After a really good day of hammering smallmouth, Noah and I became about as tired of catching them the way we had been as is possible. At a point it was no longer that engaging. It was also slowly becoming less effective. After spending a while just swimming, I started catching crayfish and got an idea. I threaded one on a jig to see just how effective they were at getting finicky fish. I suspected very. Last fall Noah, Jake, and I watched three fisherman using live crayfish catch more smallmouth than we realized were present in a creek we were fishing in Western PA. I wasn't quite sure it would work as well here, as I'd be fishing water we'd just been swimming in moments prior. I was mistaken.
The crayfish worked best threaded on the hook tail first, and drifted along the bottom as slowly as possible. The takes weren't particularly violent, but the fish I caught on live crayfish were all big. One was the largest bass I caught all day.
We didn't even fish much longer, but the proof is in the pudding. I'd never fished for bass with bait much even when I primarily fished spinning gear. Its pretty ironic that I now that I only own fly gear, I'm far more interested in fishing live bluegills or live crayfish than I ever was before.
Until next time,
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.
Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.
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