A Better Tail, the Strike Pro Flex Crawfish (continued)

Retrieving: I fished the Flex Crawfish a variety of ways ranging from pitching, slow crawling, a consistent hop and a bump and go retrieve much like a traditional jig. Fishing the Flex Craw like a large jig seemed to work the best and I found one of the keys to successfully fishing this bait is to go slow. Erratic motions with this bait didn’t seem to draw more strikes, quite the opposite in fact, there were many times I would drop the Flex Craw off a ledge and a fish would pick it up while the bait was virtually still. Our guess is that fish are observing the bait when in motion but waiting for the bait to become prone before they attempt to ambush it.

...and it is absolutely critical to rotate the arms upwards or the lure will not sit properly on the bottom

I caught all the fish during the field tests working the bottom and this lure is also extremely entertaining to sight fish with in clear water. I’m not a big fan of bedfishing but it is hard to deny how fun it is crawling this bait up to a fish sitting on a pile of rocks. The Flex Crawfish easily fooled fish that were more than eager to suck up the advancing bait, all it took were a few hops over to the bed and it was game over.

While we tried to match the hatch we found as long as there were resident crawfish in the water the color didn't seem to matter all that much

The Flex Crawfish definitely performed better in lakes where we observed crawfish. We did our best to match the hatch and with so many colors available it really wasn’t difficult but the interesting thing about the bait was the color didn’t seem to matter as much as we thought it would. As long as there were resident crawfish the bass would more eagerly strike at these baits regardless of color. The adjustment of the arms upwards is a must do, in helps keep the lure in a upright position, when the claws are flat the lure very easily rolls on its side which looks very unnatural.

The tail naturally drops downward when the Flex Crawfish is off the ground giving the tail

Durability: The Flex Crawfish held up surprisingly well during our tests, even though the lure was constantly coming into contact with structure it didn’t take as much damage as I expected it to. The lure did get scratched on rockpiles but the paint didn’t chip off and there was never a point where the lure looked un-fishable. The claws also held up to abuse and while they sometimes needed to be readjusted between strikes the actual rubber held up well.

While the lure has a weedguard like many other "weedless" lures it isn't immune to the "thick stuff"

The bike chain tail design never failed and held up as well throughout the tests. Even deliberate casts into rock piles did nothing other than scratch up the finish of this bait. It will take a lot more than a bass to pull this durable tail apart. During testing we did manage to break the tip off one hook, during the test the lure got wedged or snagged (were still not quite sure) in some rocky structure and while we were able to retrieve the lure it lost the better part of the hook. Unfortunately there really is no way to re-arm this bait once the hook becomes damaged.

I had doubts about this lure early on, it just had that "it catches fishermen" feel all over it, but the Strike Pro Flex Crawfish does catch fish, just turn those claws up and fish it slow where there are crawfish in the water

Price & Applications: The Flex Crawfish is priced in the swimbait class with each lure retailing for 19.99. The lure has a unique factor to it and there isn’t another lure quite like it on the market, and yet we still find it somewhat hard to justify the price. The Flex Crawfish is fished primarily like a big jig or in the place of a creature bait and pitched into structure. These applications are some of the most risky when it comes to losing baits to nasty structure, and also one f the reasons why anglers never think twice about tossing a cheap jig or Texas rigged plastic lure. While the Flex Crawfish’s weedless hook does a good job keeping it out of trouble in most occasions this lure isn’t impervious to snags and losing one of these is certainly going to hurt your wallet a lot more than a traditional rubber skirted jig. 

Ratings: (We've re-calibrated our ratings standard for 2008 and have included a key at the bottom of the following matrix as a guide):

Pluses and Minuses: