Post by fish2win on Jan 6, 2022 20:27:24 GMT -5
Our lakes are literally packed with Crawfish. In East Tenn. There are over 1000 species of craws. The come in a wide variety of colors and seldom have I seem the orange brown that's seems to dominate the tackle industry, one example of extreme colors is blue and white or light beige. Many year ago Fishguy and I were fishing Cherokee one day, While walking the bank looking for lost fishing lures I saw several dead craws in the edge of the water. On examination they were a dark blue on their backs and a light beige on their underside. We later saw a live one that color.
I have literally caught hundreds of craws in minnow traps. Many years back I used to keep a trot line at Norris for catfish. If you are not aware Norris has a huge population of both Blue and Yellow catfish, The bait that produced the best was a crawfish about 3 inches long. In catching these little guys in the local creeks the common color was a dark green brownish color, I am speaking of local creeks such as Mill Creek or Clear creek. That's not to say that other creeks don't have other varieties thriving in them.
Smallmouth bass love craws. TWRA biologist state that it is the main source of protein for smallmouth at Norris . I believe this is why so many bass are caught from the old stone fences that were built by farmers in this lake in the late 1700 and early 1800s before barbed wire came about,It was usually the job of the kids to rut out the rocks when the fields were plowed. Often they used the bigger rocks to construct fences, The number one herd stock in East Tenn in those days was sheep,They were valued for thier fur and their meat as well as milk from the goats that often were grazed with them. Most of the original homesteaders were Scotch or Iris and sheep herding was in mountainous areas was what they knew. Now we can benefit from their labor, Crawfish will embed in the cracks between the stones and bass with cruise the walls looking for opportunities to spook a craw out for dinner.
Over the years I have seen through experience that to consistently catch smallmouth bass at Norris a great deal of finesse is necessary , Recently I read an article about a new way to prepare and rig a craw that I think you all may be interested. First let me say this. There are those days with 18 plus inch smallies will blast a spook or gorilla a spinner bait. My personal best Smallmouth a 22 1/4 incher inhaled a spook. The truth is that more often than not 8lb floro on 7 plus feet long medium action spinning rods is the way to go, I have caught many more smallmouth from 15 to 35 feet deep than I ever have in the upper water column. Light weights that sink slowly are a definite plus. They force you to slow down and use more finesse. If you don't own a 7ft 2-inch medium action spinning rod I advise you to put that on your bucket list,
The way the Craw was prepared and presented was different than usual. 1 Take a plastic craw of your choice, take your scissors and remove all the tail section up the body even with the pincher legs. 2 cut off the feelers even with the head. what you now have is basically a set of claws,3 take a 1.8 oz Ned's Rig hook and place it in the body that is left rigging it with the hook exposed,
Most good quality plastic craw have claws that tend to float upwards The Ned head hook is designed to set up on the lake bottom. That means when you allow it to settle the pinchers are facing up much like a craw in the defensive position. Allow it to set. The smallmouth will swim around the bait deciding if and when to strike. We all are aware that often a retreat of a bait will provoke a strike. when you move the bait don't drag it. Hop it straight up a foot or so then allow it to slowly sink. Many strikes will occur at this point,
Next time you are out. Even if the bite is slow or should I say especially if the bite is slow try this finesse method. It could cause the catch of the day.F2W
I have literally caught hundreds of craws in minnow traps. Many years back I used to keep a trot line at Norris for catfish. If you are not aware Norris has a huge population of both Blue and Yellow catfish, The bait that produced the best was a crawfish about 3 inches long. In catching these little guys in the local creeks the common color was a dark green brownish color, I am speaking of local creeks such as Mill Creek or Clear creek. That's not to say that other creeks don't have other varieties thriving in them.
Smallmouth bass love craws. TWRA biologist state that it is the main source of protein for smallmouth at Norris . I believe this is why so many bass are caught from the old stone fences that were built by farmers in this lake in the late 1700 and early 1800s before barbed wire came about,It was usually the job of the kids to rut out the rocks when the fields were plowed. Often they used the bigger rocks to construct fences, The number one herd stock in East Tenn in those days was sheep,They were valued for thier fur and their meat as well as milk from the goats that often were grazed with them. Most of the original homesteaders were Scotch or Iris and sheep herding was in mountainous areas was what they knew. Now we can benefit from their labor, Crawfish will embed in the cracks between the stones and bass with cruise the walls looking for opportunities to spook a craw out for dinner.
Over the years I have seen through experience that to consistently catch smallmouth bass at Norris a great deal of finesse is necessary , Recently I read an article about a new way to prepare and rig a craw that I think you all may be interested. First let me say this. There are those days with 18 plus inch smallies will blast a spook or gorilla a spinner bait. My personal best Smallmouth a 22 1/4 incher inhaled a spook. The truth is that more often than not 8lb floro on 7 plus feet long medium action spinning rods is the way to go, I have caught many more smallmouth from 15 to 35 feet deep than I ever have in the upper water column. Light weights that sink slowly are a definite plus. They force you to slow down and use more finesse. If you don't own a 7ft 2-inch medium action spinning rod I advise you to put that on your bucket list,
The way the Craw was prepared and presented was different than usual. 1 Take a plastic craw of your choice, take your scissors and remove all the tail section up the body even with the pincher legs. 2 cut off the feelers even with the head. what you now have is basically a set of claws,3 take a 1.8 oz Ned's Rig hook and place it in the body that is left rigging it with the hook exposed,
Most good quality plastic craw have claws that tend to float upwards The Ned head hook is designed to set up on the lake bottom. That means when you allow it to settle the pinchers are facing up much like a craw in the defensive position. Allow it to set. The smallmouth will swim around the bait deciding if and when to strike. We all are aware that often a retreat of a bait will provoke a strike. when you move the bait don't drag it. Hop it straight up a foot or so then allow it to slowly sink. Many strikes will occur at this point,
Next time you are out. Even if the bite is slow or should I say especially if the bite is slow try this finesse method. It could cause the catch of the day.F2W