Realistic crawdad fly tied for my smallmouth bass streams here in NorthWest Arkansas.U.S.
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List of materials
Brown dubbingPheasant tail and pheasant chest feathersmonofilament eyesbrown bucktail
Steps
Step 1
Take size 6 hook and put in vise upside down b/c it will be tied upside down. Add lead wrap about 2/3 of hook shank. Use a strong brown or red thread. wrap lead down towards bend of the hook. Tie in some brown bucktail for the antanae. Add a ball of brown sparkle dubbing and i use breast feathers from a pheasant for the claws and tail. Take a feather from each side of the bird and strip it so that about 1" of feather is left. You will want to bend the stem outwards so that the claws sit out View more...Take size 6 hook and put in vise upside down b/c it will be tied upside down. Add lead wrap about 2/3 of hook shank. Use a strong brown or red thread. wrap lead down towards bend of the hook. Tie in some brown bucktail for the antanae. Add a ball of brown sparkle dubbing and i use breast feathers from a pheasant for the claws and tail. Take a feather from each side of the bird and strip it so that about 1" of feather is left. You will want to bend the stem outwards so that the claws sit out from the body. Tie the claws on and try to be as equal length as possible. Once the claws are on and a little more dubbing to hide feather stem and wraps. Add monofilament eyes if you desire making figure 8 wraps to tie on. Then add about 10 pheasant tail fibers and tie them on. Then a piece of medium size copper wire. add a decent amount of dubbing or do dubbing loop works as well. Wrap dubbing down to the eye of the hook. Brind down the tail feathers and tie them off. Then wrap copper wire down the eye as well to hold the tail fibers in and create some segments for the body. Once all tied in add a 3/4" of tail fibers for the tail of the fly. If you want take a black marker and add black tips to the tail. it just gives a little more realistic look. Whip finish and good luck fishing! Btw jigging on the bottom works well or in fast riffles under a strike indicator on the bottom works well too. Good for smallmouth bass as well as brown trout