Crawfish Colors

[Fred H. 0]

I was looking at making an arsenal of crawfish flies for my warm water box . What are some good color or color combos?

[nathan 0]

If you have some that lean rusty red,burnt orange,olive,and grayish..those are the four main colors I've came across...Nathan

[TheCream 0]

Black/blue is a very good craw color, too. I've never seen one that color, but smallies and spots sure love hitting black/blue craw patterns.

[feathers5 0]

For some reason I do great with the rust color works for me.

[fishn311 0]

I tie a lot of mine in browns and olives.

[mikechell 0]

Small crayfish are lighter than larger ones. I believe its due to the fast that as they get older and larger, they molt less frequently.

In my neck-o-the-woods, they start light tan or greenish tan and become dark brown, almost black by the time they are 3 inches long or more.

[DoubleHaul 0]

Most them in my area are dark olive with orange undersides. I usually add some blue somewhere on the fly too.

 

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

don't forget the really light tan ones to mimmic the soft shells fresh from the molt

[michaelray 0]

Any fly I tie that I'm trying to even remotely resemble a crawfish, I'll usually tie in a combination or orange and brown or brown and olive.

[Zedd 0]

I have found here in Texas the lighter colored flies in rust, orange, or olive work best. I have taken home to eat about 20 (over the years) bass from 3-5# from one particular local pond that is full of crawdads. Most of the crawdads I see walking along the bottom are much darker. 100% of the bass I took home to eat had crawdads in them, some still alive. Upon autopsy, all the crawdads were lighter colored 'softshell' crawdads with a new carapace. I suspect the bass can tell (maybe by the different sound they make when swimming) which crawfish have the new soft shell and find them easier to digest. Who knows?

[tidewaterfly 0]

Zedd, I read somewhere that when they molt, the soft shell is lighter in color and darkens as it hardens. Not sure how the bass tell, but they do. Perhaps by the way the craw moves.

 

I've had the the best success with shades of olive, dark usually, black & rust colors. Black with some blue is always good as Jeff said!

[Kudu 0]

Black with red tip accents. The claws and antennae need movement. This is a very good color combo for smallmouth.

[lostman 0]

usually do my best with blacks with hints of red and orange or very dark greens with black

[sniperfreak223 0]

For me, the most effective colors have been olive, olive/brown back, burnt orange, tan, cream, brown, and rusty brown, but I also carry black, gray, blue, and chartreuse.

[sandflyx 0]

red, purple. and yellow/chart. work also. just tie a multitude of colors, I even do a plaid one (don't ask how)