Entry 58-4

Chad Brauer's Favorite Lures

The Strike King 3X Craw

Editor's Note: Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Missouri, son of fishing pro Denny Brauer, has grown up in a fishing family and has fished professionally for more than six years. Brauer has made a name for himself on the professional bass-fishing circuit, finishing in the top-10 in many tournaments, and has competed in the BASS Masters Classic.

Question: What's another of your favorite baits?

Brauer: The Strike King 3X Craw is traditionally and has been one of my favorite baits for flipping and pitching a traditional soft-plastic crawfish. I've used it in two applications -- in a Texas rig and as a jig trailer. I've fished it these ways since the beginning of Chad Brauer's fishing. Dad taught me this tactic a long time ago. For the greater part of my career, the jig with a soft-plastic crawdad behind it, Texas-rigged, has been my number-one flipping and pitching baits, and still are for most of the year.

This bait has the same advantages as the 3X Lizard and the 3X Ribbon Tail Worm. I feel the 3X Craw's most-important use is as a jig trailer. For most of the year, we use soft-plastic jig trailers. The biggest problem we always face is how quickly they wear out because you fish them in such heavy cover. Very rarely do you catch more than two fish without having to swap jig trailers. Jig trailers for me are more excessive than sliding a crawdad on the back of your jig.

I like to trim jig trailers back and go through a certain process before I'm on the water. I'll have a box sitting there so I can grab a jig trailer, slide it on and go. Basically I take a 4-inch crawdad out the package. All 3X craws come with a part shaped like a worm, and somewhere about halfway down, it turns into a crawdad. I totally trim away the worm part of it so it looks like a 1-inch crawdad body with pincers and antennas. I don't like the length to be behind a jig. I like either short antennas or no antennas. The 3X Craw has real short antennas, so I don't have to mess with those.

On the Pro-Model jig. I'll find the middle and slide it down through the 3X Craw, pull it out and slide the 3X Craw out in-between the rattle and the hook shank. The Pro-Model jig has a little spur that will keep it there and not allow it to slide down. In some situations, I like a little-longer-profile bait than a Bitsy Bug jig and will rig it similar to a pork frog behind the jig. I'll slide the 3X Craw right through on the hook and let it rest on the bend of the hook. I do this on a Bitsy Bug because it doesn't have a rattle to hold it up, it tends to slide down quite often, and it gives a little bit more action when rigged this way. The traditional soft-plastic crawdad will wear out quickly just by working the bait, and you simply can't fish them like this. When a 3X Craw is rigged in this fashion behind a jig, it has a bit more action behind the jig than when you slide it all the way up the shank of the hook. I think that will be a huge advantage in jig fishing.

For more information, you can contact Chad Brauer by e-mailing him at: chad@lakeozaaark.com or visiting his website at www.brauerbass.com.
 

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