How do bass manage to make crawfish 80% of their diet, how do they catch them? I thought they are always hiding outside of spawning season

[fin]

9 hours ago, Cdn Angler said:

 

I, slow witted and slow of foot, have as recent as one month ago, caught a crayfish with my ball cap and another with my bare hands. In most clear water lakes around here, especially those with big bass, you can find crayfish in shallow just standing there. When you go to grab them they just scoot back into my fat. They aren't geniuses.  

I have dangled a plastic craw in front of them and had them clamp on to it. I've even had them clamp onto the guide on the end of my rod.

 

17 hours ago, jimmyjoe said:

   Whenever someone tells you "80% of this" or "62% of that" or "40% of the time", be verrrrrry careful. Some of that is crap that is made up on the spur of the moment, and some is psuedo-factual stuff from very earnest people who don't really know what they're talking about and don't realize it.

   So .... some facts are facts, and some facts aren't.

 

   That doesn't mean that when I die I want to come back as a crawdad!   ??     jj

40% of the time you have a 30% chance of catching 20% of the fish in 10% of the lake with 5% of your lures, so what is your actual chance of catching a fish?

[jimmyjoe]

2 hours ago, fin said:

40% of the time you have a 30% chance of catching 20% of the fish in 10% of the lake with 5% of your lures, so what is your actual chance of catching a fish?

 

   You've been watching me fish, haven't you?   ???       jj

[Big Rick]

On a side note, congrats to the OP for the longest thread title. 

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

Per 1oz, first is for shad and second crayfish. Smallmouth prefer low fat diet. Science.

[Ohioguy25]

6 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Per 1oz, first is for shad and second crayfish. Smallmouth prefer low fat diet. Science.

Wow so even with all that bony exoskeleton and claws etc they are 80% protein?? No wonder they eat them the most.

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

15 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Wow so even with all that bony exoskeleton and claws etc they are 80% protein?? No wonder they eat them the most.

Not quite, the breakdown of protein, fat and calories are for meat only. 

[king fisher]

As others have said, I think it depends on the body of water.  If the only experience I ever had, was fishing the lake where I grew up, I would assume the diet of a bass was 90% crayfish.  Other lakes I have since fished, the diet is more varied.    

     When I was a kid, I killed and ate everything I caught out of the local lake.  I never saw anything but crayfish in the stomachs of small mouth.  The large mouth I caught most of the time had only crayfish, but would occasionally have a bull head, sculpin, or other prey, along with crayfish.  I never cleaned a bass that didn't have some crayfish in its stomach.

    The rainbow trout in the lake that were under 16 inches long would have mostly insects in their stomachs.  Over 16 inches would have mostly crayfish.  I preferred the meat on the larger trout because it was orange, as compared to the smaller trout which was white.  I have always assumed the crayfish diet made the meat the orange color.  The larger trout were all caught in the same places, and lures, that I would catch the bass with.  They had basically adapted the ways of the bass in that lake.  Smaller trout would suspend away from shore.  Larger trout would be next to shore in the rocks.  Even the larger perch and crappie would have crayfish in their stomachs.  

[Spankey]

Hey dude this may be something interesting to you. Should be an easy search. The state of Alabama DNCR or their wildlife commission puts out a poster of all their crawfish. What I remember of seeing it, it was pretty cool and color patterns were very interesting.  I stumbled upon it back some time ago when trying to figure what a particular color was suppose to be. Not trying to be a smart ***. I think this is truly up your alley. Being into craws the way you are this would be interesting and educational. If you were to do a search of like Alabama Craw, what color is Alabama Craw, Alabama Crawfish Poster. You’ll find it. I take it you are Ohio but who cares. Still educational. 

[MN Fisher]

14 minutes ago, Spankey said:

Hey dude this may be something interesting to you. Should be an easy search. The state of Alabama DNCR or their wildlife commission puts out a poster of all their crawfish. What I remember of seeing it, it was pretty cool and color patterns were very interesting.  I stumbled upon it back some time ago when trying to figure what a particular color was suppose to be. Not trying to be a smart ***. I think this is truly up your alley. Being into craws the way you are this would be interesting and educational. If you were to do a search of like Alabama Craw, what color is Alabama Craw, Alabama Crawfish Poster. You’ll find it. I take it you are Ohio but who cares. Still educational. 

Most states DNR/F&W/whatever puts out a similar thing....here's the one for Minnesota's species

 

[river-rat]

I don't know what percentage that crawfish make up of a largemouths diet but I am a firm believer that a bass will never pass up a crawfish if it's available no matter how much other forage is readily available.

 

My most productive soft plastic lure for the past 30+ years in the freshwater marshes in south Louisiana has been a Gene Larew 4" Salt Craw in black blue glitter/blue claws which I use as a jig trailer and on a Texas Rig.

 

When I heard that Pradco had bought out Gene Larew I got online and bought every pack I could find.

[Armtx77]

On 10/10/2020 at 12:53 PM, scaleface said:

As a kid I spent many , many hours on the Mississippi fishing from rip rap banks . When a barge would go by the waves crashing on the rocks would dislodge and stun  crawfish then  bass plus other species would try to nab an easy snack . I would be  catfishing but kept a rod with a jig handy for those occasions .

I was just going to post the same thing. I watched Pros buzz rip rap banks in 40k bass boats and than come trolling back down the bank tossing plastic crawl trigger and jigs with craw trailers.

4 hours ago, riverat said:

I don't know what percentage that crawfish make up of a largemouths diet but I am a firm believer that a bass will never pass up a crawfish if it's available no matter how much other forage is readily available.

 

My most productive soft plastic lure for the past 30+ years in the freshwater marshes in south Louisiana has been a Gene Larew 4" Salt Craw in black blue glitter/blue claws which I use as a jig trailer and on a Texas Rig.

 

When I heard that Pradco had bought out Gene Larew I got online and bought every pack I could find.

We live in a place, where the two legged Big Mouths, eat as many crawfish, as the tailed versions do.

 

I catch my fair share on YUM Craws every year, too.

 

 

[Jonas Staggs]

On 10/10/2020 at 10:30 AM, Ohioguy25 said:

Interesting, I wonder why they say crawfish are 80% of their food source. Do you think that applies to most states?

 

Even more so bodies of water. Some places I fish got tons of them....some I haven't seen one in years. 

[Spankey]

15 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Most states DNR/F&W/whatever puts out a similar thing....here's the one for Minnesota's species

 

Good deal man. Better for him actually. I think he Ohio. That’s a bit closer, maybe species may be the same. Or some the same. Good for match the hatch if that means anything. Sometimes it do, sometimes it don’t. I ran across the Alabama one by checking out Alabama Craw color prior to fishing it. I’m Penna. I’ll check tonight to see what they have out. Good find. 

[MN Fisher]

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

Good deal man. Better for him actually. I think he Ohio. That’s a bit closer, maybe species may be the same. Or some the same. Good for match the hatch if that means anything. Sometimes it do, sometimes it don’t. I ran across the Alabama one by checking out Alabama Craw color prior to fishing it. I’m Penna. I’ll check tonight to see what they have out. Good find. 

Little searching turned up this page for Ohio

http://www.crayfishstudies.com/Crayfish_%26_shrimps_of_Ohio.html

[Spankey]

20 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Little searching turned up this page for Ohio

http://www.crayfishstudies.com/Crayfish_%26_shrimps_of_Ohio.html

I really appreciate your follow up. MN and OH are both states closer to me. Charts and graphs like that are cool when you are thinking about trying another pattern of soft plastics. Hard baits as well also. 
 

I was just throwing it out there in case OP was interested in doing any research. You done all his leg work for me. 
 

You are a good dude and are to be commended for that. 

[Sissyfishing]

What’s more interesting is why in a Shad dominated lake you can catch bass on a crawdad bait and visa versa

opportunistic maybe right