Modifications , creations and other ideas….

[Random guy]

Ok my fellow esox hunters, what type of crazy ideas or lure modifications have we all come up with this winter?

I'm working on a trailer hook for walk the dog top waters baits to try to increase hooking percentages along with the creation of a new style of painting baits that makes the bait shimmer when it is stopped.

What else has winter drove us to mess with?

[cjac]

My "project" was getting the Mrs a muskie rod/reel, "nice and light for her and easy to handle", a.k.a. bucktail launcher for me! Also working on planning a Vermillion trip.

I'd love to figure out how to keep those little pike from springboarding themselves after the walk the dog type bait that you're working on a trailer hook for.

[minnesotamusky]

I'm painting all the lips on my crankbaits red. This seemed to work last summer. Also putting some reflective tape on some of my jerkbaits.

[mtreno]

Jon -

been working on the trailer hook for the walk the dog lures for the last year. have had a few trials and not the best results so far.

first try was used with a pair of floating jigs think that the trailer hook with the right amount of slack would work in almost an opposite pattern as the bait. after many different floats and lengths of leader i came to the conclusionthat this adds to much drag to the bait and cuts way down on the action. really had to work the bait over hard to get it to do its thing. also did not get the movement i was looking for out of my leader to put my hooks in the right place. florocarbon may solve the last issue but still think there is too much drag. when i removed the float and just let the hook do its own thing i did get most of my action back but i am not sure of how effective this would be.

****just had another thought - what if you took the rear off of an awaker (jointed double bladed ones) left the rear hooks and used 8 inches of line or so between the two. that may just work - jerking the walk the dog lure hard enough to get your action right i think you would get some good action out of the awaker rear end and because they go straight it should be running where the jackpot just was.....

sounds like a late fall mille lacs super bait!

[cupper]

I really like the red-lipped crank bait idea! Most of my imagination has been devoted to soft plastics... I'll let you know when I come up with something worth talking about.

[RK]

Hiya,

You know, sitting in my office lookign at all the lures hanging from the ceiling, I don't see many that are modified a whole lot. I really don't drastically modify baits much, other than putting better hooks on some or beefing up cheap split rings and the like. Generally speaking, if I have to do major surgery on a lure just to make it useful, I get rid of it... The exceptions are lures where there just aren't other options. Back when Tally Wackers were new and impossible to get (I kind of laugh every time I see them at Fleet Farm now - they were the Hughes Rivers of the late 80s...waiting lists and the whole bit) we used to basically rebuild them and rearrange the hooks completely so you could actually hook something with them.

I do weight some lures (oiling Jakes for example), and will move hook hangers around on wood baits to redistribute them and take one hook off (lots of baits don't need 3 trebles). Other than that I pretty much leave the lure designing to the professionals...

One thought about the walk the dog baits. IMHO, not all walk the dog lures are created equal when it comes to hooking fish. Maybe just me, but I can't hook a fish on a Jackpot to save my soul. I don't even own one anymore. On the other hand, if they actually *hit* it - rather than just blowing up on it, I can hook dang near every fish that hits a Stidham's Z-180. They just track different - more zig-zagging on a line than actually side to side. The Fat Boy is another walk the dog bait I can hook fish on pretty well. But some zig zags just flat out stink when it comes to hooking fish...

Cheers,

RK

[Random guy]

That is the age old problem with walk the dog baits. They do raise and trigger fish to strike although the hooking percentage is pretty low. I have even tried things as odd as T wires to spred hooks for better strike hook up ratios. Someday I will be driving across the state to meet clients and the solution will hit me. I just hope I'm young enough to still get in a boat by then.

[kjgmh]

I am working on putting together some Carolina rigs for muskies. Using large Slugos, trying to figure out what to use for leaders now.

Kind of off subject, but have some wood jerbaits that the paint/ epoxy got pouned off of the nose, any tips on resealing this.

[MT Net]

More of a question than a creation or modification. With those walk the dog baits, you got that rhythmic zig-zag going, and notice the fish coming in fast. Have you ever paused the bait right there and let him smash it? Not sure if this still motion from the zig-zag would spook them or not. I will try it though, just curious.

I do know that pausing now and then is important to trigger their interest. I've also thought about trying to hang the bait in place, but make it bounce around a bit with minimal forward motion.

[Random guy]

I will try to walk the bait in place or snap it back and forth without moving it forward. This works with your heavier baits like vipers, weagles and other larger heavy bodied dog walkers.

[Cooter]

Well I've made some Phantoms into 'Squirrely Phantoms' with twisters on a large single hook w/shrink tubing. Also, have cut off the bucktails on a couple Bucher Slops and Buzzs and replaced with silicone skirts. Added prism eyes to a bunch of baits. Had some trebles(RED Jon) with flashabou and replaced the original trebles on several bucktails. Custom painted two Hawg Wobblers and bought a Reef Hawg blank and custom painted it as well (installed RED trebles on it). Got some other ideas in the works right now. Been making a bunch of bucktails and spinnerbaits as well. Later.

[setterguy]

A friend of mine is always tinkering with his baits, trying to find the can't miss lure. One that he made is very interesting. He cut a cheese grader in the outline of a shallow raider and glued it onto the bait. Then he takes minnows and rubs them into the cheese grader part. The idea is the bait will smell like fish, thus tempting more bites. Funny thing is he doesn't use it very often, the action on it is great, and it get down nice and deep.

[witter1631]

im going to put springs on my buck tail and jerk bait hooks to make then weedless ill see how that works if it doesnt reduce hooking

Matt

[Cooter]

Hey Witter - How bout some heavy mono like some of the weedless flies?

[witter1631]

i suppose that would work it would be cheaper at least. im going to make my own jerkbait i will test it on that before i go gluing away..

Matt

[walleye_guy18]

not really sure if this would work but with the walk the dog type lures, do you think the hook up % is so low because they aren't getting the hooks in their mouths? Last year I used the jackpots alot on tonka just to raise the fish and it seems like when they hit they come from the side and hit the front/top of the bait. What if we tried mounting a hook on the head of the bait up on top????

[Cooter]

If anything, try moving that front treble up towards the front of the bait. Lee Tauchen talks about this in the last Esox magazine.

[Random guy]

RK touched on the swim pattern of walk the dog baits and how the "line" or "track" of some baits increase the odds. If you have had the opprtunity to watch a musky follow a bait zigging and zagging across the water they seem to have a hard time targeting the bait or estimating the strike. Plus the factor of having less water friction to hold a bait in place when the fish strikes. If you think about a topwater bait you have half of the water resistance of a subsurface bait when a fish strikes it. So now you have a misjudged strike on a bait that is easily pushed out of the path of those teeth. Those factors added to being able to see and watch the fish come up on it can really raise heck on hooking ratios. I still flinch the bait away when I see a fish strike topwater helping to pull the bait away from the fish. I think total weight of a topwater plays into the the hooking ratio more then hook placement. If the lure is knocked out of the way it won't matter where the hooks are. Try a heavier topwater that swims more inline. Don't get me wrong Jackpots are great baits and account for many big fish but try a heavier bait that swims a liitle more on the straight side and see what happens.

[barnyard]

Quote:

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I am working on putting together some Carolina rigs for muskies. Using large Slugos, trying to figure out what to use for leaders now.

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I LOVE Carolina rigs for muskies. I use Tyger leader material, 1.5-2 oz lindy sinkers and Lindy Tiger tubes.

I'm kind of like RK in that I don't screw with lures alot, mostly changing out split rings and hooks.

But, I love to mess with Tiger tubes. I have tiger tubes rigged on jigs, Carolina rigs and with differently weighted Zara Spooks. The Spook tubes are pretty cool.

Tom B