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Winter 2024
page 26
better to bass than the competition. Some would wrap lead wire around the shank of the rear treble to cause the lure to ride differently on the surface, tail down. Adding white chicken feathers or bucktail were also popular modifications to the rear treble hook of topwater lures.
SECRET LURE HACK #5: FROM THE NAIL SALON TO THE TACKLE AISLE
Popular lure modifications that were intuitive simply involved changing the color pattern. As a kid I would “borrow” my sister’s red nail polish and paint the heads of my topwater lures red. Later I learned to use the red nail polish to paint gills on my Bagley’s Balsa B’s and BangOLures. Eyes and dots were added to lures by painting them on.
SECRET LURE HACK #6: BEFORE THERE WERE WAKE BAITS
We made the first wake baits by heating and bending down the lip on a Redfin (jerkbait) so that instead of diving it stayed on the surface and wobbled side to side.
SECRET LURE HACK #7: HERE COME THE TUBES
When tube baits like the Gitzit were first introduced, it didn’t take long for tinkering anglers to add foam earplugs inside to hold in more scent, and to make them float. Even more impressive were those who added Alka Seltzer tablets inside so that bubbles would flow out of the tail of the tube.
SECRET LURE HACK #8: MELT INTO A WIN
Soft baits were modified with a wormizer (battery powered soft plastic welder) to add appendages or to make multi-colored baits customized to be unique. One of my favorite tricks was to melt together half of a 3” Baby Fat Senko to a Yamamoto Flat Worm. The result was a tournament winning dropshot bait that easily held a nose-hook but had a flat body and tail that fluttered unlike any other when shaken.
SECRET LURE HACK #9: ADDING POCKETS
Another secret modification for soft plastics incorporated using a brass tube to create pockets in the soft plastic and then pushing a glass rattle in the pocket. My favorite jig modification used a Yamamoto Craw with a McCoy glass rattle inserted in each claw. When shaken the claws would move and make clicking sounds that turned lookers into biters.
SECRET LURE HACK #10: SPOON IMPROV
When spoon fishing became a thing in southern California in the early 1980’s one of my best spoons was a half-ounce Kastmaster chrome spoon, jigged vertically for bass anywhere from 20- to 50-feet deep. While the spoon was good at invoking strikes, my hooking and landing rate left much to be desired. One day out of frustration I decided to add a second treble hook to the nose ring on this spoon. Not only did my hooking and landing ratio greatly improve, but also the number of bites increased. The added weight on the nose made the spoon flatten out when sinking and provided more wobble and bass attraction.
SECRET LURE HACK #11: PURPOSE PIVOT
Sometimes lure customization didn’t involve changing the lure at all, but instead use a lure in ways not intended when manufactured. One particularly frozen winter half a century ago at Beck’s Pond in