Favorite Crayfish patterns?

[Tom1980]

Funny how the Wooley Bugger is mentioned so much both here and elsewhere as a top pattern. I've tried it numerous times but have never even had a strike on it let alone caught something.

The comments below yours are very good advice.

I'll add that I like to tie them heavy. I want them to get down. If I'm going to strip or jig them, I can always adjust where they are in the water column manually.

I think many people tie them way too light. A bugger should get down to the bottom fairly quickly. I'm not a fan of light, almost no weight, "floating" buggers.

 

[coyoterahn]

Caught my first 3 trout on a woolly bugger fly in Clarks creek many many years ago. I‘ve enjoyed fishing them ever since. Mainly black and olive colors. Dead drift them, strip them or just let them hangout in the current. They catch fish. Period.

 

[tomgamber]

That's funny cuz when I first started tying, they were the wooly "worm" with thecred tag tail, unweighted and until they saturated and sank, I would on occasion pick up the occasional panfish on top.

 

[Tom1980]

That's funny cuz when I first started tying, they were the wooly "worm" with thecred tag tail, unweighted and until they saturated and sank, I would on occasion pick up the occasional panfish on top.

Yeah some people do it that way and have success with it. I just find them less effective than heavier buggers. That has just been my experience.

I thought of it this way, I cant fish a heavy bugger on top but I can do anything else with it. I can't fish a unweighted bugger on the bottom in faster or medium current water but I can do any thing else with it. So I just make my buggers heavy and if I want to fish on the surface, I'll just use a beetle.

 

[hooker-of-men]

For whoever hasn't caught a fish on a bugger, take the above advice and dead drift a big black one under a bobber when things start to get real slow this winter.

I've had days fishing them as part of a two fly rig and ended up cutting off the other fly because it wasn't even worth being there.

They're also great weight to sink your flies without a ton of shot.

 

[tomgamber]

Yeah some people do it that way and have success with it. I just find them less effective than heavier buggers. That has just been my experience.

I thought of it this way, I cant fish a heavy bugger on top but I can do anything else with it. I can't fish a unweighted bugger on the bottom in faster or medium current water but I can do any thing else with it. So I just make my buggers heavy and if I want to fish on the surface, I'll just use a beetle.

As I said when I first started tying...about 35 years ago.

 

[krayfish2]

I've repeatedly posted my favorite patterns.

Edit: my bad, misunderstood the topic line

 

[PennKev]

I just remembered that I've had some pretty good days fishing a Pat's rubber leg stonefly as a crayfish imitation. Just pick appropriate size and color. That also reminds me of something else. A good pattern doesn't need ridiculously huge "claws". In fact, when I used to catch and fish live crayfish for bass, the best crayfish were on the smaller side and had proportionally smaller and less prominent claws then larger crayfish.

 

[krayfish2]

When younger and spin fishing, we used to take the claws off and tail hook those things. Never had an issue getting hooked up.

Kev makes a good point. Claws might be more for catching fishermen than fish. Good ol clouser (unweighted right side up and barbell eyes upside down) good as ANYTHING

 

[tomgamber]

I can see that because of where the weight is. And again, if I'm allowed, why I have so much success with a tan beadhead bugger on water where crayfish are an obvious food. Position is a big part of presentation. I'm one who will put presentation over size and color most times.

 

[Bamboozle]

Did your catch rate go up when dead drifting? Stay the same? I've never thought about dead drifting the WB.

My catch rate definitely went up and at the same time it became a more enjoyable way for me to fish a "streamer" because I always found just casting and stripping back as boring as fishing a crank bait.

 

[troutbert]

Funny how the Wooley Bugger is mentioned so much both here and elsewhere as a top pattern. I've tried it numerous times but have never even had a strike on it let alone caught something.

For trout fishing, the Wooly Bugger and any other streamer is best fished when the water is up and is somewhat off color, at least chalky. They don't work very well when the water is clear.

 

[jifigz]

For trout fishing, the Wooly Bugger and any other streamer is best fished when the water is up and is somewhat off color, at least chalky. They don't work very well when the water is clear.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Streamers produce tremendous results in clear water.

I feel that this old "streamers are fished when high and muddy" is an ill repeated adage people hear, latch on to, and continue to perpetuate for generations to come.

With that said, you are entitled to your opinion, but I love fishing streamers in clear water.

 

[caddisflyer]

They say the only way to fish a bugger wrong is if it's dry.....I would have to agree. They just plain out catch fish.

Interestingly I tied a few unweighted yrs ago. Tossed one in at the bridge and it was floating and a Brown took it.

 

[caddisflyer]

On topic of wooly bugger. I tie real big ones in white and black on long 1/0 hooks with twenty plus wraps of lead and a cone head. I fish them on a sink tip line down and across, drifting and snap jigging them on 7 and 8 wt rods. Have had fish almost take rod out of my hands. Caught some big ones doing it. I looked up Clouser online. He still sells the Clouser Crayfish for around $5.00 each.

 

[PennKev]

I wholeheartedly disagree. Streamers produce tremendous results in clear water.

I feel that this old "streamers are fished when high and muddy" is an ill repeated adage people hear, latch on to, and continue to perpetuate for generations to come.

With that said, you are entitled to your opinion, but I love fishing streamers in clear water.

I disagree also. Some of the largest streamer fish I've ever caught have been in gin clear or very clear water.

The approach to streamer fishing advocated in the old times books is really one dimensional and amounts to, "If nothing else is working throw a streamer out and strip it back or not" That leaves a lot of room for the angler to figure it out for themselves and most never get to a place where they have the confidence to fish streamers effectively in relatively clear conditions.

 

[jifigz]

Interestingly I tied a few unweighted yrs ago. Tossed one in at the bridge and it was floating and a Brown took it.

I didn't mean fishing it like a dry fly....I meant keeping it dry as in it has never left your box.....

 

[poopdeck]

I’ve had a lot of bass puke up a lot of crayfish in my boat. In fact no other fish food has been puked up in my boat more then crayfish. They all had claws. Or at least I can’t remember ever seeing any clawless ones. The reason so many get puked up is because bass have no self control over eating crayfish. Kind of like how I am with fruitcake. They gorge themselves with every crayfish they can find. Throw anything that closely resembles a crayfish and they will attack it with ferocity, which is how they easily counter claws. however, crayfish have claws, fish know this, so why not fish something with claws?

I would prefer a pattern that was nothing but claws over a pattern that did not have any claws since the claws are a such a predominate feature but agree they need not be huge Which is why I don’t like to use rabbit zonkers.

 

[JeffK]

Tan/cream crayfish and nymphs work great because they look like the softshell phase which all fish really like. All sorts of cream nymphs over the years, classics are the Jersey Cream and the Maple Syrup - one of those too simple but good flies. Back when I was a bait guy I used to commonly seine crayfish. A regular crayfish was a good bait, but I could rarely get a softshell one to even hit the bottom without a take (smallie or trout water). One pool I fished at my home water had a ton of wild browns mostly medium and small, but with one monster under a log. Normal fly fishing frustrated me since when I drifted a fly to the log the smaller ones would always race the monster to the fly. One day in a cheating mood I drifted a softshell crayfish into the pool and that monster pushed all the other trout away to grab it.

Tan is a great crayfish color to me. However, I never found the imitations nearly as effective as the real thing.

 

[DomR]

I wholeheartedly disagree. Streamers produce tremendous results in clear water.

I feel that this old "streamers are fished when high and muddy" is an ill repeated adage people hear, latch on to, and continue to perpetuate for generations to come.

With that said, you are entitled to your opinion, but I love fishing streamers in clear water.

I concur. Sure I look for elevated, off color water but I don't think its an absolute for bugger success. If anything I might scale down the size in clear water but I don't hesitate to fish them.