[freeze69]

here's my second attempt at a crawfish. i think it looks half-way decent would like some opinions.

the fly itself was made with a fuzzy yarn that bigdon gave me along with the red ribbon for the tail section. i added on several wooly bugger style hackle feathers palmered in. under all of this is 3 pieces of .20 lead wire. the gold eyes bigdon picked up at the local hobby store for a buck or so.

bigdon did say that he bumped into someone just getting into fly tying and the guy was suprised at the stuff that could be used that he didn't even think of.

[BigCliff]

Looks great. I bet it would work just fine tied on a shorter hook too. I'd tie some up in a pale color as well. Predator fish sometimes get excited when they see those, as it is usually a crawfish that has just shed its hard shell.

[freeze69]

was planning on doing several different sizes of hooks. when you say a pale color are you talking about a pale brown or copper? or anything in a earth tone color.

[Curtis]

Good looking fly.

I always tie them with a couple of strips of rabbit fur for claws. I also like to make the on the smaller size. The fish love to gorge on baby dads. They don't pinch back as hard.

[BigCliff]

Pale brown, lighter copper, even pale greens. Green crawfish are very common when they need to blend in with a greenish bottom. Some even will be bluish, but those are mostly tan so there's no need to bother with the blue coloration.

Another thing to keep in mind is to fish the thing so that it moves like a crawfish. The more puffs it makes in the mud on the bottom, the better. Gamefish will often key in on those puffs when after crawfish. This is why a Wooly Bugger can be a very effective crawfish imitator sometimes.

[idabelangler]

One of the deadliest ways to fish a crawfish fly, in moving water, is to take a page from the trout nymph fisherman and use a dead drift without an indicator. It will take many smallie in a day's time.

Also as far as crawfish "flies" go, I use a soft plastic crawdad made by Yum in a 2 1/2" size in a color called:"CRAWDAD".

[tie one on]

I would like to ask what size fly rod you are using to chuck a 2 1/2" plastic crawfish ? Is that particular crawfish weighted ? Or are you using a weighted line ? It's unmistakeably real looking.

I've tied several patterns for crawfish, but have not come up with one that I really truly like yet. Those of you who have come up with a pattern you like what size hook do you typically use ? Do you weight the fly with lead on the shank, or do you just use a weighted line ?

Please post a picture & recipe for any you think are great ones. The smallies will be ready to chomp on them soon :-)

Always in the water,

Tie One On

[fshfanatic]

Here is what I use.

[idabelangler]

I use an 8wt for soft plastic "flies"

[MikeLove]

fshfanatic, I like the looks of the pattern on the right. It does not look real difficult to tie..Could you break down the tying sequence and materials that you use.