Apr 10 2008
‘Fly Day- Friday: The Soft-Tail Crayfish
Each November, I look forward to heading up north to do some fishing during the steelhead and salmon runs. One specific trip is permanently inscribed in my mind as one of the greatest eye-openers in my career of fly fishing. After a sleepless night spent in a makeshift ‘motel,’ that seemed to be constructed much to the design of a chicken coop, I, and a close friend, who has gone on to found Hush Fly Fishing Company, set forth in the plight to fill our creels. After a number of cold hours standing in icy water, he and I had exhausted our fly boxes without success, and were desperately searching for a pattern that would produce, and make our trip finally worth while.
The last day of the venture, with empty creels, we headed into a local fishing village for breakfast, with high hopes of finding that ‘special fly,’ the one that the locals praise, and the tourists only wish they could discover. We finally made that discovery when looking over a copy of a local fishing magazine. In the article, the writing spoke of a surprisingly effective streamer that seemed, during the runs, to catch numerous fish, and fill both the desires and creels of many fishermen. The streamer, also surprisingly, was a rather familiar fly, the soft-tail crayfish; a fly that I had previously used here in the U.S. on many occasions.
We returned to our car, and found a couple of soft-tail crayfish patterns. These patterns were most effective when fished jerkily across the riverbed. We were able to weight these crayfish with lead-supplement split-shots, and had a very productive day of fishing, bringing us not only large steelhead, and salmon, but, more importantly, bringing us many memories.
The soft-tail is very effective when fished along the bottom of rocky, deep pools, due to the fact that these are the areas where large fish are most likely to be hiding. As well as in these deep pools, one can also find trophies hiding along fallen logs, as well as on the downstream side of rapid waters.
