Crayfish patterns

Cougarbaby

Cougarbaby

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Fished East Branch Sunday as main branch clarion is to high and some kind of kill is happening I finally caught fish on a crayfish pattern I caught 2 on it then lost it and only had the 1 with me
 

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The only crayfish patterns I have any real confidence in are the less specifically imitative and more generally suggestive or "in the round" type patterns. My favorite right now is the Bronze Goddess from Ward Bean's WW page: http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns3.asp?page=33

A close second (and my previous favorite) is the late Tim Holschlag's Holschlag Hackle Fly. Here is Ward Bean's take on it: http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns6.asp?page=2 The original brown is probably best, but I also do well on a dark olive variation.

I should probably add that all my crayfish fly fishing is done for smallmouth, but there is no reason that either of these flies would not work well on trout if appropriately sized..
 
Striperbobby said:
The clawdad is a fish magnet and super easy to tie. One of those patterns that looks goofy but comes alive in the water and fish love it.
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Huh. That is a goofy looking pattern.

Have you ever tied it / seen it tied with a replacement material for the suede? I like the idea of the fly as almost like a subsurface Mr. Wiggly, but I'm not big on using pre-cut pieces. Might try to play around with the concept.
 
I thought the same thing that the pattern looks gimmicky but then I watched 50 places to fly fish before you die and Cowen was killing smallie after smallie on the Shenandoah. I tied a few size 4 for the conestoga but had to fish the Brandywine yesterday due to high muddy water. It’s way bigger than any flies I use in the Brandywine but I was catching bass, red eyes, fallfish, and bluegill. The suede claws look exactly like how crayfish claws look when they are scooting backwards to get away. I’ve been a clouser minnow and clouser crayfish guy my whole life for smallies and of course poppers but now I prefer Murdich minnows and claw dads.
 
I was looking for simple crawfish patterns last week after a nice looking was posted to FB, with pdf directions (image below). I think it can be simplified.
IMG_5259.jpeg
There’s also this much simpler pattern:
www.panfishonthefly.com

CE Crayfish — Panfish On The Fly

CE Crayfish (Close Enough) is a very simple Crayfish pattern I developed for Trout and Bass. When I design flies I like to follow the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid). I usually focus on one to two triggers when developing a pattern, here the claws, and swimming action.
www.panfishonthefly.com www.panfishonthefly.com

And at the Jamboree @TimMurphy told me about effective furry foam patterns, though I haven’t yet tracked one down.
 
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Kms said:
I was looking for simple crawfish patterns last week after a nice looking was posted to FB, with pdf directions (image below). I think it can be simplified.
View attachment 1641242434
There’s also this much simpler pattern:
www.panfishonthefly.com

CE Crayfish — Panfish On The Fly

CE Crayfish (Close Enough) is a very simple Crayfish pattern I developed for Trout and Bass. When I design flies I like to follow the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid). I usually focus on one to two triggers when developing a pattern, here the claws, and swimming action.
www.panfishonthefly.com www.panfishonthefly.com

And at the Jamboree @TimMurphy told me about effective furry foam patterns, though I haven’t yet tracked one down.
Click to expand...
You must be talking about the Clouser Crayfish, and that is the only crawdad pattern I tie and fish. It is a must-have bass pattern.
 
Can’t remember the site now but you can buy the suede in bulk from an online craft store and cut your own claws. While they aren’t as nice as eastern trophies laser cut, they work fine and are cheaper
 
Here's an example of my crayfish fly (and hellgrammite). . .

As I've said many times on this forum, I think crayfish are underrated as trout food and I'm convinced that trout eat a lot more of them than is commonly known. These flies are very effective when fished close to shoreline cover and undercut banks during high, muddy water conditions such as we're experiencing now.

While I prefer complex and detailed flies, crayfish patterns don't need to be this way. I'd suggest the following guidelines for crayfish flies:

1. Emphasize body size and shape and keep claws on the small side (too many crayfish flies have claws too large and skinny bodies). When crayfish swim their thickest profile is mid-body. You can see this when you look at crayfish lures such as the very effective "Rebel Crayfish," which has a thick body and small claws.

2. Tie your flies so they swim hook upward (not downward like Clouser Crayfish).

3. Make these flies as heavy as you can tolerate casting. You want to fish them with a hopping motion right on the bottom.
 

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Kms said:
I was looking for simple crawfish patterns last week after a nice looking was posted to FB, with pdf directions (image below). I think it can be simplified.
View attachment 1641242434
There’s also this much simpler pattern:
www.panfishonthefly.com

CE Crayfish — Panfish On The Fly

CE Crayfish (Close Enough) is a very simple Crayfish pattern I developed for Trout and Bass. When I design flies I like to follow the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid). I usually focus on one to two triggers when developing a pattern, here the claws, and swimming action.
www.panfishonthefly.com www.panfishonthefly.com

And at the Jamboree @TimMurphy told me about effective furry foam patterns, though I haven’t yet tracked one down.
Click to expand...
Dear Kms,

Here is a video example of a furry foam crayfish. It can be tied as easy or as complicated as you want. All you really need is furry foam, chenille, and squirrel tail. You can palmer a wet fly hackle over the chenille before you cover it with the furry foam if you think you want legs.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 
Smallmouth prefer crayfish without claws. By quite a large margin. When I was a kid, I used to catch 50 or so crayfish and then feed them to smallmouth while snorkeling one at a time. I did this 5-10 days a summer for most of middle school and high school. The ones with claws were usually ignored. The ones without any claws almost never made it to the bottom. It was very enlightening as a young angler.
 
5footfenwick said:
Smallmouth prefer crayfish without claws. By quite a large margin. When I was a kid, I used to catch 50 or so crayfish and then feed them to smallmouth while snorkeling one at a time. I did this 5-10 days a summer for most of middle school and high school. The ones with claws were usually ignored. The ones without any claws almost never made it to the bottom. It was very enlightening as a young angler.
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Did you ever swish your hands back and forth over the rocks and silt? Smallmouth respond to that sound and hang out just beyond the silt cloud for crayfish to dart out - you can see this well from a bridge when carp are mucking about
 
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