Power Team Lures Craw D’oeuvre Tackle Review

One of my favorite bass fishing lures has to be a soft plastic craw. That shape is just very versatile. It can be fished by itself on a Texas rig. Fished on a jighead as a small finesse bait or fished as a jig trailer. One of the craw shapes I fished a lot the last year in a lot of capacities was the Power Team Lures Craw D’oeuvre

Here’s a few of my thoughts on this interesting craw offering:

  • Compact and slippery
  • Lots of action
  • Holds up well
  • Handles big hook

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Perfect for thick cover

The Power Team Lures Craw D’oeuvre offers a compact shape that still has a lot of action. The lure is 3 1/2 inches long and has two flat claws that undulate and flap in the water as you dance it around in cover. I had a lot of fun this spring flipping it into the heart of thick willow bushes and wrestling some nice bass out of the cover with them. 

There are two longer appendages towards the top of the craw and little phalanges on the sides that move and quiver with subtle movements.

Check out the Craw D’oeuvre underwater in this video:

Softer plastic for maximum action

I have evaluated thousands of shapes of soft plastic lures. From swimbaits to creature baits, the first thing I do when I pick up a new soft plastic lure is stand the lure upside down on its head and watch the “moving parts” of the lure fall over. If the plastic is too rigid, the tail or claws won’t hardly move. If the plastic is real soft, they will lay over like a wet noodle. I think that’s key to liking certain soft plastic offerings.

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One thing I like about the Craw D’oeuvre,  was the body is very solid but the appendages are very soft. That combination gives you a bait that will hold on a hook or jighead well, but will have a nice fluid motion on the slightest movement of the rod. So I can quiver the bait or hop it up and down in a bush or under a grass mat, and know the claws are flapping, undulating and twisting as the bait moves around in the cover.

The scent on the bait is something PTL calls Hog Tonic. It smells like garlic, which I like, but more importantly, it’s full of all natural aminos, which allegedly is what the bass like. But more importantly, I like that it makes the baits slick. In other words, when I flip into the cover, the bit slides through like greased lightning. Flippers and pitchers know, a slippery bait is always good in cover.

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Durable on big hooks

I’ve rigged it on big Trokar Flipping Hooks with Reins Tungsten Bullets weights for flipping. I’ve rigged it on the back of Missile Baits Mini Flip Jigs and even on Fish Boss Jigheads for a real finesse presentation in clear water, which I found deadly on spawning bass, especially smallmouths. 

The bait can handle a 5/0 straight-shank flipping hook easily and the nice thing was, I was able to catch a bunch of bass on one bait before it tore up. That’s because the body section is a little more dense plastic and doesn’t tear as easy while the flappers and appendages are made such that they don’t tear off after one fish. So you get a lot of use out of one bait.

Overall, this is a good little craw option for flipping when you need a real compact profile. I think it looks great on the back of a small flipping jig as well as shaky head or open jighead for fishing in clear water. But I mainly keep a box of them handy when I’ve got my flipping rods in the boat. Because I’ve found they can fit into just about any little nook a cranny leading to wear big bass hide.

You can find them on their website at PowerTeamLures.com or at retailers like TackleWarehouse.com. The baits come in 22 different colors. You can find most of them on Tackle Warehouse, but a few are only available on their site. My favorites include Susky Slayer, Spicy Craw, Quick Limit and Okeechobee Craw.

The lures come 8 to a pack for around $5. 

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