Soft plastic crayfish (or crawfish) work very well for largemouth bass. Many anglers fish these baits as trailers on a bass jig, but you can also fish them with a variety of other rigs such as a Texas rig, Florida rig, Drop shot rig, a swimbait hook and many others. This is a great bait for flippin’ and pitchin’ around shallow water cover or along rocky bottoms. Largemouth bass love crayfish so you can’t really go wrong by choosing to use a soft plastic crayfish.
Popular Techniques
Flipping & Pitching Around Cover
Flipping and pitching around cover is probably the most popular way to fish a bass jig. You can get these jigs in and around all types of wood and vegetation where largemouth bass love to hide.
Hopping Along the Bottom
You can hop these baits along all types of bottoms since the bass jig has a very thick weed guard that prevents you from getting hung up when fishing around rocks, wood and scattered vegetation.
Dragging Along the Bottom
Some anglers just drag these baits along the bottom slowly as they feel the bottom contour for all types of wood and rocks. This technique helps you find some of the cover along the bottom and works for catching bass as well.
Bass Jig & Crayfish
A bass jig and a crayfish bait is one of the best ways to fish a bass jig. Finding the right combination is key. On some days, they want a bigger crayfish and on others, a smaller more finesse crayfish is the better trailer.
See Them Under Water
Bass Jig & Crayfish
A bass jig and a crayfish bait is one of the best ways to fish a bass jig. Finding the right combination is key. On some days, they want a bigger crayfish and on others, a smaller more finesse crayfish is the better trailer.
Carolina Rig
Drop Shot Rig
Florida / Texas Rig
Jighead
Standup Jighead
The standup jighead is another great rig for fishing with crayfish baits. By rigging it weedless, you can fish it around all types of cover just like the Texas rig and the shaky head jig allows you to keep the legs of the bait up off the bottom when you pause the bait. It’s very appealing and helps draw a lot of strikes.
Swimbait Hook
A swimbait hook works great with crayfish baits. Fish it similar to how you would a texas rig and you’ll catch plenty of bass. Most anglers think of swimbait hooks as the preferred rig to use for swimbaits. While some crayfish actually do look good with a swimming motion, it’s not the recommended way to fish them to consistently catch quality bass. Fish them slow around all types of cover and try experimenting with a more violent jerk then a 5 to 10 second pause. The swimbait hook gives the bait a gliding action down to the bottom. This helps with reaction strikes and a lot of bass that don’t hit it on the fall will hit it after it falls to the bottom and stays there.
How To Rig Crayfish Baits
Bass Jig
Crayfish are one of the most popular trailers for fishing a bass jig. When targeting largemouth bass, you don’t usually have to go with real big trailers either to entice nice bass. The smaller 3 to 4″ crayfish baits are great trailers for catching lots of quality bass.
Carolina Rig
When using the Carolina rig, you can literally pair that up with many of the other popular rigs. Many anglers will use the weightless Texas rig and a Carolina rig, however, a jighead, standup jighead and several other rigs with also work with a Carolina rig.
Nose Hook
When using the drop shot rig, it is popular to just nose hook these crayfish baits with a smaller hook. You can create better action by nose hooking the baits and downsizing to a smaller hook than you will see with the other rigs.
Jighead (Smaller Jighead)
The smaller jigheads are great for the smaller crayfish baits. When largemouth bass are up in the shallows, the smaller profile jighead can sometimes get you some bites over the heavier jigheads.
Jighead (Longer Shank)
A longer shank jighead is key for getting better hook sets while fishing with a jighead. The smaller jigheads work fine with the smaller crayfish baits, but if you can fit a longer shank jighead onto your crayfish bait, it will usually work better than the smaller jigheads.
Texas Rig
The bigger crayfish baits work well on a Texas rig. Add the appropriate weight or fish them weightless in the shallows.
Standup Jighead (Corkscrew)
The bigger crayfish baits work great on the standup jigheads with the corkscrew.
Standup Jighead (No Corkscrew)
For some of the smaller crayfish baits, you can use a standup jighead like you see below. With this setup, you don’t have to screw anything into the bait, which will allow these smaller baits to last longer before getting torn up.
Swimbait Hook
The bigger crayfish baits work great on a swimbait hook.
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