Tying the Bou Craw

The Bou Craw was developed as an expendable alternative to the more involved crayfish patterns. It is a suggestive crayfish pattern, meaning it's intended to hint at a crayfish via movement and silhouette rather than closely imitating its image. This allows its construction to remain minimalist and not altogether different from a Woolly Bugger. Like many crayfish flies, the Bou Craw is essentially a jig fly, incorporating front-loaded weight to operate on or near the river bottom with a vertical up-and-down action when stripped. It sports a double-plume marabou tail with rubber legs that imply claws rather than imitate them, and an uber-simple body of palmered polar fiber brush behind medium or small lead eyes.