| The TS Crayfish
A number of years ago Bob Clouser created an excellent crayfish pattern, the Closer Crayfish. The TS Crayfish shares a number of techniques introduced by that pattern and combines them with some new techniques and materials to create a pattern to satisfy some of the needs I had in a crayfish pattern. Barbell eyes are tied so as to make the hook ride upside down, another Clouser innovation, allowing the angler to bounce it around the bottom without getting hung up as much. The arms and claws are made by knotting poly yarn and dipping the ends in Softex or Flexament. I use gold metallic Bugskin, colored over with markers for the shellback that has a very attractive appearance. The pattern was meant to be fished on a strip and pause retrive or dead drifted with jigs and twitches. Poke a hole in the tail with your bodkin and pass your tippet through the hole before tying your knot, this gives the tail more freedom of movement so the tail can flip down when stripped just like a real swimming crayfish. |
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| Hook: Orvis 8808 Streamer
Thread: Cream Size 3/0 or G
Shellback: Gold Bugskin
Underbody: Crayfish Green Dubbing
Weight: Barbell Eyes
Rib: Medium Ultrawire
Arms/Claws: Poly Yarn |
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| This pattern requires some prep. Use gold metallic Bugskin and color over it with a permanent marker like the Prismacolor markers. Experiment with different colors to match the color of crayfish you find in the stream. When the ink has dried trim the Bugskin to shape. It may take some trial and error before you get it right but hold it against the hook and fold it over and it will give a good indication of sizing. To create the claws, tie a piece of poly yarn in a knot. Dip the claw in Softex. Allow the claw to dry and trim to shape. Dipping the whole arm in Softex creates a cool effect but the arm will not have as much movement or flail around as much. |
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| Tie on your thread and advance it to the back of the hook. |
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| Tie on some pheasant tail fibers for antennae/feelers. |
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| Rotate the vise so that the hook point is up, this is how the finished fly will ride. Tie in your bugskin so that it's faced down with the hook point up. |
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| Tie your barbell eyes on by making a series of figure eight wraps followed by wraps around the base of the figure eight wraps to lock it in place. Cover up the wraps with some dubbing and the build a head with the dubbing. |
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| Pull the Bugskin back over the dubbing head and tie down. |
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| Tie in a Chinchilla hackleby the base, not the tip, this way the hackle fibers will decrease in size as you get to the hook eye for a tapered effect. Tie in a piece of Ultra Wire colored to match your body color. |
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| Dub your body forward to the eye of the hook, give yourself some room at the hook eye. |
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| Palmer your hackle evenly over tthe body, tie it off, and clip off the excess. |
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| Part the hackle fibers to the sides and fold the Bugskin over the abdomen, if necessary trim the Bugskin some more. |
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| Wrap the wire over the bugskin to bind it down and to create a segmented effect. Moving the wire back and forth as you pass under the fly will lessen the chance of binding down the hackle fibers with the wire. Tie off you thread and apply cement. Poke a hole through the Bugskin with your bodkin. When you're going to fish the TS Crayfish, pass your tippet through that hole before you tie your know to give the tail freedom of movement. |
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