First craws

[Shoemoo]

Took my first stab at a crawdad imitation last night, and here are the results. The local craws range from reddish brown to dark olive. The claws are rabbit zonkers. I wanted to keep them from coming together during the retrieve, so I tied a clump of brown bear in the middle for antenna. Made the brown one first, then figured I'd try the green with rubber legs. Need to get some heavy mono for eyes, but I'm hoping the smallies like them on my next trip.

 

[toadfrog]

like the top one best all in all either should work . Started seeing some little craws working around here . So it ought to be dead on time for you to get those in the water .

 

[Jig Man]

Nice tyes...

 

[StumpHunter]

Very good looking craws, nice tying.

 

[Pepop]

Those outta get bit!:icon14::icon14:

 

[Squeakyboatcaptain]

Those are smallie catchers for sure!! Great job!

 

[Pup]

Your profiles look great. Those should work well for smallmouth bass.

 

[Fatman]

Nice Shoe!!!!!!!!!! Those should get bit no problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LedHed]

Them puppies will hunt

 

[Shoemoo]

Thanks everyone. I have a little 2.5 gallon aquarium I use to see what materials look like under water. One of these days I plan on making some videos showing how different materials behave. Thought you might want to see a pic of one wet. It's neat because when the jig stops and rests on the bottom, the rabbit strips lift and spread out. They kind of wave in the water too, giving them that classic crawdad defensive posture.

 

[redman]

Nicely Done Shoemoo I will agree with TF that the top one is the favorite of the two. You must have darker color craws because of colder water. Ours down here tend to have a more orange tint to them. Think that the feed and water temps must contribute to the color that you have to use to imitate the craws that you have. Back in Iowa they had a more solid brown tone.

Any one else have this observation as to color of craws?

Redman

 

[Shoemoo]

Different species I'm sure. The native craw is the signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus. They are native from British Columbia down to Oregon and east into Montana. Here's a real one:



The weird thing about these guys is the undersides of their claws are bright red, which is how they got their name. They threaten other crawdads by standing on tiptoe and showing the red color waving their claws over their heads. The person who named them thought they looked like the guys waving semaphore flags that ships used to use to communicate.

Going to see if I can get some rusty red or brown zonkers for the claws.

 

[plateboater]

Do you always use a snap or is that just for demo?

 

[Shoemoo]

It's just for the demo so I don't have to retie every time I want to test something in the tank. I tie directly to the leader when I'm fishing.

 

[smalljaw]

Excellent craws!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was tying a bunch of them after the first 2 I made (which were not very good) did really well for a friend of mine fishing winter smallies in the river. Those craws you have are wicked looking, ours change color here throughout the year, in the spring they are really dark, either very dark brown or green pumpkin but then as the water warms they will turn blue then they turn green pumkin with brown while the tips of the claws turn bright orange.