Tom L

My go to crawfish flies for the last year or so had been the Foxy Crawdad and the Legged Crystal Bugger. They both were quite productive in low to medium flows of water, but with the high Spring run off I need something that will get down and offer a little bite bulky profile. So, I fused the best attributes of those two flies and came up with this. I don't have a name for it yet; so it is called "No Named Crawdad" for now. Any suggestions on the name are welcome. Hook: Eagle Claw 630-2 size# 2 (90 degrees jig hook) Thread: Uni-Mono size 4m Weight: 1/4" Brass Conehead and 10-15 Turns of 0.030 Lead Wire Antennas: 4 Strands of Red Crystal Flash and 4 Strands of Sili Legs Head: Medium Olive Chenille Collar: Olive Hackle Eyes: Hair Brush Bristles Claws: Olive Barred Magnum Rabbit Strips Legs: Black Rubber Legs Underbody: Medium Olive Chenille Body: Olive Crystal Chenille (I used Jay Fair's Long Shuck Glim. Brown Olive) Hackle: Olive Hanckle

Interesting ties. Like how you blend the materials together. The Congo Hairs are quite versatile. I've been working on a similar crawdad pattern. I'll post as soon as my new camera arrived. The salt got in the old camera while snorkeled in Belize.

That looks pretty good to me. Have a few with weedguard will come in handy.

John, Are you reffering to the LLBean is Hoffman Est? If it is, I can be there from 2-4pm. Tom

Nice looking flies. These will be good for the Fox when the water is high or out in the harbors when you need to go deep.

Yes Jim. Got down here this afternoon. The wirefire at the hotel is very slow. Had problem loading pictures. Hope to get good fishing report when I get back.

Andy - awesome fish and nice fly. Thanks for sharing. If you're looking for an alternative inexpensive lip, check out the Wiggler (scroll up to see the articulated version). http://illinoissmallmouthalliance.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10095 Now I have more confidence than ever in the fish catching power of the Stick Minnow (Mega Thunder Creek). http://illinoissmallmouthalliance.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10210

Thank you Ed for setting it up. Thanks everyone for taking the time of your busy schedulue to attend. And Thanks for the opportunity to host the event last night. Love to do it again.

Thanks guys... Thank for the suggestion. I'll have a few of these for my up coming Belize trip for Mr Snook for sure. Yes Rich, the Arctic Fox Tail is a great subsituting material for Marabou, more durable and very inexpensive too. Thanks for the link Ryan. As Norm's Crystal Schminnow used mono eyes for the fly, the bead chain eyes of the Foxy Candy can be substituted with mono eyes for a slower sink rate and shallow water situation.

We are ready here @ the Thai Garden. The weather forecast for tonite looks good and the traffic is lite. Hope to see everyone soon....

I have a piece of arctic foxy tail in my tying draw for a long while now and haven't used much of it. I started playing with it this past week and came up with this fly. It looks like smallie candy to me so I called "Foxy Candy". Hook: #4 Mustad 3407DT Thread: Ultra Thread 140 (Orange or Color to much the head) Eyes: Bead Chain Eyes (Black Large) Body: Red Krystal Flash Wings: White Bucktail, White Arctic Fox Tail (also can be substituted with Marabou or Craft Furs), Pearl Krystal Flash Collar: 2 Grizzly Hackles Head: Jay Fair's Long Shuck (also can be substituted with Estez chenille, Ice Chenille, or Pearl Chenille) Step 1: Attach Bead Chain Eyes on top of the hook shank (approx. 1/4 inch behind the hook eye). Step 2a: Attach 6-8 strands of Red Krystal Flash just behind the Chain Eyes and wrap the thread back to the mid point of the hook curve and bring the thread back just behind the Chain Eyes. Step 2b: Twist the Krystal Flash into a rop and wrap it forward and tie off right behind the Chain Eyes. Step 3: Attach the Bucktail on top of the hook just behind the Eyes. Step 4: Attach the Arctic Fox Tail on top of the hook just behind the Eyes. Step 5: Attach the Pear Krystal Flash on each side of the fly. Step 6a: Attach the Grizzly Hackles behind the Eyes. Step 6b: Palmer the Hackles 5-6 turns and tie off. Step 7a: Attach the Flash Chenille behind the Eyes. Step 7b: Wrap the Flash Chenilles 2 turns behind the Eyes, figure 8 over the Eyes, 1 turn front of the Eyes and tie off. Step 8: Trim the head to shape. This fly rides hook point down. I think Mr. Smallie will like it. Give it a try and good luck.........

Very nice indeed! Were the heads ice dubbed, brushed back, and trimmed?

The more the merrier. Hope to see you in 5 days.

Highly reccomend Camp Smallmouth for the kids. Jonn knows his stuffs and a great teacher. The kids will enjoy learning and catching fish, because the streamers that Jonn guides are loaded with smallmouth.

Nice and dense body and head, Mike. I found the craft fur closest to the patch (craft fur stumps) offered the densest dubbing.

I've been playing with Congo hairs also, but never got this nice. Well done!

Step 1: attach dumbbell eyes to the hook on the hookpoint side (the bottom of the hook). [This picture is showing the vise jaw in the upside-down position, so the hook is in the upside-down position also] Step 2: add Krystal Flash under body and tail. [This picture is showing the vise jaw in the upright position, so the hook is in the upright (normal) position also. And we can see that the dumbbell eyes are on the bottom of the hook or on the hookpoint side] Hope that cleared up the confusion. Please keep in mind that the vise is a rotary vise. And the upright (normal) position is when the vise jaw is at 45 degrees pointing up.

Thanks everyone for the nice compliments. Rob, I started of by tying the dumpbell eyes on top of the hook shank of the 45 deg jig hook (the same hook that I used for the Foxy Crawdad). The fly did swim hook point up; however, I didn't get the head shape I wanted. Next, using the same 45 degree jig hook, I tied the eyes under the hook shank (on the hook point side), I got the head shape that I liked, but the fly sometimes swam hook point down (tested in the tub). After that, I used a 90 deg jig hook and tied the eyes under the hook shank. I got the head shape and the hook point up swim as I wanted. I'm not sure what the sink rate of these flies is. The weight of the dumpbell eyes on the fly will determine that. So I had used 3 different eye sizes (x-sm, sm, med); and not to confuse myself when I actually use them, I also used 3 different colors of eyes. Red eyes = x-small White eyes = small Plain eyes = medium Hope that helps.

Thank you Ed. Complimentary appertizers and soft drinks will be served at the meeting. I'll also donate: Crytal Buggers, the fly that I caught my 20.75" smallie last year. Foxy Crawdads, the fly that helped me won the River Bassin tournament. Foxy Sculpins, the newly created fly. This meeting is open to everybody. Both spin and fly fishermen are welcome. We just want to get together and talk smallie fishing. Hope to see you on Wed. Feb. 20th. @ 7:00pm.

I've had good success fishing the Foxy Crawdad last season. However, during highwater I felt the fly was not as effective as it should be. In this condition, I think I would need something with a little more flash and larger profile especially around the head. So, I've been tiggling with the Foxy Crawdad and finally I'm happy with the result. May I present the Foxy Sculpin. Hook: Eagle Claw 630-2 Size 2 (90 degrees jig hook) Thread: Danville's 140 Denier for the body and GSP 100 Denier for the head (colors of your choice) Under Body and Tail: Krystal Flash (color of your choice) Body and Tail: Magnum Zonker Strip (colors of your choice) Wing: Holo Flashabou on each side (colors of your choice) Collar: 2 hackles and deer hair (colors of your choice) Legs: Silicon legs (I used spinner bait silicon skirts for these. A trick I learned from Tim A.) Head: deer hair or Ice Dub (colors of your choice) Eyes: Lead dumbell eyes Step 1: attach dumbell eyes to the hook on the hookpoint side. Step 2: add Krystal Flash under body and tail. Step 3: add Zonker Strip body and tail. Step 4: add Holo Flashabous wings on each side of the fly. Step 5: add 2 pieces of hackles and palmer 5-6 turns for the collar, behind the dumbell eyes. Step 6: add rubber legs on each side of the fly. Step 7: add deer hair collar, just behind the dumbell eyes. Step 8: add Ice Dub on top, bottom and in front of the dumbell eyes. Whip finish. (You can also use deer hair for the hair) Step 9: trim to shape. These are the different variations that you can do with the fly. You can also use a straight eye hook and eliminate the rubber legs, then it became "Foxy Minnow".

Looks a lot better than my first. The hook eye of my first fly was covered with thread......

Tim, the SF Blends looks very good. They got very nice sparkles in them, unlike the Congo hairs. The V-Style tying is a neat trick. Thanks. I found another style of tying using "Loops". Here is the link. http://www.flyfishinsalt.com/techniques/fly-tying/tying-loops

#11 Dying Panfish is a very interesting way of tying. Did you use glue or apoxy on the hook shank and materials closed to the shank to keep it stiff?

Used to lived in Des Plaines about 10 years ago. There were some smallmouth in the Des Plains river back than. I'm sure there still are now. Know a few good Largemouth spots. PM sent. Love Paradis Pup's burgers and curly fries.

Congrats Jonn. Glade you posted it. These discussions will benefit many.