new easy to tie crayfish i came up with last night

mike_richardson

mike_richardson

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Tying these for a guy near the state capitol.

These are super easy to tie. PM me for details on how to create this patern. I am still playing with this patern and plan on adding eyes and some other things to spice it up.

Let me know what you think. I believe it will crush bass, small mouth, and larger trout

I will be making smaller sizes soon and other colors. olive, dark olive, and black.
 

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the look good and will catch fish


while the splayed hackle tips will look great dry and on the desk
they will pin out and press together... essp with the striped stem at the base

look for a way/material that will stay open in the strip or current

Also
you have the "claws" positioned perpendicular to the stream bottom
if you tie them parallel the profile will be better and allow for less material for desired effect
 
I sort of thought about the hackle messing up so that is why i have such long profile. I figured it would give it the crabs shape. Any idea on material. I contemplated some sort of foam. I did see someone who had tied one on here before with bead chain "arms"

Open to all suggestions. I also did not want to go crazy with the thin skin. But a brown thin skin cut to a pincher could be an option.

Thanks for the helpful input.
 
one idea... attach your "claws" after your first chanelle wrap
(where your first set of rubber legs are now)
and wrap tightly to the chanelle bump
this will help keep things open

there are some synthetic materials that make great claws
almost like a leather, but don't hold water

foam will counter-act you sink properties of the fly... but will allow the claws to move/float when the fly is still
look up Al Ritt's fighting crawfish for a use of foam
 
I may try some fox squirrel tail fibers for pinchers. I had seen a patern that uses felt cut outs for pinchers as well.
 
good thread to give you some ideas on improvement.


crayfish


Too much excess hook IMO. Keep working on it though. that's the fun of tying, trying something new.
 
I really segregated the two marabou claws so i will post how the fly works tomorow if i get out tonight.

here is the patern in olive with the typical hackle claws. The other has marabou claws. I added regular eyes on this to test and see if it will flip over or if i counter weighted the hook enough

I like the look of the olive with the thin skin on top. I will keep playing with this fly and let you guys now how its going.
 

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Yeah the excess hook thing is tough to combat with it being upside down. This is fun and gives me a break from tying 500,000 nymphs or so it seems.

The bottom picture looks like a squid but who knows
 
I usually just use a brown bugger to immitate crayfish, but on my actual crayfish flies I use rabbit strips for claws and it works pretty well. Looks good though.
 
Not bulky enough. Too hard and shiny looking. Also, the claws need to be a key feature too IMO. Can barely see them on those flies. Try denser tufts of marabou or short pieces of rabbit strips (or clumps of rabbit fur)

They look more Like stone fly nymphs IMO. Will they work? Probably. Are they good imitations of crayfish? Probably not.

Overall go for a bulkier appearance and less detail. Flies such as yours haven't produced well for me. They catch some fish but fuzzy, bulkier flies like a clouser's crayfish blow them out of the water.

Kev
 
Flies looked good in the water. I was surprised the hackle showed up well even in cloudy water. Still playing around with the pattern a bit and thanks for all of the insight
 
Nice. I've been fishing some crayfish patterns this spring for smallies and carp. I've found that the "Skip's dad" pattern is extremely effective, as is the clouser crayfish.

A few things I noticed...

1.Bass will sometimes shy away from a crayfish pattern with bigger claws. Smaller can be better. The fly can be big, but dont overdo the claws. I see this really often on flies I see online.

2.Try incorporating a little bit of blue coloring into the claws. (Try some blueish dun or light blue sili-legs in with the claws). This matches the natural claw coloring of a lot of crayfish this time of year with.

3.In faster water, try hook-point-down patterns such as the Clouser Cray. Slower water, try some hook point up stuff, even small crayfish tied on jig hooks.

4.don't overdo it with all the rubber legs. A few twists of stiff hackle under the shell should be sufficient.
 
Try tying it with only one claw to imitate an injured one. I think fish will be more likely to eat something that looks like an easy meal.
 
your creation looks good! although i would love to see the variation in color that you plan to make as well, i see that i really has good form and it will probably be good for catching fish although i have yet to try one out. hope its a success!
 
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