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 Post subject: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2016 2:29 pm • # 1 
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Back in 2010 there was a thread that included some photos of a micro crayfish, but the photos are no longer available.
I've been messing around with some crayfish patterns and found a few that will cast nicely on a 5 wt, but I was wondering if anyone had a favourite crayfish pattern that would fish nicely on an UL. You know, something that is weighted enough to behave like a crayfish in 6 feet of water, but light enough for a 3wt.
Thoughts?
thanks
brent


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 10:09 am • # 2 
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Last year I used a pheasant tail crayfish on the Guadalupe but haven't had much luck with it so far this year. Small streamers have been the lucky combo for me. Anyway, here is a pattern I used with my 2 wt last year that worked well.

http://flyfishingmanitoba.proboards.com ... l-crayfish

Harry


Last edited by Free2Fish on Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 5:37 pm • # 3 
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Harry: thanks! That's what I'm looking for, I think. I had toyed with the dumbbell eyes, but I kinda think that if I tie them on the top of the hook, they'll flip the hook when submerged so I'd need to tie the body on the other side of the hook. And if I tie them on the underside, they'd interfere with the hook gape. I like those lightweight plastic eyes you've got there.
thanks again\brent


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:20 pm • # 4 
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I think I would tie that on a straight eye hook and tie with light weight dumbell eyes to cause it to ride point - up, crawfish flies are typically fished near the bottom, and point down would seem to snag more, or ding up the hook point more. That's a beautiful fly though. Might have to tie a couple up, though I hardly ever fish crawfish patterns. Smallmouth bass in my local waters should gobble them up.


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 7:52 am • # 5 
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Well, that's a very good point! Makes sense to tie it so the point is up on a fly that looks most lifelike when scurrying along the bottom. Back to the tying table.
brent


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 8:46 pm • # 6 
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Image

I came up with a small crawdad pattern a few years ago that’s worked very well for me. I had never fished crawdad patterns before that. I was fishing a local lake one day and caught a rainbow trout that was about 17”. As I was releasing her I noticed the stomach area felt like it was crammed with something fairly hard. I knew there were crawdads in that lake so I figured that’s what she was feeding on. That night I went home and tried coming up with a pattern that I could throw on my 2 and 3 wts. I tied them with foam below the point and weight near the eye. This anchors the tail and lets the head and claws lift slightly. It gives them a lot of movement and looks like a crawdad raising up trying to defend itself. I tried them the next day and caught a 14” and a 15” rainbow on my first two casts with it.

-I tie them down to size 12 on a 3x long stimulator hook so they ride point up. The curve of the hook helps elevate the point and adds to the lifelike appearance.
-Pierce swiss straw on the point then put the hook in the vice with the point up.
-Tie a dumbbell on the underside of the hook (actually the top, I call it the underside since we’re tying upside down) near the eye. On smaller sizes I wrap lead around the shank near the eye instead of the dumbbell.
-Wrap the thread of the shank of the hook and tie the swiss straw in.
-Tie in a length of small wire.
-Tie in a piece of saddle hackle. This is optional. I use it for the legs. You can skip it and comb out the dubbing to resemble legs.
-Tie in a small ball of dubbing to separate the antenna. I usually use angora but I’ve used scud and ice dub also.
-Tie in a length of x-small round rubber on both sides of the hook (antenna).
-Dub around and slightly past the antenna.
-Tie a small piece of foam on the shank under the point of the hook (in the gap, actually the bottom of the hook).
-Tie in black mono eyes over the foam below the point in the gap of the hook. This is optional. The larger one in the pic does not have eyes. Eyes do make them more realistic though.
-Dub over the foam and to about 1/3 of the way to the eye.
-Tie in a squirrel zonker to each side of the hook. Tie them with the flesh side against the shank. I used to tie them in closer to the bend of the hook but they would get caught up in the bend and tangle. Tying them farther back prevents fouling and gives them more movement when the fly is stripped.
-Dub to the dumbbell.
-Wrap the saddle hackle back to the dumbbell and tie it off.
-Cover the top of the body with the swiss straw and tie it off at the dumbbell. Cut it off with extra material extending beyond the eye of the hook.
-Wrap the wire over the body (try not to trap too many hackles) and tie it off at the dumbbell.
-Cross the thread to the other side of the dumbbell and secure the swiss straw behind the eye.
-Cut the swiss straw and trim to resemble a tail.
-Trim the hackle legs or comb out the dubbing to look like legs.


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:22 am • # 7 
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pab1:
Looks very good! Thanks, I'm gonna steal a few elements from your pattern. I had avoided putting the dumbbell eyes on as you've shown them because I couldn't wrap my head around a crayfish with eyes at the wrong end of the body, so I've been doing as you suggested: wrapping fine lead under the body near the hook eye. I'm also working on tying in short lengths of lead on the top (well, hope to be bottom) of the hook to encourage an upside-down presentation.
I appreciate the help\
brent


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 3:47 pm • # 8 
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wheezeburnt wrote:
pab1:
I had avoided putting the dumbbell eyes on as you've shown them because I couldn't wrap my head around a crayfish with eyes at the wrong end of the body


I know what you mean. I was wondering about that when I came up with this pattern. The dumbbell at the tail of the fly on the left is just metal finish with no pupils painted on it. I have used them with the pupils painted on for weight at the tail end and the fish didn't seem to care. I think they are focused on the business end. With the head bobbing around, the lifelike movement of the zonker claws and the antennas flicking it really comes alive. I have skipped the mono eyes like the one on the left and have not noticed a difference in the number of fish taking them. This is in clear stillwaters where the fish have plenty of time to look them over. I do prefer the look of them with the mono eyes though. Sometimes we overanalyze small details of patterns IMO. I know I often do. I think its more important to tie patterns that have lifelike movement and present them properly according to the conditions. Keep in mind that spin fisherman use molded hard plastic "Rapala" style crankbaits with treble hooks protruding off them that still do a good job mimicking a crawdad, catching plenty of fish.


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:21 pm • # 9 
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I've tied them with both chain bead eyes and with some plastic "eyes" that I found in a craft store. The ones with chain bead eyes I fish actively, usually a few tugs followed by a pause, and the lighter ones I dead-drift, either freely or under an indicator. I've caught trout with all those methods.

Harry


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:24 pm • # 10 
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Here is one I tied on a size 6 Aberdeen.
Image


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:08 am • # 11 
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These are called "reznikoff's". My friend and excellent fly man, Mike Reznikoff, taught me to tie them. Excellent spring pattern. He has caught bonefish with them in the Caribbean-p-
Image
Image
I have tied these as small as a #12 streamer but they are easiest to tie on a #10 or #8. I tie many on the cheap aberdeen hooks in size 10 because the light hooks can be bent and pulled off snags with a 6# tippet-p-


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 11:27 am • # 12 
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Amazing how many interpretations there are of an organism that is essentially the same all over the continent. And they all work!
Thanks again, guys.
brent


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:21 pm • # 13 
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If you can find some clear water to observe the little crawfish in the spring, when they are moving or swimming, they fold their little claws under them, so you can't see them. Likewise, there's really no need to tie claws into the imitation; course that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.-p-


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 9:57 pm • # 14 
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Yeah but we know they have little claws so where's the fun in leaving them out. ;)

Guess that's why the woolly bugger is one of the best flies on the planet.

Harry


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:07 pm • # 15 
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I use head cement on the little tail; it will scoot along the bottom stirring up mud, simulating the escape pattern of the crayfish; the metal bead makes it ride hook point up; the eyes are very light plastic; Also made by burning the ends of 80# mono-p-


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:38 pm • # 16 
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I read an article in one of the fishing mags - I'm not sure if it was In Fisherman, Bassmaster, or Field & Stream - but the article went into detail about some testing done by lure makers - soft plastic lure makers, specifically about crawfish. They had a tank full of bass, and tried a number of variations with crawfish to see which ones the bass would pounce on most often - they tried whole crawfish, crawfish with one pincer removed (trying both left and right to see if there was a difference), with both pincers removed, with tails removed, etc. They found that the most consistent results as far as the bass eating - were whole bodied crawfish without any pinchers. The bass seem to know what the claws are and what they do, and a big delicious unarmed crawfish was just the ticket to get them to eat.

Of course the results of the study didn't wind up with lures that are craw bodies sans claws - because lures catch far more fisherman than fish, and the fisherman who sees a claw-less crawfish thinks they can't work and are getting jipped because they don't perfectly imitate the natural thing. Never mind that most of the crawfish lures I've seen aren't brown, olive, or some shade of natural, I see more metal flake blue crawfish than just about any other color, and I have never, ever seen a blue crawfish in nature. All the mud bugs I've ever seen were variations on orange, brown, or olive green depending on the water, the bottom composition, and the season.

I admit that I tie my crawfish patterns with "claws" - because even though I've read the article saying the fish like the clawless varieties, I'm in that camp that it just doesn't "look right" without 'em.

This thread inspired some crawfish flies to be tied up and I tied mine with marabou tufts for claws, size 8 hooks, medium dumbell eyes tied at the hook eye so that the hook point rides up and actually, the way they sit on the table, it's like a crawfish raised up in a defensive posture with the head & claws elevated and the tail dug down.

I'll have to get some pictures of them.


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 11:26 pm • # 17 
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a black bass will hit anything. I once caught a bass on a cigarette filter, in which I empaled a hook and used as a popper. Yeah, they were schooling so I admit it wasn't a scientific experiment!-p-


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:14 am • # 18 
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Over the years, I've caught a few smallies that regurgitated crayfish, and I recall all of them having two claws, but my guess is that that has more to do with the fact that likely 90%+ of the population of crayfish would have both claws. I expect I'll always tie them with two claws for the symmetry, which might result in more predictable behaviour on retrieval? Besides, I've noticed that bulkier flies that are not symmetrical (like a larger hairwing ratface macdougal with one slightly larger wing) tend to spin during the forward cast, causing the leader to twist.

Pearow: do you remember the brand? ;)


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:55 am • # 19 
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Marlboro....my uncle and I were on Lake of the Pines in East Texas. The schooling bass were all about 14 inches long and you could literally catch 100 a day(the limit back then was 10). I told him I bet they would hit anything that we threw into the attack as they would attack a ball of shad with reckless abandon. So, I took a brim hook, ran it thru the filter and tossed it out there. Soon, the dummy in the cartel swallowed it as they were fighting each other for the stunned shad. Fantastic day on the water; one I'll never forget-p-


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 Post subject: Re: UL Micro Crayfish
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:57 am • # 20 
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Mmmmm. smoked bass!


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