Setting the hook into yet another Allegheny River smallmouth, I couldn’t help but think about the diversity of a
YUM Craw Papi – and about its effectiveness. I was fishing a 2.75-inch Craw Papi on a 5/16-ounce
BOOYAH Bed Bug jig, and the combination seemed perfect for hopping among the Allegheny’s boulders.
Only a month earlier I’d found similar success with a 3.75-inch Craw Papi on the upper Mississippi River in Minnesota. However, the fish were slightly off the bottom and they seemed to favor a freer motion. A short drop-shot rig suspended the bait just off the bottom and allowed its pinchers to spring to life in the current. I’d tested the rig on a whim early in the trip, and three days later had never found reason to change – beyond the fact that I was running out of Craw Papis!
It’s little surprise that the YUM Craw Papi has emerged as one of the hottest soft-plastic baits on the market. A hollow head creates buoyancy at that end, causing a Craw Papi to posture itself naturally in the water column, and the pinchers are designed to spring to life with any forward motion or when pushed by current. Meanwhile a short worm-like tail section facilitates easy rigging, whether as a jig trailer, on a plain jighead, or rigged one of many other ways.
Alabama bass pro Tim Horton chose a ½-ounce Brown BOOYAH Football Jig Head to match with his Green Pumpkin 4.5-inch Craw Papi when he ran away with the BASS Elite Series tournament on Lake Champlain this summer. The ½-ounce Football Jig was ideal for allowing Horton to feel the rocks and control the bait. He was crawling the craw-imitating offering right along the bottom in approximately 6 feet of water, occasionally hopping it up from the rocks.
"Those fish were feeding on crawfish," Horton explained. "A lot of crawfish have both brown and green in their coloration, and that combination looks very natural in the water. I really like the way the pinchers move on the Craw Papi."
Beyond all the jighead possibilities, one of the best ways to fish a Craw Papi in many rivers and lakes through much of the country is with a traditional Texas rig. With the hook point buried in the bait’s body, it can be worked in and around weedbeds, where crawfish often abound, down riprap banks, through tangled laydowns and around other fish-holding cover. Again the claw motion and natural appearance are critical for triggering strikes.
Of course, Craw Papi catches aren’t limited to black bass. Brown trout find them irresistible (especially when you stuff a little YUM TroutKrilla into hole at the end of the hollow head!) as do rock bass, walleyes and a host of other game fish.
Whether a Craw Papi would be a good option is very rarely a question for me. Instead, the questions that arise are which color and size of Craw Papi to use and how to best rig the bait for the waters I’m fishing and the conditions that exist!