Foam crayfish
 

Here's a foam crayfish that needs work: the proportions aren't right
yet.

But this is a promising technique. Among my local
Montana Rivers, like the lower Madison, Jefferson, Ruby, Big Hole,
Yellowstone
Beaverhead and Missouri........crayfish are a big deal. And this is
the first
soft crayfish I've come up with that's fast and easy to tie.

Fish do bite these things and hang on, rather spitting them out right
away.
I've been fishing them for several years now, but the way I used to
make
them was too slow and time consuming for practical use. This one's
fast
and easy to make:

http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/...imp/index.html

.....it'll start to look better soon. I've just got to work with it a
little.

Foam crayfish
 

The best soft crayfish pattern I've used is the clouser, can't beat
it...


--
sandfly

sandfly/bob
flyfishing instructor, tying and shop owner
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N.J.B.B.A.2215
formally bucks now tioga co. pa.
there's a fine between sane and Insane !

I did not escape----They gave me a day pass !!
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Foam crayfish
 

On Jul 14, 6:16 am, sandfly wrote:
The best soft crayfish pattern I've used is the clouser, can't beat
it...

Yes indeed. I should have explained more. The Clouser Crayfish is the
best
pattern out there right now. I need to make mine look more like the
Clouser
(details details).

The problem I'm trying to solve is size. The Clouser is tied on a hook
shank,
from front front to back. So, if you want to make a big 2 to 2-1/2"
crayfish
(big crayfish do seem to attract the big browns) then, in the Clouser
case
you have to use a jumbo hook. And that nullifies the soft foam effect.
Fish feel that extra-big hook and spit the fly.

So what I'm making amounts to a Clouser Crayfish with an extended
body,
so a big crayfish can be tied with a small, short-shank #6 or #8 hook.
Then they bite the fly, chew on it and swim around with it still in
their mouths.

I tie a lot of streamers this way now (long fly with smallish hook).
To make a fly
that has a mid-fly or rear-end mounted hook, that still pulls from the
front,
you knot a shock tippet to the eye of the rear mounted hook. Then you
throw a double
or triple surgeon's knot over the front end dimple (the last dimple in
the crawfish tail
......crayfish swim tail first, not head first) and then knot the shock
tippet to
the leader.

Now you have a big fly with a relatively small hook, mounted towards
the rear end
of the fly..........but the whole rig still *pulls* from the front
(the front of hte crawfish
is the tail, for pulling purposes).

Foam crayfish
 

I tie them up to 4" long just use a long shank hook with a light
wire..besides if you watch how they eat a crawfish they come from the
tail and bite down to cut off the claws and legs since these can
perforate the stomach lining, bass and trout both do this.


--
sandfly

sandfly/bob
flyfishing instructor, tying and shop owner
http://tinyurl.com/3x53lq
N.J.B.B.A.2215
formally bucks now tioga co. pa.
there's a fine between sane and Insane !

I did not escape----They gave me a day pass !!
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Foam crayfish
 

sandfly wrote:
I tie them up to 4" long just use a long shank hook with a light
wire..besides if you watch how they eat a crawfish they come from the
tail and bite down to cut off the claws and legs since these can
perforate the stomach lining, bass and trout both do this.


Ok. What you say makes good sense.
Extra-long shanked hooks would allow you to tie
a big crayfish, still with a moderate gape on
the hook.

But I don't like long-shanked hooks. They're expensive
and hard to find, and a lot of people think they
give the fish too much leverage on the hook, allowing
them to more easily pop and spit the hook.

Your solution works. I'm just trying to figure
out a bit of a twist, that allows making a big
soft crayfish with a normal hook--that still has a
moderate gape--so they're less likely to spit
the fly.

I love it when I see my leader zig-zap off
through the currents, giving me that extra
2-3 seconds to get the hook set.

Foam crayfish
 

salmobytes wrote:
Here's a foam crayfish that needs work: the proportions aren't right
yet.


You make some awesome foam flies both dry and wet. I'd love to try some
of them but you're using types of foam that just aren't available to the
rest of us. The "craft" foam available to us tyers, just doesn't cut it.
You spent alot of time putting up instructions, photos etc. on your
webpage for flies that none of us will be able to tie.

Willi

Foam crayfish
 

On Jul 26, 6:35 am, Willi wrote:
salmobytes wrote:
Here's a foam crayfish that needs work: the proportions aren't right
yet.

You make some awesome foam flies both dry and wet. I'd love to try some
of them but you're using types of foam that just aren't available to the
rest of us. The "craft" foam available to us tyers, just doesn't cut it.
You spent alot of time putting up instructions, photos etc. on your
webpage for flies that none of us will be able to tie.

Willi

Yes you're right. I bought a bunch of this foam in the late
1980s, for boat seat cusions, and then discovered it was the best
fly tying stuff around. I've been shooting my mouth off about it
for 22 years now. And not one wholesaler has taken the bait.
This is the information age? Maybe so.
Maybe the wholesalers are just dumb as a stump.

Foam crayfish
 

On Aug 15, 10:29 am, salmobytes wrote:
On Jul 26, 6:35 am, Willi wrote:

salmobytes wrote:
Here's a foam crayfish that needs work: the proportions aren't right
yet.

You make some awesome foam flies both dry and wet. I'd love to try some
of them but you're using types of foam that just aren't available to the
rest of us. The "craft" foam available to us tyers, just doesn't cut it.
You spent alot of time putting up instructions, photos etc. on your
webpage for flies that none of us will be able to tie.

Willi

Yes you're right. I bought a bunch of this foam in the late
1980s, for boat seat cusions, and then discovered it was the best
fly tying stuff around. I've been shooting my mouth off about it
for 22 years now. And not one wholesaler has taken the bait.
This is the information age? Maybe so.
Maybe the wholesalers are just dumb as a stump.

I spoke too soon. Imagine that!
I use a closed-cell foam you cannot buy retail...it's wholesale only.
2lbs per cubic foot EVA foam is the best there is. Why doesn't
somebody sell it? Beats me. I've told serval wholesalers about
it. They too much invested in the dense, heavy, semi-worthless
crap they've already invested in.

But the Crayfish is made with ordinary open-cell, polyurethane
mattress foam. I dyed it with Rit dye. You can also use
kitchen sink sponges. Yellow sponges take Rit dye quite well.

Foam crayfish
 

try to tie it on a tube (i.e. the plastic tube of a q-tip) and you can
use your preferred short shank hook.


--
Karel

Live long and fly fish
:fish:
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Foam crayfish
 

On Aug 15, 3:21 pm, Karel wrote:
try to tie it on a tube (i.e. the plastic tube of a q-tip) and you can
use your preferred short shank hook.


.....good idea. I got the same suggestion via email from Gary Soucie,
which proves--among other things--that smart people often have
the same idea.........and not all magazine editors are mindless
robots.
:-)