Custom Baitmaker Crawdad Patterns: Squarebill Crankbaits- Summer Crawdads In Our River Systems
There is a reason why crawdad, crayfish or mudbug patterns sell so effectively at the big box stores.
The biggest reason is invasive crawfish forage spans across much of the United States encompassing literally hundreds of craw species but traditionally the "serial bait" producers stick to standard or "tradition" patterns for merchandising as a means of covering the entire country with the same sku of baits for anglers no matter where they may be fishing.
While many of these baits are effective in fisheries that craw call home, they are not nearly as effective as custom patterns that are painted and schemed to mirror craw at differing stages of the seasonal cycle and allow anglers to get the same color schemes in differing sizes of crankbaits with differing depths and weight balances as the season progresses.
Custom Baitmakers also permit anglers to install specific top quality hardware over the serial bait producers. Many anglers often swap out lower grade or machine line installed trebles for example for higher grade brands anyway so in effect this adds to the overall costs though not typically perceived as such to consumers that upgrade. This tends to happen even more with jerkbaits as well.
The rising costs of the supply chain will impact directly the decisions being made by serial producers as to which hooks they may opt in on during the next run of baits especially if we continue to see narrowing inventories of some of them coming from China and abroad. Most deals likely will remain in place because they are typically negotiated a few years out for hardware but we can expect a price increase by November 2022 across the board in the fishing bait segment for anything supplied or produced in China.
"Blanks" are what custom crankbait makers use if they are not repainting an existing branded crankbait into a unique coloration patter and supply while getting tight is still at okay levels to offer diversity in the size, shape, weight and bill specifics for baitmakers to produce solid custom crawdad colorations to "hatch match" your fishery.
Some may believe the "hatch match" philosophy is over stated but those that have gone out throwing the same bait with others but using differing coloration patterns know that the philosophy holds up.
I was out this season on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and found while some areas had abundant crawdad ranging in various sizes which is a sign of a healthy "break out"other areas did not have nearly as many as years past during the same time frame. Higher water levels and increased flow have direct impacts on crawdad staging, especially high water or even flood stage events like we have seen in the past on both Susquehanna and Upper Potomac river fisheries holding crawdads.
Here are a few custom coloration patterns that have been highly effective here and should translate to many easterns and mid widwestern fisheries given they are pattern after the crawdad specie that have migrated to eastern fisheries over the years.
For example the Rusty Crayfish is native to the Ohio River drainage but was first discovered outside the Wisconsin range in the 1960's. Ultimately, invasive specie like the Rusty will compete with native species and often are much more aggressive consumers than the native specie. Rusties are now easily located in the Great Lakes Region, New England and Eastern United States but there are signs that this specie is pushing further into Wyoming increasing populations, entering Kansas and even Canada.
A Rusty Crayfish is typically 3-5 inches with a grayish-green hinge but also with a distinct reddish blot that makes it easier to id than other native specie just inside front of tail on both sides. Our smallies are now being pre conditioned to recognize these Rusties in our river systems as targets of opportunity.
Here in the Mid-Atlantic our seasonal water flow directly at times related to northern weather patterns post winter thaw as well as spring rainfall always directly impact our river fisheries and the forage species that exists. These specie like smallmouth move. Smallmouth bass are known to move for miles in the river system and much of this move has ties to both flow and forage.
We have had both up and down years on Upper Potomac and Susquehanna River systems in terms of crawdad population. The feeder tribs and rivers as well hold crawdads as well. Rivers like the Juniata especially closer to the Susquehanna can witness massive craw density some seasons and others be almost bare. There have been seasons where you could wade in tribs like the PA and MD and not be able to take a step without scattering crawdads.
The Susquehanna has been overwhelmed with Rusty Craw that have driven many of the native ray species into decline. The New River has its own craw species as well but Rusty have moved into that system as well. Other systems from the Ohio basin and others like the Allegheny and Upper Potomac have experienced much of the same with invasive non native craw moving into and through systems and all these craw while similar in some respects may have different coloration patterns throughout a season.
While there are well over 100 differing species of crawdads in the United States, Pennsylvania and Maryland appear to consistently have about 16 to 19 differing specie classes of craw. Three of these are non-native invasive species like Rusty coming from other river basins or potentially placed illegally into river systems. The Rusty was first discovered in Pennsylvania when I was a boy in 1976 and many in the 80's began to see the direct impacts. Initially there was a spike in the Smallmouth bass fishing and the size shift in numbers in years following by wildlife examiners due to the abundance of forage in the rivers for smallmouth to feed upon. This correlates with alot of the stories one hears about fishing back then being some the best in the history of the river by many old timers.
The issue over time has been how as the invasive specie "crowd" run out the native specie. In fact, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat over the years has seen declining population of overall craw density and rivers like Susquehanna and Juniata may have reached a point where fish are dependent now upon the Rusty more than ever and the native specie long covering the river systems may in fact never return. The true impact of this very well may now be playing out.
The days of seeing the moving river bottom full of bountiful craw may be a thing of the past.
Some of the pattern colorations that have been highly effective in the region are the spring green and brown, brownish burnt orange, the yellowish orange and of course the popular reddish patterns. Red has always been the most purchased crawdad coloration from serial producers and virtually every brand has one though the unspoken truth is the color red is more myth and legend than reality in terms of strikes based on the color.
We have tested this out extensively here for years during the Spring and found no correlation between number of strikes and catch rates to "red" versus other coloration. We found this by throwing the same exact crankbaits but in various coloration patterns and found zero deviation. The truth is "red" has been pushed by the manufacturers and media as the "go to" color for purposes of sales not reality. The ACTION change during the spring bite is what entices fish strikes not solely the color. Bass have been waiting to come out the winter pattern and when this happens look to feed up rather quickly. The moving baits like squarebills and lipless are extremely effective in large part because bass are not truly shallow at the cusp of spring and many of these baits have the ability to get deeper with the added action that entices bass.
Custom Baitmakers can offer you the abilty to pattern set your power fishing regime with same colored squarebill, diver and lipless to cover the bases while hatch matching your fishery more than any serial producer which often will put out a color in a certain model only in terms of crankbaits.
Above is one of my favorite colorations for Spring to early summer. I think it is so effective because it almost like a "crossover" pattern in terms of forage where it as attributes of the craw shell scheme but also some of the greenish colors you also find in other panfish forage. One trip on the Susquehanna we landed three smallmouth over 19 inches and one just over 20 with this crankbait as smallies were roaming in an area where there happen to be about four feet of water off the mid river grass growth awaiting the prey of the day. One interesting thing I learned that trip was one of the guys I was fishing with actually removed the front treble from the crankbait and was catching them literally every other cast all in the trail treble because the smallies were chasing and slapping so hard. I asked about the method and he told me he learned it wade fishing in Virginia down on the Shenandoah where his squarebills would keep getting caught up on substrate and rock where the water level changes abrubtly.
I borrowed this method for my spring time Lipless Crankbait fishing on the Potomac River after the grass begins to get a little thicker and it has been highly effective in that manner as well.
Check out some of the offerings posted throughout the blog for custom producers that can set you up with custom crankbait patterns that CATCH FISH!! be sure to let them know where you found them. The B5 Custom Tackle store will be up soon for procurement and special offerings from baitmakers studios for anglers who want to get the edge on the competition out there.
Field Staff opportunities available beginning 2024 for Custom Baitmaker Releases!
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