Luck-E-Strike Rick Clunn Rc Stx Jerkbait

[bushnaq]

I heard this jerk bait is almost identical to the mega bass ito 110, but that the RC STX hooks and split rings needed to be changed. Any one do this ? If so what size and brand treble hooks?

[smalljaw67]

Here is the deal, yes, the bait was designed like the 110 but changing the hooks on that bait is tricky because it suspends decent and even a slight change in weight affects the bait negatively.  Contrary to popular belief, the hooks on that bait are light wire VMC hooks with stainless steel split rings, anything over 8lb test line is going to bend the hooks out on this bait as well as the 110, the difference is the 110 floats a bit so you can get away with a little bit better hook. There are 2 hooks I like for this bait, the first is the Owner Stinger ST-36 in a size 6 for the larger bait and a size 8 for the smaller bait. The other hook, which I believe is a direct match, is the VMC 8540 in the same size 6 and 8. I did an experiment last fall when I was able to get on a jerkbait bite and what I did was I used my finesse cranking rod with 10lb line while fishing the small 3.75" bait and I managed to catch 2 smallmouth in the 4lb range and 5 in the 3lb range and 11 that were in the 13" to 15" class and the last fish I caught which was a 3lb fish is when I finally had the stock hook break and I only lost 2 fish during this time, I wrote it in my log book. I fished the larger bait with 12lb line with my regular jerkbait rod and it took all of 5 fish and the Owner Stinger had 2 hook points bend and after the first 3lb fish one of the hook points broke off and I was satisfied that line size and rod action play a big part of hooks bending out and breaking. What happens is with the heavier line and faster action rod, we tend to bring the fish in much faster than when you have to play it on light line with a moderate action rod. Now what I do is I use my drag on the fast action rod, I also dropped back to 10lb line so now I can work my bait but I won't try to muscle the fish in, I'll let the fish play itself out a bit more. Now, I'm not fishing for money and these are what I found, some automatically change them and I did as well and I emailed Luck-E-Strike to ask which hooks do they suggest I use and the response was that the hooks they use are light wire VMC black nickel hooks but any light wire treble should work but the problem has been there aren't many light wire trebles.

[Angry John]

I used the owners with the hyper wire split rings and the bait sinks slowly.  I was doing some reasearch and the death trap trebbles are supposed to be good and not be any heavier.  If tuning then consider removing the split ring up front and running a lighter snap like the owner welded stainless clip.  The middle size has worked the best for me on this lure.

[Bluebasser86]

They fixed the split ring issue, but the hooks are still very fragile. I fish them on my regular jerkbait rod with 10lb Big Game (very stretchy), with Owner ST 36's, same sizes that smalljaw recommended. They're one of my favorite jerkbaits and I have no problems with bending hooks once I swap them for the Owners.