crayfish

[Nymphmeister]

This time of year if you are targetting smallmouth and many other warmwater fish, crayfish are typically at the top of the list of food consumed & preferred. In rivers like the Housatonic, streams in PA, VA and TN and elsewhere, smallmouth are pigging out on crayfish in the Summertime- big trout like 'em too Spring till Fall. If there is decent current, I recommend dead-drifting and fishing like a nymph, with and indicator and added weight (as needed). If in slow pool water, hop along the bottom, strip, or crawl along the bottom (if it's not too snaggy and you have a pattern that either rides hook up or has a weedguard). In general, try to match the pattern to the bottom color - brown or olive brown would usually be my first choice most places, but play around and see what works on your home water under different conditions- olive, tan, etc. all have their moments. Keep the claws small, most fish prefer not to face off against an aggressive, large clawed one. Most bass prefer a modest sized pattern, say something in the #4-8 hook range (on a 2-3x long hook).- tout seem to like even smaller ones, more like #10-12 in my experience. You may want to have one pattern for stripping that is more impressionistic with lots of built in movement from marabou or rabbit strips, and a more realistic one for dead-drifting. For example, a Clouser Crayfish (a deadly pattern that many serious bass guys swear by) is meant to be dead-drifted and doesn't fish as well if you strip it in fast. A brown Woolly Bugger can be very effective stripped & hopped as a rough simulation of a crayfish. Some patterns work well either way. Hope these tips and advice help put more & bigger fish on your line.

[jburrell21]

Good advice Torrey,

I look forward a few pigs on a crawdaddy pattern soon. Thanks.

JB

[emerger]

Here are my Galloup craws:

[AaronJasper]

Very nice, I like!

Smallmouth bass killer

[Brown_Trout]

Nice Pattern

[Nymphmeister]

That Galloup pattern just looks plain deadly.

[Night Angler]

smallmouth.. smallmouth.. smallmouth..

blah, blah, blah...


I got some big ol'browns around who LOVES crawdads..LOL


Leonard

[Flyfisher]

this is what i love about this site i was trying to track down a few good Crayfish patterns and here is one. Any one else have any good Crayfish flies?

[Nymphmeister]

Here's a link to a Fly Fisherman article with some nice patterns, I think I might have posted think link before:

http://flyfisherman.com/ftb/smcrayfish/index2.html

[kyle]

wow emerger that's a great pattern I'll have to try a couple out on some great secret resivoirs.......shhhhhhhh the ones I'm not supposed to be at ;D lol they have some lunkers though so I take the chance.

-kyle