Crawdads

[richmce 0]

i have been playing with some ned style weighted flies. they might give you another road to go down. i use a 90 degree hook and tie a brass or copper nail to the bottom of shank. this has also lead  me to using  an  aluminum roofing nail  then it stands up on the bottom. for more weight  i add a washer the size of the nail head. i do grind the nail shank flat on the part that i tie to the hook,and taper the point  i call it the redneck ned rig

[Mark Knapp 0]

31 minutes ago, richmce said:

i have been playing with some ned style weighted flies. they might give you another road to go down. i use a 90 degree hook and tie a brass or copper nail to the bottom of shank. this has also lead  me to using  an  aluminum roofing nail  then it stands up on the bottom. for more weight  i add a washer the size of the nail head. i do grind the nail shank flat on the part that i tie to the hook,and taper the point  i call it the redneck ned rig

Thanks, I need as much weight as I can get and I need it as compact as I can get it. That's why I am using lead. Because I fish them so deep.

[Guest]

25-30’ is heck of a feat with fly gear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Philly 0]

17 hours ago, Mark Knapp said:

Your look great too, like all of them on this page. I'm sure they would work good for me too. I'd need to fish them down to about 30 feet. That's one of my challenges. I love them.

That's a problem.  The last two years on my Ontario trip, the smallies have been anywhere from shallow down to 30 feet.  I'll fish my fly line, fast sink tip. down to about 20 feet.  After that I just switch to spinning gear.   I've used denduke's idea of fishing a floating fly off of a sink tip.  I used a Crease fly or one of my sliders with a 6 to 8 foot leader and usually in shallower water from 5 to 10 feet.  It's actually pretty effective.   The fly dives and when you pause the strip it starts floating back toward the surface.  A lot of the strikes occur when its floating up or in shallower water when it hits the surface.

 

13 hours ago, richmce said:

i have been playing with some ned style weighted flies. they might give you another road to go down.

I cheat.  I like the ned rig for spin fishing and I found they make jigs down to 1/20th oz.  A 1/20th oz jig can be cast with either my 6 wgt or my 8 wgt.   In fact, I have a couple of boxes of flies tied on 1/20th and 1/32 oz jigs.  Saves a bit of work.  Here's one tied on a 1/20th oz ned jig.

I'll see how it works come late August.

[chugbug27 0]

That's a fantastic looking pattern, denduke's too...

Re your Havasu challenge, to overcome the issue of imitating it's behavior that deep on a fly rod, what about imitating a molting crawdad? They are usually under cover, but that's because they are largely immobile for the molt, just wiggling sideways or upside down, before emerging and dashing away. At least from what I could tell with Google...

If you tie the molter, you could sink it to the bottom and just bump it a little in place, no? They even change colors when molting, which would make your artificial seem like an easy target, to be eaten in due course before the molt finishes.

I hope that's not just stupid and presumptuous... Either way, I'm having a lot of fun hearing about your efforts, cheering you on.

Oh, and how did your snail patterns do?

 

[Mark Knapp 0]

This is what the lead wraps in these flies look like.

[Mark Knapp 0]

16 hours ago, denduke said:

25-30’ is heck of a feat with fly gear.  I’ve been experimenting with the “booby” style with full sinking and clear intermediate sink fly lines.  The tail bug floats up and maybe a dropper between all on short leader.   Radical thinking but full sink line and a Cdad that floats up a bit off the bottom???

Other ideas…
I came up with a type of “Tokyo” rigged Cdad that is made with a foam back and even big styrofoam eyes to make it float up with a length of mono to the hook eye and a big split shot crimped on.  Check in the bucket. Guy came up with idea for sandy bottoms for pompano. 

FWIW.  
When gills get hard to catch especially when they are bedding and you can see them but no bites,  I have turned the tide many times with a Chironomids under a popper.  Discovered their guts were full of the pupae. 
Another thing…maybe lil streamers?

 

All good Ideas. I'm sticking to all sinking stuff on these crawdads so I don't have to wait for them to sink. Tried my system last year and like it. Now all I have to do, (I think) is put in the time. Yes, I'm bringing all manor of flies from terrestrials to minnows to aquatics, midges and worms and grubs. I'm sure my Havasu box has several hundred flies in it and I'm not done yet. Thanks Mark

[Mark Knapp 0]

5 hours ago, Philly said:

That's a problem.  The last two years on my Ontario trip, the smallies have been anywhere from shallow down to 30 feet.  I'll fish my fly line, fast sink tip. down to about 20 feet.  After that I just switch to spinning gear.   I've used denduke's idea of fishing a floating fly off of a sink tip.  I used a Crease fly or one of my sliders with a 6 to 8 foot leader and usually in shallower water from 5 to 10 feet.  It's actually pretty effective.   The fly dives and when you pause the strip it starts floating back toward the surface.  A lot of the strikes occur when its floating up or in shallower water when it hits the surface.

 

I cheat.  I like the ned rig for spin fishing and I found they make jigs down to 1/20th oz.  A 1/20th oz jig can be cast with either my 6 wgt or my 8 wgt.   In fact, I have a couple of boxes of flies tied on 1/20th and 1/32 oz jigs.  Saves a bit of work.  Here's one tied on a 1/20th oz ned jig.

I'll see how it works come late August.

Very nice, I could try those. Now I have an excuse to tie more flies. (I still have plenty of time too).

[Mark Knapp 0]

2 hours ago, chugbug27 said:

That's a fantastic looking pattern, denduke's too...

Re your Havasu challenge, to overcome the issue of imitating it's behavior that deep on a fly rod, what about imitating a molting crawdad? They are usually under cover, but that's because they are largely immobile for the molt, just wiggling sideways or upside down, before emerging and dashing away. At least from what I could tell with Google...

If you tie the molter, you could sink it to the bottom and just bump it a little in place, no? They even change colors when molting, which would make your artificial seem like an easy target, to be eaten in due course before the molt finishes.

I hope that's not just stupid and presumptuous... Either way, I'm having a lot of fun hearing about your efforts, cheering you on.

Oh, and how did your snail patterns do?

 

That's exactly what I've been doing and plan to do. Great minds think alike. The snails are working great, as well as the quagga shells. Now that I found where the big sunfish live in Havasu I'm going to work them hard (next year). Thanks Mark

[salmobytes 0]

...on a jig hook