Creature baits are great fish catchers. And the MISSILE Baits D Stroyer is a great creature bait. With four tiny legs and two flapping appendages on the sides all trailed by a couple ribbon tails, the D Stroyer has a lot going on. And that’s what makes this bait so versatile. You can catch fish on a D Stroyer from one foot of water out to 25 feet, and anywhere in between. So, we’re going to look at three ways to rig it today. 

Texas Rig -

The classic Texas rig pairs well with the MISSILE Baits D Stroyer simply because Texas rigs are as versatile as this bait is itself. When you put the two together, you really have a do-all setup that you can fish around various types of cover and throughout a wide depth range.

Rigging a D Stroyer with a 1/4-ounce tungsten bullet weight and a 4/0 EWG hook works well when fishing in super shallow water. You can swim this rig through vegetation without the light weight bogging down in the cover. And you can drag this Texas rig really slow along the bottom in less than 3 feet of water on those particularly tough days.

Stepping up to a 3/8th ounce weight, you can maintain bottom contact a little better and fish this rig effectively a little deeper. You can even flip and pitch the D Stroyer around with this size weight, allowing your bait to fall slowly around isolated cover like stumps and dock posts. The beauty of this bait really shows up on a slow fall, as the two ribbon tails ripple along through the water. 

Carolina Rig -

The tails also flow beautifully when this bait is drug or reeled slowly through the water column, which is exactly what happens when pairing it with a Carolina rig. To rig a Carolina rig, you’ll need a weight, a bead or two and a swivel. We have put all of that together in one convenient package for you in our Carolina Rig Kit.

The D Stroyer again works so well on a Carolina Rig because of it’s long profile and flowing ribbon tails. The bait appears to be sneaking along the bottom, shrouded by the cloud of silt that’s stirred up by the weight of the C-Rig out front. This presentation works really well on bass in the summertime from 5 feet out to 25 feet.

Bass in this depth range are looking for reprieve from the heat of summer and looking for a big meal. They’ll find both when they stumble onto this creature bait drug along the bottom. Just cast your Carolina rig out over fairly smooth points and ledges and then drag it slowly back to the boat, using long sweeping pulls of the rod.

You’ll know you have a bite when your line goes “mushy”. That’s because the bass has eaten the bait and lifted the weight up off the bottom. When this happens, reel down and set the hook hard, to take up the slack in your line.

Swing Head -

A swing head or wobble head works well with the D Stroyer too. The D Stroyer is a very subtle bait, but It does have great action at the same time. It’s no where near as aggressive as a spinnerbait or crankbait, but is instead designed to have a lot of action with minimal effort. And that’s why it pairs so well with a swing head.

These little terminal tackle combinations consist of a weight that is attached to a hook by some sort of hinging mechanism. This keeps the weight near the hook and bait, but allows the hook and bait to swing back and forth more than a traditional jighead or Texas rig.

Putting a D Stroyer on a swing head gives you the perfect bait to throw around fairly clean to gravely bottom. You can even fish this rig through thicker cover like brushpiles. All the while the slightest movement of the rod, the least little bit of current or even the waves of a passing boat send little shockwaves through the bait, as the hook and lure swing and sway in the water.

In Conclusion -

With just one bait in the MISSILE Baits D Stroyer, you have a lure that you can fish from super shallow to way out deep. Rigging the bait on a Texas rig gives you a great offering from dirt shallow out to 15 feet or so, and this is the best setup for fishing denser cover like submerged hydrilla, lily pads or brushpiles.

The Carolina rig paired with this creature bait works well from about 5 feet out to 25. And the the swing head gives you something to fish throughout a wide range of the water column too, though it works best from 10 feet out to about 15. If you can rig up a D Stroyer in any of these three ways for your next trip, you’ll likely find a new favorite, because it is an absolute fish catcher.