Bodkin / Patterns

Joe's Mini Crayfish

Streamer · Smallmouth Bass · Largemouth Bass · Panfish · Trout · Intermediate · 2 versions

Reference Recipe

  • Hook 3XL streamer/curved hook, 8
  • Thread Brown or rust 6/0

Materials

  • Bead-chain or small dumbbell eyes (mount to ride hook-up) Black mono eyes small (1 pair)
  • Rabbit or marabou (antennae/claws) Rust/brown rabbit or marabou (small bunches)
  • Grizzly hackle tips or rubber (claws) Barred brown grizzly hackle tips or rubber (2)
  • Crawdad / hare's-ear dubbing (body) Rusty brown (for body)
  • Palmer hackle Brown hackle (1 feather)
  • Thin Skin or Scud Back (carapace) Brown thin skin mottled (1 strip)
  • Fine wire rib Copper wire (1 strand)

How to tie it

  1. Lash the eyes on top of the shank near the eye so the fly rides hook-point-up (crayfish flee backward, so the head is tied at the hook bend).
  2. At the hook bend (the crayfish's head end), tie in a small tuft of rust fibers for antennae and two splayed grizzly tips or rubber legs for claws, kept short and mobile.
  3. Tie in the Thin Skin carapace strip and a length of copper wire, then dub a fat, shaggy body forward toward the eyes.
  4. Palmer a brown hackle through the body for legs, then stroke the fibers down.
  5. Pull the Thin Skin over the back as a carapace and rib it down with 5 open turns of copper wire, segmenting the shell; break off the wire.
  6. Build a small thread tail behind the eyes to suggest the crayfish's fanned tail, then whip finish and coat the carapace with a thin layer of UV resin or cement.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Jig.

Tying videos

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