does anyone know anything about crabs?

[LOU]

Don’t worry, not as bad as it sounds. Ok, like some of you know I’m fishing from down under in South Africa. For the greater part our bass = your bass. They look the look the same as in the states, react the same, the whole thing. There is however one minor difference. From what I believe you guys have an abundance of crawfish in the states and that this makes up a large part of the bass’s diet.
(1)Does the crawfish stay in the water all the time? (I understand that this is a silly question for someone familiar with them, but I have never seen one).

The reason why I am asking. Jig’s like these are fairly ineffective in S Africa.



I think the reason therefore is we don’t have crawfish or swimming crabs. We do however have these okes:




Of all the bass I have caught maybe 95% of them cough up crab shells and about 5% will spit out minnows when kept in the livewell. These crabs do make up a very large part of the bass’s diet in S Africa. These crabs do not swim and keep themselves in very shallow water or up against the shoreline. So much so that we sometimes run a pattern we you look for crabs up against the shoreline or trees as this will indicate there are a few bass waiting below, this has produced quite a few bass.

There has been some attempts in SA to make replicate plastic lures but they have so far proven to be ineffective. Has anyone seen crabs like these in the sates in a part of the country where maybe there are no crawfish? What do you use to replicate them? Or any suggestions from anyone will be welcomed. The variety of tackle that you all come into contact with on a daily basis is much larger than what I see. I strongly believe that if these critters can be accurately mimiced in SA waters you will be able to catch a lot more bass.

thanks in advance