Winter 2024
W
hen I was learning to fish as a kid
– sixty years ago, the first fishing
rod I bought with my allowance was a Roddy fly rod from the Western Auto Store.
After adding a single-action reel and floating fly line
there were no coins left to buy the fancy dry flies
they sold. So instead, while my older sisters were
making paintings and jewelry, I turned my attention
to creating homemade cork poppers in hopes of
catching colorful bluegills at the neighborhood pond.
There is nothing more exciting or satisfying than
watching a fish explode on your home-made offering.
Knowing you can catch a fish by attaching cork and
feathers onto a hook fulfills a primal instinct of
survival that many desire.
SECRET LURE HACK #1: PB BIG BASS TEENER ALERT
Ever since I have spent countless hours making my own lures or finding ways to customize other lures to make them unique and appealing. The results don’t always pan out as planned, but when they do the result can be exhilarating! Case in point is my personal best largemouth bass (13 pounds, 14 ounces) caught on a lure modification that I read
about in a BASSMASTER magazine over forty years ago.
The “secret” hack involved taking a Zara Spook and drilling a hole in each end of the body. Then you would insert from end-to-end a small diameter straw like those used with WD-40 and glue the straw in place, trimming it flush to the lure body. Your fishing line would thread through the straw, exit the tail end of the lure, and then you would tie on a soft plastic tube lure (at that time a Gitzit) with a small sliding lead weight inside, and a treble hook. This two-punch combo made a great surface lure that walked the dog, and when stopped the tube would drop toward the bottom like a dying shad falling out of the school.
SECRET LURE HACK #2: FOR AN ANGLER OF THE YEAR TITLE
One of my Angler of the Year (AOY) titles in California was made possible by another secret lure modification. In all 12 tournaments of that year - in 1981 - I caught most of my bass on a modified Rapala FR-5 balsa crankbait. To get the lively action of balsa wood and get it deeper in clear water, I drilled two holes in the chin of the bait and poured molten lead
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