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Old 12-29-11, 09:29 AM   #1
OkobojiEagle
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Default Bait mods

Any of us who have fished for even a season or two have developed modifications to “improve” their favorite baits. Following are a few of mine and I hope others will share some of theirs.

Heddon Baby Torpedo… This bait works better for me as a single treble-hook bait. I remove the rear treble altogether and replace the front treble with a similarly sized kirbed treble hook. The rear hook hanger gets backed out ¼ turn to loosen the blade. To counter the bait’s body rotation caused by the spinning blade, I add one Storm suspend strip to the bait’s right rear quarter just below the horizontal mid point. After making these mods I tie the bait to my car antenna and let the blade spin during a 10 – 15 mile drive. Now this bait casts like a bullet, gurgles more freely without the body spinning and doesn’t foul nearly as easily.

3” & 4” curly tail grubs… Although I fish the softest grubs I’ve been able to find (Kalin’s & Berkley PowerBait), I want more action from the bait’s tail at slow speeds with light head weights. As a winter project, I thin the grub tails with an emory board until they hang considerably more limp than from the package. I don’t know if it is the increased limpness or the newly scuffed roughness of the tail’s surface, but after this mod my grub tails beat at noticeably slower speeds on lighter weight jig-head.

Texas rigged Brewer jig-heads… I carry a retractable Xacto blade in my tackle bag to cut a short slit along the top seam of grubs and worms I am Texas rigging on a Charlie Brewer Spider head. The slit is 1/3 – ½ the bait depth and extends from the hook point to hook bend. When I rig the bait I slightly skin hook the jig-hook point into either side of the slit. The entire hook point remains covered in the bait, the plastic hangs straighter and the point will pop out of the slit with less force needed.

oe
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Old 12-29-11, 10:16 AM   #2
Mac2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OkobojiEagle View Post
Any of us who have fished for even a season or two have developed modifications to “improve” their favorite baits. Following are a few of mine and I hope others will share some of theirs.

Heddon Baby Torpedo… This bait works better for me as a single treble-hook bait. I remove the rear treble altogether and replace the front treble with a similarly sized kirbed treble hook. The rear hook hanger gets backed out ¼ turn to loosen the blade. To counter the bait’s body rotation caused by the spinning blade, I add one Storm suspend strip to the bait’s right rear quarter just below the horizontal mid point. After making these mods I tie the bait to my car antenna and let the blade spin during a 10 – 15 mile drive. Now this bait casts like a bullet, gurgles more freely without the body spinning and doesn’t foul nearly as easily.

3” & 4” curly tail grubs… Although I fish the softest grubs I’ve been able to find (Kalin’s & Berkley PowerBait), I want more action from the bait’s tail at slow speeds with light head weights. As a winter project, I thin the grub tails with an emory board until they hang considerably more limp than from the package. I don’t know if it is the increased limpness or the newly scuffed roughness of the tail’s surface, but after this mod my grub tails beat at noticeably slower speeds on lighter weight jig-head.

Texas rigged Brewer jig-heads… I carry a retractable Xacto blade in my tackle bag to cut a short slit along the top seam of grubs and worms I am Texas rigging on a Charlie Brewer Spider head. The slit is 1/3 – ½ the bait depth and extends from the hook point to hook bend. When I rig the bait I slightly skin hook the jig-hook point into either side of the slit. The entire hook point remains covered in the bait, the plastic hangs straighter and the point will pop out of the slit with less force needed.

oe
I read somewhere that reversing the prop would produce a more active splash and sputter.
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Old 12-29-11, 01:03 PM   #3
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I read somewhere that reversing the prop would produce a more active splash and sputter.
Actually that mod makes the bait back up...



I don't believe reversing the prop would have any affect on the bait. Certainly bending the blades slightly forward creates more drag and will spin the blade better... to a point.

oe
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Old 12-29-11, 04:59 PM   #4
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I remove the tail treble on my Baby Torpedos and replace them with a feathered treble. Other than that. most of my modifications is changing hooks, skirt colors or blade size/color on spinnerbaits.
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Old 12-29-11, 11:06 PM   #5
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Speaking of torpedo type baits, one of my favorite things to do with them is tie a 2' dropper line to the back treble with a small grub(or wacky w. or fly.....). When that hot foggy morning bite starts to cool off instead of switching over to worms or cranks or whatever I have found that many times those same fish are still there and are looking at your prop bait but just won't commit like they would before the sun came up.....but that little teaser hanging down a couple of feet down is just more than they can resist. I think I got this idea fishing for specks out in the gulf under a popping cork.
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Old 12-29-11, 11:44 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by kennethdaysale View Post
Speaking of torpedo type baits, one of my favorite things to do with them is tie a 2' dropper line to the back treble with a small grub(or wacky w. or fly.....). When that hot foggy morning bite starts to cool off instead of switching over to worms or cranks or whatever I have found that many times those same fish are still there and are looking at your prop bait but just won't commit like they would before the sun came up.....but that little teaser hanging down a couple of feet down is just more than they can resist. I think I got this idea fishing for specks out in the gulf under a popping cork.
Neat idea Ken!
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Old 12-30-11, 01:43 AM   #7
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I love early morning topwater with the torpedo! The first bass that I ever caught was on a baby torpedo. My mod is to replace the trebles with mustads and add split rings to the trebles and the eye. Then I bend the prop to turn the other direction to help prevent line twists on spinning reels. Once I even did an experiment with replacing both of the trebles with only one 4/0 weedless worm hook (the kind with the wire) in the front treble eye. I could cast it deeper in the muck, but my hookup ratio was lessened.

Another mod that I do is to shorten the wire on my spinnerbaits. I'll cut the wire down so it doesn't stick up as much and then rebend it and add better swivels. And I always have a box with spare indiana, willow, and colorado blades in different colors, as well as different skirts and sharpie markers for adding color to the head.
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Old 12-30-11, 09:04 AM   #8
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BFKansas... Do you have a "formula" to determine how much of the spinnerbait arm you will cut off? Do you use two blades on a shortened arm? Have you tried replacing the original swivel with a swivel-clip to make "on the water" blade changes quicker?

oe
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Old 12-30-11, 10:28 AM   #9
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kennethdale, I have done the same with other top waters too.
I will have to say I learned it popper fishing spawning bass in the spring. My experience has been the Sunnies love it, the Bass like a larger bass popper as opposed to
smaller sunny poppers and the pike will take both lures at the same time along with line and swear words following them into the deep.
Great idea Ken and thanks for sharing!
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Old 12-30-11, 01:47 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OkobojiEagle View Post
BFKansas... Do you have a "formula" to determine how much of the spinnerbait arm you will cut off? Do you use two blades on a shortened arm? Have you tried replacing the original swivel with a swivel-clip to make "on the water" blade changes quicker?

oe

I don't really have a formula, but I cut them to different sizes for for fishing different conditions. (i.e. if I was fishing after a cold front, I would use a spinnerbait that was cut shorter with smaller willow blades for a smaller profile.) I fish on smaller ponds with smaller bass, so shortening the wire allows me to catch more fish. If I want numbers, I'll go with a smaller frame. If I want weight, I'll go with a full-length with larger blades. I have experimented with snaps for changing blades, and they worked well, but they positioned the blades a little bit too far back for my taste, especially with my smaller baits. I have gotten pretty proficient with a pair of split ring pliers.
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