Crawdad fly

Jack knows how to tie one.  I havent tried it yet, though, so I cant comment on the fly itself.

have you seen them in fly shops before??

im not sure where i can find one besides the net and i dont wanna pay $3-4 for one "specialty" fly

I tie a pretty nice crayfly.  It's a little detailed and takes about 15 minutes to tie.  Not a hard tie, just time consuming. 

Try Cabela's in West Virginia. They have one $4.99. Might be bit of a drive but you'll have a chance to check the store out.

cool,
     While my grandson is admittedly an amature tyer, if you pm me your address I'll see if he can make one or two of each for you.  His work is a litle messy but you're right the craws sure do catch trout, especially big trout.   

great site, thanks for the link

Pete,
    If a fly is so complex that it takes 15-20 minutes to tie (or more) that limits the tyer to 3 per hour which means they make about 15.00 / hr before they take out their expenses.  Which are about 1 buck a fly for something this complex.  SO they are working fo about 12/hr.  If they tie for a living.  I have seen and bought some speciality flies that went for over 12.00 each.  and they make some "art flies" that cost over $100.00 each.

I understand.  My comment was about a fly to be fished.  If I had a fly like that on,  it would be on a 12 lb. leader, no weight, and fishing with no bushes or trees within 200 yds.
 
I play a lot of golf, and can't even bear to use Pro V1's at 5 bucks a pop,
and I might lose one every two rounds or so.

Just the point  You can play golf with Wal-MArt Clubs and recycled balls and you might do OK.  But if you play with a matched set of Calloways, and  Nike Balls, and your putter is a Ping Ultimate; I'll bet your golf will be just a little bit better, if only because of your confidence in your gear.   SO  if a 5 -10 - or 20 dollar fly is better and it gives you more confidence then why not use it.  Besides, the craw is a BIG fly designed to be fished on big line.   Almost in your 12# range.  I fish them off of 6 & 8 # all the time, same as my big streamers.

Hi Cooljauman,
IMO, your best bet is to tie your own.  If you can't, send me a PM.  My friend is a professional fly tyer who lives in OH.  He specializes in smallmouth flies.  He charges much less than anywhere else...he ties more for himself and his usual customers than for a serious profit.  Clouser's Crawdad is probably the best all-around crayfish pattern, in these colors:
-light olive back (shell), light body (like a cream) underneath.
-dark olive back (shell), light body (like a cream) underneath.
-brown back (shell), orange body underneath.  This "matches the hatch" for when crayfish in PA are carrying eggs or are "in berry."
-solid chartruese.  Smallmouth love chartruese.
-tan back (shell), light body (like a cream) underneath.  This is for softshell crayfish.
-maroon back (shell), light blue underneath.  This matches a species of crayfish that live in the Ohio R. watersheds.
 
Here's a picture from Clouser's Web site.
http://www.clouserflyfishing.com/clouscraytyi.html
 
Another good one is Will Ryan's crayfish.  I looked real quick on Google, but didn't get a recipe.  It's from this book-
http://www.amazon.com/Smallmouth-Strategies-Fly-Will-Ryan/dp/1558213430
 
If you like, I can post the recipe.  Just let me know.
 
One last thing...I prefer to dead-drift my crayfish flies like I nymph fish (shot-and-indicator).  Some crawdad patterns are meant to be retrieved.  So, you'll want to select your patterns depending on how you like to fish.