Crawdads And Crayfish

[logan9209]

I have roughly 10 kinds of crawdad type lures. I have fished a few of them but not caught anything. Somebody once told that there weren't any real ones in this lake. Somebody else said that it didn't matter because the bass' instinct is to eat them. So which is it? If they won't touch them because there's not any then I'm wasting my time. If they will regardless of the presence of real ones or not, then I need to work on my presentation. I did catch a couple of bass on some jigs with craw trailers but I had the luxury of being able to see them and know they only took it to get it out of their beds.

[Busy]

Nobody knows exactly why bass will hit artificial lures. Matching the hatch and using natural colors works well for many, but then there are days when you will slay them using chartreuse worms. Ever seen a yellow worm in the wild? Lol. I think any lure can get a reaction strike if you get it close enough to the bass.

It's a pretty bad answer but the only thing to do is to figure out what works, and that's half the fun too. I've caught tons of fish on different shad colors in ponds where there are no shad. I've also caught a lot of fish on lakes and ponds with rainbow trout color patterns and there are no trout in this area. Craws usually are dark and it sounds like the water you are fishing is very clear. I might try a lighter colored jig and trailer for starters. I've never bought or thrown a craw patterned crankbait personally, because I've never seen a crawdad swim in the middle of the water column, but I couldn't say that they don't work!

[roadwarrior]

Rage Tail Baby Craw, naked, T-rigged 1/8 oz weight; Rage Craw or Lobster, T-rigged, Rage Rig or Stick'r

[K_Mac]

Logan it would be very unusual for a body of water in Ga to be big enough to support a healthy population of bass and not have some crayfish, and even if the bass there have never seen one, they will bite one or a decent imitation.

[NCbassmaster4Life]

I agree, i'm a with the "instinct", it's true.

[Raul]

. Somebody else said that it didn't matter because the bass' instinct is to eat them.

Absolutely true, there´s abunch of places I fish where bass have never seen a crawdad and craw artificials work extremely well.

[A-Rob]

I have fished one pond and the bass only hit worms and reaction lures....I can't catch one on a jig or craw.

No where else have I had this issue....it must be the exception to the rule.

I can't explain it, I catch fish on a jig/craw everywhere else

[Shad_Master]

One reason you may be having problems catchin 'em on a crawdad lure is that you want to fish it in the thickest gnarliest cover you can find. They may work out in the open if you are bed fishing but the rest of the time, bass are "looking for [love] in all the wrong places". T-rig 'em and throw 'em in the brush piles, you may be surprised.

[logan9209]

You know, I got to thing about something a few minutes ago. There's one tree/bush that always holds at least 1 bass and if a black Zoom trick worm wouldn't bring him out then a Zoom brush hog (the 3" version with the pincers instead of the twin ribbons) would. It sorta resembles a crayfish. I'm an idiot. Thanks for the encouraging feedback guys.