Still tying to master this Crawfish pattern. Not getting any easier or quicker to to tie, but I have learned some good lessons for the future. This batch turned out a bit better than the previous ones.
Someone asked me for tips on how these are tied, so here you go.
The typical materials you will need.
And some handy tools.
Deer hair can vary in color depending on what you desire. I went with natural, dark olive green and crawfish orange. You can mix the hair or use them straight. A small wooden dowel comes in handy to mix the hair in the stacker. Gold variant, tan, olive or crawfish orange rabbit strips form the "claws."
I stripped an old BIC pen of it's innards which makes a great little hair packer.
I switched to Gamakatsu B10s hooks after I had a couple of hooks snap off right at the end of the tie when applying too much pressure.
It is really frustrating to put all that effort into tying the fly and carving the hair, only to have the hook break at the end. I decided to toss out all the cheapo hooks and will only work with quality stuff from now on. Lesson learned: you only pay for quality once. The Gamakatsu hooks are stronger and have an extended hook gap which I think will provide for better hook ups with this pattern.
Holding back the hair around the head when whip finishing can be frustrating while fumbling with the whip finish tool and trying to position your fingers properly. I found a small piece of leather with a hole punched in it and applied to the bobbin works great to hold back the stacked hair from the hook eye to finish it off cleanly. A cheap and easy tool, one of my favorite things.
According to
Kelly Galloup's video the shape of the Chenille on the back part of the fly is the most important feature of this pattern. It's critical to getting the rabbit strip "claws" to form this curved shape on the rear of the fly, which is supposed to seduce Trout. Well, we'll see.
I used red thread to form the head which looks great when coated with UV Clear Finish.
The moment of truth: time to carve the head.
An old school safety razor blade does a good job of whittling away the bulk of the stacked hair. You can bend and flex it to shape the head. Finish the trim carefully with a good pair of sharp, small fly tying scissors. Go slow and take your time. It's super easy to accidentally lob off the rubber legs, or a chunk of your fingers. A rotating vise helps too when working around the head.
The finished product. Getting the hair stacked and packed properly determines how well the head will look. Practice and patience pays off in the end.
This collection should get me though the season. Although I bet many of these will never see the water. I found the green and tan hair with the gold variant rabbit fur produces a better looking fly than orange fur and rabbit hair. The learning curve on this patter is fairly steep. But, like fly fishing itself, tying a complex pattern like this one is part of the voyage.
Just don't ask me how much money I've spent recently on fly tying supplies...
(Eddie Rivard ladies and gentlemen!!!)
-Bill
