In our neck of the woods when the crayfish molt their shells soften and turn somewhat orange. When this happens almost every smallie we get has claws sticking out of its’ throat and almost always the claws have orange rims on them. Every crayfish pattern I use has some orange built into it. Love the PS for the simplicity.
Thanks, Ronnie - I will look forward to fishing with you one day. Yes, please contact me the next time you are pouring jig heads and I will give you an order on what I would like to purchase.
By the way - I used my 5wt with the Transition Gold Furled Leader which gets this pattern down close to the bottom where it belongs.
Well, it has been fun, but, I got to go to the river and experiment some more. It is a real pain, but, someone has to do the experimenting!! : ) I will post another report later this evening…
PS - I forgot to mention that I am tying up my Pine Squirrel Claws using the Micro Pine Squirrel Zonkers in Sculpin Olive. I have not tied one up with orange yet. The Sculpin Olive is the color I use for John Scott’s Pine Squirrel Cheater and it has been a great pattern for me.
Great tie, Warren. I would love to “hook up” sometime if I am ever down your way. Please let me know if you are in my area, the Shenandoah is on fire right now if you can catch it not blown out from all the rain. Bring your Nucanoe and we can have a great float.
FYI, I tie my pine sq cheaters on a size 10 jig hook also for trout, they are really effective on our spring creeks.
If ever you are this way, just give me a call and we will set something up. You just had to mention “rain”! I really wanted to do more experimenting today, but, before I could get real good start, it started to rain hard and I walked in the rain, up the river bank for about a mile!! I did manage to catch 4 rainbows and one brown. The fog blanket over the river stayed all day. Oh, well, next time…
I have had great success with PSC and always have them in my fly box.
I wanted to give a progress report on the Pine Squirrel Crawfish. This smallmouth ate the orange craw. It’s only 15 inches, but it had some shoulders. My buddy and I continue to argue whether olive or orange work better. So far I seem to do better on the orange. I’m going to tie a few in black to see if they’re taken as a hellgramite.
Great! Thursday I caught my largest sm o the season on an orange PS Craw, just under 18", a healthy Shenandoah smallie.
Sorry the pic is upside down
I caught another smaller one that barfed a crawfish when I landed him, so they are feedin heavily on these now. The real specimen was an olive color with some orange mixed. Underwater maybe the orange pine squirrel looks like the real thing, I dont know, but orange is my best color.
I have tried something new recently, I will point my nucanoe toward the bank about 30 - 40 feet away, keep the kayak paddle in my lap, and float thru the long slower pools casting the PS Craw under a 3/4" thingamabobber. This allows me to make minor adjustments to the nucanoe while floating without having to let go of my rod. In the past I have done this with a popper, but the PS Craw fished this way is very effective. With any luck I can get at least a 10 foot drift on each cast and you can really cover a lot of water.
I tie John Scotts Pine Squirrel Cheater on the same jig hook in black as a helgammite imitation.
Beautiful smallmouth! Job well done. Glad to see you are enjoying your NuCanoe. I noticed the black thread knob which keeps dirt from getting into the threaded hole and thought I would let you know that my local Lowes had a plastic plug with a smooth head that you could push into the threaded locations that does not “attract” and catch fly line. Only those who own a NuCanoe will understand what I just said! : )
Thanks Warren, I will check those out. I have put up with them in part because of the dirt issue, but mainly I figured if I took them out I wouldnt be able to find them if I ever needed them. I did find some almost identical at my local hardware store, the knob was slighty smaller than the original. I guess I could find some SS bolts the right depth to fill the holes too…
The “plugs” I found just push in very much like the plastic plugs that come with furniture you buy and have to assemble to plug the hole where you installed a screw. My Lowes also have plastic screws that could be screwed into the threaded holes. I usually put the extra knobs in a plastic zip-lock bag and store in the storage compartment of the NuCanoe. That is what I use to do when I owned the older NuCanoe and now that I own the Frontier 12, I no longer have to worry about the threaded holes since the Frontier 12 has the track system for seat placement.