In the various histories that we have penned about Midwest finesse fishing, we have occasionally noted that crayfish played an important role in how and where we fished – especially in the Ozark region of Missouri. And during those early years of Midwest finesse fishing, we used live crayfish.
Our usage of live crayfish changed when Dion Hibdon of Versailles, Missouri, created the first soft-plastic crayfish for his school science project in 1977. Then for years on end, the Hibdon clan made and wielded various manifestations of Dion’s creation. They called it The Guido Bug in honor of Dion’s father, Guido Hibdon, who used it to catch untold numbers of black bass at various waterways across the nation.
Nowadays, there is a multitude of soft-plastic crayfish for power and finesse anglers to wield, and Tightlines UV Lure Company of Maryville, Missouri, has created a three-inch one that has caught the attention of a goodly number of Midwest finesse devotees.
It is called the Whisker T-Crawfish. And according to Brett Ware, who is the proprietor of Tightlines, it will be introduced to the angling world sometime this spring as part of their line of new products.
The Tightlines’ creation is anatomically detailed. The dorsal view of its thorax, carapace, cervical groove, and rostrum are quite realistic.
Beneath each side of the rostrum is an eye. Extending from the rostrum are two long antennae, but there is no antennule.
A pair of chelipeds or claws radiates from the side and belly of its thorax.
Its mouth is behind and under the antennae and in front of the two legs that support the chelipeds or claws. Its mouth leads into a hollow cavity in the center of its torso. This cavity is about an inch long, and an angler can insert a container of rattles into it.
Instead of possessing four jointed walking legs, which also include gills, that radiate from the belly of a crayfish’s thorax, Tightlines’ T-Crawfish has 23 thin strands of silicone that radiate from each side of the thorax and behind…
