cray fish

[Rip Tide]

.. if you think about it from the fish's point of view, large claws on crayfish flies don't make a lot of sense.
To us it may look like a trigger, but the fish actually would rather feed on newly molted crayfish with small claws. They target them.
What would you rather have in your throat ? A mud bug with big crushing pinchers or little soft ones ?

[nicknick222]

Plastic bait manufacturers have done tests on this and they concluded that the bait with no claws got more bites than the ones with claws. The one with only one claw got more than the one with two claws and so on.

The only issue is to me the defining and most realistic part of a crayfish fly is the claws and even if its proven I would have just about zero confidence chucking a fly that looks like an oversized brown shrimp. And remember confidence is key

[zug buggin]

Crayfish are great flies

[brucerducer]

Originally Posted by Hardyreels

I've only ever tied one crayfish pattern and they were pretty realistic. I found the recipe for this in the September 1981 issue of Fly Fisherman Magazine and had no rest till I had tied so many that I still have a few that were not lost on the bottom of some pool too deep to wade.

[IMG][/IMG]

I made them with dyed hair too and drifted them like giant nymphs. I never caught what I would say was a huge fish on one but I caught some nice size trout and a few small mouth bass also.

What? No recipe? It looks very realistic. I haven't seen that before.