Crawfish Flies for Bass and Warmwater Predators

Updated and expanded for Gorge Fly Shop while preserving the original voice, opinions, and warmwater fishing perspective of Greg Darling.

Crawfish, crayfish, crawdads, or clawdads...whatever you wish to call these armored, tasty creatures!

If you fish for smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, catfish, carp, or other warmwater predators, crawfish matter. They are a major food source in many rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and rocky shorelines, including our local Columbia River smallmouth fishery.

It is my belief that crawfish pattern flies are greatly misunderstood. To make a bold statement like that, you will demand I back it up. Here is my take, and I am going to start by shooting a bullseye right at the fly tying industry first.

Crawfish Are Not Orange!

I have found a lot of crawfish in nature, but I have yet to find a live one colored orange.

Unless you have crawfish in a pot of boiling water, their color is not orange. Yet every fly shop fly bin seems to have orange crawfish patterns in it.

Yes, there are red crawfish in southern regions, and yes, some crawfish can show hints of orange, rust, copper, or red depending on species, water, molt stage, and bottom color. But most of us are fishing crawfish that are closer to brown, olive, tan, dark olive, black, or some mixed natural shade that blends into the bottom.

If you have orange crawfish in your fly box, take them out now and let’s start over, pronto!

Colors to look for are tans, browns, chocolate browns, olives, dark olives, and blacks. Highlight with hints of red, chartreuse, blue, and copper. My go-to crawfish flies are brown with copper highlights, black with blue highlights, or dark brown with olive highlights.

My general rule is that your pattern should closely match the bottom where you are fishing, or go with black for increased silhouette in stained water.

Size and Profile

While it would seem bigger is better, I prefer to keep crawfish patterns small and slim.

Small and slim profiles sink better, and since I want this fly on bottom, bulky material will only slow down the sink rate or even prevent your fly from reaching bottom.

I see some crawfish patterns with big bulky claws. These are not necessary. Matter of fact, a crawfish pattern could have no claws at all and still be effective.

Often in nature, crawfish will have just one claw or no claws at all, most likely lost in defense against predators. Bass, catfish, and other fish do not need a perfect cartoon crawfish. They need something that looks alive, vulnerable, and close enough to eat.

Back to the Fly

Crawfish patterns need to have strong hooks and should be tied to ride hook point up. These characteristics, along with strong tippet, give you the ability to work around heavy structure.

This is not delicate dry fly fishing. This is bottom-contact, structure-probing, fly-losing, predator-hunting work. If your crawfish pattern is not built to ride correctly and survive abuse, it probably does not belong in the nastiest places where the best fish live.

Heavy Fly and Heavy Tippet

Along with a slim body, a crawfish pattern will need to be heavily weighted in order to sink well when attached to heavy tippet.

That balance matters. Heavy tippet gives you control and abrasion resistance, but it can also slow the sink and reduce fly movement if the fly is not weighted properly. A slim, dense crawfish pattern gets down faster, stays in contact better, and lets you fish the structure with more confidence.

Fish It Like You Intend to Lose It

Crawfish survive by their ability to run and hide from their prey. They scurry under rocks, boulders, and wood structure, and they remain relatively close to hiding spots.

To make natural presentations, flies need to be cast right on these structures and allowed to fall in and around them.

Too many anglers spend all their effort trying to avoid such situations when they should be aggressively going after those tough presentations.

If you are not willing to lose a crawfish fly now and then, you are probably not fishing it close enough to where it needs to be.

Presentation

Once you have presented the fly, try to keep sight on it as long as possible on the initial drop. Many strikes occur during those first descending moments.

Do not be in a rush to start stripping. Maintain a taut line without moving your fly. Stay alert for any tick, bump, hesitation, or line movement at all times.

Next action is to make two or three very short strips, like 2 to 3 inch strips. Short and quick. Pause. Two or three more short strips. Pause.

At this point, if no strike has occurred, go ahead and lift the fly quickly and recast to the next location.

Avoid presenting and stripping your fly all the way back to you. The longer you dredge bottom, the more likely you are to snag the fly. Most strikes occur on or shortly after the initial drop and first strips. No need to continue dragging it through dead water. Cast to a new spot and keep moving.

Structure

Things to cast on include rocks, logs, root wads, quick drop-offs, points, docks, riprap, and man-made structures.

When the sun is high, fish the shady sides. Imagine there is a fish under every boulder you see. More than likely, there is.

Crawfish live around cover. Predators know this. If you want your fly to look like the real thing, it needs to be in the same rough neighborhood.

About Leaders and Tippet

In this type of fishing, I tie my own leaders.

Start with a 30-inch section of heavy nylon monofilament in the .024" to .026" range and nail knot that directly to your fly line. No loop-to-loop in this setup. You want no possible slack in this system.

Next, slip on an indicator. This indicator is not intended to float your fly. Together with the mono butt section, it is intended to help keep the tip of your fly line on the water’s surface and provide a sight reference to help detect the slightest strikes.

Next, tie on 30 inches of 30-pound fluorocarbon, then 30 inches of 25-pound, then onward to 20-pound, and in most cases I will end in 16-pound.

You have to be the judge of what your final tippet needs to be in order to avoid detection. Personally, I believe if you fish this fly correctly, you will not have tippet-shy problems.

All blood knots. No loop-to-loop connections. Tie the fly on direct with an improved clinch knot. No loop knots.

The idea of this leader is to keep your fly line tip afloat while the rest of the leader is free to sink as deep as needed. The indicator helps keep the fly line floating, provides strike detection, and if it sinks, you will know that depth has exceeded your leader length.

Leader Section	Purpose
Heavy mono butt section	Turns over the fly and helps keep the fly line tip under control
Small indicator near fly line	Provides visual strike detection and helps monitor depth
Stepped fluorocarbon sections	Allows the leader to sink while maintaining strength and abrasion resistance
Direct fly connection	Keeps contact tight and removes slack from the system

The Strike

Strike detection is of the utmost importance to succeed in this fishing.

Big predators that eat crayfish typically engulf and crush the crawfish in order to kill it and avoid being pinched. Strikes are usually not an eat-and-run ordeal.

One slight tick on your indicator may be the only sign of a strike you get.

Do not hesitate. Hook set immediately.

I have watched anglers countless times detect the initial strike and remain still, waiting for something bigger to happen. I always say the next tick in the line will be him spitting it out.

Hook sets are free, all day long. Take advantage of that.

I would rather find out I set on nothing than miss a possible catch of a lifetime.

Hint...the biggest bass will strike the lightest.

Final Thoughts

It took me years to feel confident fishing craw patterns on fly rods. I hope this information can help advance you along a much quicker path than I took.

Crawfish patterns have become one of my favorite ways to fly fish for big predators. They are not always easy to fish, and they are not always easy to keep out of the rocks, but when you put them where they belong, good things happen.

Fish them naturally. Fish them tight to structure. Fish them like you intend to lose them.

Greg Darling