Dads on the Rocks

[Bonefish]

When it comes to live bait fishing for SM, most fishermen use shinners. For many reasons I do the same, but there is an alternative if you have the patience and take the time to learn the finer points of fishing with crawdads. When I started years ago to fish with dads, I tried to fish them dangling from the line off the bottom because if they touch the bottom, they would hang you up and the frustration starts. If you want to catch big bass in the spring time, pre or post spawn, the dad is a sure way to go. Dads eat the eggs of bass, so bass will find a way to rid the pest.

To fish the dad, it is best to fish the rocks. To fish the rocks means you will loose a number of hooks and dads in the course of the day. But if you can be patient, the rewards can be worth your while. First, use size 1 Octopus hook for larger dads and size 6 for small dads. You can pin a worm weight up on your line or even drop-shot the dad up on your line. Hook the dad through the spine on the nose by us a drilling motion. The dad will stay alive much longer and they can move around naturally. Do not hook them too far back because the brain set just behind the spine. I would suggest a flurocarbon leader because it is abrasion resistant and it is invisible.

Here's the rub most fishermen have trouble with...fishing the dad slow. Move the dad in small hops ane let it sit from 30 seconds to 3 or 4 minutes. After a hop, the dad may land on its back and the kicking motion attracts bass because they know the dad is having difficulty. You may hop the dad 5 to 8 times in one cast before casting again.

If you get hung, try doing nothing for a few minutes. Usually, the dad will unhang itself. Or, you can just lightly shake your rod tip and maybe reposition your boat. Again, you will loose a few setups in the process. Just be patient and prepared to retie and go on fishing. That's what a good fisherman does. If you get too many hangs, take a break, drink an RC and eat a moonpie, look at the scenery and maybe by then the dad has been sucked in by a good fish, and you will watch your rod as it being jerked out of the boat.

Sometimes you will catch more bass on smaller dads that the large ones. I feel it is best to leave the claws on the dads. Some fishermen like the female dads better because they have smaller claws and have thinner shells. If you can get soft dads, it is even better. The soft craw and the helgromite are like sweet candy to a SM bass. Before setting the hook, you should let the bass take the slack out of the your line. Again, I use circle hooks to prevent gut hooking. Use only dark black or brown hooks. Keep the dad as natural as possible. You can use 15-20 lb line, but use a 10-12 lb flurocarbon leader.

You can catch dads with a trap or you can put some chicken fat or bacon on a line and throw it out in a stream with a lot of dads and it will not be long before they will attach to the meat and you can just pull them in to shore. You may want to put down a minnow net to pull them up on so you can roll them into your bucket. By using meat-on-a-string, it does take as much time as an overnight trap.

[Tyme2fish]

My bad, thought the post was about Old Grandad's on the rocks.

[Bonefish]

Good one, Tyme.

[RoadToad]

Thanks, Bonefish. I've been to lots of places where dads were plentiful, and I'd always heard they were real good bait, but I never really knew how to fish one.

[DMurphy]

Great info; if you have a place to keep them from freezing (garage, shed, etc) and use them this time of year and into winter you will have great sucess too. One of my favorite things to fish with this time of year; the problem I have is getting the soft shell ones that your talking about.

[Bonefish]

Good point on keeping them for late fall fishing. The trick is to keep the water fresh to filter out the by-products of metabolism. I have a backyard fish pond and I can keep them an inclosure for future use. The water in the pond is recirculated every hour.

[birdstrike]

I've seen some in the green river that could give a lobster a run for it's $!

I've also gutted rainbow trout with bellies full of craw parts, so don't underestimate the usefulness of the "dad".

[HURRICANEBOB]

Tip of the month on storing crawdads:

DO NOT STORE THEM IN A SUMP PUMP TUB. TRU ST ME......I KNOW.

[wkerber]

Tip of the month on storing crawdads:

DO NOT STORE THEM IN A SUMP PUMP TUB. TRU ST ME......I KNOW.

Oh, come on! You have got to give us the details of that story!