Fly of the Month – Svend’s Cray Cray
Links will take you to a video of how to tie this fly along with a list of materials.
J. Stockard Pro Tyer: Erik Svendsen, Provo, UT
You can find Erik @ instagram.com/svenddiesel/ and facebook.com/svend.diesel.9
If you love fishing crayfish patterns this is a must have for your box. It is a combination of many patterns I have tied and tested over the years and finally love the way this one fishes and is tied. There is nothing new about some of the things I have done with this Crayfish that make it different than others besides the 3 cones of hackle to create the head and minimize the arm fouling. Along with using the tab legs to create a shell, which isn’t new, but using the mono to not cut the tab legs and covering in a good resin makes this fly bullet proof to last many many fish piercings.
I cover the eye in UV resin because I am usually stripping and jigging this in through the rocks or shallows on a floating line. It can be simply dropped and jigged, the weight will place it in a defensive position and the arms being made of rabbit will naturally trap air causing them to rise making it vulnerable to any fish looking for a snack.
It is more time consuming than other Crayfish patterns I have fished, but this is way more effective and way more durable than others I have tied while also minimizing materials needed. I love this Black/Orange Magnum Rabbit strip color and also fish them in dark olives and crayfish orange.
I typically fish this from shore, casting at angles and stripping it across the rocks with quick strips and long pauses to allow it to rest in the defensive position with claws up. I also have cast it towards the banks from a float tube but try to strip parallel to the shoreline. I almost always fish it with floated line. Read more of this post