Rigging Craw Baits

[Johnny A]

I've been pitchin' and skippin' craws for several years. One of the problems I encountered was the position of the weight. I worked something out with light paper clip and a worm weight. I saw a couple of weights that were similiar but not exact.

[Johnny A]

Step 2.
I guess it's sort of a reverse T-rig. The hook point is coming through the head of the craw. The eye of they hook is in the back end.

[Johnny A]

Step 3.

This is out of sequence for illustrative purposes. You will see below.

[Johnny A]

Step 4.

Step 3 from above is to provide a target area/vicinity to place your hook. You are going to slide the hoop into the tail end of the craw. You will then slide the point of hook through the hoop and back through the craw.

[Johnny A]

Step 5.

Inserting the hook into the correctly placed clip.

[Johnny A]

Step 6.

The hook has slipped through the loop and skin rigged to complete the reverse T-rig. When the bass hits the craw, the weight is pushed up toward the eye of the hook and out of the way.
It's a pretty easy mod and I've found it works pretty well helping to skip craw baits. It also puts the craw into bit of a "Claws up" defensive mode.

[zodiak311]

Thanks for the write up and sharing the info.
I did have a question, have you ever lost a weight in the grass if the craw wears down after a while? I ask because those tungstens are expensive. Thx

[Bassmar]

I might be missing something here. Why would you want to fish your craws back to front?

[Johnny A]

I might be missing something here. Why would you want to fish your craws back to front?

2 reasons actually

1. The back end of the craw is more "skip dynamic". The claws have a tendency to bunch up or bundle on the skip and prevent the bait from go further under a dock or dead fall. That's where the larger fish hang. My presentation does that.

2. The first natural movement of the crawfish is scooting backward, tail first, away from danger. The second is to rise up, tail down, claws up. The method I've presented does both. It can trigger feeding behavior, causing a strike, violently.

[Johnny A]

It may appear intuitive but I forgot to show how to rig the paper clip into the weight. I'll be back with a pic presentation.


(edited, thought of correct word)

[Bassmar]

Ok I see now. Good thinking. One negative might be the loss of those expensive weights once the plastic of the lure gets mangled. What about slipping a piece of shrink wrap over the paper clip where the hook goes through. Or have you fished this and weight loss is not an issue?

[Johnny A]

Ok I see now. Good thinking. One negative might be the loss of those expensive weights once the plastic of the lure gets mangled. What about slipping a piece of shrink wrap over the paper clip where the hook goes through. Or have you fished this and weight loss is not an issue?

You shouldn't really lose too many weights. The clip would stay pinned by the fish or slide up the hook and line. Let me get those pics posted right now!

[Johnny A]

Here's how I do the weights:
Steps 1 - 5: I clean up Step 5 by clipping a bit at the top of the weight but not too much.

[Johnny A]

End Result:

[Johnny A]

There are a couple similar type weights on the market but not exact.