# Crawdads



## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

Growing up, I spent as little time as possible indoors. There were always fields to explore, trees to climb, and rivers and lakes to fish in. Bait was easy to come by, just grab a shovel and head for the garden. Big, juicy earthworms lived just below the surface in the dark, rich soil. 

But my favorite bait of all were crawdads. Later in life, I would hear that they were actually called crawfish, but they will always be crawdads to me. A string, a rock, and a couple of strips of bacon were all you needed to get the little critters. Just tie the bacon to the string, attach the rock, and toss the whole mess about five feet into the creek. ( Be careful to tie the tag end to a tree limb) Wait a few minutes and slowly drag the bacon, with crawdad attached, back to the bank of the creek. When the crawdad appeared, simply swoop down with a net and claim your prize. These were the baits of choice when you were after the big fish. 

Fish love crawdads. Now that I am a fly fisherman, live crawdads will simply not do. So my good friend and fellow club member, Michael Brown, showed me how to tie a crawdad pattern fly. Earlier this week, I had a chance to test the fly in the San Marcos. The test results are in . . . . . the fish love it. They smash it and crash it, with aggressive hits. 

That day was cool, rainy, and very windy. Autumn leaves littered the surface of the water, and poppers were not effective at all. The weight of the crawdad fly caused it to drop quickly into the strike zone. My first bass attacked the crawdad just as it cleared an underwater log. The fish flashed out of nowhere and nearly jerked the rod out of my hand. There was no need to set the hook, it was all I could do to just hold on. Over the next hour or so, several more nice largemouth and Guadalupe bass fell victim to Mr. Crawdad. Thank you Michael Brown. 

This might just be a good one to tie for the winter. Try it and see. 

Let's go fishing.


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## HillCountryBasser (Aug 26, 2008)

Way to go Mike! Any chance of getting that recipe?


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Great job! That's a cool lookin fly right there. I bet that would do pretty good as a shrimp imitation too


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## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

I will contact Michael for more details of the crawdad fly and pass it on to you.


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## Longshot270 (Aug 5, 2011)

What were the main claws made out of? Looked like red yarn.


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## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

Hill Country Crawdad

Materials

Hook: Wide Gape 2x Strong, 2-4x Long. Personal favorites are Salmon Fly Hooks, and Stinger Hooks like the Gamakatsu B10S
Weight: Small or Extra Small Dumbells (I flatten the dumbbell with a hammer for aesthetics)
Claws: India Hen Saddle to match local (I use a ruddy brown)
Head: Burnt orange rabbit fur
Antennae: Motor oil colored silicone legs
Body: A shaggy dubbing of your choice to match the local (I used to use brown olive angora fur, before I discovered Waspi's Crawdub)
Thread: 140 denier (6/0) to match dubbing

Procedure
Tie dumbbell eye to top of hook approximately 1 eye length behind the eye.
Rotate hook
Cut a small strip of rabbit fur and tie in just before the bend of the hook (adjust fur to go off the end of the hook )
Cut a piece of silicone leg material to be approximately 5 inches in length
Tie in leg material at just behind the rabbit leaving the same amount on both sides of the hook
Add dubbing to thread and wrap a ball over and through the leg material to provide a smooth transition
Select two matching hen feathers, and remove fluff from the end of the stems
Tie the feathers to the hook with the concave side facing outward to provide a natural looking claw, (make sure you securely tie these in)
Add additional dubbing to thread and dub a tapered body to the eye of the hook (I like to figure 8 a couple of wraps of dubbed thread around the dumbbell)
Whip finish
Cement thread if desired

Recipe by Michael Brown
Central Texas Fly Fishers
ctff.org


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## Longshot270 (Aug 5, 2011)

Thanks, my crawdad sinks too fast for most applications.


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## FISHROADIE (Apr 2, 2010)

Nice fish.


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