Here's another crayfish pattern I'm working on. It's a spin-off of the Skittish Crayfish, an easy to tie and very effective crayfish imitation I became aware of in a past issue of Fly Tyer. I've made some slight adjustments to the original pattern which make it a little easier to tie I think. The original pattern uses Squirrel Tail for the claws and a Zonker strip for the legs and underbody. I use Zonker Strips for the claws instead of tying in a clump of Squirrel Tail, dividing it, then posting the two clumps to form the claws. I use Schlappen for the legs instead of a Zonker Strip mostly because I like the way it looks. My version also doesn't include a wire rib through the body but it doesn't hurt to add one. I've found after coating the Moose Hair shellback with CCG, Bug-Bond, or Liquid Fusion the fly is plenty durable. In smaller sizes I like to fish it dead drift, and larger sizes I like to fish on a sink tip, stripping it along the bottom and shaking it whenever I feel a rock or log. Tie a few up in sizes 8-4 and get fishing!
Hook: Streamer hook sz. 8-4 (The fly in the picture is tied on a Mustad R74-9672)
Thread: UTC 140 in Rusty Brown
Eyes: Lead Dumbell (Painted or Unpainted)
Claws: Crawdad colored Zonker Strips (Mottled with brown permanent marker)
Antennae: Brown Round Rubber
Head/Body: Crawdad Orange Wapsi Buggy Nymph Yarn
Legs: Brown Schlappen
Shellback: Moose Body Hair coated with epoxy, Bug Bond, CCG, or my favorite Liquid Fusion
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