I have always wondered, why use a crawfish colored crankbait, if it is going to be swam through deep water?

i can see using them when the crankbait will be hammered into the bottom, but if you are swimming a crank through the water, over tree tops, or anywhere besides hitting bottom, why pick a crawfish color?

i know sometimes fish will eat anything that catches their eye, but why throw an unnatural lure, vs a shad or bluegill colored crank.

or is the crawfish crank only used when bottom contact is maintained?

I've often wondered the same thing. I'm convinced that a fish cannot see that much detail with a bait moving by quickly so to them it just looks brown or orange. Even if you're hitting bottom with it, crawfish don't wobble and when they move fast, it's backward not forward. I've caught fish on crawfish pattern rat-l-traps by just jigging them on the bottom. I don't think I've ever caught one on a crawfish pattern lipped bait but I will still throw those sometimes if they have bright orange on them and the water is really murky.

Bass feed on crawfish year round, the crawfish is prob in my op one of the bass favorite foods.

Bass feed on crawfish year round, the crawfish is prob in my op one of the bass favorite foods.

That's true but the OP's point, and he is correct, is that crawfish pattern cranks don't resemble a crawfish at all besides the paint scheme.

yeah but they will produce fish no matter where in the water column ive caught 5 pounders in 15 foot of water using a crawfish colored square bill idk why they hit it but they do i think like said earlyer they dont see that detail they just see it and eat it

I've always wondered the same thing since they swim nothing like an actual crayfish. That being said I've had good success with the Rebel crayfish shaped cranks.

They just work, even though in open water they don't act like crayfish. In clearer waters, natural craw colors are awesome, and red hot or chatreuse craws in stained water.

I think you may be giving the bass too much credit. I doubt when your crankbait goes swimming by high in the water colum the bass stops and thinks "hmm, I wonder what a crawdad is doing swimming that high off the bottom?" It's probably just a instinct that they see the bait as a crawdad like they've eaten before and now there's another one that can't use it's defenses very well so it would be an easy meal. For all they know a bird may have picked up up by the shoreline and it fought free and now it's descending back to the bottom from it's splash landing.

Ha...Blubasser you make a very good point. I probablly like to think my prey is smarter than they really are so I can view myself better than I really am.

But why do most Craw cranks have the Craw swimming forward...?

Im with Blubasser. I've often swam my crawfish crank baits in deep water and had trailers when coming into the shallow parts, then I twitch them and do a slow slow fast pattern and that usually results in an instinct strike. And airborne, most have them swimming forward, but there are some out there painted backwards with the eyes in the back. U just have to look for them.

That's true but the OP's point, and he is correct, is that crawfish pattern cranks don't resemble a crawfish at all besides the paint scheme.

Depends, if your bouncing it off the bottom that's as close as your gonna get mimicking a crawdad. I have had better success with the bright red crawdad rat-l-trap.

Bass are ambush predators; therefore, they find nifty little hiding spots where they can pop out and grab a quick meal. A lot of times your crankbait just pops out in front of their ambush spot, and they grab it. Power fishing doesn't give the bass a lot of time to observe your lure. Regardless of whether or not your crankbait has a crawfish or shad pattern painted on it, sometimes the bass just react and bite it.

A crawfish colored crankbait works almost year round in the Atchafalaya Basin.

I do not know why they work, just that they do. I rejoice in it.

I dont know either, But on caney lake in Chatham La. bandits red craw is a killer. Ive done well on Rat L Traps craw colored also.