Lure Modifications

[papajoe222]

Name one modification that you make to a certain lure other than changing out the hooks, or 'O'rings that you feel actually makes that lure more productive.

For me, it's adding a couple of suspend dots to the tail end of my Zara Spooks. With the tail sitting lower during pauses, I'm certain I get that rear hook into short, or hesitant striking fish.  I tried a feathered treble years ago, but it added drag to the tail when working the lure.

[Jig Man]

I modify many different types of baits for several different species.  One mod that probably won’t make it product more but will definitely extend the life of an R wire spinnerbait is to wrap the bend with braid or light wire.  It will triple or more the life and doesn’t have any effect on the way the bait functions.  I also cover the wire with shrink tubing to keep it from catching the line.

[scaleface]

Not a modification but I texas rig Yum Dingers rotated  1/4 of the way , bypassing that slit . It just works better for me . 

 

I also snip off the nose of some plastics so  that they line up better with a bullet weight or jig head .

[Mike L]

Not necessarily a modification of a specific bait, but a few rigging modifications that I do.....

 

On my punch rig I put 2 sometimes 3 bobber stops below a 1 oz and up tungsten weight depending on the depth of the concave bottom.
 

After separating the tag from the tail of a Rage Cut R, I don’t remove it completely. 
I leave the other end attached which gives it a little extra action. 
 

In dirty water I add a punch skirt when throwing a weightless stick bait. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[DitchPanda]

Does lure dye count? If so that's one I do to plastics sometimes...dip them in JJs magic. I've also swapped blades on spinnerbaits to better match forage size.

[Luke Barnes]

Spraying them with Spike it Luma Pearl, dipping claws and tails in chart or methiolate, using a red spike it marker to make it look like its bleeding. But never any hardware or anything like that. 

[WRB]

I liked to tinker with lures to set them apart from out of the box lures. Tinkering is part of bass fishing only limited by your imagination.

Some simple and effective mods like white painted rear treble hooks and Sharpie colored dots for crankbaits, chicken feather treble hooks for structure spoons, splitting the tail on straight soft plastic worms, adding living rubber legs to grubs, etc, etc.

Tom 

[Luke Barnes]

Oh I forgot. I got into painting crankbaits. I bought a 30 piece of six different styles of blanks and painted a few so far. At first it was a craft for my kids and their Poppy loved his hand painted lures from the grandkids at Christmas, but I tried my kids water based markers and got some really cool sexy shad looking paint jobs done! Then @WRB was gracious enough to send me a ton of trebles so ive put split rings and hooks on them and have tried a squarebill I painted once, but it was a weedy lake and I threw it a few times just to say I did. 

[jimmyjoe]

   I fish spoons a lot, and I modify them 2 ways. First, I dress the trebles with  VERY SMALL amounts of bucktail. I learned to not disturb the spoon's action, but still give an added visual focus. Second, I replace trebles on some spoons with frog hooks. Then I dress the frog hooks. This provides a "drag" that lets me drop the spoon confidently, knowing it will land barbs-up. Helps some spoons flutter better, too.                    jj

[MyKeyBe]

If it has a skirt I'm cutting it. Spinnerbaits, jigs, frogs. I also play with nail polish alot.

[huZZah]

On lipless cranks I like to replace both trebles with double hooks that face backwards. Makes it possible to fish them more like a spinnerbait through weeds and such. Also helps them not get hung up on rip rap. At first I did it out of frustration losing them on rocks but now I really like it. Also makes casting them with braid much easier without fouling. Hasn’t affected hookup at all. Not sure why they don’t just come this way now…other than people like me wouldn’t have to replace them nearly as often…

[jimmyjoe]

23 minutes ago, MyKeyBe said:

I also play with nail polish alot.

 

   I'm sure you mean that differently than it seems.  ???                jj

[A-Jay]

I've been making a coupe of modifications to my spinnerbaits for a while

A-Jay

 

[Mobasser]

One of my best mods was to cut the fat, thick pork in half on a #11 pork frog years ago. This made a slimmer trailer with more of a swimming action on a spoon or a smaller Bitsy Bug style jig.

[MyKeyBe]

3 hours ago, jimmyjoe said:

 

   I'm sure you mean that differently than it seems.  ???                jj

I meant what I typed. I cut my skirts short and play with nail polish. Not like I drink the stuff.

Anymore.

?

 

[txchaser]

Upsize the owner CPS or hitchiker on just about everything that comes with them. They always seem one size too small. 

[papajoe222]

5 hours ago, MyKeyBe said:

 I also play with nail polish alot.

Uhhhhh.................................... Nah, I'll leave it alone.

[CrankFate]

Before I learned how to properly hook a weedless soft plastic, I’d hook them off a bit. It causes a bend in it. Now that I know how to hook them straight, I still hook them slightly off, because they swim like they are sick or injured. That works better than hooked perfectly sometimes.

[Kenny Yi]

always trim my finesse jig skirts and weedguards.  trailers have the ends cut off for smaller profile.

 

i superglue trailers to my jigs (finesse, swim, bladed, flipping, etc).  whenever i missed a fish on a hookset, the trailer would always be hanging on the bottom of the hook, typically for jigs that don't have good trailer keepers.

 

i have some cut-up nails that i use as nail weights for neko rigs.

 

i've considered doing G'Man's weedguard modification where he puts a cut-up piece of the plastic tubing that protects spinnerbait hooks onto the weedguard and supergluing for extra stiffness.

[fin]

21 hours ago, huZZah said:

On lipless cranks I like to replace both trebles with double hooks that face backwards. Makes it possible to fish them more like a spinnerbait through weeds and such. Also helps them not get hung up on rip rap. At first I did it out of frustration losing them on rocks but now I really like it. Also makes casting them with braid much easier without fouling. Hasn’t affected hookup at all. Not sure why they don’t just come this way now…other than people like me wouldn’t have to replace them nearly as often…

I'm trying to imagine what you are talking about when you say "face backwards". I guess you mean turned up instead of down? You mean a lipless crank with hooks like the blade bait this picture?

[papajoe222]

5 minutes ago, fin said:

I'm trying to imagine what you are talking about when you say "face backwards". I guess you mean turned up instead of down? You mean a lipless crank with hooks like the blade bait this picture?

Great idea for both lipless and blade baits.  Who makes/distributes them?

[fin]

1 hour ago, papajoe222 said:

Great idea for both lipless and blade baits.  Who makes/distributes them?

That blade bait is made by Megabass. I think it's called a "Blading X".

[MyKeyBe]

2 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

Who makes/distributes them?

Make your own. Cut the front hook off a treble hook.

[huZZah]

4 hours ago, fin said:

I'm trying to imagine what you are talking about when you say "face backwards". I guess you mean turned up instead of down? You mean a lipless crank with hooks like the blade bait this picture?

Yes

 

The cut hook snags the crap in the water pretty bad. I got doubles so they’d be more streamlined. I really like it. Rarely throw them with the trebles anymore. And again, it makes a huge difference with braid. 
 

Edit: it is, however, incredibly time consuming and somewhat irritating to swap both hooks every time I get new ones. The smaller trebles are a pain to get off without stabbing myself a few times. 
But man it’s worth it in the end. 

[keagbassr]

As mentioned above if its got a skirt i also trim it. Any frog that loses its skirt gets rattles in the openings to make it a 'guntersville' frog. Also I  add rattles inside frogs for sound and weight. I  offset bend my lower buzzbait wires. I also 'bore out' the holes of my buzz blades before putting them on the bait to get that worn out squeak. And I score or scuff up the buzz blade tab and rivet flange for sound. And bend the buzz blade tab out a bit to maximize surface contact with the rivet.