Berkley® Powerbait® Chigger Craw

Available in a variety of shapes and sizes, the PowerBait line from Berkley, is one of the best known brands on the market. We find one of the most effective body styles to be the Chigger Craw design. For our testing we used every color available, including the difficult to find Sapphire Blue / Blue Flake.

First Impressions

The Chigger Craw is a 4" molded soft plastic body impregnated with Powerbait scent. A wide variety of colors are available for almost any type of conditions and all include flake. The shape is very lifelike and allows easy mimicking of a true crawfish.

Fishing the Bait

We fished the Powerbait Chigger Craw two ways in two types of waters. For deeper water and weedbeds, we hooked the bait Texas-style on a Carolina slip rig and jigged the bait across the bottom of the lake. For shallows, rocks and other cover, we hooked the bait onto an Enticer Jig to create a "creature" presentation for lurking bass. We used all colors under all conditions and found the Black/Red flake, Black/Blue flake, and Watermelon Candy colors to be largemouth magnets! We also noted that the most effective times of the year for fishing this softbait seems to be early summer and late summer/autumn. During the high summer months, we found the bite soft for the 'Craw, which was unanticipated.

One nice thing about this bait is that, with fish on, the craw will often slide up the hook allowing you to land and release the fish. Many times, you can just slide the craw back into place for another catch or two. In this regard, we found the durability to be excellent. And, true to the PowerBait brand's reputation, bass will bite and hang on. You can even expect a restrike or two.

Review Summary

The PowerBait brand has quite a reputation and the Chigger Craw doesn't disappoint. The shape is very lifelike and with the PowerBait scent, encourages strong bites. Once you learn how to rig and fish this plastic, you'll be able to entire heavy bass from rock and/or vegetation. We keep all colors in our tacklebox, and hooked Texas-style on a weighted jighead has become a "go to" set up when we want to fish deep, heavy cover.