match the hatch....crawfish

[mblk181]

One of the locals today at the bait shop told how he keeps current with the crawdad coloration changes. The day before going fishing for smallies, he makes up a few craw traps and on the morning to be fished, he picks them up to study the current colors of the crawdads in local waters.
He then matches his jigs and tubes as closely as possible to gain an edge.

Making the traps is very easy...... Take a 2 liter Coke bottle and cut off the top making a funnel. Set the funnel aside for the moment and put two small holes about halfway down the side of the bottle making them about an inch apart.
Take some mono line, go into one hole and out the other, then tie off. At random, drill or punch a few holes here and there to let water circulate through the bottle. Add a few stones for weight, bait the trap, invert the funnel so it's sticking inside the end just like the hole is placed in a minnow trap and use a little duct tape to fasten the funnel to the main body. Baiting can generally be most any meat, some prefer a fish based catfood, some like crumbled sausage, mashing a piece of chicken or hot dog.... Anyhow, bait the trap. Lower it between rocks, along rip rap, on a gravel and rock bottom......anywhere craws are likely to be.

Try to be as inconspicuous as possible on tying the mono to secure the trap. If the line is a clear 6lb line, just leaving it lay out in the rip rap might be good enough. Against the gray stone, hard to see. After picking up the traps and viewing, he lets them go.....but again, If you want to use them for live bait, that's up to you.