I think that rage craws and trailers being more successful most of the times points to the fact that even when bass are hunting crawdads, their primary forage is still sunfish and minnows.  The pinchers of most craw trailers have a movement to them that is very much like the tail fin of a baitfish.  I think those tails mimic an injured or dying fish perfectly when dragged or hopped.  

For further anectodal evidence in this favor, I've never had success with more realistic craw baits either.

On 3/25/2023 at 10:31 PM, WRB said:

Ever use a weightless Senko?

Tom

I haven't touched them in years.

I haven't really noticed realism having an advantage.  Bass are curious and opportunistic feeders.  They seem to bite something they don't recognize pretty easily.  Maybe even more easily than something they do recognize.  I'm less concerned with throwing a bait that looks like prey than I am with throwing a bait that doesn't look like a bait they've seen before.  Hence why I really like to fish old lures that nobody uses anymore.  

On 3/26/2023 at 9:02 AM, BrianMDTX said:

It is an interesting theory. Even monkeys that were shown faces of a real monkey, a cartoon monkey and a 3-D CGI monkey displayed an indifference to the CGI face. A bass may be no monkey, but predators are pretty good at discerning prey. 

I would like to point out that in these studies, you're asking the animal to distinguish between members of its own species.  The monkey's brain, just like the human brain, is highly adapted to recognizing the slightest details of the faces of its own species.  It's part of the reason why faces are so hard to draw, yet something that's much more complex, like an aircraft carrier, isn't.  And it's why we can easily distinguish other people just by looking at their face, but aren't nearly as adept at recognizing individual monkeys by just looking at their face. 

 

You show me a page with 100 pictures of monkey faces and tell me that two of them are the same monkey and ask me to figure out which two, I'm going to struggle.  You show me a page with 1000 pictures of human faces and tell me that two of them are the same person, and I'm much more likely to choose correctly.  

 

So a bass is probably pretty good at recognizing other bass, and might be able to tell a fake bass from a real one pretty easily.  But that doesn't mean that skill will translate over to shiners and crawfish.  

Larew Salt Craws have always been the top producing craw for me . Wal-Mart use to sell a Renegade craw and smallmouths devoured those things.

Guido bug started it a while back, Now I have my best luck with a Baby Zoom Z Craw. The Champ Craw from Berkley works pretty good Nikko rigged . Depends on there mood 

I won't pretend to know to what extent a bass thinks, but I assume that they think if something is in the water with them whilst moving to any degree, and they calculate it can be swallowed, then it's probably food that deserves to be eaten.

9 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

I won't pretend to know to what extent a bass thinks, but I assume that they think if something is in the water with them whilst moving to any degree, and they calculate it can be swallowed, then it's probably food that deserves to be eaten.

 

Unless it's too sus.

 

Or they don't feel like it.

 

Or Venus is ascending in Gatorade, which puts them in a mood.

The Cover Scat and others loosely resemble a craw body with no legs or pincers and no action. and they work. The new Yamatanuki is in the same fold - looks like nothing known to human or fish. And then the TRD looks like a small nothing with little action and works. I'm not sure we will ever figure it out.

2 hours ago, galyonj said:

 

Unless it's too sus.

 

Or they don't feel like it.

 

Or Venus is ascending in Gatorade, which puts them in a mood.

Yeah, that too!

SM love hellgramites in the Susquehanna river, live ones that is. I have an absolute double in plastic and the bass won't touch it.