Billfish lures

[Scoot]

My uncle was recently in Florida and stumbled into these billfish lures.

He said he thought of me when he saw them and "had to" get them for me. I think they look pretty sweet! The hooks are a small for muskies, but I think they'll work just fine. What do you think?

[jsondag]

I've never used the Williamson brand, but have used a similar type eel bait. Size wise, they are great the action is awesome when hard snapped. Those hooks are way to small for muskies. You could switch 'em to 4/0 Mustads or VMC's and still have good action on the bait. There are a lot of great offshore lures that can make the transition!

[mrklean]

is the all plastic or some type of rubber?

[Scoot]

Jerry, regarding the hooks- that's what I thought, but there's no easy way to swap them out. There are no split rings on that lure and the hooks are on a solid, through wire leader that only leaves the plastic where the hooks are at. Would you cut the hooks and add small split rings to attach bigger hooks?

[PostFrontal]

I tried these out 2 years ago. If I remember right they are deep runners and would be good for trolling.

[jsondag]

Yeah, I'd cut the hooks and add some sort of ring to them - Maybe even try to weld a ring. Not sure the thickness of the wire in them, but it may be pretty slight. If you switch to a split ring, I'g go with a smaller heavy duty job, or one of the more squared kind. I'd also get rid of the tail hook. 3 on this bait would be needless - You could probably even get away with one single 5/0 at the front and take off the 2nd and 3rd. Double split ring the 5/0 or pull the existing through wire out and rewire it with seven strand to just the front hook. It should work awesome!

[Scoot]

Thanks- I'll give that a try. I'll likely get rid of the middle hook, but keep one in the front (for head hunters) and one in the back (for tail nippers).

[HugoBox]

Scoot -

I spent last April in Houston so I browsed the saltwater sections at the BPS stores quite a bit and ended up picking a package of these up myself. Did use them more than an hour or so but I did have two lookers. I guess we'll have to compare notes this year.

-erik

[Scoot]

Cool- I'm going to give them a try the Tues after opener.

[bronzeback]

those look excellent. I'd probably want to sand that lip down though, or buy a shallow running version. I suppose if twitched slowly enough it could stay near the top, i can see this being a pretty nasty soft jerk-bait.

[lunge]

ive tried similar ones, the only prob. is that you have to pull them at 6-12 mph, they run fairly shallow when your at speed, plus being designed for salt water the lure runs a little higher in the watercolum cause of the salt. my fav. is the williamson ballyhoo, its only like 12 or 14", and its got a ribbon tail. I down sized the hooks to a 3/0 short shank and it lightened it up a bit. I got it to troll at 4.8-6.2, imo the fastest id troll. ive also run them off a down rigger, then further down I run a dcg. its fun to try new stuff

[jsondag]

God, just got back from Florida a few hours ago and all the offshore equipment has got my head in a tizzy. All of the possibilities!