Playin' With Crawfish....

[Darian]

I've been playin' with a design modification to imitate crawfish for Black Bass. The pattern I've decided on was influenced by Kelly Galloups, Bottoms-Up for Trout. It has a foam carapace and a heavily weighted abdomen/tail section. The pattern is articulated so the the carapace rises while the tail tends to sink. The hook rides up but I included a weed guard anyway. Should make for some interesting action....

Side view:



Top View:

[TaylerW]

really nice bug. i would love to see that one tied

[Steve Cali]

Darian,

Nicely done! I love articulated flies. I want to start messing around with them too. How did you attach the tail?

SC

[Darian]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. This was a tricky pattern to tie up for me. Easily sketched but a lot of steps involved. Galloups pattern is less detailed.... Modifying it required some preparation before tying. Lots of room to improve it, tho.... I added the weed guard as I intend to fish it in the delta up against the rip-rap, etc.

Steve,.... The connection is done loop to loop (so to speak). The carapace, claws, marabou are glued/tied to a Waddington Shank. One end (a loop) of the Waddington is left on the cup side of the foam carapace forming a connector.

I tied in a piece of Tyger Wire long enough to form a loop onto the hook shank (the abdomen/tail). A couple of glass beads were threaded onto the wire to act as a spacer. The carapace (Waddington) is threaded onto the wire which is then brought back and inserted into/through the beads and tied onto the hook shank; forming a loop connection (Whew!! Hope that makes sense). Actually, if you Google Kelly Galloups Bottoms-Up, that'll provide a video the illustrates this much better than I can explain it.

Tayler,.... This thing requires a lot of set-up before actually tying. Galloups original probably would work quite well in AK. It was developed for use in Montana. The video mentioned above shows a step by step tying process, including the connection.

[Darian]

Forgot to mention why I chose the Waddington as opposed to an articulated shack or a preformed wire spinner shaft. The waddington forms a double wire inside the foam carapace. So, it will resist rotating as it might using a single strand wire. Also, it provided the base I needed to attach the claws, legs and marabou, correctly.

If this was a salt water pattern, I wouldn't choose a Waddington, tho. The finish would wear/corrode and ruin the fly too soon.

[Scott V]

Very nice looking Darian, should fool a ton of big bass into eating it. Can't wait for the fishing reports.

[jbird]

Darian that is a peice of art! Seriously. Very well thought out if not a bit complicated. I love it!

[Darian]

Yep!!! I think I might've out done myself for the level of complexity on this one. Nobody's gonna make a living trying to tie one of these things but they're fun to look at and to fish, I hope. If I lost it on anything but 7 pound Bass, I'd be depressed for weeks....

I'm still trying to make it easier to tie and maybe improve the pattern a bit. Stay tuned.

[Terry Thomas]

Darian,
That does look pretty neat! How about a shot of the fly in some water? I'd like to see how the claws float up.
T.

[Jay Murakoshi]

Darian,

Great looking fly. Since it's bass season, Ive been working on a couple jiggy flys but haven't really had the time to sit down and put thing together.
I need to get the GoPro up there and shoot some underwater action, in shallow waters.
I have the same idea for a tail but using a chamious for both the claws and a$$ end.
I've also come up with a couple more rubber style worms, like I said, just need to find more time to get behind the vise

Jay