Crayfish Baits

[supermono]

Was interested in what you use for Crayfish baits? I fish in N. MN a couple times a year and the smallies seem to love crayfish.

I've used the Yum soft plastic and had good results. Last year, I paid up for the Dahlberg Clacking Crayfish. Although it looked great on Youtube and looks very realistic, it was upside-down when retrieving it, more than it was right-side up.

Would like to know what you've had luck with. Thanks in advance.

[Friar_Tuck]

jig pig with a craw trailer, T-rigged creatures, beavers or hula style grubs for smallies for my bottom presentations.

[Wayne Ek]

Strike King Rage Craw or Lobster (depending on how much bulk I want) for Pig&Jig. Rodent for T-rigging. Rage Craw on a Jigworm. Usually for C-rigging I like a bulky creature bait.

[Gardiner14]

Berkley chigger craws. They come in couple different sizes and lots of colors. I like the 4in crazy legs green pumpkin, i'll use it as a trailer on a jig, t-rig it iv even tryed it on a small shaky head (not recommended) basicaly only soft crayfish type bait i use. Just my 2cents.

[RK]

Hiya -

Honestly, I don't think there's a better crayfish imitation than a tube...

RK

[Superduty]

For soft plastics, I agree with Gardiner14 on the chigger craws. I think a crawfish colored crankbait digging into the bottom is a great choice as well. The crankbait causes the silt on the bottom to "poof" up and it leaves a visible trail, just like live crayfish on the move.

[thatoneguy]

Berkley Havoc Pit Boss ftw.

[Bassburch]

Was interested in what you use for Crayfish baits? I fish in N. MN a couple times a year and the smallies seem to love crayfish.

I've used the Yum soft plastic and had good results. Last year, I paid up for the Dahlberg Clacking Crayfish. Although it looked great on Youtube and looks very realistic, it was upside-down when retrieving it, more than it was right-side up.

Would like to know what you've had luck with. Thanks in advance.

Lucky Craft's BDS1 in madcraw is one my favorite crayfish cranks. Its a squarebill so you can cast it right into laydowns, rocks, over wingdams, etc.

[mainbutter]

I think people make critical mistakes if they are trying to exploit how bass react to crayfish when choosing their artificials. Rage craws, beavers, etc. do not look like crayfish in the water, but may look like crays to our eyes while they are still. They still catch fish WONDERFULLY, but I think they are getting a different kind of reaction out of fish.

The top mistakes people make when choosing an artificial cray:

1) opting for something with lots of action, rather than something they can crawl slowly around gravel and lone head-sized boulders

2) opting for something with BIG claws rather than small claws

3) opting for something brownish rather than white or tan

If you want to get a cray-bite reaction out of a fish, use an artificial you can crawl over gravel. Use an artificial with small claws, they are more typical of the easier crays for bass to eat that live in the midwest. Use artificials that look like fresh-molted crays, they are easier to see and are tastier. I'm pretty sure that bass know that fresh molted crays are softer and easier to eat.

The only three options I go for:

1) white tubes

2) jigs w/skirts. trailer optional. Anything between white and very light brown has been good to me.

3) crayfish flies. I like ones with SMALL claws. I'm betting the ones with rabbit strip claws will still look great in the water, but better represent a minnow and are better to swim than crawl.

[Friar_Tuck]

always exceptions mainbutter. sometimes they feel like a nut sometimes they don't...

hop vs slow crawl~larger presentation vs small~creature vs craw~more action vs no action~burn vs slow retrieve on a crank...

there are times that a baby brush hog will kill'em & a jig pig or other anything more craw like wouldn't get bit...

a person should never have set in stone parameters when it comes to presentations and/or baits etc...

[mainbutter]

What I mean to say is that I don't believe those "action-y" craw baits and pitching jigs aren't the kind of baits that elicit an "I think I'm eating a crayfish" response in bass. If there is place where bass are feeding HEAVY on crayfish and are really tuned into that, I think that artificials that more accurately portray how crayfish move naturally will work better.

In hot summer days in milfoil, in open deep weed edges, and in other areas that isn't ideal cray-hunting structure, I definitely love crayfish pattern cranks, rage tails, jigs with a fast-action tail, and other artificials that IMO are more like baitfish than the crayfish they were meant to imitate.

[RK]

Hiya -

Mainbutter has a very good point.

I've shared this story before, but it's a good one:

When Berkley was developing their first line of Power Bait shapes back in the late 1980s, they researched the ideal craw shape for the original Power Craw. They had bass in tanks and tested all kinds of variations - big claws, little claws, legs, no legs...all kinds of stuff.

As a control on the experiments, they also presented bass with a 4" solid cylinder - just a slug of plastic with no claws or legs or anything.

Guess what shape the bass ate most frequently?

RK

[Superduty]

That is interesting RK. I wonder if there is something to a non threatening shaped forage/bait. Senkos and french fry baits are awfully close in shape to the the Berkley control cylinder shape. Heck, I once caught a smallie on a 1/2" piece of a plastic left over from a zoom french fry after it had been bitten off on the previous cast...