crawler harnesses

[bill from michigan]

I am trying to find different crawler harness color/style combo which work in various conditions. How about sending me a discription of your favorite...
Thanks
Bill

[Lund_Dude]

Have you tried the Hatchet blades from Lindy? I really think they are hot with a unique vibration.

[jigger]

My advice is to make your own; it's a lot of fun, it's cheap and there is a great deal of satisfaction in taking a fish on a harness of your own creation. You need monofilament line, about 17#test, quick change clevises, an assortment of beads in 4 and 5 mm sizes in chartreuse, orange red, yellow, green, silver and gold; you can buy enough for a lot of harnesses for less than 10 dollars. You should also buy #3 and 4 colorado blades in chartreuse, green, white,chart/orange, chart/green, silver, gold and copper both hammered and plain. You can tie up your harnesses about 5 feet long with each of the various color beads and a quick change clevis. Take your box of blades with you and you can match almost anything that's catching fish. In my waters chartreuse beads and blade are good as well as red beads, gold blade. Have fun. Jigger

[RANGER]

First off - my favorite: #4 Mustad baitholder hook tied on the 10# leader with a Palomar; 3 red 4mm beads; 1 pearl 4mm bead; quick change clevis (red); then another red bead and, finally, another pearl bead; 22" of leader and a loop of your choice at the end. I generally (almost always) use a plain silver 3 or 4mm Indiana blade. That's my favorite for nearly all fishing conditions - drifting, trolling, whatever!

If you want to get a good start with harnesses - Cabel's has a "Professional Spinner-Maker Kit" for $30. You'll get about 70 harnesses out of it. Fun to make and fish and it doesn't break the bank when you loose one.

RANGER

[walleye wisdom]

vibrant colors such as chartruse, orange and red for stained water. Silvers and other polished blades for clear water.

[larry g]

Dont even think about it!!! I decided to startmaking my own, bought the hooks three differnt sizes, three sizes of blades[used cabelas blade packages]got all kind of beads, and started out with berkley xt and then to fluro. Heres one wrinkle you may want to try, its pretty easy, and adds much to your rig. On your next bead to the hook, make a loop of mono, with the closed part toward the hooks, next add a few strands of living rubber, pull the mono tight, and the rubber will go into the bead, making it a stopper, and also a sort of living rubber skirt, dont ask what color, got all kinds of living rubber.This has turned intoa nightmare, where the heck do I store all these bueatifull creations.

[Wall-nut]

After having loaded up a couple of Plano 3700s with homemade harnesses of every discription, it became impossible to decide which to use and, worse, to determine any pattern, since I had so many different combinations of colors and sizes. Finally, I began using a couple of different rigs from Cabela's. I've found no real drop off in production and they have enough variety to meet all my own needs. Color seems to matter only slightly but flourescents and brass blades are my personal favorites. More important seems to be blade size to match speed. Start somewhere and develop confidence.

[RANGER]

Larryg,

I don't presume to know your storage system, but I would like to share my system with you and anyone else. Cabela's has a "Tackle Buddy" tube for storing harnesses (Pg. 76 in Spring Edition I). I only use the 2 1/2" X 8 1/2" tubes - less spool set/memory. I put 2 harnesses on each divider (gets you 18 harnesses on the spool instead of 9). After I fill the spools I carry them in a small, nylon gym bag with strap handles and zipper. In a package the size of a basketball I get 180 harnesses. Plus! Inside the tubes I carry TONS of blades to switch out at the drop of an 'eye.

RANGER

"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD"!!!