Crayfish and creature lures

[Anderoo]

The canal lure fishing this spring has been fantastic fun, Rich and I have been exploring different bits of water and seeing what we can trick into taking various bits of rubber and plastic. Small paddle tail rubber lures on small jig heads have done well, and on a good productive bit of canal we have had our first success with imitation crayfish. I've tried crayfish lures before at the Thames and lack of action soon turned into lack of confidence, and I gave up on them. Now, however, I'm looking forward to trying again.

 

It's a fascinating method, short casts (usually around structure), and a v-e-r-y slow retrieve, bumping the cray slowly acrosss the bottom. Bites are often pronounced but gentle, as the fish picks it up off the bottom. I imagine at greater range, watching the line might be a better way of looking for bites rather than feeling for them.

 

First it was perch I was catching, but over the weekend my first cray-caught zander came along. From the sublime...

 

 

 

 

...to the ridiculous

 

 

Can't wait to go again, it's so addictive, just like the deep-water reservoir zander and perch, the electric 'donk' as they hit the lure is like a drug you just can't quit. And after half an hour with no bites you convince yourself that you're the worst lure angler in the world, that you're doing everything wrong, and you'll never catch another fish ever again.

 

...and then. 'donk'

 

The hardest bit is the early starts to get as much fishing in as possible before the boats start moving. Bank holiday Monday we were getting up at 3.30am. That hurt!

 

...but them, 'donk'!

Edited May 27, 2015 by Anderoo

[philocalist]

Anderoo - you appear to be using crayfish lures that are a relatively 'natural' colour? I've lure-fished since Gods dog was a puppy and can remember when the only way I could get lures like this - pre-internet! - was by bribery / corruption / promises made to the occasional trans-Atlantic air hostess, who would carry a package back for me from the US.

You might be presently suprised at how effective a red version of the crayfish lure can be (I've never actually confirmed it, but ticking away at the back of my mind is the thought that at certain points throughout the year, primarily moulting (.i.e. for a few days when the new shells are soft and the crays very vulnerable to predation), they are quite red in colouration.

The other 'surprise' success colour for me, which I can't understand, are various shades of blue! They look like nothing at all the fish would encounter outside the vicinity of Sellafield, but they seem to hammer them, particularly in cooler water.

The only common denominater I found was that the cray lures REALLY benefit from being hopped along the bottom (surprisingly ), and paused between hops - you very often get pick-ups from bigger perch when the bait is actually static on the bottom, though this happens far more often with the latex lures than the hard ones - I'm guessing that the fish have been following the retrieve and then just 'inhale' the lure as it lands again?

 

Love that dinky zander by the way - would have been very sorely tempted to rehome that one to a freshwater aquarium I run at home

[Andy_1984]

Try em on a water with a large population of signals. Been seeing this popup over the net a bit recently. Should be good for the perch.

[Anderoo]

Andy yes, the Thames certainly fits that description!

 

Cheers Philo, interesting - blue crays eh, I will have to try that. So far I've caught on lime green, orange/brown, and brown/red. Any thoughts on the different sizes? When the perch are feeding well, they seem happy to wolf down pretty big baits.

[Rusty]

...we were getting up at 3.30am.....

I was getting quite enthusiastic until I read that bit.

[AddictedToScopex]

Hi Anderoo. It has been an awfully long time since I was on here due to starting a business etc etc but now I have more free time again as things aren't as manic and the dusty rods have come back out. While the rivers were closed I decided to head down to the canal after perch. I had a lot of success a few years back for big perch using soft shads on jogheads and tried them again this year. They have not disappointed and have caught both pike and perch on every outing. Confidence for me seems to be a big thing in lure choice when on the bank. I seem to have lost confidence in hard lures with the exception of tandem spinners for pike and small spinners for perch. I have found the more natural colours most productive and smaller shads have outfished larger ones even for pike.

 

I have actually just purchased some crayfish soft rubber lures to try and it is good to see you have had some success with them. I have been well and truly bitten by the lure angling bug again and can't wait to get out on the river when it reopens.

 

I am not sure we have any zander around these parts. I have never seen any anway. Would like to catch one at some point.

[philocalist]

Andy yes, the Thames certainly fits that description!

 

Cheers Philo, interesting - blue crays eh, I will have to try that. So far I've caught on lime green, orange/brown, and brown/red. Any thoughts on the different sizes? When the perch are feeding well, they seem happy to wolf down pretty big baits.

 

Sizes? I had a big perch take an 8" roach deadbait on the retrieve at the back end of last year whilst pike fishing, and I mean it was cleanly taken / engulfed, rather than just nibbling at the tail end With cray lures it depends whether I'm looking for bigger fish, or fishing for bites, the logic being that bigger baits will likely stop a lot of the small stuff, but I've never really favoured a particular size - sometimes it has more to do with what I need to cast, though I tend to stick mostly with sizes that I'd expect to encounter in the water ... and so far, we are mercifully free of signal crays up here.

[Phone]

All, Anderoo

 

Blue is the "best" color when water is a bit cloudy. Red is successful (a relative word, I don't ever use red) when the water is clear. There is science to support this. In the water, red is the first color to disappear and blue the last.

 

I use the soft ones with a slot in the underside and add all sorts of "stuff". Mostly fishmeal - the slot is made for Berkley's Gulp products (which are very effective) - thus the ones with slots are Berkley lures.

 

Phone

[Ken L]

Tried them years ago when Harris Angling stocked them. I never did catch anything on them but then as now, crays are as rare as hen's teeth around these parts.

[Anderoo]

There are no crays in the canal either as far as I know (we fished with deadbaits and didn't have any trouble) so I assume they just think of them as 'food'!

 

I tried a different canal last weekend and had a few more fish, only 1 on a cray lure that time but it picked the lure up off the bottom right under my feet in shallow water - very exciting