Crayfish Pattern

[kipper]

Anyone out there have a tried and true crayfish pattern they would share..or any direction would be great.

Thanks.

[wongrs]

clouser's crayfish looks good (although untested to myself ... yet):

 

http://www.lifr.org/Clauserscrawfish.htm

http://www.peninsulaflyfishers.org/Fly_Tyi...erCrayfish.html

http://www.clouserflyfishing.com/clouscraytyi.html

 

i'd be interested to see any others out there as well.

[Lundvike]

aren't crayfish red?

[bulltrout]

not always red...usually olive, dark green/blue, dark brown, light brown, etc...here's one out of Nicholas Sheran from last year...

 

[lonefisher]

hmmmm how did he taste DBT...... had some crawfish etouffee (sp) a couple months back thems tasty critters

[bulltrout]

hmmmm how did he taste DBT...... had some crawfish etouffee (sp) a couple months back thems tasty critters

 

 

not meant to hijack, just replying to LF's question...he was good...took the nephew down there for the day and we caught a beach pail full and brought them home to freak my wife and eat them...almost as good as lobster...to quote Forrest Gump: "I could eat about a million and a half of these."

[lonefisher]

yeah sorry bout the hijack there I dunno anything about fishing or tying crayfish cept that you can fish em from orange- almost black and a lotta colours in between.......

[cheeler]

http://www.schmidtoutfitters.com/index.cfm...product_id=2142

 

Not too hard to tie, basically a couple wooly bugger bodies with rubber legs and a deer hair head over lead eyes. Haven't tried em yet, but I got a couple waiting for some bull trout.

[kipper]

Thanks for the input..I am going to try and tie up some of the clouser types.

[deeppowder]

Are crayfish a major food source in the Bow? What time of year are they soft shell?

[jonny5]

A pattern I have like for salmon is called the squamish poacher. Pretty standard shrimp/crayfish patter. Look it up. Its made with flagging tape as a shell.

 

Hijack time:

 

As for crayfish in the bow, I was talking to a biologist who studies them in alberta, and she told me there are none in the bow (at least in the city section), likely owing to lack of habitat. There are some in the nose creek however.

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

i can chuck rock in to nose creek form my work, i thought they were a warm water thing, i remember my dad doing a research project on them back in London Ont.

[McFly]

Hey guys I am new to adding any input on this site but often check it to see what's new.

When I saw that this thread was back on I figured I might as well hop in. This is a pattern that I have used with great success for smallmouth back in Ontario I have even out-fished buddies who were using scent impregnated plastics. I have yet to use it for trout but I know it works wekk for bass and even walleye on occasion. Its not an exact replica of a crayfish but it works.

 

 

 

[Harps]

A pattern I have like for salmon is called the squamish poacher. Pretty standard shrimp/crayfish patter. Look it up. Its made with flagging tape as a shell.

 

Hijack time:

 

As for crayfish in the bow, I was talking to a biologist who studies them in alberta, and she told me there are none in the bow (at least in the city section), likely owing to lack of habitat. There are some in the nose creek however.

 

Crayfish are not native to the Bow... only native to one river system in Alberta.

They are an introduced/invasive species that are spreading.

If you start seeing them in Cal, well they are spreading.

 

Who knows what negative impact they'll have.... maybe they'll wipe out caddis hatches or certain mayflie species.... The ones in the Lethbridge area seem to be expanding their range... bad thing.

[Harps]

This is the only native crayfish from the Beaver River system

http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Aquati...h=1&Page=33

[deeppowder]

Crayfish are not native to the Bow... only native to one river system in Alberta.

They are an introduced/invasive species that are spreading.

If you start seeing them in Cal, well they are spreading.

 

Who knows what negative impact they'll have.... maybe they'll wipe out caddis hatches or certain mayflie species.... The ones in the Lethbridge area seem to be expanding their range... bad thing.

 

Please explain.

[Harps]

Please explain.

 

Crayfish feed on plants, inverts, algae, and detris. They are agressive, tough, and prolific breeders.

 

They are in direct competition with native species and prey on them at the same time... making them the perfect invasive species. They are also imposible to eradicate.

In the midwest, an invasive species has greatly reduced stream vegetation and wiped out native inverts in some sections of streams.

 

Also fish and other predators can change their feeding habits... when they start eating crayfish, they ignore some other organisms which causes an imbalance, leading to over-population, skewed predation, and eventual population collapse.

 

Imagine this: Crayfish introduced> they start eating slow moving caddis and the algae that the caddis eat> caddis die> trout start eating crayfish and ignore longnosed dace> dace populations increase> dace eat all the trout eggs> trout recruitment drops> no eggs for dace to eat> dace die and get eaten by crayfish> Only crayfish left.

 

Or anglers may never notice a difference...

 

From the Alberta Fishing Regs:

Crayfish cannot be used as bait. It is unlawful to possess live crayfish.

 

Remember:

it is illegal to use live bait fish or crayfish as bait.

it is illegal to set out or use bait to attract fish unless the bait is attached to a hook used in angling.

it is illegal to use scented lures or scented weights where bait bans are in effect.

Crayfish

Crayfish are native to the Beaver River system. However, they appear to have been illegally introduced into many Alberta waters and may be adversely affecting aquatic ecosystems.

Some people have expressed a desire to consume crayfish. In all waters other than the Beaver River, people may catch crayfish for consumption. Legal capture methods include angling (sportfishing regulations apply) or catching them by hand. No licence is required to capture crayfish by hand. The retention and transport of live crayfish is illegal and all retained crayfish must be immediately killed to prevent the spread of this species. Please help prevent the spread of invasive species.

http://www.albertaregulations.ca/fishingre...s.html#crayfish

[jonny5]

Crayfish are not native to the Bow... only native to one river system in Alberta.

They are an introduced/invasive species that are spreading.

If you start seeing them in Cal, well they are spreading.

 

Who knows what negative impact they'll have.... maybe they'll wipe out caddis hatches or certain mayflie species.... The ones in the Lethbridge area seem to be expanding their range... bad thing.

 

From my source, they are not in the bow. As for them being in only one watershed, I would then ask, how did they get there? Its not wet enough for them to cross land here, so I would bet that small populations exist in places where people have not looked. Anyways, it sounded like the point of this persons study was to identify and characterize the populations that do exist, and keep track of their movement/identify if they are moving naturally or are being moved.

 

Just near the nose creek there is a large obsticle that would prevent populations from moving upstream, so it may just be that they used to live in sections of the bow and are now gone due to increased predation (introduced trout), lack of migratory potential (weir), change in habitat (weirs and dikes)...

 

If I hear any more about this I will let you know.

[jonny5]

Ok, according to a quick search of the net, people are reporting them in many different rivers and lakes around alberta including.

 

Newell, SSR, Echo Dale, blindman, Beaver, Amisk, NSR, and battle rivers. Sooooo folks start tyin' up some mud bug patters

 

Thats pretty cool actually, I used to catch them lots as a kid and always found them to be the neatest looking things.

[Harps]

Introduced into ths SSR, Newell, EchoDale, Henderson, Nic Sherian, the Magrath ponds... pretty much every waterbody where kids have played. Pike in Henderson eat alot of crayfish... premature worn down teeth and all.

 

I know people in Pincher Creek, Calgary, Med Hat, and Lethbridge that kept Crayfish from Echo Dale and Handerson in Tanks for a while... some were released (illegally).

Eitherway, 20 years ago they were only found in the Beaver River System in Alberta and a few ponds were they were known to be introduced (Dr Rassmussen thinks that dams may have played a role).

They probably aren't a big problem in rivers, but they've been shown to harm fish populations in ponds (Bullshead!?!).

[Fisherwoman]

http://www.schmidtoutfitters.com/index.cfm...product_id=2142

 

Not too hard to tie, basically a couple wooly bugger bodies with rubber legs and a deer hair head over lead eyes. Haven't tried em yet, but I got a couple waiting for some bull trout.

 

Hi the one thats called Galloup's S. Dungeon Fly (White) Thanks for posting it. I now know where to use that marabou from my wedding muff.. I had stored it away, thank god it never turned yellow....

But is white marabou a good color for tying flies?

Thanks.

 

 

[deeppowder]

http://www.schmidtoutfitters.com/index.cfm...product_id=2142

 

Not too hard to tie, basically a couple wooly bugger bodies with rubber legs and a deer hair head over lead eyes. Haven't tried em yet, but I got a couple waiting for some bull trout.

 

Black deer hair, black body with red bar bell eyes, red flashabou in the black tail, black rubber legs, BIG BROWNS.

 

I have asked Kelly about his choice of fly names but he will have to respond, not sure if I could give an accurate quote.............

 

[deeppowder]

Crayfish feed on plants, inverts, algae, and detris. They are agressive, tough, and prolific breeders.

 

They are in direct competition with native species and prey on them at the same time... making them the perfect invasive species. They are also imposible to eradicate.

In the midwest, an invasive species has greatly reduced stream vegetation and wiped out native inverts in some sections of streams.

 

Also fish and other predators can change their feeding habits... when they start eating crayfish, they ignore some other organisms which causes an imbalance, leading to over-population, skewed predation, and eventual population collapse.

 

Imagine this: Crayfish introduced> they start eating slow moving caddis and the algae that the caddis eat> caddis die> trout start eating crayfish and ignore longnosed dace> dace populations increase> dace eat all the trout eggs> trout recruitment drops> no eggs for dace to eat> dace die and get eaten by crayfish> Only crayfish left.

 

Or anglers may never notice a difference...

 

From the Alberta Fishing Regs:

 

http://www.albertaregulations.ca/fishingre...s.html#crayfish

 

Harps, thanks for the explaination. What really got my attention was the "invasive" comment. I did not realize that crayfish are non-native. I will need to investigate this for the body of waters I frequent. I don't see any drop in hatches on these rivers and I don't fish but a couple of lakes here in Montana. Nymphing crayfish can be very productive here. Just looking for patterns that might be productive for a trip up your way.

 

[jonny5]

Little story and picture of a squamish poacher

 

Cute little fly. Works well for moving coho as well.

 

Harps, thanks for the info, I didn't realize that they were known to be introduced. If I see any in a clean river, I will be sure to eat them.

[kipper]

After the "100 year flood" of '95 Crayfish were a LOT more noticable in the SS at Medicine Hat..that is why I was inquiring about a fly pattern of them last year. I haven't tried the ones i tied yet..I am hoping that I can catch some Walleye and/or pike on them.