…For trout,Large and Small Mouth Bass, PIKE !!! and others in that family… Pretty much anything with fins slams em… Carp too…
I like to pulse a very heavily weighted ( I use two weighting methods on my patterns in conjuntion with each other) weather slow or fast water does’nt make a whole lot of differance as I fish em slow in either situation…by useing both strips and the rod tip…and I only strike when I FEEL the weight of the fish…This is still my best pattern for Pike/Pickerl and the occasional Muskie in “Streams”, I Love PA!!
In the lakes and ponds that i fish, I really do well chucking them to or even, On the bank. and crawling it in off the bank letting it pull silt as I do so.working the fly out over open water as the bank drops off…This really gets results at times…Never be affraid to experiment!! with any pattern…You just never know…and I’d not tell anyone to not try any pattern either…Unless I was saving the info for myself alone…but thats not me! Give them a real shot Duckster!!! You’ll not regret it… But if you’d rather not fish a fly that a well known writer/publisher say’s fish will strike “Repeatedly”…Thats up to your discretion as well… 
…LOL
[This message has been edited by billknepp (edited 06 March 2006).]
Dudley, I believe that fish DO attack to stun crayfish. Last fall I caught a feisty smallmouth that was hooked on the OUTside of his jaw. That makes perfect sense, if he was smashing the thing from the side. I had to be pretty careful removing the hook and I was impressed by how hard he had hit a #12 hook.
Ed
Troutoids not interested? Really?
The ones at Rocky Ford used to be greatly interested in crawdad looking bugs about 30 seasons back. Others would be fishing little speck’o’dirt bugs and the troutoids near the hatchery (rocky area there ) would be gobbling “dads”.
Hey LF, did the trees below the highway (17 I think?) ever take?
…lee s.