Soft plastic imitation crawfish great for punchin’ or flippin’ in thick cover
As proud as he is of his fine line of handcrafted balsa wood crankbaits, Cliff Pace followed through on his desire to “cook” up something for those who throw mostly soft plastic worms, creature baits, etc.
The Petal, Mississippi, bass fishing pro decided midsummer last year to bring out an impressive array of soft plastics, with an emphasis on soft, to reach the many bass anglers who rely on them, some perhaps more than they do moving baits. He wants to make his Black Label Tackle more than a “balsa bait company.”
“Just about everyone in one fashion or another fishes with soft plastics,” Pace said. “It’s a very competitive market. It’s really just something I’ve wanted to do. Black Label has been pretty much crankbaits from the start.
“People ask me, ‘Man, are you going to quit making crankbaits?’ There’s nothing in me that has any intention to stop making crankbaits. It’s something I really enjoy doing.”
Cooking up something
The lure (pardon the pun) of manufacturing soft plastics, however, finally hooked him. Pace wanted to make a soft plastic very much in tune with catching bass everywhere, for sure, but particularly in southern U.S. waters. A few of the 36 colors, in fact, such as the Bloody Mary and the Twisted Mudbug, could take the fishing world by storm. Pearl/white and June bug/red are the others sure to make an impact as well.
Pace’s previous experience with making soft plastics helped considerably. Pace dove in again last fall to get the ball rolling.
“It’s just like cooking,” he said. “There’s a lot of injection molding and what kind of additives to include, like scent and salt content. Add a little bit of this, a little bit of that, then follow the recipes so they match.”
After several trial and error prototypes based on the CAD (computer-aided design) he chose for each model of soft plastic, Black Label Tackle concentrated during the fall months on cooking up half-a-dozen soft plastic baits to hit the market in January, including one of his favorites as well as his namesake, the CP Craw. Now Black Label Tackle offers 12 soft plastic models from the Bug to the Tremble Stick.
A versatile bait
Pace, 44, a former Bassmaster Classic champion who started fishing the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour in 2019, is partial to the CP Craw, and it isn’t just because it bears the initials of his name. It’s very versatile, for starters.
“It’s a great bait for pitching, a great bait for a trailer — a swim jig or a bladed jig. And for a jig … you can put it on a ¾-ounce football jig and fish it 30-feet deep. It also seems to work well on a buzz bait without the skirt,” he said, pointing out a pearl/white CP Craw works best on a skirtless buzz bait.
The CP Craw’s versatility can be attributed to its shape. It has a slender crawfish body with twin swimming tails that move with the slightest twitch, according to Pace. The CP Craw’s slightly wedged out beefy head helps it stay firmly on a hook when Texas-rigged or used as a trailer, he said.
Those same physical characteristics make it a prime option for punchin’ or flippin’ in thick cover. The 3.75-inch long soft plastic imitation crawfish also has enough body length to accommodate larger straight shank flippin’ hooks that are so popular.
Quality over quantity
Pace advised bass anglers against expecting to catch, say, 50 fish on a single CP Craw. He designed it to catch good-sized bass, the kind coveted by tournament and non-tournament bass anglers.
“I’m not going to lie to you. They’re really soft,” he said, noting the softness contributes to enhancing the CP Craw’s action.
Black Label Tackle products are available online and are also distributed by Louisiana-based Delta Lures LLC.
For more information on the CP Craw and other Black Label Tackle products, go to www.blacklabeltackle.com.
The post “Black Label Tackle’s CP Craw” first appeared on LouisianaSportsman.com.
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