BPS Baitmonkey during lunch

[Fishnngolfn]

Well, I have $40 a month allowance that I can spend without telling the wife what I'm getting. I hit the BPS in Prattville during my lunch break and spent $20. I got 2 much needed packs of 2/0 EWG gammy hooks (half red, half black), to packs of Yum Craw Papi (watermelon red flake and crawdad colors), and one pack of Zoom 6" cotton candy with chart tail lizards.

I got the crawdads because I want to try them out at the boss' lake. I heard that crawdads make a clicking sound so I definitely need to add the glass beads on the line. I have never fished crawdads before. Can I just slowly drag them across the bottom?

[MississippiBoy]

Dragging them works, but I prefer twitching them. Crawfish run across the bottom kinda spastically. If you've ever seen a crawdad trying to get away from something, they scoot in short bursts. They'll pull their tail in sharply, and ride that momentum just above the bottom for a second or two. Try 2-4 sharp twitches, pulling it in maybe a foot or so each twitch, letting it bump the bottom after each one, then let it sit for a few seconds. The claws should come up into a defensive posture, like a real crawfish will do if it sees a bass coming after it. That's usually where the strike happens.

[cassidyta]

I think MB is right on the twitching vs the swimming them. Since huddy brought out their craws, I have also had some success with rigging them so that they face forward. In this technique, I never swim them but try to twitch them in the rocks. It has proven quite effective for me if I have a rocky bottom to work from.

[JB]

Make sure you can find glass with beads vs. plastic tube with a few beads, also if you fish that craw for a long period of time or get hits on it, check to make sure that glass bead insert hasn't worked its way loose, a lil super glue helps that...and..if you can't find glass beads you may want to try attaching
on your line a red bead and a brass bead, it makes a clicking noise even louder than the bead insert..
My rule of thumb is if the water is super clear, no need for a glass bead, if its got any color at all or stained or muddy the glass bead insert is a must...
I think the theory of the clicking noise is either a calling for mating or a sound it makes eating....I need to get more glass beads now rofl...*off to bps*

[Raul]

Originally Posted by Fishnngolfn

I heard that crawdads make a clicking sound so I definitely need to add the glass beads on the line.

My man, you have to understand that the bait has to mimick nothing in particular in order to be effective; as long as the bait looks and moves like if it´s alive and an easy prey the fish will snatch it if you present it in the right location with the right presentation.

Most of my relatives are dairy farmers, they grow crops to feed the cows, the fields are irrigated by irrigation systems that get their water from wells, between the well and the irrigation system there´s a pond to hold water for the irrigation system´s pump. These are man made rectangular or square shaped ponds 1/2 -2 acres in surface in the middle of a field that has aboslutely no access to any other form of water other than the water from the well, there is no way aquatic species to arrive inadvertedly to the pond, the ponds only hold what you put in it, so there are no minnows, no shad, no freshwater shrimp or craws in them unless you have dumped them in yourself. The ponds are bass/bluegill/tilapia and ocassionally carp ponds.

Well, soft plastic craws work catch fish in those ponds clack or no clack, soft plastic lizards also catch fish in them; that would be an example of two baits that in theory imitate something alive but work in places where what they are supposed to imitate is not the current bass food because it doesn´t exist, bass have never seen it, can not identify it as part of their diet yet catches them.

You don´t need to match the bait to anything in particular for the fish to bite it, it only has to move like if it´s alive and an easy prey.

Now, would I add the bead ? shure ! noise is a thing that attracts the fish, fish are inquisitive and if they hear the glass bead clacking more than one is gonna go to find out wassup.