Fishing soft plastic craws, however easy they may seem to fish, require a little knowledge to be a productive bait choice.
Like any other soft plastic bait, there are loads of variables like color, size, rigging and most importantly the presentation that each have an effect towards the final outcome and how productive they are/become for an angler. I'll do my best to elaborate the important factors below and hope the other members that have great luck with this type bait will join in to add to a discussion about craws. For anyone having trouble producing with this type bait, this will be a great place to ask questions and get down to the nitty gritty about craws.
Crayfish Color
Crayfish inhabit the rivers, lakes and streams all across the country and will normally be a major food source for Bass anytime they are present, sometimes accounting for up to 80% of a fish's diet. With all these craws comes lots of species of each having their own characteristics of size and color but each having one thing in common, the ability to adapt their color to their surroundings. Knowing this; when I consider a color craw to fish with, I select a color that closely resembles the surroundings I am fishing. Despite what any says, you are always safe using a natural color or something close to the colors found where you are currently fishing. Example: if I were to fish a craw around rocks, my color choice would be as close to the color of the rocks I was fishing, same goes for green grass and so on.
Craw Size
With the many species of crayfish comes many sizes. Besides species, we need to consider the life cycle and age of the craws found in the area we are fishing. I normally don't factor this very much as the typical 4" craw covers things very well until we decide to change things up a bit for a bigger 6" Lobster or towards a finesse approach with a baby craw. If you start in the middle, you can always fine tune your offering going bigger or smaller to better suit the activity of the fish or the size of fish you are targeting.
Craw Rigging
This portion requires a little work from the angler based upon the structure being fished and/or the presentation we are looking for. Each of the methods below offer anglers a completely different approach to fishing a craw.There is the trusty old T/rig with or without a pegged weight for punching pockets, fishing bluffs, trees and the list goes on. A basic T/rig allows the weight to fall faster than our bait slowing the decent of the craw itself. A T/rig with a pegged weight falls as one and normally just crashes straight to the bottom on a slack line or pendulums towards the angler on a taunt line. Each of these rigs has advantages over the other in certain applications. In recent years, the weighted hook has become more popular because this rig offers anglers a slower/more horizontal fall to their bait. The size of hook and weights position under the bait will ultimately produce a slightly different fall so, a little experimentation is advised to fine-tune your sought after presentation. Keep in mind ,while each of these rigs provide a different fall and may be better in certain applications, each will provide the same across-the-bottom effect, for the most part.
Presentation
The most important part of fishing a craw type bait is your presentation. A crayfish doesn't swim by you, it really doesn't jump around from here to there, it doesn't bounce around, a crayfish just slowly crawls across the bottom, over stones or through the grass. The only time they actually dart around is when being chased or trying to get away from some sort of predator. With this said (VERY IMPORTANT) to fish a soft plastic craw productively, it needs to be on the bottom in a fishes face, not swimming by 3 feet above the structure holding fish.
How do we "crawl a craw" or fish a craw correctly?
Doing so first begins with our cast or pitch to the water. Much like a jig, strip off some extra line so the bait falls freely and doesn't pendulum back towards the boat or shore. From there, it's our rod tip position and amount of movement that controls the rest of our retrieve. (Some of you may not agree with my next statement but, anyone whom fishes a craw and gets the most from them will understand my reasoning.) Now that your craw is finally on the bottom, we need to keep it there. We need to crawl or drag the craw slowly as if it were real along the bottom. To do this, lower your rod tip, keep it close to the water. When moving the bait, we slowly drag the bait with a sideways motion, just a few inches at a time, feeling the bottom, the rocks, the sticks it is climbing over. Remember, crayfish crawl across the bottom. If you can re-train yourself to keep that top down, to feel every bit of the bottom and fish slowly, the craw can soon become one of your most productive baits.
Why keep tip down? An explanation
When your bait is on the bottom on a taunt line ,any motion of your rod tip is followed. Meaning, if you lift your tip, your bait just came off the bottom. If you pop you tip, your bait just popped and so on. Also, if you experiment with a bait where visible, you will notice that often times, that 2" movement in your rod tip moves your bait more than 2 inches, especially when lifting your tip. What I am getting at is, often times you think you are moving that bait just slightly when in reality, you just moved it half way back to the boat or shoreline. If you maintain contact with the bottom, you know just how far your bait moved because you can feel it.
To finish things up and catch that fish. Don't be afraid to let your bait soak a little, don't be afraid to pause it after contacting structure. Most importantly, don't be afraid to set the hook when something feels different, hooksets are free!
Hope this helps some of you having problems fishing craws, jigs or other plastics that are meant to be fished on the bottom. At the very least, I hope this turns into a good discussion.
