11-07-2005, 06:16 AM
When to Choose Live Bait
— by Eric Elshere
Have you ever gone to your favorite lake and you just can’t seem to get bit. Or even go out to your favorite lake and only catch small bass. Well this little article is for you to get fish and big fish.
The Live Crawdad. This bait has been a favorite of many anglers through the years. For example, Bob Crupi. He had one of the hottest sticks in the late 80’s and early 90’s fishing live crawdads. He had about a dozen or so bass over 15 pounds on these little helpings. He about broke the world record at 22.01 pounds.
Larry and I, are tourney anglers and love to fish these little baits. They are very good if you know where to fish them and when to fish them. When isn’t that important, but where is key.
When fishing live crawdads try and use the little green one with the softer shell. Throw these baits on heavier tackle considering you will probably catch a nice fish. I like to use a six and a half to seven foot bait casting rod and a good quality reel. I like Shimano Curados, Chronarchs, and Calcutas. They have smooth drag system and the fish can swim free when they pull hard. The line I prefer is no lighter than 10 pound test. The bigger fish don’t seem to care.
When hooking your live crawdad, hook him through the tough horn up by his head. This allows the bait to live longer and the bass won’t get belly hooked. The bass eats the crawdad tail first.
Fish these crawdads around points and humps. The points should have little spots of isolated sticks or stumps for the bass to hang on. The humps should have sticks or brush as well. The bigger bass seem to like the areas with a lot of sticks and junk. If you find these spots I prefer to double anchor your boat adjacent to the point so you can fish the drop off on the point. If on a hump, anchor off the hump and cast onto it or past it.
My personal favorite way to fish this is as boring as anything gets. You cast that bad boy out and leave your reel in free spool. Let the bait do its own work. If you don’t get bit in about 15- 20 minutes move your crawdad a little and get him scooting around. A lot of the time that is what the bass are looking for.
When you get bit let the fish swim freely with the bait. Give the bass about a 10 to 15 second count and then swing. I prefer to just reel fast a barely sweep the rod. The hook will get them in the corner of the mouth. He isn’t going to get off.
The vast majority of my big bass have come on the live crawdad. This bait is so lethal I put this as my number one big bass catching bait. I have had days when you go out and catch 3 to 5 bass over 5 pounds. One week I had 3 bass at 8 to 8.5 pounds, 2 bass at 9 and 9.5 pounds, and a bass at 10 pounds. Plus I had various other bass in the 5 to 7 pound class. It is the best way to catch the big fish of Lake Casitas or any other lake. I personally believe the next world record will be caught on the Live Crawdad.
Give this a try and I bet you won’t be unsatisfied. If I had one bait to rely on for hog bass, this is it. If you try it will be your number one also. Good luck on this awesome big bass killer.
Eric Elshere
[signature]
— by Eric Elshere
Have you ever gone to your favorite lake and you just can’t seem to get bit. Or even go out to your favorite lake and only catch small bass. Well this little article is for you to get fish and big fish.
The Live Crawdad. This bait has been a favorite of many anglers through the years. For example, Bob Crupi. He had one of the hottest sticks in the late 80’s and early 90’s fishing live crawdads. He had about a dozen or so bass over 15 pounds on these little helpings. He about broke the world record at 22.01 pounds.
Larry and I, are tourney anglers and love to fish these little baits. They are very good if you know where to fish them and when to fish them. When isn’t that important, but where is key.
When fishing live crawdads try and use the little green one with the softer shell. Throw these baits on heavier tackle considering you will probably catch a nice fish. I like to use a six and a half to seven foot bait casting rod and a good quality reel. I like Shimano Curados, Chronarchs, and Calcutas. They have smooth drag system and the fish can swim free when they pull hard. The line I prefer is no lighter than 10 pound test. The bigger fish don’t seem to care.
When hooking your live crawdad, hook him through the tough horn up by his head. This allows the bait to live longer and the bass won’t get belly hooked. The bass eats the crawdad tail first.
Fish these crawdads around points and humps. The points should have little spots of isolated sticks or stumps for the bass to hang on. The humps should have sticks or brush as well. The bigger bass seem to like the areas with a lot of sticks and junk. If you find these spots I prefer to double anchor your boat adjacent to the point so you can fish the drop off on the point. If on a hump, anchor off the hump and cast onto it or past it.
My personal favorite way to fish this is as boring as anything gets. You cast that bad boy out and leave your reel in free spool. Let the bait do its own work. If you don’t get bit in about 15- 20 minutes move your crawdad a little and get him scooting around. A lot of the time that is what the bass are looking for.
When you get bit let the fish swim freely with the bait. Give the bass about a 10 to 15 second count and then swing. I prefer to just reel fast a barely sweep the rod. The hook will get them in the corner of the mouth. He isn’t going to get off.
The vast majority of my big bass have come on the live crawdad. This bait is so lethal I put this as my number one big bass catching bait. I have had days when you go out and catch 3 to 5 bass over 5 pounds. One week I had 3 bass at 8 to 8.5 pounds, 2 bass at 9 and 9.5 pounds, and a bass at 10 pounds. Plus I had various other bass in the 5 to 7 pound class. It is the best way to catch the big fish of Lake Casitas or any other lake. I personally believe the next world record will be caught on the Live Crawdad.
Give this a try and I bet you won’t be unsatisfied. If I had one bait to rely on for hog bass, this is it. If you try it will be your number one also. Good luck on this awesome big bass killer.
Eric Elshere
[signature]