Good God Man! Finally! I've been waiting for about 6 months for
this.............


"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...
Nice.
I used to use clouser's crayfish in similar colors, until i learned that
the orange color
is the hardshell phase of crayfish.
grey/olive/translucent is their color during the softshell phase.
I still carry/fish a few orange versions, but i fish the grey/olive
about
20 to 1.
I also noticed that I get the larger more mature fish, more often.

I'll be honest, when I tied them commercially, everyone wanted the "cooked
crawdad orange," but the colors I've had the most success on were either
olive or tan. I have one that I call "Desert Storm" after the boots that
were issued over there. Tan on top with orange chenille underneath. Very
effective. It also does well in chartreuse and black.
My 'puter got wiped out this weekend. I've lost my fully made up recipe
and
tying instructions. I'll have to go back and type them up. Its not a
fast
tie, but its a fun one. I can tie them in about 5 minutes, but if you're
just starting out, the first couple will take twenty minutes or so. Oh
hell, here goes:
Frank's Fightin' Craw
Hook: Mustad 37160 size 2/0 to 10
Weight: lead wire
Thread: contrasting color, heavy
Feelers: about 10 to 20 deer hairs
Antenna: Matching color rubber legs (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long)
Eyes: plastic bead chain
Body: chenille
Shell: plastic raffia
Claws: Zonker (rabbit for size 6 and larger, mink or pine squirrel for 8
and smaller)

Colors of the thread and body parts are what you want to match the local
crawfish. Tan is a good general color.
Hook up in the vise, tie in the deer hair on the bottom of the hook, just
back of the point. Tie in the rubber legs on top of this (if you stretch
it
away from you at a 45 degree angle going down, it will come out even).
On top of the hook (inside), tie in two plastic bead chain eyes. I have
about 100 yard of the stuff in orange from the craft store. Figure 8 two
in
(one either side of the hook). Its easier to leave them as part of the
chain until you've tied them in, then snip off the rest.
Tie in about 2 inches of plastic raffia right behind the eyes. Bring the
raffia forward between the eyes, along the top of the hook and tie in
again
forward of the hook. Bring the thread back behind the eyes. Tie in a six
inch piece of chenille behind the eyes. On top of that tie in two pieces
of
zonker, fur up at a 45 degree angle from the hook. On a size 4 hook,
these
are about 3/4" long. On a size 10, about a half an inch. I add a drop of
super glue on top of the thread here to hold them in place. Bring the
thread down to the second bend (towards the eye).
Wrap the chenille around the base of the zonker, then forward, between the
eyes, around once and back around the base of the zonkers again,
continuing
down to the second bend (towards the eye). Two wraps of thread go around
the chenille at this point.
Lightly loosen the hook in the vise, and bring it down so that the shaft
with the eye is parallel with the tying bench. Wrap thread to the eye and
bring the thread back to the second bend.
Wrap the last third of the shaft with lead wire. Don't use much more.
I'll
explain later.
Continue wrapping the chenille to the eye (the thread is at the second
bend).
Bring the raffia back along the top of the body to the second bend and
give
it a couple of wraps of thread. With the raffia laying along the shaft to
the eye, use the thread to section this in about three sections to the
eye,
with the final wrap just behind the eye. Lift the raffia and tie off the
thread behind the eye. Clip the raffia PAST the eye, and splay it out.
This makes a nice little tail. You can now use head cement, fingernail
polish or epoxy on the raffia to give it some sheen and harden it up. At
least use something to stiffen up the tail.

I use a loop type knot on this fly. That gives it a bit more wiggle. The
weight at the last third of the hook sends the eye down and the zonkers
hold
the front up. This imitates a crawdad in the defensive "fightin'"
position,
which is how a fish would see it. Also, the hook is up. I've dragged it
through brush many times without a snag. The bottom part of the hook is
now
an instant hook guard. Fish it in short jerks, let it settle and then
jerk
it again. This immitates a fleeing crawdad.
The size 10 works real well on large trout where there are crawdads in the
stream or lake. The size 2-4 is great for smallies and largemouth. I
have
one friend who caught an 8 lb rainbow and a 6 lb bass on two successive
casts with a size 4 in a southern Utah resevoir.
Good luck.

--
Frank Reid
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