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Where I matured, we called them crawdads. I have actually heard them called crawfish, however the majority of folks appear to pick crayfish as the main term for these fascinating freshwater lobsters. Despite what you call them, crayfish are a vital part of the diet plan for lots of trout, particularly those residing in tailwaters. They’re a high-protein food source, and a few of my finest fishing days in 2015 came when fishing crayfish beneath a huge foam hopper.
If you pick to connect your own crayfish, you’ll remain in for a bit more time at the vise than you normally invest with mayflies or midgets. These are meaty flies, and a lot of the patterns are typically intricate.
It can likewise be challenging to understand which crayfish pattern to attempt, given that there are a lot of of them. That’s where this story, by Stephen May over at Fly Angler Publication, enters play. He chose the 7 finest crayfish patterns based upon their biology and physical look, which is a fantastic location to begin. As Might notes, “lots of popular flies are not well developed. Some flies have big claws coming out of the fly’s head and float or drift with the hook pointed down, all set to snag the very first piece of particles it experiences. In spite of this, crayfish are such a crucial food product on lots of rivers, and fish see so couple of replicas, that they will strike an average replica with unexpected consistency. As soon as you begin utilizing well-proportioned crayfish patterns, your success will certainly increase, and you will constantly have a couple of patterns in your fly box all set for action.”
His 7 patterns are all ones I most likely should attempt, as they’re a bit more anatomically right than my go-to, which is the Zirdle Bug.
May likewise information how to fish these patterns, also. His short article is a wonderful resource for discovering more about these under-utilized flies, and I extremely suggest reading it, particularly if you’re tired of connecting mayflies, midgets, and caddis.
