About this episode

This episode explores crayfish as a key prey for gamefish and features insights from expert Jake Villwock on fishing their imitations.

This episode was originally published on March 3rd, 2025. Crayfish are prey that most gamefish can't resist. They're high in calories, abundant, and relatively easy for bass, trout, and many other gamefish to capture. Yet most of us don't know much about their life cycle and behavior (myself included). Guide Jake Villwock [47:02] has spent his life studying these critters, which gives him important insight on the right fly patterns, but even more important how and when to fish them. You'll learn a lot on this podcast. In the Fly Box this week, there are lots of good questions and I hope my answers will help you in your fly-fishing journey. They include: I can't seem to get my fly deep enough in bass lakes with my floating line. Should I get a sinking line for my 8-weight and fish surface flies with my 5-weight? A listener asks for help from listeners in ways to lessen the pain of losing his beloved fishing dog I fished a river that has always been full of trout and didn't see a thing. What happened to the fish? Should I apply my dubbing with clockwise or counterclockwise twists? Can I tie my dropper onto the tag end of my improved clinch knot? What are your thoughts and comments…

People in this episode

Host: Tom Rosenbauer

Guest: Jake Villwock

Topics covered

• crayfish
• fly fishing
• gamefish
• fishing techniques
• life cycle
• behavior

Keywords

• crayfish
• fly patterns
• bass
• trout
• fishing techniques
• life cycle
• behavior
• fly fishing questions

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• Back Cast: How to Get Started in Carp Fishing, with Rick Mikesell · June 16, 2026 · 1h 44m
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