El Crawcito

A Craw with some junk in the trunk

"Hey...  You want to borrow this stuff for a while?"  Little did Bryan Gregson know that he was rekindling some very bassy spirits that lived deep within my soul.  I gladly accepted the Shimano Curado (the green one...  the GOOD one) and 6'6" baitcasting rod as items that would be on loan for the next 5 years.  See, when I first really started getting into fishing I had one of those donut shaped float tubes that would take me where the bass lived.  I was in heaven.  Casting a bright shiny spinnerbait along the reeds while getting eaten by mosquitoes was my preferred way to spend a day.  After Gregson lent me the baitcaster nearly 8 years after I sold all of my conventional gear, it was a 100% relapse even though I developed into a somewhat decent fly tyer and fisher...  Something about sticking a pig largemouth on a Texas rigged lizard through 3 feet of pure salad made me forget about fishing mayfly hatches on the river.  Ever since that time I have spent roughly 50% of my time pursuing Bassish creatures with the heathen gear.  I loved it then, and I love it now (one of these times you should see the jigs that I make... )

I have preached this before, but fishing with conventional gear made me a better fisherman and a much better fly tyer.  I learned stuff about how fish eat and how to present flies to bass that I would never have dared with a fly.  I also learned that there are things that you can do with a lure that are just plain impossible with a fly.  We can get close...  but flies have limits.  Limits in sight, I wanted to create a good craw imitation that would ride similar to a weeldess jig with a plastic trailer (some might call it a jig n' pig, but there is no pork on this rig). The keys to a good jig are that they fall into place properly (varied weight for different circumstances) and that when they sit still, the legs flare out, and the claws are up in a defensive position.  Easy right??  Not really.  It took many prototypes to finally dial this to where it is, and it will probably go through several more alterations.  What I came up with though is a pretty meaty little bug that rides just how I imagined it should.  It also has a dual weighting system that can be tinkered with to tie flies all the way from a slow falling finesse craw to a fast falling mill stone.  It can also be modified in all types of weedless variations.

The El Sculpito has been one of our best fly patterns, so I stole its chassis and built a more fancy bug on it.  I wanted a bug that had a lot of rabbit, a lot of silicon legs, and a lot of attitude.  Check out the video to see that this bug isn't necessarily a difficult bug to tie, and you will likely tie several in a row, so grab your favorite cold beverage, crank up some good tunes, and glue your butt to your tying station.   (video is under the recipes.)

~ Cheech

Recipes

Orange
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S 1-1/0 (BUY), Partridge Attitude 1-1/0 (BUY), or Allen B200 6-4 (BUY)
Thread: Veevus 10/0 - Hot Orange (BUY HERE)
Barbell eyes: Shiny lead barbell eyes - Large (BUY HERE)
Weighting system: 3x 3.8mm beads or 2x 4.6mm beads (BUY) and articulation wire (BUY)
Antennae 1: Buggy nymph legs - Rootbeer (BUY HERE)
Antennae 2: Senyo's barred predator wrap - UV (BUY HERE)
Claws: Spirit River UV2 dos jailed rabbit - Sculpin (BUY HERE)
Eyes Option 1: 40 pound mono and Loon Thick (BUY), Thin (BUY), Flow (BUY) and Powder - earth tones (BUY)
Eyes Option 2: Epoxy mono eyes - Black (BUY HERE)
Body 1: Palmer Chenille - Rootbeer (BUY HERE)
Body 2: Arizona simi seal - Crawdad (BUY HERE)
Legs: Silicon streamer legs - Speckled pumpkin (BUY HERE)
Weed Guard: 25 to 40 pound mono


Olive
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S 1-1/0 (BUY), Partridge Attitude 1-1/0 (BUY), or Allen B200 6-4 (BUY)
Thread: Veevus 10/0 - Olive (BUY HERE)
Barbell eyes: Shiny lead barbell eyes - Large (BUY HERE)
Weighting system: 3x 3.8mm beads or 2x 4.6mm beads (BUY) and articulation wire (BUY)
Antennae 1: Buggy nymph legs - Olive (BUY HERE)
Antennae 2: Senyo's barred predator wrap - UV (BUY HERE)
Claws: Black barred rabbit strips - Olive variant (BUY HERE)
Eyes Option 1: 40 pound mono and Loon Thick (BUY), Thin (BUY), Flow (BUY) and Powder - earth tones (BUY)
Eyes Option 2: Epoxy mono eyes - Black (BUY HERE)
Body 1: Palmer Chenille - Olive (BUY HERE)
Body 2: Arizona simi seal - Dark olive (BUY HERE)
Legs: Silicon streamer legs - Froggy green (BUY HERE)
Weed Guard: 25 to 40 pound mono

Small Orange
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S 4-2 (BUY), Partridge Attitude 4-2 (BUY), or Allen B200 10-8 (BUY)
Thread: Veevus 10/0 - Hot Orange (BUY HERE)
Barbell eyes: Shiny lead barbell eyes - Medium (BUY HERE)
Weighting system: 3x 3.8mm beads or 2x 4.6mm beads (BUY) and articulation wire (BUY)
Antennae 1: Buggy nymph legs - Rootbeer (BUY HERE)
Antennae 2: Senyo's barred predator wrap - UV (BUY HERE)
Claws: Micro pulsator strips - Black barred crawfish orange (BUY HERE)
Eyes Option 1: 40 pound mono and Loon Thick (BUY), Thin (BUY), Flow (BUY) and Powder - earth tones (BUY)
Eyes Option 2: Epoxy mono eyes - Black (BUY HERE)
Body 1: Palmer Chenille - Rootbeer (BUY HERE)
Body 2: Arizona simi seal - Crawdad (BUY HERE)
Legs: Buggy nymph legs - Rootbeer (BUY HERE)
Weed Guard: 25 to 40 pound mono


Small Olive
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S 4-2 (BUY), Partridge Attitude 4-2 (BUY), or Allen B200 10-8 (BUY)
Thread: Veevus 10/0 - Olive (BUY HERE)
Barbell eyes: Shiny lead barbell eyes - Medium (BUY HERE)
Weighting system: 3x 3.8mm beads or 2x 4.6mm beads (BUY) and articulation wire (BUY)
Antennae 1: Buggy nymph legs - Olive (BUY HERE)
Antennae 2: Senyo's barred predator wrap - UV (BUY HERE)
Claws: Micro pulsator strips - Black barred olive variant (BUY HERE)
Eyes Option 1: 40 pound mono and Loon Thick (BUY), Thin (BUY), Flow (BUY) and Powder - earth tones (BUY)
Eyes Option 2: Epoxy mono eyes - Black (BUY HERE)
Body 1: Palmer Chenille - Olive (BUY HERE)
Body 2: Arizona simi seal - Dark Olive (BUY HERE)
Legs: Buggy nymph legs - Olive (BUY HERE)
Weed Guard: 25 to 40 pound mono


Tools Used:
Stonfo Regular Bobbin (BUY HERE)
Stonfo Elite Rotodubbing Twister (BUY HERE)
Rising Big Nippa (Coming Soon)
Rising Tactical De-Barb (Coming soon)