SCLakes.com

Softy you say that crawfish like clay banks I always thought they like rocks. Know wonder I cant seem to catch fish. Maybe w/ time on this sight I will be able to catch them big ones like you guys

Crayfish do spend a lot of their adult lives around rocks but they spend alot of their lives relating to clay banks during the mating periods and when the young are being carried by the female. During this time most crayfish molt and shed the outer skeleton because they are in the growth cycle into adulthood. At that time during the molting period they emit a scent that tells the bass that the crayfish are moltling and are in their soft shell period and a bass cannot resist the thought of passing up and opportunity to get some soft shell crayfish so bass will travel a long ways to find the clay banks with the crayfish communities in them during this period. I have 5 clay banks that I watch religiously for the molting periods on Old Hickory Lake.
Now for the sticking around here and learning more about catching fish........ Make sure you read posts from guys that actually catch fish in that area. Fish are the same everywhere but fishing is not the same everywhere and I am 500 miles away. I can use my same general knowledge to come there and catch fish but not at the same consistancy as the guys that live there so you can use my subjects as a basic research but make sure you listen to the locals and then interphase it in to what my research explains.

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Life Jackets and Kill switch's save lives! Soft baits catch fish softer baits catch more fish!
I carry a gun cause a cop is to heavy and when seconds count the police are only minutes away!!

Great info on the crawfish Softy! I fish a craw a lot in SC, and have luck on it all year long. Really doesn't matter what lake I go to, it always works for a few fish. You can't go wrong with a small texas rigged craw in my opinion. Do you make any yourself?

I think I make about 6 different sizes and styles of crayfish Tree. I know alot of folks are using the Paca Craw style now but I still like to old Berkley Power Craw style better so I make mine from that mold. It stands up better off the bottom and it has produced a ton of nice bass for me over the years.

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Life Jackets and Kill switch's save lives! Soft baits catch fish softer baits catch more fish!
I carry a gun cause a cop is to heavy and when seconds count the police are only minutes away!!

Soft, do you make any in the gene larew style???

I have the 3 inch version of the Gene Larew but don't make very many of them. There was such a big controversey with Gene Larew and several other bait companies that I never looked into having any of the other mold sizes made. Didn;t want to get caught up in all that mess that was going on over the copyright infringements over the salt issue. I don't know why there was such as issue over salt since the Hand Pour Bait makers were using salt on baits 10 years before Gene Larew made his first bait yet he thought salt in baits was his idea.....

_________________
Life Jackets and Kill switch's save lives! Soft baits catch fish softer baits catch more fish!
I carry a gun cause a cop is to heavy and when seconds count the police are only minutes away!!

THe trick was Gene figured out to use salt in Injected Baits....he got a patent on the process.. I think his patent just ran out a couple of years ago. Not 100 sure about all that but I seem to remember reading it sumwheres...

I use craws a good bit, really a compact/bulky bait that fits right between a long skinny worm and a big JnP. Zoom UV , Reg. craw and Super Hawg. Big Critter craws are OK AFTER you pull all the legs off them.. Really used to like the RoadKill version but they dropped it. CYA

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Jojo-SC Team One Lake Wonder Make'n Hawgs look like Keepers..it's Just what we do.

Thanks JoJo, I had heard there was some kind of conflict between him and a few other baits companies pertaining to salt but was not sure what it was about. I didn't use his craws anyway. Before I began making my own I used the original Guido Sow Bugs until he sold them to somebody else and they began changing the body styles and messed them up and I went to making the Berkey Power craw and began using it. Last month I had a buddy of mine bring me a bag of the original Guido 4" Sow Bugs so I sent some off to have molds made of them and I will be making them by February.

_________________
Life Jackets and Kill switch's save lives! Soft baits catch fish softer baits catch more fish!
I carry a gun cause a cop is to heavy and when seconds count the police are only minutes away!!