crayfish pattern Chain Cray: Anchor fly that can simulate a swimming crayfish

[troutracker 0]

The photographs show the Chain Cray and the clawless Chain Cray variant. These flies have a total length, including claws and legs extended to the rear, of 2 inches (50 mm)

 

Recipe

Hook: Firehole 570 size 1 to 2 – or other wide-gap jig-hook with a shank length of about 20-25 mm.

Thread: Ultra thread 140 denier Woodduck color or similar beige to pale yellow-orange thread

Tail/fins: Dumbbell eyes plated gold or brass.  The dumbbell is lashed to underside of the jig hook where the shank bends up to the hook eye to make for a keel effect that helps to keep fly upright. 

Hook Shank Weight: Zero to four straight pieces of 0.20 to 0.35 inch lead wire lashed to sides and underside of jig hook shank to promote inversion. Vary the lead size as needed to impart the heft needed to make the fly bottom-bounce at a dead drift in the local water conditions. 

Lobster Claws: One lobster claw clasp comes attached to the chain with each necklace chain. So a piece of chain and a lobster claw clasp from two chains are needed to make one clawed fly. I use: Item# H20-4525CH. 0.4mm serpentine chain: https: //www.firemountaingems.com/itemdetails/H20-4525CH Its also possible to buy the lobster claw clasps (item# H20-1448FX) from Fire Mountain Gems and attach them with a twist of stainless steel wire to a piece of chain. If you go with the clawed variant, the claw and chain assembly is lashed with the claw facing-out to the rear of the fly. Lash-in one clawed chain on either side of hook shank near hook bend. I tie in the claws so that the tip of claw ends up about ¾ to 1x as long as the hook shank.

No Claws Variant: Apparently experiments by Berkley Tackle Co., as reported in the book “Pure Fishing”, found that clawless crayfish lures had twice the strike rate of clawed lures. See (https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/74922-crawfish-and-their-claws/) I could not find a copy of the book, so I could not confirm this report yet --but the variant does work for trout.  I also tie this variant in lighter weight version with some or all of the appendages made of Uni-Flexx camel color split in half.

Antennae: Uni-Flexx camel color. Split roughly in half using a razor blade. Split roughly in half using a razor blade (See this done near the end of this video: youtu.be/ogBM06cUYFA). I do this to increase the flexing motion when fished. The antennae are lashed-in facing towards the rear of the fly parallel with the claws and one antennae on either side of the hook. I tie them in to end up about 1.5x as long as the hook shank after trimming. 

Carapace Dubbing: Flies shown are dubbed with a mix of one part Cohen Cray Zee Olive added to two parts Cohen Stone Ground Mustard.   Dubbing mix is applied to the thread coated with wax by rubbing the thread with a fluffed loose ball of dubbing along its length. If needed add sparse pinches of the dubbing mix by dabbing it into the wax coat along the length of the thread where there are dubbing gaps. The thread is then rapidly spun by a grasping the neck of bobbin on between two fingers and snapping the fingers past each other. This spinning action is allowed to continue until the thread and dubbing are spun together to form a noodle. As the thread spins you can even out the noodle by rubbing  the dubbing from the thick to thin parts. The longer the bobbin spins the tighter the noodle will be so adjust the time to suit your taste.  

    If desired, you also add extra fuzziness to the dubbing noodle by taking the fluffed up ball of dubbing and rubbing it along the dubbing noodle. This so-called “Static cling” method seems to help transfer and keep the fuzz in place.

Dubbing shape: The fly is dubbed thick at the hook bend to represent the carapace of the crayfish with the legs protruding out. The dubbed body then tapers from near the middle of the carapace and continues to taper on across the abdomen towards the hook eye and dumbbell weight. 

First pair of legs:  0.4mm gold necklace chain (all legs are same source as the claws) tied in extra long compared to natural to enhance impression of swimming crayfish. The first legs are tied along the lashed-in lead wire on either side of the hook shank and point out towards the rear of the hook along with the claws and antenna.  These legs are tied long compared to the natural to add heft to the fly,  distribute the weight across the fly, balance out the dumbbell weight at the other end of the fly, as well as increasing the theatrical expression of a swimming motion when fished. 

Second through fourth pairs of legs:  0.4mm chain tied in long compared to natural to enhance flexibility and the impression of a swimming crayfish. These legs are tied using the figure 8 method and tightly dubbed thread to lash-them-in at right angle to the hook shank.  The legs are bunched in the first third or so of the hook shank starting at the hook bend and embedded in thickened dubbing wrapped and built up to represent the carapace of the crayfish.  Note that as the fly is fished, the to and fro action of casting seems to loosen the legs such that they will fold back towards the rear of the fly as it is retrieved with a swimming-like motion.

Abdomen Ribbing: Ultra-wire large amber copper-wire tied in at the rear of the carapace after the last pair of legs, the body dubbed, and then the is wire spiraled forward over the abdomen dubbing to near the dumbbell weight to give it a segmented look. 

Abdomen Dubbing: As the last set of legs is lashed on to the shank using the figure 8 method start to taper the dubbed body by wrapping less and less of an ever-thinning dubbing-noodle around the hook. 

Whip finish.

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Variants:   Common color variants: Rusty brown, reddish orange, golden light brown, golden beige and an uncommon variant, electric blue. Of course, if in doubt about the color to use, match the local crayfish. That said, some crayfish closely match the color of the substrate and trying a fly in a contrasting color may work better. I also tie this pattern in lighter version with all of the appendages made of Uni-Flexx camel color split in half. 

Fishing the fly: I fish it as a bomb anchor fly on a two-fly Euro-nymphing rig.  As described above, set up the weighting of the fly for bottom-bouncing dead-drift through the head of pools in rock-bottomed streams. The sought after effect is to give the fly the “touch and go” look of a retreating cray swimming away; (2) use a low amplitude jigging/swimming motion to lift the fly off the bottom and then let it settle back down to bottom every 2 feet or so in a deep pool; and, (3) set up the weight of the fly so it will bulldoze along a muddy or sandy bottom of pool to simulate a retreating cray with claws to the rear in a strategic withdrawal. 

As crayfish have been either inadvertently or intentionally introduced into other trout-bearing river systems in the west, it seems that the usefulness of cray patterns is seemingly going to increase over time.

[skeet3t 0]

Thanks. That is a detailed description of the fly!  The defensive position would also have upright claws when the crayfish stopped and was confronted by a fish.

Am I to understand that crayfish aren't native to the Western  rivers?

[richmce 0]

cleaver idea of using the chain for additional weighting .

[troutracker 0]

Of course, as you know, there are native western crayfish. The projection of increasing cray fly usefulness is based on the fact that some of these east of the  continental divide cray species have been introduced to the west side of the divide where they seem to have established themselves. For an example, go to https://cpw.state.co.us/rustycrayfish.  For a historical and invasive range chart of the rusty Crayfish go to https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=214  There you will see that the rusty cray  has been introduced in many locations in the Western US-- well outside of its original range.  There are other examples of crayfish introductions to support my thesis.  So, the projection of increased cray fly importance is based on the contention that some of the eastern cray species are apparently hardy, and adaptable species that are going to tend to spread ever more widely if not checked. 

Another point to consider is if the invasive crays displacing the indigenous ones or are they colonizing new waters?  I don't have that answer. Another thought is that the push by the Gov to get folks to stop introductions has increased the awareness of anglers that crays may be a good fly to try in places they had not done so before.  That's why I started trying cray flies.

[niveker 0]

That's some nice tying, as is your Chain Stonefly pattern. 

Pretty sure I'd knock myself out trying to cast this one, though.  

[skeet3t 0]

Tennessee has the same problem of non-native crayfish. tt, thanks for the info. Wanted to share this.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/invasive-rusty-crayfish.htm

 

[troutracker 0]

On 5/24/2021 at 5:47 AM, niveker said:

That's some nice tying, as is your Chain Stonefly pattern. 

Pretty sure I'd knock myself out trying to cast this one, though.  

You are right a conventional cast can be a headache.  I once put a 2/0 salmon jig through my clothes and into the middle of my back where I could not reach it or take off the clothes.  Now I use the helicopter cast -- See it in Devon Olsen's book "Tactical fly fishing"  the helicopter cast keeps a two-fly set in tension so it doesn't foul as much and also keeps it away from the caster. 

[troutracker 0]

17 hours ago, skeet3t said:

Thanks. That is a detailed description of the fly!  The defensive position would also have upright claws when the crayfish stopped and was confronted by a fish.

Am I to understand that crayfish aren't native to the Western  rivers?

You are right about the misuse of the term defensive position.  I should have said something more along the lines of  a rear guard action.  Check out this video. Its were I got the idea of the cray backing up and bulldozing through the sediment as a threat moves toward it.  https://youtu.be/mByByHjoHBQ  In the end, the cray does swim off so maybe a combo retrieve is the answer. 

 

 

 

[skeet3t 0]

Have seen them scurrying backwards, stirring up all kinds of stuff on the bottom. I think in some cases, that acts as a visual attraction. Varying a retrieve is always a good idea, no matter what you are using for bait. Good luck and tight lines. Have so much fishing to do!