Klewein’s, True Crayfish

Posted By Kent Klewein on December 17, 2008

In my opinion most of the crayfish patterns on the market today are lacking (Size & Weight). Sometimes the only option for you is to take the time to tie up a pattern that meets all your needs. I like catching big trout, and big trout tend to eat large forage food. Most of the crayfish patterns I see in fly shops and catalogs in my opinion, are too small. Don’t get me wrong they will catch fish. However, most of the time the biggest fish in the river are going to need something of substantial size to get them on the aggressive. This especially holds true when water levels are up, moving fast, and off color. Big streamers get the fish on the move, but I feel most of the time they’re chasing the fly out of reaction not out of hunger.

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Klewein's, True Crayfish

If you can get a big trout to chase a fly out of hunger they’re going to commit and eat the fly a whole lot more often. From countless hours on the water I’ve found crayfish to be the tenderloin steak of forage food for trout. Big trout flat out seem less judgmental and cautious on this particular food source. This translates into a higher success rate when targeting big fish. I strongly feel you’ll have less refusals fishing a crayfish pattern. It absolutely blows my mind how few crayfish patterns are out there in the streamer market.

I wanted to design a crayfish pattern that I could fish like a streamer on big rivers. It needed to have good action, a big realistic profile, and sufficient weight. I accomplished all of the above with this pattern. The finished pattern measures over 4 inches long.