Craw imitations are a great bait from early spring to late fall traditionally but can be a useful tool all year long. Today’s review is an in-depth look at the Missile Baits Missile Craw. No, this isn’t a brand new bait but it is one that we hadn’t fished until this season.
We reviewed the Missile Baits Warlock Head and this little piece of soft plastic wonder is one that goes with that shakey head like peanut butter with jelly.
How big is it?
Size wise, the Missile Craw is 4 inches in length and looks like a cross between a tube and a craw. Its bulbous center has small ribs. The tail is solid plastic so that no matter your rigging method, you have plenty of material to keep it pinned in place. There is a hollowed out groove on the underside that makes hook sets a breeze as there is less plastic to go through and the pincers or claws move freely while not being nearly as fragile as you might think on initial inspection.
While the length is a measured 4 inches, this bait in hand is smaller than you might think. Its appearance is clean, simple and elegant. No extra appendages, legs, flappers or other digits hanging off of it to interfere with your presentation.
We mentioned the Warlock Head because that was the first way we decided to rig this bait. On the shakey head the Missile Craw has a clean, natural appearance that doesn’t set off any red flags to nearby bass.
When we started using the Missile Craw
We found that during pre-spawn, even with fish that we could see, this little bait didn’t alarm them when it was in their kitchen. On the contrary, the amount of strikes that we got as we were sight fishing was off the charts compared to some other soft plastics that we were using.
During the spawn, even in heavily pressured waters, the bass were seldom freaked by this bait coming into their territory. Furthermore, when a buck would spook, generally speaking, they would come back to their nests quicker when using the Missile Craw than many other plastics.
Consequently, their aversion to getting this bait out of their nests was far lower than with several competitive offerings. Bottom line, more fish hit this bait under similar circumstances than we would have expected.
Maybe it’s the Missile Craw’s subtle simplicity in conjunction with its action as well as its lack of negative cues that really gets ‘em hacked off! Whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter all that much to us. The reality is that this little craw imitation flat out catches fish.
More rigging options
Don’t just relegate the Missile Craw to a life of riding a shakey head. It is equally effective as a slimmer flippin’ presentation particularly in clear water.
Our choice here was using a 3/0 straight shank hook with a 1/2 ounce pegged tungsten sinker. We were flippin’ cattails, stick-ups and some lay downs. The Missile Craw goes through vegetation very well ‘cause it doesn’t have any extra “appendages†hanging off its sides. It makes for an excellent vertical presentation in cover and maintains its natural appearance as you’re working it.
Most of our strikes occurred on the initial fall followed closely by bites on the fall following the first time we lifted our bait off the bottom. As a side note, very few of these bites were difficult to detect. They were pretty good thumps that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a strike.
We started playing with the Missile Craw with progressively lighter weights just to see if we could coax any unexpected action out of the bait and were pleasantly surprised to find that with a 1/16 ounce sinker, this makes a great little grass bait. It slips through weeds well and settles enticingly to the bottom. Yeah, just like a real craw trying to remain inconspicuous.
When you get this presentation down, which takes almost no time, you’ll be rewarded by finding fish you didn’t know were there. How? ‘Cause they will hit the Missile Craw with a vengeance as its slithering through the weeds.
Although it’s advertised that this bait is good for Carolina riggin’ or drop-shotting, we haven’t used it for those methods yet. We’ve been havin’ too much fun rigging it the way we’ve talked about thus far.
One last trick
Here’s one more presentation that we kinda stumbled on that has been a blast as we are now in the throes of summer.
The outward appearance of the Missile Craw may be one of a finesse bait, so we’ve been using it weightless on a 3/0 EWG or light wire hook. Just throw it where you would any of your favorite top-water baits, allow it to sink a few seconds and begin retrieving it as you would a jerk bait.
This lure will dart and glide through the water with a unique action that combined with its shape are something that bass just haven’t seen before. The result is bites! Really good ones to boot with the final outcome being more fish on your thumb.
The Missile Baits Missile Craw will run you about $4 for a pack of 8. In our opinion, the color selection is good although we would love to see a red that comes close to a California crawfish. These baits are surprisingly durable, easy to fish, very versatile and downright fun to use.
On the MVF rating scale, the Missile Baits Missile Craw earns 4.25 stars.
See ya’ on the water …
