Would crawdad bait be appropriate?

[hummbug]

Hello everybody and greetings from warm Mexico.

I am planning a fishing trip for the time of pre-spawn to a major reservoir  (Agua Milpa) in the state of Nayarit.

There is no craw-fish in that piece of water. Should I try to fish with craw-lures or would it be better to scrap the idea?……..Since the fish have never seen a crawdad in their lives?

I don´t post much, generally spending my time reading bassresource articles and combing through the posts and learning. To give you an idea how it is here: There is no BPS or etc, (I don´t want to name them all), nothing at all. So we make do with what we can find, make something up or a friend from US brings some stuff. In a certain way I envy you up there for all the facilities you have. But I don´t complain, the weather is a nice treat.  Ask Raul.

And as an afterthought, be lenient with me if I asked a stupid question.

I love the spirit of this site

Mike

[Smokinal]

Hello and welcome. No one is going to hammer ya for asking questions bud; that would certainly be against the spirit here. As far as craw baits, now I have to ask a silly question: are you positive there are no craws? I thought there were craws in almost every body of water around.

If there are, in fact, no craws in it, it still wouldn't hurt to throw a craw imitating bait as a lot of guys throw them to imitate small baitfish as well. A jig dragged or hopped across the bottom can look like a baitfish hunting around. And try different speeds of retreive too, even swimming the jig.

[hummbug]

I asked the fishing guides for that reservoir, NO craws.

[WRB]

You can make a crawdad trap using 1/4" square mesh wire we call hardware cloth. You cut a piece 36" long X 24 wide and make a tube about 8" diameter x36" long, then flatten one end and flood back*.The open end you fold inward to form a funnel  with about 4" opening. Put fish heads in the trap, tie a cord to the front end and place in a rocky area about 3' deep and leave over night. After a few nights if no crawdads are in the trap, then no crawdads in that area.

What we call creature baits, soft plastics like Zoom Brush Hogs green pumpkin red flake catch bass everywhere, including Mexico. I have no idea why bass eat a brush hog, it's doesn't look like anything natural but a combination of several critters.

PM Rual and ask where he gets his lures.

Tom

PS, * open the flat folded end of the trap to dump out el cangrejo's.

[Catt]

If ya don't tell em there's no crawfish they'll never know!

 

Bass will not see your crawfish & freakout screaming there's not supposed to be crawfish here!

 

They'll see an easy meal ?

[hummbug]

Thank you all for your encouraging words. I will plan my arsenal accordingly. It´ll be 4 days of fishing, so I will find out for sure. Thanks again and tight lines

[geo g]

It might be good, give them something they haven't seen before!

[Mike L]

6 hours ago, geo g said:

It might be good, give them something they haven't seen before!

Exactly!

 

 

 

Mike

[Sam]

8 hours ago, Catt said:

If ya don't tell em there's no crawfish they'll never know!

 

Bass will not see your crawfish & freakout screaming there's not supposed to be crawfish here!

 

They'll see an easy meal ?

100% correct.

 

Throw your craw imitations plus brown and green jigs.

 

Give 'em a try and you may be surprised at the outcome.

 

Welcome to the Forum.

[Steveo-1969]

You mentioned talking to fishing guides for that reservoir.  What lures did they suggest using during the pre-spawn on that particular body of water?

[WRB]

Bass are a food fish in most Mexican lakes and harvested using gill nets, not much fishing pressure from anglers. 

Guides use what is easiest to catch bass for thier clients; spinnerbaits and plastic worms are very common. 

Tom

[Ratherbfishing]

Bass do not have a checklist they use to decide if something meets all their criteria.  They are opportunistic and have a widely varied diet.  It IS true that sometimes they can be locked into a pattern of feeding ONLY on a dominant or specific food source but that's not always the case.  SO, if all you have are crawdad imitators, don't stay home because of it.  But on the other hand, it seems more logical to me to fish baits which closely resemble the dominant food source of the area AND which appear to be injured.  Give the fish some incentive to bite.  In ALL cases, let the bass tell you what they want.

[DINK WHISPERER]

I'd be willing to bet that there is craws in there somewhere. And if not then i bet craw lures still work. Good luck

[hummbug]

To answer Steveo-1969´s post: The guides are pretty much stuck on tequila sunrise worms, pumpkin lizards and crank baits.

As I mentioned in the OP, we only read about all the newer bait-innovations you all have readily available. Thank you for all your suggestions, it gives me a better insight

 

Mike

[Comfortably Numb]

Craws and Jig/craws work everywhere.

[Chance_Taker4]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 8:24 PM, hummbug said:

There is no BPS or etc, (I don´t want to name them all), nothing at all.

I think I found my location to open a tackle shop.

 

As for your question the Craw pattern and imitations work virtually everywhere. you should have good success throwing craw baits.

[WRB]

With a few exceptions there isn't another bass angler on this site that has fished jigs longer or with more success than me, I wouldn't say jig craws and jigs work everywhere. Sometimes it's very difficult to get a jig bite and if you don't realize that and change to something else you will get skunked.

[thinkingredneck]

seems like bass just want something that looks alive.  Our jig and pig lures don't really look much like a crawfish.  Not many things going around the lake that look like many of the lures we throw. But if it looks alive...