Has anyone tried the savage gear craw? Looks amazing to me.
  (You need to Login or Register

Picked some up last night along with several rigging options. I'm liking the Gene Larew hardheaded with it but I just ordered the stand up jig head that savage gear makes from tackle warehouse.

There is also a "slider" rig which I have high hopes for as the lure "slides" away from you up underneath objects such as docks. I intend to use it to get my presentation up underneath the mangroves for reds and snook, looks promising. I didn't understand how to rig the slider and had to go on utube to figure it out.......seems like it should be deadly if I can get a foot or two of slide.

Little doubt in my mind that it would take outsize smallies in the Q. We have been nailing nice smallies on Lake St Clair this past summer on live crawfish, it would of been interesting to see how these would of done side by side.

Different sizes, most bass are not so fond of big craw dads so stay a little smaller but my guess is bigger is better for mr snook.

Why do you keep doing this to me?

Kerry wrote on Oct 5^th, 2014 at 5:34pm:

Why do you keep doing this to me?

I bet they would take walleyes quite easily. Mostly stoked about the salt water application however. Come on down to Florida Kerry and tangle with some "real" fish (the kind that leave bruises ;D )

Man, wouldn't I love to.  But those craws look like they would be great for smallies, probably in the smaller sizes.

Come on down Kerry, all it takes is a plane ticket......and you have to be able to tie your own knots. 

The Savage gear stand up jig heads have arrived. Excellente! Primo, impressive etc. etc.

Black nickel premium hooks and a very unique design. I like 'em a lot. I also like that they have used a matte finish on the jig head which I have not seen before.

  (You need to Login or Register

scroll down to savage gears terminal offerings on the same page. check out the stealth spike (slider rig) which causes the bait to sink away from you.

Of course the jig heads would work with a variety of offerings. The head design is a bit different than most stand up designs I have seen. Most are just a flat bottom.........the savage gear design is actually slightly rounded but stands upright. I like the slight rounded attitude as you would be able to "rock" the bait back and forth without moving it much.

I think I need to go fishing.............I was complaining to my woman the other day about not being able to go much and she just rolled eyes.......... "Hey, how about a little sympathy here!"

I'm seeing some trouble on the horizon........Have you seen the savage gear herring swim bait? Or the savage gear 3D crab which won soft bait of the year? Or how about the savage gear shrimp?

Of course I will need to get a small dedicated tackle box to house these baits. The Herring and the craw would likely be killer in canoe country.

  (You need to Login or Register

They claim the lure has a slight rocking action which is not unusual for a swim bait. In the salt water I would be using a loop knot and 30/40 fluorocarbon but in fresh water I would advise a large fas snap clip. The lure is 6" and therefore the hook is likely to be of fairly thick wire (even being premium black nickel) and consequently would not tie to light line well. Heavier line tied directly to the lure will impede the side to side or rocking motion which is what makes swim baits work so well. This is definitely a big fish lure and if I were fishing mono I would go with minimum 10lb test tied to a large fas snap using a gryp knot tied with a tie fast tool. If I were using wire I would go KF's method with the Knot to Kinky 25 lb titanium wire and a small snap. Can't wait to give these a go..........Now I just have to wait for the next credit card billing cycle  ;D   

whoa.......couldn't wait and had to pull the trigger on the savage gear tackle. I was surprised at how much in demand the crab imitations are and several of my choices are either sold out or back ordered. Imitation blue crab > who knew? I have never fished crabs before but every fish you cut open seems to be full of the dang things so why not?

When I did my circumnavigation of Irregular lake in Woodland caribou I caught a decent pike of about 34" which I filleted (I don't mess with pike smaller than that) and lo and behold its stomach had nothing but crawfish in it. Everything eats them.....I bet lakers eat them to but I have never checked, I'll have to do that sometime.

Tackle warehouse, good outfit, free shipping even on the back ordered stuff. Now I have to do more than look at the stuff and actually make time to go!!! 1st week in December looks good so I will give the stuff a whirl and report back.

Wading through the savage gear stuff and am happy with some stuff and not so happy with other choices......I like bigger lures and I could of done without a few packs of 2" crabs although it will be interesting to see what eats them. I would of also preferred the biggest shrimp size as the 4" model seems a bit lighter than I envisioned.......clear water finesse lure up close in the mangroves but I bet smallies would absolutely tear this lure up (check out the shrimp vids on Utube > TPE savage gear shrimp > definitely has that kicking "I'm alive/eat me" action)

So back to get the right size shrimp and I stumbled across the line through trout savage gear makes. I am so out of the loop anymore........I don't get "In fishermen" or "Florida Sportsman" and I watch very few Fishing shows. I was never much impressed with segmented body baits especially the plastic ones but these have reached a level which is impressive indeed.

  (You need to Login or Register

Click on the vid presentation or check out the numerous Utube vids get an idea of what all the fuss is about.

It will be interesting to see how this bait stands up to pike. I fished the 8" Eel in WCP and it was awesome.......for about 3 instant fish and then the tail got bit off. So it lasted about 10 minutes and cost me $12.

This bait might be totally different with the lure sliding away from the hook and having an internal mesh skeleton of sorts. Supposedly they tested it out at 20lbs of pressure before failure.

Anyways, the dang thing looks impressive. I guess I will be slowly forced into picking up a few of those as well. Its starting to get ugly. Rumor has it I might get to test drive this stuff in December, wish me luck.

MT.... reading about Savage Gear ... now you got my fishing motor cranking up ... the gear looks promising

Wally13 wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2014 at 5:12pm:

MT.... reading about Savage Gear ... now you got my fishing motor cranking up ... the gear looks promising

Cool looking stuff right?......... Don't forget you can make all your Savage Gear purchases through a link at MT Enterprises and you can feel good doing it because all profits go into research on how these lures perform.

all good looking baits, ive taken my yearly vacation from fishing for the fall months as hunting is now in full swing. plus moving and a baby due in the next month.

im a big fan of inexpensive 'test' baits where you get a little bit of everything, even stuff i would never buy individually. so i like these

  (You need to Login or Register

they make a panfish, a bass, and a gamefish bucket. and they are on sale right now. for $10 you get more stuff than you can reasonably use and a sampling of all different kinds of things. there are no mom and pop shops anymore where you can get a couple baits cheaply. this is the best alternative ive found.

Ha! They pulled one over on you Jax........Those aren't lures but rather like Gummi Bears.......you sit and eat the whole bucket while watching Kansas City put a whippin on San Fran tonight. Tough for me to root against San Fran as they seem like a decent sort of club.........But I like Kansas City (swell town!) and besides, they haven't won it in a long time.

I couldn't wait any longer and broke from work to plop the Savage gear lures in the canal in front of my house. The swim baits are different than I thought. Most swim baits have a methodical cadence to them on the retrieve......not so with the savage gear baits. They tend to do some unexpected things. Not sure what to think yet.......I know I like what they do on a fall, definitely have that injured look.

The shrimp looks like the ultimate finesse bait. The TPE plastic is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Very tough stuff. I need to get the biggest size for salt water use but the 4" model should be a smallie killer deluxe.

The crab? Who knows? I'm thinking the thing is going to get hung a lot in the oysters. I was a bit surprised at how good it looked just free swimming.......a mini frisbee gliding through the water with claws and legs waggling along.... time will tell.

The crawfish is super impressive. I think the only thing it really lacks is a bit of noise. Sound carries very well in water and that armor plating craw daddies have must make some noise. Maybe some tiny BB's in a glass capsule inserted into the craw might give it the right noise (yes they make it).

I'm hoping this stuff pans out as throwing a 12 ft cast net or buying 100 shrimp is either hard on your body or hard on your wallet.   

Since we're talking about Craws I wanted to get your opinion, MT (or anyone else) on these from River2Sea.  They have 3 different options, all of which look pretty good based on the little videos that demonstrate their action.
First there is the Stand N Yabbie:
  (You need to Login or Register
Then the Super Yabbie, which is the same but rigged weedless:
  (You need to Login or Register
And finally the what appears to be the most sophisticated of all, the Dahlberg Clackin Crayfish:
  (You need to Login or Register
Have you used any of these or are you familiar with them?  Based on the accompanying videos, what do you think of the action.  I'd be interested in experience, feedback or impressions.

Larry Dahlberg is the man pure and simple. I have one of the Klackin Crawdads and it is still in the box over a year later. Occasionally I look at it with fondness.... picturing when sooner or later I will get to use the dern thing. Trouble is, I forget I have it and then move on to something new which captures my imagination ( er, that would be my wallet actually)........ still have the spin jig rigs which are still in the packaging. :P

Having said all that my advice is to get 3 of each and in various sizes.

> one thing to pay very close attention to is hooking ability, it isn't enough for them to eat it, will you hook them is the question. For example....this past summer I used the real image frog and fish blew up on the thing but no matter how long I let them eat it my hook up ratio was less than 50%. Enter in the Top Toad which is a very similar lure in style but that hookup ratio was closer to 80%.

What I like about the Savage gear stuff is premium wide gap nickel hooks which looks like they will stick fish most of the time. The only question that lingers in the back of mind is will a 20+ lb snook straighten the hook out while I'm trying to keep her from burying into the mangroves. Stop her or pop her is my motto for grouper and snook.

Let us know how those craws hold up to actual fish! They look great in the packaging. I just bought a few for next year's Quetico trip. I got the 5"ers thinking that I would like to catch some big fish!

Mapsguy1955 wrote on Nov 5^th, 2014 at 7:34pm:

Let us know how those craws hold up to actual fish! They look great in the packaging. I just bought a few for next year's Quetico trip. I got the 5"ers thinking that I would like to catch some big fish!

Maps guy I would be interested to see how you do with the large size dad for freshwater fish........I read an article once where they set up on a high bluff overlooking a curve in a river. Down below they could readily observe a small school of bass. They experimented throwing various sized crayfish to them and what I recall was the 2" size being the most readily accepted. They theorized that the bass were reluctant to mess with the bigger claws. I only 1/2 believe that but on the other hand I might have some 3" as backup.

Yes, I will hopefully get to try out the savage gear stuff the beginning of December. The TPE plastic will hold up to tons of fish but maybe not the crayfish. Did you get the stand up jig heads? Tackle warehouse......gotta have 'em.

FYI, FishUSA.com's regular price on the Savage Gear craw baits is 20% less than Tackle Warehouse and I imagine that when they have their Black Friday sale it will be 15 or 20% less than that.

Ha! My plumber is a young guy (about my age  :D ) who likes to fish. He won a guided salt water trip and he was describing a shrimp lure in a "nuclear chicken" color which slayed the fish.....pictures proved his claims.

I was thinking, nuclear chicken? hey that's one of the color Combos of the TPE savage gear shrimp. I described the lure and yup it was the ticket. Trying desperately to swing a few days. Nuclear chicken......that's funny. I already have 4 savage gear shrimp coming and thought the Nuclear chicken just a bit to gaudy......geez, what an amateur I am.

FYI: If anyone is interested in either the Savage Gear 3D Craws or the River2Sea Dahlberg Clackin Crayfish they are being offered with a Black Friday 20% off at:
  (You need to Login or Register