Here is an interesting idea

[carolina-rig-01]

I thought this was a pretty neat idea. This guy took a softplastic craw that he made and glued a softplastic baitfish in the pincher and then put it on a shaky head. Looks pretty neat in the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh39yraP-_E

[pro reel]

that might look tempting in clear water. kinda like a 2for1

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by pro reel

that might look tempting in clear water. kinda like a 2for1

Thats what I thought too. I don't know how much it would have to offer in muddy water but I thought that in clear water it might make a difference. How much of a difference it would make is up for debate. It could make a huge difference or maybe it might just get you an extra bite on a tough day. Either way I think it's a good idea and gave me one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments.

[nofearengineer]

You know...that is one of the cleverest things I have heard in a while. I'm ashamed I didn't come up with that hehe.

[keithdog]

Thats a really cool idea. My guess is that panfish will rush in to attack the lil minnow and try to steal it before any bass makes a move. Then the bass will eat the panfish, lol. Best to get your fishin partner to try this and then cast out very close to his presentation.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

Ingenuity at its best right there hahahaha.

[boloson]

im gonna do the same thing & glue a minnow to an 8" huddleston's mouth.




patent pending

[HarveysMinnow]

Once in a while, somebody does something truly innovative! Definitely adds realism.

.

[66KingFisher]

That is a slick idea, and one i'll probably use at some point.

[WTL]

This brings up the time old question of how aware are bass of what a given lure is supposed to represent.

For instance, I have never been totally satisfied by what a spinenrbait is supposed to represent. Some people claim a school of minnows. Some claim a singular shad. Others just say that the flash and vibration generate a response without it representing just one type of prey.

So, in the case of this very clever idea, is a bass going to look at it and say "hey, 2 for one"...or is that what YOU would say?

I don't know the answer. Certainly, the minnow wont hurt though, so I better get some glue...

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by WTL

This brings up the time old question of how aware are bass of what a given lure is supposed to represent.

For instance, I have never been totally satisfied by what a spinenrbait is supposed to represent. Some people claim a school of minnows. Some claim a singular shad. Others just say that the flash and vibration generate a response without it representing just one type of prey.

So, in the case of this very clever idea, is a bass going to look at it and say "hey, 2 for one"...or is that what YOU would say?

I don't know the answer. Certainly, the minnow wont hurt though, so I better get some glue...

Like you, I have heard several opinions on what a spinnerbait is supposed to represent. My personal opinion is that when they see the flash and feel the vibration they think baitfish. Not to say that they actually think it's a school of baitfish, but maybe the flash, vibration, and baitfish colored skirt is enough to suggest a baitfish and trigger a predator instinct to eat it. Same logic could also explain why they would eat a bluegill colored spinnerbait as well.

For the baitfish in the craws pinchers. I agree with you, I don't know that a fish is going to look at it and think it's a two for one deal and eat it based on that. But I think that when the fish are seeing craw bait after craw bait, and then this one has a baitfish in the pincher it might look a little more natural and different enough to get a few extra bites. Who knows for sure? I would like to see it tested in a tank with fish in it along side another craw bait without a baitfish in it's pincher to see if the fish reacted any differently towards it.

[Mac2]

Not trying to jump on the bandwagon, but a couple years ago I slit the plastic lizards head and welded a small grub with a curly tail crosswise in the lizard's "mouth" then Texposed the lizard. Added color and a little extra action to the presentation. The tail of the grub still kicking made it seem freshly caught (in my imagination at least).

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by Mac2

Not trying to jump on the bandwagon, but a couple years ago I slit the plastic lizards head and welded a small grub with a curly tail crosswise in the lizard's "mouth" then Texposed the lizard. Added color and a little extra action to the presentation. The tail of the grub still kicking made it seem freshly caught (in my imagination at least).

Did you notice a difference in the number of bites you got with this setup?

[Rebbasser]

Sure looks lifelike. Not a bad idea!

[Mac2]

Carolina-rig 01,

A lot of my tinkering results I never get around to trying out myself. I just know it adds a spot of a different color at the hook and I've read that "targeting" the hook isn't a bad idea. I've also taken a ridged grub body, removed the tail, split the body lengthwise and welded that to the underside of a lizard to add color and fatten the profile....another tinkering I haven't tried. Again, adding color and variation can't do any hurt. I make and send a lot of my trials out and when I do get feedback, it's all good for the majority of responses. I do it for the karma.

Currently I've been tinkering with lightweight jigs made by crimping on clamshot from BPS, then powder painting. When ready to tie I first slip on a flat disc of plastic (flat sequins from Hobby Lobby) a 3/4 inch diameter disc with a hole near one edge......I have to enlarge the hole slightly so it spins freely on the hookshank....then I leave a little room for play and after mashing the barb, install a small bead and then glue on a soft plastic sleeve to hold the bead in place and also provide a grippy base for tying. I then add a rabbit hair tail and then apply about 8 silicone strands to act as legs, slightly longer than the tail. It's really a fly pattern called a pigboat.

When vertically jigged, it's unpredictable. Sometimes the disc does nothing with no effect, but at other times it makes the jig shoot off sideways, sometimes dives, and sometimes the jig jets ahead erratically......it just depends on the position of the disc when it's jigged. Sometimes when horizontally retrieved slowly, it waggles very gently wafting the tail back and forth sideways.

I honestly don't know if it will catch fish, but hope to learn come spring. I sent some to Hawaii for saltwater testing, one to PA and one to VA and will test a few myself once the warmer weather appears.

[Mac2]

Thanks Reb!!!

[DVT Mike]

That's a good looking bait to us because we can reason. I don't think a bass is that inteligent. You'll get a better reaction fishing a normal injured baitfish immitation. Of course things like this have the advantage of an unfamiliar profile. It's always nice to throw something you know they haven't seen 1000 times before.

[bkeenom]

those are our craws. We came up with the idea at Whopper Baits. Been tinkering for a while and finally decided to pull the trigger when our new Boxing Craw was ready. The reasoning behind it is two fold.
1. It does add a touch of realism although I am not sure a bass that is set on eating notices that much anyway. I do know the claws float up and it looks more realistic in all 3 versions than something just laying on the bottom.
2. It is something the fish don't see every day. We had limited testing time prior to release but we caught a lot of fish on it in what little time we had. I can't honestly say it out fished anything due to not having enough data. I do know that I will be using it in clear water along with the Boxing Craw, Skirted Boxing Craw and ThinEsse worm. We are trying diligently to do things different and not be just another copycat plastics company.

[bamabassman]

now this is a very good post bkeenom. honest, to the point and.......well......HONEST. good job man. i respect you for this. i like the idea. please stick around and give us more info as you get it.


oh yeah.....welcome to the site. i think you'll like it here.

[pro reel]

I agree with the posts that are saying a bass will not see this the same way a human does. But, how exactly do we see it? Some are saying a bass might see this as two for one. That would indicate to me that you are thinking about it simply as food and exertion, two birds with one stone so the speak. Thats not what I thought when i saw it. I think most of us can agree that bass don't reason things out like a human does. They have instincts that control many of their actions. On the other hand, they also act a lot like other creatures in some situations. They can get angry or at least agitated at other creatures. I believe that has been shown from how they will attack without eating creatures or imitations that pester them enough. They can be social and work as a group to gather food, If you have never seen a group of bass work together to corral bait fish, then you have missed an enlightening sight. I have no idea how they know to do that or how they may communicate to organize the effort, but I have seen it and it looks a lot like a pack of wild animals herding prey to an ambush. One other trait, call it instinct or whatever, that I have seen is competition. Bass that are not in an aggressive or feeding mode can become very aggressive or inclined to feed by the sight or sounds of other feeding activity. I have seen this on film and if you think about it, many animals do the same thing thing. It's like they are programed to get off their lazy butts and try to catch some food when they see others doing the same thing. Truthfully, thats one of the first things I thought of when I saw this. A craw trying to capture a bait fish could be seen or perceived as competition for food or just feeding activity and this could trigger a reaction to do the same from a bass that sees it. The other thing I thought of was distraction. In the animal and marine kingdom, the weak or distracted is the first to go. I have seen numerous videos of bass feeding. I have watched as a craw lifted it's claws in defense and a bass seemed to change it's mind about the ease of capturing and eating it. I have seen that bass and most other predators prefer to grab the easiest prey in sight. In this case, I think the bait could look like an easy target as it would appear to be distracted in it's own efforts to feed.

[carolina-rig-01]

I agree that a fish probably won't look at this as a two for one deal. But where I thought this idea might be a benefit is in an area where fish are seeing a lot of craw baits. If they are seeing jigs and soft plastic craws all day long then they see this one that has a little twist to it, I think that it having a baitfish in it's claw would maybe look different and real enough that the fish would maybe bite it when they might be conditioned to other craw baits.

[pro reel]

I guess we will just have to try it and see what happens. It's definitely different.

[bkeenom]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

now this is a very good post bkeenom. honest, to the point and.......well......HONEST. good job man. i respect you for this. i like the idea. please stick around and give us more info as you get it.


oh yeah.....welcome to the site. i think you'll like it here.

I could have put on my sales hat but I don't operate that way. I am trying to teach my son the proper way to conduct business. Facts don't always sell but they never make a customer so mad that he will hate you.
I lok forward to hanging around and learning from some of you. I am not a sponsor here like other boards so, don't worry; I won't be spamming.

[bamabassman]

that is very commendable of you. again, i welcome you to the site pal.

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by bkeenom

I could have put on my sales hat but I don't operate that way. I am trying to teach my son the proper way to conduct business. Facts don't always sell but they never make a customer so mad that he will hate you.
I lok forward to hanging around and learning from some of you. I am not a sponsor here like other boards so, don't worry; I won't be spamming.

Well said and very much appreciated.