southernflyangler.com

Damn bugman you been drinking out of them sample bottles again.Ive seen that poster somewhere......I believe it was Woodstock.Thanks a bunch streamer that's why I put the ideas out there asking for help .I have trouble getting what I see or want on a hook.Oh yea these are not for smallies but pitching under the busy water dropping into the deep runs.I have been told that's where the big brown fish live.

As far as the color of crawfish....I think there are different species that tend to be more olive or brown or orange etc. from there I think the difference in shades has a lot to do with diet, mierals in the water and stages of molting. The guy at the Orvis store told me he occasionally snorkles in the savannah and has caught them from brown to purple to orange to olive The one thing I've noticed is that crawfish that are in ponds seem to usually be shades of grey and brown....crawfish in rivers can be a lot more colorful. I don't know how detailed a crawfish pattern needs to be....but I do believe that the rabbit strips for claws are the way to go.

Peewee – those colors are wild, ain’t they? I’ve only seen that blue crayfish once. I was fishing the Cranberry in WV many years ago in the rain, and happened to look down on the trail and saw the critter.

The poster is still available I am sure, somewhere online. Virginia Tech and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service produced several of these type of posters over the years – crayfish, fish, snails, insects, etc..

And btw, the real crayfish poster looks a lot better than the attachment - not so bright.

Peewee.....Here's the pattern I use the most. It's a Chuck Kraft pattern called the Klawdad. The claws can be bought from Chuck's website or GOP in Raleigh, or you can cut them from chamois or Tyvek. In this photo, you are looking at the bottom of the fly, so it rides hook point up. I tied this one:



Here's the same fly from Chuck's website. As you can see, I modified it just a bit.




It casts like a bucket of paint, but it gets down pretty fast and most important for a crawdad pattern, it does not spin when retrieved.

Yer Pal,
Streamer

Peewee did you tie some lead on the spine of the hook to make the point ride up. ??

Pretty good looking bug !! I am sure a bass or large trout will chew on it.

The old timers made the claws and tail out of Horse Hair.

JT

yes JT there is an hourglass lead weight under the claws and the deerhair at the eye is turned down like a lip to shake it back and forth

Peewee....its gonna take more than just a set of lead eyes.....I put hourglass eyes,wrapped a ton of lead on the hook and had a set of beadchain eyes on mine....and would you believe they still floated until the rabbit was thouroghly saturated! if you want something to get down deep and quickly you might want to look into Jules pattern....or at least replace the rabbit strip claws with chamois like he suggested....even when wet they don't sink real fast....they look great once they're on the bottom...but they take a bit to sink and in fast moving water....you may not get them down. They are more suited for a pond or at least slow moving water.

Yes streamer I have a couple of the Klawdad that you gave me a few years ago.You can drop them off the back of the toon if you want to stay in one spot and fish a while. Really appreciate all the help but right now I want something to flutter down as soon as it floats out of the fast water.The more movement it has falling gives it a better chance to be seen.

I have sore lipped some smallies on this

Is this site down www.­kreeltackle.­com or have they stopped?