Deer Hair Crawdad

[The Mad Duck 0]

I'm still messing with deer hair and still trying to perfect my spinning skills. I have a smallmouth trip planned and wanted some larger/bulkier flies for the mountain stream fish. I was thinking crawdads,so, I tied on some eyes and lead wrapped the hook shank. this is a XL long hook. I spun the deer hair (as best I'm capable right now) then trimmed it to look like legs. I used some Mink as the tail. I'm pretty happy with the results.

 

[vicente 0]

Looks pretty good, I could see doing deer hard shrimp more than crawdads though. I'd want my crawdads riding point up for fishing right along the bottom, kinda hard to get that with deer hair and not block the hook gap.

 

Check out the ce crawfish, mcfly has a pretty simple one that looks really nice to I posted a link to the video in the crawfish swap.

[The Mad Duck 0]

I'll check that out, thanks.

You cant see it on this photo, but, I cut a channel right up the middle of the bottom of the fly, so the hair that looks like it sticks out on the bottom, is actually more on the side,so there is a pretty open space along the bottom and the gap isnt as closed up as it looks.

[vicente 0]

The gap looks fine I was saying if you were to make it ride point up which I would want since I would be fishing then right on the bottom it would be harder to have a good clear gap.

[The Mad Duck 0]

10-4

[The Mad Duck 0]

Ok, so taking some advice from Vicente, I flipped the hook over and tied a couple more of the crawdads. Thanks for the tip!

 

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[Brian Myers 0]

The buoyancy of the deer hair should help to keep the hook off the bottom on a sinking line or sink tip. I like to fish muddlers (loose head style) in crawfish colors in very rocky areas. They stay just off the bottom to keep snags to a minimum.

[Flat Rock native 0]

Will be eaten when cray on the menu, nice work

[DarrellP 0]

Nice! Could also work as a shrimp in the salt.

[Poopdeck 0]

Tie your dumbbell eyes on the side of the hook shank that you want to ride down. Both are tied to ride belly up, one hook point up and one hook point down. I would also tie the eyes in at the tail end since you want to fish claws up not down. Tying the weight at the hook bend will bury the hook into rocks. Great practice but I'm not so sure spinning deer hair is the best option for a crayfish fly.

[The Mad Duck 0]

Tie your dumbbell eyes on the side of the hook shank that you want to ride down. Both are tied to ride belly up, one hook point up and one hook point down. I would also tie the eyes in at the tail end since you want to fish claws up not down. Tying the weight at the hook bend will bury the hook into rocks. Great practice but I'm not so sure spinning deer hair is the best option for a crayfish fly.

 

Yea, I've made some modifications since I posted that photo. I have replaced the foam tail with a synthetic fiber, have added weight to the tail section and gotten some more natural crawfish colors to use. The fly floats momentarily until the water gets between all the hair fibers,then it sinks nicely,and, have it weighted to ride bend and barb up.I managed to get the fly wet before my hand surgery and caught a few fish on them.