Crawler harness question

[wakina]

I think you will find that most will run a single blade unless they are running the willow leaf blades. In Colorado blades for trolling, sizes 5 & 6 work well and most will be running one of those sizes when using that style blade , in the hatchet or tomahawk blades size 6 seems to be the mainstay for those designed blades among Erie trollers with the size 7 occasionally. Drift and casters use smaller blades more often than not but that is all that I can add, even though I love to drift and cast and is my favorite way to fish, I do not fish that way anymore due to shoulder problems. Maybe someone will chime in as there are members here who are licensed Charter Captains that run exclusive drift and cast charter trips.

As for me when I run Colorados which is only about 5% of the time I run size 6 most often and use the size 5 only if the color that I want is not available or not on hand in size 6. I run the Hatchet blades 95% of the time and most often in size 6 with the size 7 added now and then just to mix it up a little. I use the Doc Shelton design hatchet blades and the even numbered blades spin in the opposite direction of the odd numbered blades. they are stamped with the curve in opposite directions which makes them spin in opposite directions.

[onestout]

Lots of good info, thanks. Last year I was trying to keep it in the 1.2-1.4 speed range and it worked out well for us. With my boat though I have to go with the wind, does me no good to try and fight, that just seems to make more work of it and risk tangling lines (my boat is like a kite on the water, large profile and light). We averaged 4-8 fish per hour last year and with your tips I hope to be able to fine tune things to try and pick a few up during the slow times, man is it tough when the water is flat out there. I'm going to try some willows and some hatchet blades as well. I also saw someone that instead of beads used colored pipe cleaners wrapped around a cocktail straw for a colored spacer, I need to get to the craft store and try to make a few. Thanks again, a lot of good info.

Michael

[ebijack]

This is one of my old versions using #30 test cable. Could not find other photos. I also use arms length leaders. Even my spoon harnesses, got tired of the wires/cable getting bent. So I switched back to using mono.

[BILLY JOE]

for casting try white beads with white blade with just a couple gold beads mixed in single hook works well for me most days