Fleeing Crayfish
My friend Keith Scott, Bluesman, performs 200 shows a year throughout the US and Canada, and Europe keithscottheavyblues.com/. On top of that. he’s a maniac fly fisher. He performed at Malarkeys Pub here in Wausau the other night and we started talking about smallmouth bass. Then yesterday I received an inquiry from Chris McCall regarding a post I’d made on smallies. He wrote: Hello Gary. Glad to see the smallie getting some coverage. Have you got any special smallmouth fly patterns that you’d be willing to showcase? Regards, Chris.
Well, Smallies love crayfish, and the Fleeing Crayfish is one great imitation for these bass. I tie it on a swimming jig hook. These hooks have the front portion bent upward at an angle so the hook flips over when lead eyes are added and allows the fly to swim. A standared jig hook works OK, too, but it doesn’t give the same action as the swimming hook. I make my own swimming jig hooks using a ring eye hook like Umpqua’s 9395. It’s 4 XL and 3 Xstrong. I bend it with pliers and it’s ready to go.
Fish it with a jigging motion as it’s being retrieved. Hmmm, tasty.
Attach the thread and tie in two lumps right at the front bend--look closely-the lumps form a little dumbell.
Position the lead dumbbell eyes in the groove of the thread dumbbell and secure them with figure 8 wraps. Finish by wrazpping between the lead dumbbell and the hook shank to cinch the eyes tight.
Wrap back and tie in a tail of olive marabou, then tie in a length of copper wire for a rib.
Form a spinning loop and apply a body of rough, rusty brown dubbing.
Flip the hook over in the vise and stab a rusty brown fur strip onto the hook. Secure it just behind the lead eyes, and then rib it to the body with the copper wire.
Form another spinning loop and add a collar of medium long rusty brown and olive fur (synthetic or natural). Fish with eager anticipation.
Thanks Gary!
Hi Gary! In your book Naturals on page 205 you explain how to tie a Crayfish (realistic approach). I was just wondering if you would grace us with this immitation. All the best, Joshua Brophy.