Does realistic shape matter in soft plastics?

[Catt]

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

What are those?

 

Gene Larew 6" Salty Hawg Craw, no longer in production. 

 

As a Coonass that has eaten hundreds of thousands crawfish your Jig-n-Craw does not look like a crawfish.

[Mike L]

26 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Gene Larew 6" Salty Hawg Craw, no longer in production. 

 

As a Coonass that has eaten hundreds of thousands crawfish your Jig-n-Craw does not look like a crawfish.

Thank You

 

 

 

 

Mike

[12poundbass]

2 hours ago, flyfisher said:

bang a few mama basses in the spawn

You’ve watched spawning videos that are the complete opposite of the spawning videos I’ve watched! Don’t post links. ?

[TnRiver46]

22 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I guess if someone pooped in my bed I too would swipe at it.  

 

 

Don’t put it out with your boots, Ted ! 

[Pat Brown]

I fish bodies of water where they eat for an hour a day twice a day and that's it and they only eat shad.

 

I fish other bodies of water where they eat pink hairballs with tentacles.

 

I think it's just kinda how hard they get hammered on and how much they love their favorite food (and how much of it is around).

[TOXIC]

I used to think so until a friend of mine born and raised on St Clair called me out and caught open water smallmouth (not on beds) with a shoestring, a cigarette butt and a gummy worm.  The gummy worm I could see but the others????

[Dogface]

22 hours ago, Jig Man said:

I say no.  I catch fish on brush hogs, stick bait, TRDs, etc that look nothing like what I have seen in the water.  However, I have made this bait in many colors and varieties and never had a bite on it.

 

 

This an interesting question and I have to agree, the shape does not seem to be important on most days.

 

A few years ago I was fishing a small pond using a TRD on a BFS setup and catching a lot of fish. I had some Z-Man crawfish and some Nikko hellgrammites. Both are very realistic-looking baits. I decided to use them. I could not get a hit on either but started catching fish again when I went back to the TRD. 

 

Why? Who knows but the fish. 

 

 

[Dash Riprock]

With the exception of Fat Ika's, I almost never have any luck with any soft bait that's not basically a stick or trick/finesse-style shape worm. I force myself to mix in various craws and creatures every so often but I honestly can't recall even a single fish I've caught on one. I dunno why.

[Columbia Craw]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:35 AM, Smokinal said:

The Yum Crawbug was one of the most realistic looking baits to have come along in a long time.

I still have some and I don't think I've ever caught a fish on one.

I rig them with a tube jig and pitch them like a finesse jig and have had some good results in post spawn and summer periods.  

[Smokinal]

19 minutes ago, Columbia Craw said:

I rig them with a tube jig and pitch them like a finesse jig and have had some good results in post spawn and summer periods.  

Maybe I need to try them again!

[Bird]

I must not understand this thread or am simply illiterate...... maybe both.

Brush hogs, speed craws and creature baits look like a craw to a Bass, doesn't matter what it looks like to us.

Bass have to eat, we just need to get close to their menu.

[Jonas Staggs]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:29 AM, PressuredFishing said:

So I'm sure everyone here has had great luck on plastic worms of all varieties, but do you believe you get more bites on realistic looking soft plastics like a

 

Craw imitator

 

Realistic fluke minnow imitators

 

Paddle tail baitfish imitators

 

Berkley gilly bluegill imitators 

 

Specifically in clear water

 

Thanks friennds

 

I fish highly pressured waters, never caught anything on any realistic baits. I thought the savage gear 4d craw would do good but it hasn't. 

 

 

 

 

[Jar11591]

Seems like the most consistent fish catchers aren’t super realistic. It may be important at times, but I think there are many other more important factors than if a soft plastic bait imitates a real thing. 

[MickD]

21 hours ago, Dogface said:

 

This an interesting question and I have to agree, the shape does not seem to be important on most days.

 

A few years ago I was fishing a small pond using a TRD on a BFS setup and catching a lot of fish. I had some Z-Man crawfish and some Nikko hellgrammites. Both are very realistic-looking baits. I decided to use them. I could not get a hit on either but started catching fish again when I went back to the TRD. 

 

Why? Who knows but the fish. 

 

 

On upper Lake Huron my son and I were fishing for smallies and caught some live crawfish for bait.  Couldn't get a bite on them, but took a number of fish on tubes.

[Cbump]

23 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I fish bodies of water where they eat for an hour a day twice a day and that's it and they only eat shad.

 

I fish other bodies of water where they eat pink hairballs with tentacles.

 

I think it's just kinda how hard they get hammered on and how much they love their favorite food (and how much of it is around).

I feel like a predator like a bass eats more than 2 times a day for an hour. 

15 hours ago, Bird said:

I not understand this thread or am simply illiterate...... maybe both.

Brush hogs, speed craws and creature baits look like a craw to a Bass, doesn't matter what it looks like to us.

 

Did they tell you that? 

[Tatulatard]

15 hours ago, Bird said:

I must not understand this thread or am simply illiterate...... maybe both.

Brush hogs, speed craws and creature baits look like a craw to a Bass, doesn't matter what it looks like to us.

Bass have to eat, we just need to get close to their menu.

We used to think in more narrow terms of soft plastics.  You had worms and craws that had a worm body.  The idea of something like the brush hog was revolutionary at the time.  I remember the reaction to it when it came out.  "It has TWO curly tails" "what are those things hanging off the side" "what is that stupid thing even supposed to look like?"  " that will NEVER catch fish"  We used to be very certain that our soft baits had to look like a thing to us or they wouldn't work.  Zoom brush hogs and the creature baits catagory it created changed that.

[Pat Brown]

21 minutes ago, Cbump said:

I feel like a predator like a bass eats more than 2 times a day for an hour. 

Did they tell you that? 

 

 

All I can say is, you kinda gotta fish this pond to understand but not all bass or bodies of water are built the same in terms of how they behave and how easy to catch they are.

 

According to the people who live around it and have fished it their whole lives, there's no fish at all.

 

I'm here to tell you that is false and they even bite and there are big and small and medium sized ones....but on this small public pond, they only bite twice a day and then beyond that you're praying for anger/aggression/stupidity and these fish just don't behave like that.

 

They don't even eat worms or live shad or bluegills.

 

All I can figure is that with a small enough body of water and a consistent enough threat, they can get conditioned into being cautious enough to only attempt eating specific foods at specific times....

 

You can see them swim around and ignore the abundant forage in the area and sort of swim away from any lines at all in the water at most hours of the day.

 

Most places I fish, bass just bite or they don't and there isn't much rhyme or reason to it.

 

The only exception I can identify on this small body of water is an extreme weather shift.

 

Big fronts or rains rolling in can turn the bite on at times when normally they are 'dormant'.

 

As far as the OP, I still think it just depends on the body of water and the fish.

 

Sometimes it really really doesn't matter and sometimes it matters.

[PressuredFishing]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

swim away from any lines at all in the water at most hours of the day

Flmb? How clear is the water?

[Pat Brown]

22 minutes ago, PressuredFishing said:

Flmb? How clear is the water?

 

Seems like a mixture of Florida and Northern LMB.  Lots of crappie and shad and sunfish and frogs and crawdads all over.

 

The vast majority of the pond is about 3 ft deep with the deepest spots being about 5 ft deep. So regardless of water clarity on any given day they can see very well because they're never very far from the surface and the water never gets much murkier than 1 FOV.

 

Most of the time the clarity ranges from different areas across the pond from 1 ft to 3 ft of clarity.  The clearest water being the water right up against the bank (where they typically lounge).  So that means more or less they can see anything and everything in their vicinity all the time most days.

[Deleted account]

17 hours ago, Bird said:

Brush hogs, speed craws and creature baits look like a craw to a Bass

 

What are you basing this assertion on? Because they put it in their mouth? Are they cruising for sex when they put a Ned in their mouth? Maybe we should put a hole in a lily pad and drop it through that and see if it increases strikes for glories sake!...

[MAN]

Yes, Realistic shapes absolutely matter.  Roland Martin figured this out back in the early 90's.  

[Jar11591]

14 minutes ago, MAN said:

Yes, Realistic shapes absolutely matter.  Roland Martin figured this out back in the early 90's.  

Oh man. 8 year old me BEGGED my mom

and dad to order the helicopter lure kit. That infomercial had me convinced this was the must have lure. They finally did, and I remember distinctively never catching a single fish. 

[Fishingmickey]

Here is another to add to the mix. Why do Bubble Gum, Merthiolate and White floating worms work so well at times? Does it bring out the "kill it" aspect during the spawn?

FM

[Bankc]

Nope.  

I pour a worm from a mold I made using a masonry drill bit as the model.  Bass love it.  I've tried a few realistic craw imitators, and none seem to work as well as a most creature baits.  And it's hard to find a swimbait that catches more fish than a Keitech Impact.  And the Zoom Super Fluke is my most productive soft jerkbait.  Plus the number of fish I've caught on grubs and tubes tells me that shape can't matter THAT much.  

 

Basically, in my experience, bass prefer soft plastics that don't look realistic.  Now I'll admit my experience isn't enough to call it a rule.  But I believe it's enough to suggest that in some cases, realistic shapes don't matter.  In fact, I'd argue that realistic motion matters more.  And to imitate realistic motions, sometimes you have to use unrealistic shapes.  

[Deleted account]

37 minutes ago, Bankc said:

I pour a worm from a mold I made using a masonry drill bit as the model. 

 

The Penetrator®, I like...