Year after year bass fishing tackle manufacturers roll out hundreds of new baits that are guaranteed to catch more and bigger bass than all that have preceded them. Out of all of these baits one or two become stars and kick off so much buzz and hype that they are almost impossible to find in the tackle shops as bored fisherman trapped indoors waiting for the spring thaw buy them up lick crack.

Last year it was the chatterbait that people couldn’t get enough of and in some cases people scalped these baits to the highest bidder who of course happily paid. On the other hand you will find baits like th Basstrix paddletail tubes that have been around for several years but kept secret by the small click of West coast anglers who not only knew how to fish them, but also knew just how deadly they were.

Some of these baits tick around for a long time and some just flash in the pan, but every so often a bait comes along that is truly new. Something that is truly different and will change the way we fish. In the late 50’s and early 60’s a bait like that exploded onto the scene and had a profound effect on how, where, and when we fish. That bait was the spinnerbait (non-inline). It happened again in the late 60’s when a new way of rigging a plastic worm (itself a fairly new bait) called the Texas rig hit, and again with the buzzbait,  the deep-diving crankbait, the swimbait, the brush hog, the Senko, the Trixie Beaver, etc.

Of all of these baits only one had the versatility to do it all - the creature bait. A creature bait is simply a large soft plastic lure with so many appendages that it looks like everything and nothing at the same time. The most popular style is the brush hog style bait which features a long solid trunk with two fin like arms, two claw flaps and two large ribbon tails laid side-by-side. It could be a crawdad, it could be a fish, or it could be a water dog.

 It has the ability to swim with its tails while the rest of the appendages fold up against the trunk making it slim and streamline. A great bait to swim through brush but when it hits something or stops moving…boom! The curl tails stop kicking which leaves them looking like twin antennae, and out flop its appendages like a defensive crawdad. It looks twice as big as when it’s moving.

It can be fished like a Senko by rigging it Texas style with no weight allowing you to pitch to docks or weed lines and let if fall on a slack line giving you that great horizontal appeal, but unlike the Senko you can start swimming it at any time during the baits fall.

It can be fished like a sipinnerbait or shallow crank by rigging it with a pegged bullet sinker and then casting past your target and slowly cranking it in with your rod tip down all the while controlling your speed and depth better than you can with a spinnerbait, and unlike a spinnerbait you always have the option to kill it at anytime – even in brush. So you can fish it like a jig or Texas worm. Both Kevin Van Dam and Davey Hite won Bassmaster Classics using this exact technique.

Big bass fisherman routinely use this bait as a trailer on a big flipping jig by removing one inch from the head and threading the bait on the jig hook. With a heavy bullet pegged to the bait you can take advantage of its ability to get streamlined and flip mats with it or you could rig it weightless and retrieve it on the surface with a steady pace and an elevated rod tip making the bait both buzz and wake. Again this is a great time to do what buzzers and wakers can’t do which is kill it and let it sink into cover during any point on your retrieve.

One of my favorite ways to use this bait is on a jumbo Carolina rig or better yet with a brass bullet sliding free on the line with a glass bead as this bait clicks and pushes a lot of water during early Spring muddy water fishing.

The Creature Bait is truly one of the most versatile baits ever made.