Conan The Librarian wrote:
sandy wrote:

Hmmm ... it seems counter-intuitive to add weight to the pinchers.
Don't crawfish raise their claws/pinchers when in the defensive
position? Seems like you'd want the pinchers to float higher than the
tail.

I really do need to make a photo sequence. This is a good fly.
It isn't new. I've been fishing this pattern for several years now.

I don't add the weight to the pinchers. I add it to the narrow
length of foam that connects the two pinchers. The fly is made
from two pieces of foam: one tapered, tube-like piece for the body
and one roughly "U" shaped piece that makes the pinchers, where
the ends of the "U" are fat enough to carve out pinchers on each end.

The bottom of the U gets wrapped in a nylon netting (gray-dyed spawn
sack) to give it enough strength. Without the spawn sack reinforcement
at the bottom of the U, the pinchers often separate and break off, after
repeated casting. If I want to add weight (I *always* do) I wrap 2-4
small split shots into the nylon netting at the bottom of the pincher U.
Then I add a small dab of clear water-based fabric cement, and then
put the fly together. The front end of the thorax gets slit horizontally
with a razor blade, in order to receive the U shaped pincher.
A few well-placed thread wraps sews it all up.

Fish grab onto these flies and they don't let go.
Have you ever caught a crab that wouldn't let go of a piece of meat
tied to a string? Every kid has done that once or twice. Fish hang
onto soft crayfish patterns like a crab to a piece of meat.
Sometimes you set the hook and it doesn't work. And then bang, bang,
bang, they hit again anyway.




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