Fly Tying Group: At the Vise
EZY Crayfish
Al and Gretchen Beatty

(Originally Published in the Flyfisher Magazine)

“Hi guys,” began Jeff Smith on a recent call. “I’ve got good new and bad news.” Our first thought was, “What else could go wrong today?” You know you can have days like that and it had been for us.” Ok, Jeff, tell us the bad news first,” asked Gretchen. He responded, “You know that seven-weight rod you gave me last week?” “Ok,” Al grunted tentatively. Jeff continued, “I broke it earlier this evening. The good news is I broke it on a fish I estimate at twenty-five pounds I hooked in the Snake River just south of town.” He had our undivided attention with the comment about twenty-five pounds. “It was a big cat fish and it ate a crayfish! You want to give them a try tomorrow after work? Bring another fly rod if you don’t mind!” We agreed on meeting time/place and signed off.

We only had a couple of crayfish patterns in our fly boxes and figured we would need more for tomorrow. Gretchen suggested we tie several of her EZY Crayfish we had featured in the Fly Pattern Encyclopedia on page 92. It had served us very well for brown trout on the Madison River when we lived in Montana. We hoped it would entice the catfish on the Snake River here in Idaho as well. We tied a dozen plus three or four extra and placed most of them in our fly boxes. The next morning we put our fishing equipment and most of the flies in Gretchen’s vehicle with the idea she would pick Al up after work and they would drive to the river to meet Jeff.

As often happens in any person’s life things don’t always work out as planned. Late the following afternoon Gretchen called Al to advise she had to work late and he would have to get to the river on his own. Al rounded up extra fishing equipment (his was in Gretchen’s car), grabbed the EZY Crayfish flies still on the tying table, threw everything in his pick up, and headed to the river to meet Jeff.

When he arrived Jeff was already into something BIG. Al asked what it was but Jeff had not seen the fish and never did because his twelve-pound tippet broke a few minutes later.

Al pulled his “extra equipment” out of the truck only to learn he had accidentally grabbed his spare trout setup rather than the steelhead outfit he had planned on using. “Oh well,” he mumbled. “It’s going to be an interesting evening!” The five-weight rod and 4X tippet wouldn’t begin the slow down the size of fish he figured on hooking.

He rigged up anyway tying one of his three EZY Crayfish flies on the tippet. Al’s heavily weighted fly hadn’t traveled more than a few feet in the water column when he was into a solid hook up. The fish shook its head a couple of times, rolled over the tippet, and headed downstream; the two parted company seconds later. Two more casts and two lost flies left Al sitting on the bank watching Jeff hook/release some really respectable catfish.

Since that disappointing trip we have gone on to catch a good number of sizeable catfish on the EZY Crayfish using a nine-weight rod and fifteen pound tippet. We have also had a great time landing those “big boys” using our Spey rods but that’s a subject for another time. Our purpose here is to share with you a fly that is easy to tie and is attractive to both warm and coldwater fish.

Materials List
Hook: Size 2 to 10, 4X long streamer
Thread: Brown
Claws/tail: Brown marabou, divided
Rib: Copper wire
Weight: Non-lead wire, optional
Body: Brown crystal chenille
Shell back: Brown poly yarn
Hackle: Brown saddle, palmered
Head/tail: Brown poly yarn, trimmed
Eyes: Brown Razzle Eyes

Step 1: Place the hook in the vise and apply a thread base from the eye to a position directly above the hook point. Cut two beads from a string of chain and tie them to the hook shank using several crisscross wraps. Wrap non-lead wire around the back half of the shank and wrap over it with thread to further anchor it. We like to coat the wire/thread with Aqua Tuff but this is an optional procedure.

Step 2: Select a several inch length of brown poly yarn and tie it to the hook starting forward of the wire wraps. Bind it down into the hook bend. Select a clump of marabou and tie it on top of the poly yarn. Divide the marabou into two clumps with a single crisscross thread wrap. Trim the waste materials at a severe angle to provide taper to the under body.

Step 3: Tie the chenille to the hook starting at the eye and wrap back to meet the marabou/poly yarn. Take several wraps behind and around the eyes then tie off but do not trim the excess chenille. Instead, store it in a material spring for the moment. Tie on a strand of copper wire and a brown saddle hackle feather.

Step 4: Wrap the chenille forward and tie it off at the hook eye. Palmer the hackle over the body and also tie it off at the eye. Trim the waste ends.

Step 5: Pull the poly yarn up and over making sure it separates the marabou clumps then tie it off at the hook eye. Counter wrap the rib over the poly yarn using evenly spaced turns. Tie it off and trim the excess wire. The counter wrapped rib binds the hackle to the body improving the fly’s durability.

Step 6: Apply a whip-finish and trim the thread from the hook. Clip the poly yarn long to represent the crayfish’s tail. We like to use our fingers to spread the tail so it looks more natural.