The Crafty Roach came about out of necessity rather than by design. On a trip to Highland Lodge in the Eastern Cape, I ran out of Olive Rabbit fur strips to make some Pappa Roaches. I found some olive Craft fur in my travel kit and started playing around with the early version of the crafty Roach. On its first trip out the next day my client John and I were well rewarded with some great fishing and took fifteen rainbows between 4 and 6 pounds in a morning session. The pattern has been changed and modified slightly from the original to the pattern I am presenting to you in this piece. This final version has taken a number of great rainbows and a few browns over the last few years. I fish the Roach primarily in Olive and black but you can play around with other colours.
Step 1.
Lay a thread foundation and tie in a plastic bead chain eye and apply super glue.
Step 2.
Cut a length of Craft Fur and even up the tips slightly and tie this in at the bend of the hook. Do not cut away the waste ends as they will be used.
Step 3.
Fold back the waste ends spreading the butts evenly along the back shoulder
area of the abdomen.
Step 4.
Trim this area to mold and conform with the abdomen. This area will give the dragon a more prominent raise in the shoulder area and a platform for the wing case.
Step 5.
Fold a section of Swiss Straw in half and tie this in to suggest the wing case. You can choose various colours, olive, brown or copper.
Step 6.
Tie in some barred Sili Legs “Madam X” style (You can add a third set of legs for realism but this does nothing to improve the flies effectiveness.
Step 7.
Apply some olive Poly dub and form the thorax and head. An optional extra step is to Bar the abdomen with a brown Copic pen.
The black version
We fish this fly on floating or intermediate lines and often in conjunction with a bloodworm pattern.
Return to News