Kreature Feature
The four-inch Yamamoto Kreature weighs a hefty 7/16 oz without any hook or sinker. It has all the necessary equipment - curly tails, paddle arms and multi-stranded skirt - all in a compact, heavy package. Bulky for its size, but the torso where the hook hides is not excessively thick - so you can get a quick, solid hookset. If bass don't gulp the Yamamoto Kreature out of hunger, they'll surely crush it as something out of the ordinary. It's the ultimate odd critter in the underwater food chain.
In a recent episode, we regaled you with diverse ways to use Yamamoto's double tail hula grubs as dressings on bare jig heads or as trailers stuffed under skirted jigs.
If you missed that story, it is at:
Most any jig presentation mentioned in the story on Yamamoto Hula Grubs applies 'times two' to Yamamoto Kreatures.
I say 'times two' because Kreatures can be laced on jig heads (with or without separate rubber skirts) either:
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Skirt to front or
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Skirt to back
A hula grub, however, is mostly rigged one way - skirt to front. So most any way you may use a hula grub, you can probably use a Kreature that same way both forward (skirt to back) and backward (skirt to front) with the Kreature.
Which way is best to rig the Kreature - forward or backward? Try both and let the fish decide for themselves on any given day.
Kreatures Make Great Hula Grubs on Football Heads
Photo below shows three of the primary and most productive GYB colors anywhere. From left to right:
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Brown pumpkin pepper (286)
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Cinnamon pepper (176)
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Green pumpkin pepper (297)
Include watermelon pepper (194) and you have your green and brown bases covered.
Hula grubs (6" 99-series on left, 5" 97-series on right) and Kreatures (center) can be rigged similarly on jigs.
Just like you normally use a skirted double tail hula grub on a plain football jig head, you can also use a Kreature the same way, as shown below, on a plain football (or any shape) jig head.
Kreatures make great hula grubs on football heads. Kreature (left) and 5-inch hula grub (right). Both on 1/2 oz Yamamoto football heads.
Kreature on weedless football head.
Or use on Yamamoto's Weedless Arkey (shown) or any other style jig head. Color #523 shown.
On a jig, I prefer to use the Kreature with skirt to front. Why? Okay, follow me on this one now. With the Kreature rigged skirt to front, the two twisty legs stay out to the sides like two claws being brandished. The stump of the body torso extending between the claws mimics a crawdad's head. The two flappers represent the wide fan tail and the strands are remindful of a craws running legs. Can you see it? What a fish sees, however, who can say.
And with the skirt to front, I fancy you get a little more displacement, turbulence and movement from the action parts - the curly legs, paddle arms and skirt, because you are making the bait's parts move opposite of their original alignments.
Also, the 'other way' (with skirt-to-back on a jig), I tend to experience a lot of leg wrap where the side legs get fouled on the hook bend or barb. Leg wrap can be avoided by putting the Kreature on a jig skirt-to-front. This tends to eliminate most of the leg wrap. With the skirt fronds and flappers under the jig skirt, it adds a lot of bulk, and as I say, the twin tails and stumpy torso at back mimic a crawfish head and pincers.
Of course, there are days they seem to want it skirt to back on a jig. So if one way's not working, try the other way. Better yet, fish with a buddy so you can try both ways simultaneously, and see which way seems to work best on that day.
Still, most of the time, on a jig, I favor the skirt to front - unless my buddy's scoring better rigged the opposite.
Kreatures Make Great Trailers for Rubber Skirted Jigs
The photo below shows a pointy nose jig designed to flip or swim cleanly through grass, but the Kreature is equally at home on the back of a deepwater football jig, an Arkey jig or most any skirted jig style.
Kreature laced under Yamamoto's Widowmaker rubber jig. A brown orange skirt and watermelon (#042 or 194) trailer makes a great sunfish imitation.
I do this with the skirted double tail hula grubs too. I stuff an entire skirted double tail hula grub under a jig skirt, but the Kreature is a bit bulkier. It's my jig trailer of choice when I want a bulky, compact presentation.
Hula grubs (6-inch 99-series shown above) also make great jig trailers.
Beyond jigs, Kreatures are easier or more amenable to rig (Carolina, Texas) than are hula grubs. Well, maybe that's not exactly true, but I do prefer to Texas rig and Carolina rig Kreatures much more often than I use hula grubs those ways.
Unpegged Illusion Texas Rig
Rubber bobber stoppers (shown in photo below) work well to help peg bullet sinkers in place. Resembling a colorful grain of rice, bobber stoppers come on a keychain type threader. Thread a bobber stopper on your line first, then lace a sinker on the line plus a plastic bead before knotting a hook to the end. You know have an adjustable-length pegged sinker rig. The rubber grain won't necessarily stay perfectly in place all day. The rubber grain may get knocked up the line as you wrestle your Kreature in and out of snags. When required, two rubber grains can be used to better hold a heavy sinker in place in heavy cover.
Intentionally positioning the rubber grain from a few inches to a foot up the line produces a desirable life-like illusion. The sinker becomes a second lure. The rig mimics a bulky critter (the Kreature) in hot pursuit of a bitty critter (the sinker) - and nipping its heels every time the Kreature bangs up against the sinker. The sinker constantly slips a few inches or a foot away, bumps the bobber stopper, seemingly evading its pursuer. As you shake or pull the line, the Kreature catches its prey again and nips the sinker again. This resemblance of a critter feeding in front of a bass can trigger its competitive instinct. A bass will barrel out of cover for no other reason than to dominate and disrupt the Kreature's foibled feeding opportunity. And as the dense sinker slams back into the bulky Kreature body each time, the contact causes an abrupt change in the Kreature's demeanor - a thud, a shock you can feel in the line, causing the tails to pulse, the paddles to flare open and closed each time the sinker slams it. It's an intense lure action to trigger a strike.
Shown Texas-rigged with chartreuse plastic bead. When the sinker hits the bead, it makes a click that may entice fish - and a sudden shock tremor throughout the bait's body.
Of course, you can not use the bead, and just push the bobber stopper all the way down to hold the sinker pegged against the Kreature's nose. Better yet, use a screw-in sinker rig.
Screw-in Sinker Rig
With a screw-in sinker, you meld the weight and bait into a single unit. This is more snagless and weedless than having the sinker unattached to or separate from the bait. You can work a screw-in sinker rig in the worst cover that would snag and pull and tear at any other kind of presentation. You now have a bulky, compact flipping bait by Yamamoto that can be used as a classic dropbait to flip in bassy cover. Rig it either forward or backward to flip.
An Owner 4/0 Rig'n Hook is used above. This hook is super strong yet short-shanked. So it has all the power - but leaves ample room - to rig both a screw-in sinker and the hook with room to spare.
Carolina Rockhopper Rig
Another tactic is to rig the Kreature about a foot ot two behind a Mojo Rockhopper, which is a stand-up style of Carolina sinker. As you skitter, pull and pause the rig across the bottom in a stop-n-go fashion, the sinker appears to be a small food item being stalked by another critter, actually your Kreature. It's a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, one that can infuriate a nearby bass to belt the Kreature sharply. You get some nasty reaction bites doing this. Bass just don't tolerate another critter (your Kreature) feeding in front of them. Bass will aggressively belt the Kreature that is attempting to "eat" the sinker. It's Mother Nature's version of a food fight.
The Mojo Rockhopper is more snagless than many other Carolina sinker types in rocks, brush and weedless environments. Even on open bottom, I tend to use the Rockhopper sinker. Reason is, when reeling it up off bottom, the Rockhopper tends to sway side-to-side on the line. I equate this sinker action to what a diving bill does on a crankbait. Although the bait trailing behind the sinker does not sway, the Rockhopper itself paddles from side to side. To me, I fancy this generates a wobbling vibration or cadence of water displacement that bass can sense emanating from the sinker. So I think the Rockhopper's paddling on the line has some attractive properties, thus the reason I use it even over smooth open bottom - to get the wobble sensation on the line.
I rig the Rockhopper the same as the venerable Carolina rig. I lace the sinker loose on the main line first, followed by a bright plastic bead, a swivel, a length of leader line and hook.
I tend to rig religiously with a bead because:
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It makes small clicking noises when the sinker strikes the bead, and
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Bait-sized small-fries are always pecking at the bead like barnyard hens on a junebug.
These small bead peckers attract larger predators like bass over to the scene. As the bead peckers scurry to exit stage right, your Kreature is the last man left standing on the dance floor to attract the interest or ire of a larger fish.
I favor plastic beads, which have less chance than glass to chip and cut the line. Some say glass makes a louder click than plastic. I find the plastic clicks more than loud enough for me and my bass, and plastic has more vibrant colors.
I also use rattle straps on the line between the swivel and bead. These add a little rattling noise, and the waving arms also attract small bait-sized fish to peck at them.
Also note in the photo above, I am using the Owner TwistLock hook which has a wire corkscrew attached to the hook eye. This corkscrew helps hold the Kreature's head firmly in place, so it doesn't get pulled down and balled up on the hook as it works its way through grabby snags.
The rod shown above, my favorite Carolina rig rod is Yamamoto's legacy Mod VI extra heavy 7'6" stick with 16 pound test Sugoi clear fluorocarbon used as the main line and leader.
The Well-Anointed Kreature
This is a good time to talk about MegaStrike attractant. I use it most al the time on soft baits. I don't put MegaStrike on individual baits. I squeeze a small glop into an entire bag of Kreatures, then smush it around to cover them all. This way, I put MegaStrike on once per bag, not every time I put on a new bait.
What I do, however, when I rig a new bait is that I drop the entire rig - the bait, hook, leader line, swivel, bead, rattle strap and sinker into the bag, and swish it around so the entire rig and all its components get coated in MegaStrike.
Power Drop Shot Rig
Likewise when I use a power drop shot rig (or any rig), I also drop the entire rig - the hook, the sinker, the line above and below the hook into the bag of baits. With the MegaStrike already added to the bag, this gives the entire-set-up some attractant on it.
Power dropshot rig shown with Yamamoto's heavy duty Split Shot Hook (size #2) and Mojo Pineapple dropshot sinker clipped on the 14 lb test grey Sugoi fluorocarbon line, powered by Gary's medium heavy model #SM2601MHF baitcasting rod. This open hook is for power dropshot fishing in fairly snag-free areas - or out in front of cover, like the open water just in front of weed edges or brush lines. With this style hook, you use the sweep or reel set method, and the hook will slide into the corner jaw hinge every time. If you try to haul off and whack them on the hookset, you'll pull this style of semi-circle hook out of their mouth most of the time. Just steady rod raising, reeling or line pressure will slide the hook into the corner of the mouth, and it will self-set itself there every time.
Power dropshot Texas rig above is to get right into the heart of heavy cover. An Owner Rig'n Hook is buried in the bait. This is an extremely strong (one of the strongest on the market) yet short-shanked hook. So it is ideal for fishing dense cover with heavy tackle with the compact Kreature. With the hook Texas-rigged this way, yes you must haul off and hit the fish hard to have the hook point penetrate out through the plastic in order to set it. Shown with Yamamoto's 16 lb test clear Sugoi fluorocarbon line (which is a little more abrasion-resistant than the grey Sugoi), powered by Gary's heavy model #SM3601HF baitcasting rod.
Note a bright plastic bead has been laced on the line before the hook was knotted on. This bead takes the brunt of banging through cover instead of the soft head of the Kreature hitting the cover. In this way, the Kreature does not get pulled down or balled up on the hook as much, since the bead is blocking for it - and it adds a flash of attracting color to induce strikes.
Shank Weight Hook Rigs
Shank-weight hooks became important and were first perfected a few years back for rigging soft plastic toads in order to churn them across the surface in thick grassy shallows.
The same deal applies to Kreatures - you can scurry them across the tops of thick grass beds using shank-weighted hooks. The weight on the shank is important so the bait doesn't twist and spin, which is what happens with an unweighted hook, and the keeper clips help the bait's head resist being torn or pulled down by the abrasive cover.
Shown here is one fine example, the Mustad Power Lock Plus with an adjustable-position weight. The weight can be slid on the shank from front to back, and will stay in place where you want it.
Rigged with a shank weight hook, the Kreature can be made to waddle and gurgle across the surface, attracting explosive strikes. To begin, get the right weight on the shank (such hooks come with different size weights). For surface skimming, you usually want the lightest weight that won't cause the Kreature to go upside down or roll on its side. Next, get the right rod angle with the tip held high to get the Kreature on plane on top. Once there, the flat wide legs serve as side stabilizers to eliminate roll and get surface-gripping traction to keep the Kreature fairly stable as it purrs and gurgles, creating a bubbly, boisterous vee wake like a buzzbait.
A second topwater tactic, a little harder to do, is bulging beneath but not breaking the surface. This can't be done on top of matted grass, but wherever there's an open surface above submerged cover - or even in open water. Bulging is a bit harder to master since the Kreature doesn't get support and stability from being propped up on its side legs raised half out of the water. The objective for bulging is to keep the Kreature barely under the surface, without rolling, while it leaves a bulging, rippling wake. A bit more eye/hand/rod coordination is necessary to perfect this presentation -and a bit heavier weight on the shank may be necessary to keep the Kreature stabilized for bulging presentations.
Yes you can work the Kreature at any depth in mid-water - or right on the bottom with a shank-weighted hook.
In more open water areas, you can swim it weightless a foot or two under the surface (or whatever mid-water level) for smashing strikes from suspended bass. The arms swim constantly. The long, limber swimming arms that never stop sculling are the Kreature's main feature when the Kreature is swam this way.
You can also swim it a foot or two above bottom. Let it hit bottom, then swim it slowly just above the bottom through the tops of underwater weed beds or brush piles. Yes it is a great alternative to a swimming jig.
You may even deadstick it on the bottom. The two short side paddles spring into action when the Kreature settles to rest on bottom, flopping open and closed at the slightest movement. When deadsticked on bottom, the more buoyant plastic formulation of the welded-on skirt takes over too. Even when the Kreature is perfectly motionless, the twenty-four tentacles still quiver nervously to compel any watching bass to strike.
That's all for today except to say a Kreature is productive used as a trailer on heavy duty 1 oz spinnerbait worked through thick cover for big bass, as shown below.
Those are just some of the ways the Kreature has been fruitful for me and can be for you.
Why not feature the Kreature on your next fishing adventure? Please enjoy!