Crayfish fly

A different type of fishing that has seen rewards been reaped by many. This forum allows us to learn more about Float and Fly fishing from those who have made it their number 1 way to fish.
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ganman
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Crayfish fly

Post by ganman »

I'll probably never fish it but here is a crawdad pattern I whipped up.
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MichaelGA
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Re: Crayfish fly

Post by MichaelGA »

Very nice, I've never gotten that complicated.
Someday.

Shame if you don't put it in the water... things with a purpose should be used in my mind.

Nice work, how long did it take just off hand?
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ganman
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Re: Crayfish fly

Post by ganman »

I fish mostly poppers for bass and dries for trout. If I need to get down for bass I fish a Clouser Minnow (best warmwater fly ever).

It is not very complicated really...just looks it :D Took about 5 minutes and aside from a hair bug that is my about the limit I want to spend on a fly.
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MichaelGA
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Re: Crayfish fly

Post by MichaelGA »

Wow - thanks, pretty sure I'd be at least 20 minutes in on that fly. Still takes me a good 15 just for Royal Coachman wet fly's ... always the wings that slow me down. (albeit i'm not that organized - probably the real problem)

Thanks for sharing.
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ganman
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Re: Crayfish fly

Post by ganman »

I hate quill wings!! I hate playing around with the segmented body too.

On a Royal Coachman I use red thread. I tie the herl in back as usual and wrap the herl over the thread then wrap the red thread over the herl for the middle then the herl over top for the next segment. Instead of white duck feather I use a pinch of white marabou. When you are ready to build your head and whip finish blacken a couple inches of thread with black permanent marker and finish the head. Voila...blackhead and using thread makes a nice thin red segment.

Sometimes I don't like the quality and shade (often its faded and the black lines too far apart so on line gets buried) of the golden pheasant tippet feather so I will use soft orange feather barbs and put black highlights on with the black marker.

For that matter I buy mainly white thread now and just colour the head whatever colour. White thread gives your bodies a truer colour instead of darkening them as black thread underbody does.

I am buying a lot of materials in white and in bulk and using dollar store koolaid to give them a quick die job in the micro wave. I needed some purple and chartreuse chenille. I cut some pieces off a big white roll, nuked them in 2 plastic containers one with lime koolaid the other in grape. Put'em in a couple of old socks and 5 minutes later perfect chenille.
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MichaelGA
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Re: Crayfish fly

Post by MichaelGA »

Interesting stuff - i'll have to look into them.
Seems like a few great time savers.
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