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Crawfish Casserole
Tied by Todd Mobley |
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Thread: Black Kevlar; 6/0 Uni-thread body color; 8/0 black Uni-thread
Antennae: Brown chenille
Legs: Brown hackle
Shellback: Brown swiss straw
Underbody: Lead wire or substitute
Eyes: Medium mono nymph eyes
Thorax: Orange/brown Antron dubbing
Pinchers: Pheasant breast feathers coated with Flexament
Abdomen: Same as thorax
Hook: Tiemco TMC5263 #4 (3x long)
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| Tying Instructions |
Keep in mind that this pattern is tied upside-down and backwards. That is, the crawdad's tail will be near the eye of the hook and the fly will ride hook-up in the water. In the instructions the top, bottom, rear and front will describe the traditional parts of the hook; front being near the eye, rear being near the bend, and so on.
- If using a down-eye hook, start by bending the hook near the eye. I do this by clamping the hook in the vise near the eye and bending the shank. If you are using an up-eye, or even a straight-eye hook, this step can be skipped.
- Start the Kevlar thread near the new bend in the shank and advance to the "real" bend (the REAR of the hook). Wind on a long piece of wire to cover the majority of the shank. Cover this with tight wraps of Kevlar (this is why I like to use Kevlar for this step). On the top of the shank, tie in three lengths of lead wire along the axis of the shank, or the "long" way. Cover again with tight wraps of Kevlar. The lead covered hook should now look like this...
- Throw on a few half-hitches and snip the Kevlar. Start in the 6/0 Uni-thread and wind to the rear of the hook. Tie in the chenille antennae on top of the hook.
- Turn thehook upside down and bring the thread forward to a point directly under the barb. Tie in th eeyes with figure-eight loops, then tie in the pinchers between the antennae and the eyes, one on each side.
- Bring the thread back to the base of the antennae and dub some Antron. Cover the base of the pinchers and the eyes. Tie in the swiss straw (hook still upside-down) just in front of the eyes. Tie in th ehackle by its base, then dub the thorax with Antron.
- Palmer the hackle through the thorax, tie off and snip the end of the hackle. Pull the swiss straw over the hackle and tie down with a few turns of thread. Do not snip the swiss straw yet!
- Dub the abdomen with the Antron up to the custom bend in the shank near the eye. Pull the shellback forward and tie off at the custom bend. Clip the swiss straw leaving enough material for a fanned tail hanging over the hook eye. Whip finish and clip the 6/0 thread.
- Using the black 8/0 thread, tie several loops over the abdomen to give the tail a segmented look. Whip finish or double half-hitch each one. I also tie black loops over the two spots where the swiss straw was tied down. The only reason i tie the majority of the fly with a thread that matches the body color is so that if any thread ends up showing through it is not as obvious. It is also easier to hide the thread when dubbing the body if the thread matches the dubbing. Hey, I'm still a rookie tier, what can I say?
- Cover the entire shellback, including the tail, with Flexament.
That's all there is to it. This is a pattern that I came up with based on different features of other local crawfish patterns that I've seen, as well as input from fellow tiers (hence the casserole name). The pinchers are something that I came up with when digging through my feathers looking for something that would make a good claw. If you have any comments, suggestions, or constructive criticism, by all means, send me an email. I would love to see how other tiers might do this one differently. |
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