How many times have past Bassmaster Classics been won on a "prototype" bait? Answer: many. Usually, though not always, the scenario was that the winning pro came up with a bait on his own, then one of his sponsors quickly made a production version of it to capitalize on the win.
Well, times have changed. Tackle companies have traditionally coordinated new bait announcements with the buying (by retailers) and fishing (spring) seasons. But a few companies are recognizing that since anglers fish all year long and their needs change all year long, and since big tournaments now happen almost all year long, it might be better to introduce baits more often.
Last year, Berkley really broke the mold by announcing three new baits
right before the Classic, ones that their anglers would use in that event. At the time, Berkley's Eric Naig said: "We wanted to be sure that we were giving the pros on our team who are fishing the Classic everything they need to compete. We said, 'Okay, what lures do you guys need to win? What shapes and colors do you want?'"
Months of trial and error resulted in the Larry Nixon-influenced Gulp! and PowerBait Shaky Worm, the Mike Iaconelli-influenced Gulp! Nuclear Nellie, and the Gary Klein-influenced Gulp! Punch Craw.
The baits were designed for that tournament, but were made available to the general public and would of course work far beyond just Toho/Kissimmee chain.
This year Berkley did it again, as did at least one other manufacturer. This time Berkley released four baits before the Lay Lake Classic: the PowerBait Chigger Craw (of course), the PowerBait Fat Dover Crawler, the PowerBait Wacky Crawler and the Gulp! Slim Shaky Worm.
Obviously it worked: Boyd Duckett and Skeet Reese used the Chigger Craw, which means that bait is sure to be one of the best-selling lures of the year. In that light, here's the story behind it.
How it Started
Mark Sexton's official title at Berkley is "product analyst," but it might as well be "bait creator and tester." In other words, he has a fun job: He creates baits, he works with pros on developing baits and he tests baits, meaning he gets paid to go fishing a lot.
Mark Sexton at work. Tough job, but someone's gotta do it.
Berkley has a huge bait creation and testing lab, and sometimes you can even find guys with Ph.D.s in there, wearing white coats. But even though Sexton knows a ton about baits and bait science, he's otherwise just a regular fisherman -- one who developed the Chigger Craw. Here's how.
"This all kind of started at least a year ago," he said. "Half the time I just sit and draw shapes, and when something kind of sticks in my mind, I keep tweaking on it. When I get it to the point where I'm okay with it, I cut it into aluminum and make a proto-mold. Then I send it to the pros, and they tell me it's a bunch of crap and send it back (laughs).
"That's normally how it goes, but once in a while we hit one pretty solid."
Asked if the NetBait Paca Craw was his inspiration on this one, he said: "We're not going to copy anything, but I did want a high-action craw that did a couple other things."
Among those was a "more-realistic action," he said, and making the body squarer. "I got a lot of grief from the pros on (the square body), but it will push more water than (a round body) on the back of a jig." He added that the bigger mass of the square body means more surface area, which "helps our baits because the more surface area we have, the more scent dispersion you get."
Beyond that, the ribs and the reversed legs give a "more natural look of a craw, and also add a little more motion and water movement," Sexton said.
So was this bait a need for Berkley or something he just made up? "A combination of both," he said. "It was a bait we didn't have in our lineup, plus I've been thinking about that whole swimming jig vibe. There's been gas on that fire for a couple years, and when you do that, the jig itself essentially has no action. What you put on the back of it is the action.
"That sort of opened Pandora's box in my brain."
Where It Went
After he developed the prototype, he sent it to Berkley pros. What did he hear back?
"These guys are technicians," he said. "That's why I like talking to them. They're extremely detailed. We can talk about a bait for an hour before we even get it wet.
"They'll say stuff like, 'I can only get a 3/0 hook in there -- can you make it a half-inch longer?' Or 'Can you make it wider because I'll be tearing it up using big hooks?' Several of our pros said, 'Get it to move a hair more,' so I just made it with a little more erratic action.
"Overall I'd say it has 10-15% more action than what I originally started with," Sexton said. "It's good that I had it that dialed in, but it's also good that we changed it that much because it did make quite a bit of difference."
Here's the final Classic-winning bait.
He noted: "A perfect bass bait has four properties.
"It has to be something they can feel, which is vibration. We get a lot of vibration out of the Chigger Craw because of the moving legs.
"It also has to be visually stimulating for them. We did a year of research on just how long and wide a bait needs to be in combination (to stimulate bass), and this bait looks like something (a bass) would eat.
"Then the PowerBait scent comes into play. We know that's a positive stimulus, and we know that once it's in (the fish's) mouth, it's game over. Those are the last two: scent and taste.
"This bait comes as close to nailing those four as we ever have."
Notable: Critter-Fishing Tips
From Sexton:
> "When you just Texas-rig it and punch through a mat with it, those tiny little legs are moving much more water than a person thinks. They can trigger a reaction bite themselves. That's one of the little idiosyncrasies that make it good.
> "Punching mats is strictly velocity, so any motion built into that bait will come out of it."
> "It'll tend toward heavier line sizes because it's a flippin'/pitchin' bait. But if you're swimming a jig, you can probably get away with 10-pound line if you want to."
Notable
> Even though the Chigger Craw debuted at the Classic, Berkley pros had some of the baits last year. Larry Nixon used it on the way to his 2nd-place finish at the Lake of the Ozarks FLW Series event.
> Sexton said: "We've never tweaked a bait after it's in production. That's why we spent a year or year and half getting (the Chigger Craw) right, though some shapes are a lot easier. Something like this, where you're playing on all the senses of the fish, takes quite a bit of time."
> The Chigger Craw is available in eight colors, but only a 4-inch length. Sexton said: "I'm not telling you yes or no if we'll have more sizes yet, but I have them ready to go if (Berkley execs) want them."
> Berkley has another new bait coming out in May. It wouldn't reveal the name or shape, but said that its pros are already using it.
> For more on the Chigger Craw and other things Berkley, check out the Berkley web site.
