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Crayfish, or also called crawdads are a common food source for many freshwater fish, especially bass. But in rivers and lakes where trout get predatory, they will also eat crayfish as well. Therefor a crayfish pattern should be in your box when going out fishing areas where you know crayfish are present. Crayfish offer a large protein meal for fish, and therefor they love eating them. And they are a food source that is year round, instead of some nymph, and dry fly patterns for bass and trout. This crayfish pattern is one that has probably been done many times before. However I could not find a specific name for it. Its simple, and relatively easy to tie. It also sinks quickly to the bottom and rides hook point up. You could even make this more barbless by putting a mono weed guard on the front. However I find that the fly is quite weedless already with the tag of zonker strip covering the hook point, so I usually don't tie a mono weed guard on. What I like about this fly though is how the claws will splay out after it hits the bottom of the lake or river, and the fly itself angles upward, like a crawdad will do when in defensive mode. Warry bass and trout will sit and watch a crawdad for a few seconds on the bottom, and this subtle movement of the rubber legs and claws will initiate a strike from even the most skittish fish. Another thing about this fly is that it is relatively inexpensive to tie. It uses a smalll amount of materials, and one bag of rabbit strips will tie 20+ of these flies. Add a body of chenille, which is also inexpensive, a hook, some rubber legs and the dumbbell eyes, and this is a fly that can be tied for under a dollar each. Making it not only effective, quick to tie, but also easy on the wallet.

I am certainly not as skilled as Pat Cohen, but I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Let me know what you think!

The clouser minnow is one of the most widely used and effective streamer patterns for both salt and fresh water fly fishing. It has a really nice jigging action, and also sinks a bit to where the fish are. Its fairly easy to tie, and uses just a handful of materials. The bucktail moves really nicely in the water as well. If you ever watch the professional bass fisherman on conventional gear, they will throw a color pattern called Sexy Shad quite regularly. This is probably one of the most common crank bait color, made popular by Kevin Van Dam. I decided to copy that color pattern to create a great Large Mouth Bass or small mouth bass fly for fishing the shad spawn. Hook: Gamakatsu SS15 hook in size 2, but it can be tied on any strong long shanked hook. Weight: lead dumbbell eye Thread: Danville 210 flat waxed in blue (can use white as well for this pattern) Body: White, yellow, and blue buck tail Flash: Pearl flashabou (under the white bucktail) and gold crystal flash (under the yellow buck tail) Epoxy: Solarez "Thin Hard" UV curing resin. Music: funnysong, ukulele - Bensound.com