Help naming this fly (Foxy Crawdad)

[Tom L]

Please help naming this fly........

So far, Jim S had suggested "Meat Spice" and Mike G had called it "Meat Thing". Any additional suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


This fly started out as a John Barr’s Meat Whistle, but overtime I had substituted several materials and slowly modified it to better suite my home river, the Fox River. It is a good crayfish imitation and quite effective. It has been one of the top big fish producer for me, including one of my winning fish in the River Bassin’ Tournament. I hope you will give it a try and hope it will bring you many big smallmouth as well. Good luck.

Hook: Eagle Claw 413-2 size# 2 (45 degrees jig hook)
Thread: Ultra Thread 140 Fl. Fire Orange
Weight: Brass Dumbbell Eye (3/16" or 4.5mm)
Under Tail & Under Body: 10 strains of Red Krystal Flash
Tail & Body: Hairline’s Magnum Rabbit Strip (Barred Olive/Black/Olive)
Collar: 4 Medium Centipede Legs (Hot Orange), Brown and Orange Hackles

Step 1:- Attached the dumbbell eye.

Step 2: Attach the red Krystal Flash to form the under tail. The Krystal Flash should extend about one hook shank length beyond the hook bend.

Step 3: Wrap the red Flashabou up the hook shank to form the under body.

Step 4: Measure the rabbit strip, the length should be from the dumbbell eye and extended half a hook shank beyond the Flashabou under tail; mark the end of the hook bend on the rabbit strip; then use the sharp point of your scissors pierces the rabbit strip at the hook bend mark.

Step 5: Insert the hook point into the pierced hole on the rabbit strip and place the hook (hook point up) on the vise.

Step 6: Apply some Hard as Hull glue or Crazy glue on the red Flashabou that wrapped around the hook shank; and then tie down the rabbit strip just behind the dumbbell eye.

Step 7: Attach rubber legs (2 on each side) approx. ¼ inch behind the dumbbell eye; and then attach the brown and orange hackles.

Step 8: Palmer the hackles (both brown and orange) simultaneously (approx. 6-7 turns) forward, tie off the hackles, clip off the excess hackles, whip finish, and apply a few drops of thin Zap a Gap on and under the dumbbell eye.

 

 

 

[Tim A]

Awesome fly, Tom! It looks great. As far as names, hmmm.... "Deep Whistler" "Crayfish Hackler"--or abbreviate this one to "Crackler"---mix them all up and you get "Crack Whistler!" Okay, seriously though..."Barbed Whistle" or "Barbed Craw" (since hackle is made up of barbs), "Foxy Craw" or "Foxy Whistle" or "Foxy Whistler" (named for your home river, not the material). Just some thoughts, trying to help.

[bob g]

Red Headed Stepchild.

[Guest Jim S.]

Opie's Whistler

[Guest rich mc]

the hackle behing the eyes reminded me of dan blanton whistler. then i saw the other posts and the whistler name mentioned since dan uses bead chain and you use brass i'd call it the brass whistler and since it helped youwin the tourney the bad ass brass whistler perhaps we now have the fly for the next issue of the newsletter thanks for sharing rich mc

[Mike G]

Great pictures and nice tying series.

 

I have some flies that I spun off of the Hairy Fodder which I called the Whodat Fodder and the Mardi Fodder.. So I suggest you keep Whistle in the name. After that it is up to you. Soon I will be tying some of these ????? Whistles using Craig's ringers to mount the eyes.

[Jonn Graham]

Thanks Tom for the step by step demo.

[ronk]

It should somehow reflect the fact that you designed it.If calling it the Tom Tom is too boastful how about calling it the GPS?

[Terry Dodge]

Meat Marinade Whistle.

Or....

Meat Whistle Marinade.

[Jonn Graham]

How about the Looter. Get it..................Tom Loo...................the Looter.

[Steve S.]

I like that Jonn

[Tim A]

the hackle behing the eyes reminded me of dan blanton whistler. then i saw the other posts and the whistler name mentioned since dan uses bead chain and you use brass i'd call it the brass whistler and since it helped youwin the tourney the bad ass brass whistler perhaps we now have the fly for the next issue of the newsletter thanks for sharing rich mc

 

Or maybe the major difference between Tom's and Blanton's flies is the zonker/rabbit tail rather than bucktail. So maybe a "Hare-y Whistler..." Get it? Rabbit hair, plus rabbit=hare. Or just keep it simple with "Loo's Whistle"/"Loo's Whistler"

[Mike G]

Bad Ass Whistle gives proper tribute to its ancestors while keeping the name short. My vote is for that.

[Tom L]

Wow! Thanks everyone for all the responses. You all sure can come up with lots of great suggestions.

 

So, let me recap what we got so far:

 

Deep Whistler

Cray Fish Hackler

Barbed Whistle

Foxy Craw

Foxy Whistle

Foxy Whistler

Red Headed Stepchild

Opie's Whistler

Brass Whistler

Bad Ass Brass Whistler

Tom Tom

GPS

Meat Marinade Whistle

Meat Whistle Marinade

Looter

Hare-y Whistler

Loo's Whistle

Loo's Whistler

 

Some of the criteria that I forgot to mention in naming this fly:

 

1. Keep It Short Simple (KISS)

2. Don't want to use my name in it

 

Base on these, I can eliminate some of the suggestions. I will make my decision soon, and let everyone know.

 

Again, thanks for all your suggestions.

[alank]

whistler's mother

meat whistler's mother

"meet" whistler's mother

[Tom L]

OK. Finally, I had decided. We will call this fly: FOXY CRAWDAD

 

Here are the thoughts went into it:

 

Foxy - I like this word, a suggestion from Tim A. It is a tribune to the Fox River, where this fly was born and tested. The fly also looks kind of foxy, because of its' long pointy noise, the dumbbell eye, and the hackle collar.

 

Whistle - I wanted to include this word in the name, but after a long hard thought I decided not to. The reason is that although I started out tying John Barr's Meat Whistle at first, but I slowly modified and changed the materials on the fly so much that the only original materials from the Meat Whistle left on the new fly was the rabbit strip.

 

Crawdad - This fly imitates a crawdad, a crawfish, or a crayfish.

 

So, Foxy Crawdad is the name. Again, thanks everyone. That was fun......

[ronk]

Tom

To me it's more an imitation of a leech than a crawfish with its long profile.But what's in a name as long as it catches fish.

[tgoodmanii]

Tom,

 

I tied up my first Foxy Crawdad today. It turned out ok but I was wondering where you get your Eagle Claw 413-2 size# 2 (45 degrees jig hook). I was at Cabela's today and all they had were some Eagle Claw 570-2 hooks with a 90 degree bend that have a bronze finish. They seem like they will work fine but are not a heavier wire hook. I can put more of an angle on it to make it more of a 60 degree but I don't want to weaken the hook too much. Also size 2 seems a little small so I was thinking about going with a #1 or 1/0 maybe even 2/0. Here is a hook I think is similar to the one you suggested https://do-itmolds.com/shop/do-itmolds.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=2_93_98. Also you suggest using flashabou but in your pics it looks like you used red Krystal flash. I only had black and olive hackle. What size dumbell eyes do you typically use for this fly? What method/presentation do you use when fishing this fly? Thanks

 

Looks a little too long

 

Tim

[Mike G]

Tim,

 

The fly looks great and is just the right length.

 

Best sources for those 60 deg hooks are on the web. Barlow's and JannsNetcraft have the best selection I have found so far. There are alos some interesting 30 deg hooks out there.

[Tim A]

Tim,

Your fly looks sweet! A fish-catcher for sure. You could always clip the rabbit hide back a bit even in the field if you thought it was too long (I don't think it is, judging by pic). I'll defer to Tom on what weight he uses most often, but I'll say that you could/should have a few different weights of this fly in your box for variable conditions and fish's preference. In deeper water, you may need to get down faster with heavier lead eyes. In super shallow water with little potholes, you could go down to brass eyes, beadchain eyes, or a brass cone.

[Mike G]

Tim,

Your fly looks sweet! A fish-catcher for sure. You could always clip the rabbit hide back a bit even in the field if you thought it was too long (I don't think it is, judging by pic). I'll defer to Tom on what weight he uses most often, but I'll say that you could/should have a few different weights of this fly in your box for variable conditions and fish's preference. In deeper water, you may need to get down faster with heavier lead eyes. In super shallow water with little potholes, you could go down to brass eyes, beadchain eyes, or a brass cone.

 

Or make one fly with a "Ringer" that lets you change out dumbell eyes according to conditions.

[Tom L]

Tom,

 

I tied up my first Foxy Crawdad today. It turned out ok but I was wondering where you get your Eagle Claw 413-2 size# 2 (45 degrees jig hook). I was at Cabela's today and all they had were some Eagle Claw 570-2 hooks with a 90 degree bend that have a bronze finish. They seem like they will work fine but are not a heavier wire hook. I can put more of an angle on it to make it more of a 60 degree but I don't want to weaken the hook too much. Also size 2 seems a little small so I was thinking about going with a #1 or 1/0 maybe even 2/0. Here is a hook I think is similar to the one you suggested https://do-itmolds.com/shop/do-itmolds.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=2_93_98. Also you suggest using flashabou but in your pics it looks like you used red Krystal flash. I only had black and olive hackle. What size dumbell eyes do you typically use for this fly? What method/presentation do you use when fishing this fly? Thanks

 

013.JPG

Looks a little too long

 

Tim

Hey Tim,

That fly looks very nice. I couldn't have done any better.

 

As for the Eagle Claw 413-2 size# 2 hooks, I had to order them online from Cabela's and had them shipped to the store (free shipping) near me. I live only 5 minutes from the Hoffman Est store. If you can't get the exact hooks, you can use the 90 deg hooks as subsitutes. The important thing is the fly needs to ride hook-point-up to minize snags.

 

Size #2 hooks had been working well for me. If fishing for smallmouth, I want the fly to be about 2"-2.5" in length. I think there was a post back by Norm or some one that mentioned that smallmouth prefers crawfish in 1.5"-2" sizes. But if you fish for largmouth, pike or muskie; larger is better. The Muskie that I caught on the Fox River last year took a 2" Foxy Crawdad.

 

Thanks for catching the typos. Yes, it should be Red Krystal Flash, not Flashabou. I just made the changes in the original post.

 

I used Red Krystal Flash with Olive Zongker and Gold Krystal Flash with Crawdad color Zonker. I also used different colors of rubber legs and hackles combination. The one I posted had been working well for me on the Fox River. Feel free to experiment with different colors combination and see which works well for your area.

 

The brass dumbbell eyes that I used for this fly was a size 3/16". I ordered them from this site: http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-BRASS-FLY-TYING-BARBELL-DUMBELL-EYES-3-16-BLACK-4-5mm-medium-/300850057003?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460c0f8f2b

I'd found that this size eyes worked well in the shallow to about 4' (of cause, it also depends on how fast the current is). Since the fly rides hook-point-up, the fly snags less in really shallow. Another attribute of the eyes is that they tick the bottom and produce cricking noises. If need to go deeper or if the current is very fast, I use split-shot(s) (BB or 3/0) attached about 24" above the fly. I will share my long leader and tandem flies system, once I'd figured out how to take good pictures with monofilament lines.

 

How to fish the fly? This was posted on Sept 24, 2012 fishing report. http://illinoissmallmouthalliance.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9969http://illinoissmallmouthalliance.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9969 It was in the Bulletine maybe an issue or two back.

 

I hope these help......

[mikea]

 

Or make one fly with a "Ringer" that lets you change out dumbell eyes according to conditions.

I used to do craigs ringers but man the PIA factor got to be to much, carrying all them lead eyes, fiddling with it on the water, not for me anymore. I still use my fodders, just without ringers.

[tgoodmanii]

Thanks Tom and everyone for the tips.

[Terry Dodge]

Bump: Edited recent Zoom Tie video into post.