What If There Are No Crawdads

[Raul]

What if there are no crawdads:

It doesn´t matter if there is/are or there aren´t. I´m a non believer of the "match the hatch" school of thought, why ? cuz many places I fish don´t have this or that or the other yet baits that theoretically imitate this, that or the other work even though bass livin´ there have never ever seen this, that or/and the other.

Case:

Many of my relatives are farmers, down here the only rain their crops see either falls from the sky or is pumped from a well ( many times from hundreds of feet below the surface ), the water is pumped from the well and then poured into a pond and from there it´s pumped again into the irrigation systems. Those ponds are stocked with bass, bluegills, tilapias, guppies n´such, plus local wildlife that ocassionally arrives like toads and frogs They have no ´dads in them and bass have never seen one, yet, ´dads and ´dad imitator catch fish.

So, what if there are no ´dads ----> it don´t matter, if you fish with ´dad imitators most probably you will catch fish.

[grimlin]

You could texas rig a shoe string and catch a bass, don't overestimate a hungry bass they will mostly eat anything in front of them.

Somebody here did that and caught a nice bass on it. I wish I remembered who it was!

[JoePhish]

I catch fish on a Smokin' Rooster all the time. I'm pretty sure there are no roosters in the lakes I fish.

[deep]

IMO, jigs and worms look "natural". It doesn't matter if the bass are actually eating crawdads. If it looks like food, a hungry bass will eat it. Or at the very least, a curious bass will check it out, and a bass doesn't have hands.

[rubba bubba]

Might wanna check those invertebrate zoology books again...

Might want to get your humor-meter checked.

[WRB]

If a body of water is large enough to support a bass population, it more than likely also has a crayfish population that provides a source of food for those bass. It would extremely rare if the pond in question doesn't have crayfish or crawdads as they are more commonly known as.

The bass were planted by someone and that person also planted forage to support those bass, otherwise those bass would die off.

If you want to know, put out a trap. If you don't care, then don't bother.

Crayfish can't fly; the birds that feed on them like herons do. Baby crayfish hang onto the mothers undershell and it's common for birds to carry a crayfish from one body of water to another as they eat and discard parts of the crayfish like shells with baby crayfish attached. Crayfish have been around for thousands of years and are wide spread around world.

If something looks like food to a bass, they only way they can test it out is to bite it, they don't have hands. If you make the lure look interesting to the bass and it may give it try or it may not.

Tom

[VolFan]

_{Crawdads/crayfish are second only to ants and cockroaches (third then maybe) in their distribution. Look it up. They live in cow pastures, drainage ditches, and even under an old shed we had. They don't need alot of water to survive and reproduce. Most of them burrow. When it rains, the burrows fill with water and they can survive in there for MONTHS. All of your bodies of water have water flowing into and out of them, and birds and other critters coming and going. If there are not crawdads in your pond, there will be.}

_{Which brings me to my point: Rage craws catch fish everywhere.}

[grimlin]

_{Crawdads/crayfish are second only to ants and cockroaches (third then maybe) in their distribution. Look it up. They live in cow pastures, drainage ditches, and even under an old shed we had. They don't need alot of water to survive and reproduce. Most of them burrow. When it rains, the burrows fill with water and they can survive in there for MONTHS. All of your bodies of water have water flowing into and out of them, and birds and other critters coming and going. If there are not crawdads in your pond, there will be.}

_{Which brings me to my point: Rage craws catch fish everywhere.}

Very,very good point here! I got a drainage creek right by the trailer park I live in and kids around here has told me there is crayfish in there. I remember growing up and there's a little creek where I used to catch crayfish with raw bacon on a string.It would dry up every summer in Texas being it gets so hot down there. Then comes spring and they would magically appear again in that little creek.

[Big Stick Joe]

Sorry guys but no crayfish lol but yesterday i did catch 2 fish on a netbait b bug (their version of a sweet beaver). caught them on isolated cover. they both hit it hard. I guess those fish along with you guys answered my question whether or not there are any crayfish/crawdads. Thanks to everyone who helped me.

[bigbill]

I constantly throw the Rebel BIG Claw crankbait that dives up to 10ft. in black back green body with a wisk of chartruece. At some places i never seen the crawfish but i'm sure they are there because this lure works most of the time.