Deleted.

[J-Doc]

7 hours ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

Though it didn't get anywhere near the press coverage here on OAF as the Ned did, this craw, that was actually designed and manufactured by our own Mitch, hands down works better than any craw on the market today!

He has made an exact replication of crawdad. I highly recommend you trying it!

 

Is it like the 3D scanned craw that Savage gear makes?  There's is hollow bodied and supposed to help "float" the bait.  Only you have to pierce the body to get a hook in it......which defeats the purpose of the air pocket.

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_3D_Craw/descpage-SG3DC.html

[Chief Grey Bear]

1 hour ago, J-Doc said:

Is it like the 3D scanned craw that Savage gear makes?  There's is hollow bodied and supposed to help "float" the bait.  Only you have to pierce the body to get a hook in it......which defeats the purpose of the air pocket.

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_3D_Craw/descpage-SG3DC.html

No. 

Better. 

There was some video floating around that he made. 

There is also some discussion about it somewhere on here.

[Mitch f]

3 hours ago, J-Doc said:

Is it like the 3D scanned craw that Savage gear makes?  There's is hollow bodied and supposed to help "float" the bait.  Only you have to pierce the body to get a hook in it......which defeats the purpose of the air pocket.

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_3D_Craw/descpage-SG3DC.html

My actual business is laser scanning. With a laser scan you can do two things, create a model exactly like the original scan, or, you can use the original scan and "improve" the scan. In other words, make things flat, parallel, perpendicular, symmetrical, constant radius, etc. Our customer usually wants us to improve the raw scan data. I think this was done to the Savage craw, and in a pretty big way....which for production purposes, is not all bad.

My craw is nearly all original scan from a real craw. The unintended consequence of doing it this way made the movement of the claws much better....the downside is the claw arms are fragile for reasons you could figure out. But I've experimented with a ton of plastic variations and have finally got it durable while still maintaining the movement in the claws. But it's definitely not a high production process. So, it would be tough for me to get samples to all you guys quickly, 

[MOsmallies]

3 hours ago, J-Doc said:

Is it like the 3D scanned craw that Savage gear makes?  There's is hollow bodied and supposed to help "float" the bait.  Only you have to pierce the body to get a hook in it......which defeats the purpose of the air pocket.

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_3D_Craw/descpage-SG3DC.html

Here's a few threads that show pics of Mitch's Craw... I know how much research and time Mitch has put into perfecting this craw. It's legit. If you see his next to the savage craw, there's no comparison in my opinion. The profile on the savage craw is too thin and their color selection is awful for the Ozarks...

http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/51019-friends-in-the-right-places/

http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/46829-winter-smallie-fishing-take-2-tactics-techniques-and-tackle-january-20-2015/

http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/41115-big-bass-bash-today-and-tomorrow/?page=1

http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/50944-fun-float-turned-into-a-great-fishing-trip/#comment-414124

 

[J-Doc]

I see.  That sounds interesting.  Nice work Mitch. 

[Al Agnew]

I went out to our land on the Meramec yesterday...I'd left a couple of my old canoes there, along with paddles and life jackets, because one can put in at one end of the land (down a steep 20 foot slope), float around a bend for 2.5 miles, and end up on the other side of our property (and have to carry the canoe up a steep bank).  It's thus easy to drive out without pulling a boat and fish for a few hours.  I wanted to fish during the middle of the day and then bowhunt in the last couple hours before dark.

Although the water temp was nearly 60 degrees, I decided to spend a lot of time fishing Mitch's craw.  As I said before, since I so seldom fish slow stuff in warm weather, I hadn't really fished the craw extensively.  I also had a jig and trailer tied on another rig, and interchanged fishing the two.  

I never got a bite on the jig.  I caught 25 smallmouth on Mitch's craw.  None were big, but they were eating it like they REALLY wanted it.  I also caught some on topwater, jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits, since I didn't want to fish the craw in some of the shallower flats and a lot of fish were right up against the banks in those places.  But the difference between the craw and the jig I was using as a "control" was striking (no pun intended).

There have been a lot of supposedly super-realistic soft plastic crawdads produced by different companies over the years, none of which have worked well for one reason or another.  This is NOT one of those.  It flat out works.  Take the time to watch it in shallow water as you work it with the rod tip, and you can make it move exactly like the real thing...and it LOOKS exactly like the real thing.  You can make it crawl backwards like crawdads do when exposed and nervous but not really fleeing, or swim backwards as they do when they know they are in danger.  The pincers wave very realistically, but otherwise this is a "less is more" bait, without the exaggerated movement of so many lures.

Also, it's pretty durable.  I only used up two of them catching those 25 fish; the first one caught 20 before finally tearing, and it was seriously chewed up by then.

I have to admit, when Mitch first talked to me about his idea, I was probably a bit skeptical...simply because I'd seen too many ineffective "real" crawfish imitations over the years.  But when I watched him catching fish on it, I realized there was something to it that those others never had.  Now I'm totally on board--it's a terrific bait.  And after yesterday, I may have enough confidence in it to actually (horrors) fish such a slow-moving bottom lure year-round.

[Al Agnew]

I think it was a quarter ounce tungsten football head with a screw lock, on the smaller version of your craw.  I don't think that's the optimum set-up, since the way to rig those weedless leaves the bend of the hook on the underside of the craw, perhaps making it lean to one side while lying on the bottom.  The jig head you make and that I use for hair jigs, with shaft of hook buried and point sticking out protected by the wire weedguard might work better.  But I like the tungsten head since it is smaller for the same amount of weight than lead. 

[ColdWaterFshr]

Paul Dallas would like samples to test to see if bona fide.  Please contact my agent and make the arrangements, Mitch.  Paul Dallas product endorsement on late night Japanese TV fishing shows could pay off handsomely, just saying.

Colors wanted:  root-beer metal flake with Vodka habanero impregnated scent or the usual watermelon pumpkinseed, motor-oil, electric blue, taffy-apple ju-ju.  Or whatever you got.

PD

 

[Mitch f]

2 hours ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Paul Dallas would like samples to test to see if bona fide.  Please contact my agent and make the arrangements, Mitch.  Paul Dallas product endorsement on late night Japanese TV fishing shows could pay off handsomely, just saying.

Colors wanted:  root-beer metal flake with Vodka habanero impregnated scent or the usual watermelon pumpkinseed, motor-oil, electric blue, taffy-apple ju-ju.  Or whatever you got.

PD

 

Duly noted

FWIW, my supply of responsibly sourced Habaneros has now pretty much come to a screeching halt. Your friend and compatriot Alhondro De Lucia informed me that recent floods and civil unrest have all but cut off Habanero trafficking in southern Chile. He said it's not like the old days when you two were running guns to the rebels. You might have to settle for Chompers garlic scent!?

ps. Alhondro sends you his best!

[Mitch f]

4 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

I think it was a quarter ounce tungsten football head with a screw lock, on the smaller version of your craw.  I don't think that's the optimum set-up, since the way to rig those weedless leaves the bend of the hook on the underside of the craw, perhaps making it lean to one side while lying on the bottom.  The jig head you make and that I use for hair jigs, with shaft of hook buried and point sticking out protected by the wire weedguard might work better.  But I like the tungsten head since it is smaller for the same amount of weight than lead. 

I heard they make tungsten powder for lead pouring jig heads with hooks in the mold. It's mixed together with lead I guess. Thank you for the endorsement, it means a lot.