What are your bait/technique tweaks

[RDB]

I enjoy playing around with different tweaks to see if it has an impact on lure effectiveness and was wondering what tweaks others have found effective (I’m always looking for ideas).  I know @A-Jay is a fan of red front hooks and I recently added to some of my jerkbaits to test it out.  More recently, I have started playing around with using a rubber threader to add skirt material to wacky rigs and have also made some Tokyo rigs with longer wire drop arms.  The other technique thing I tried last trip was kind of a spin on a Carolina rig (I’m sure it has a name).  I used a 1/2oz weight with a bobber stop 3-4 feet above and a very small swivel to a 6” leader with a floating wacky rigged worm.  When I would feel changes in bottom composition, I would keep the bait in that spot and work it vertically by allowing slack.  It wasn’t really a dragging type day, so for me, the jury is still out.  What have you all tried that you have found effective?

[casts_by_fly]

Adding heavier and/or feathered trebles to walking baits. Heavier rear treble will cause it to sit vertical in the water and jump up and out at times. The feathered treble is for spookier fish or fish just not quite there to chase. 

[crypt]

added small willow blades to the back of my worms years ago. now everyone uses them. still do it to this day though.

[RDB]

28 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

Adding heavier and/or feathered trebles to walking baits. Heavier rear treble will cause it to sit vertical in the water and jump up and out at times. The feathered treble is for spookier fish or fish just not quite there to chase. 

I agree…I am a fan of both the Lucky Craft Sammy & Gunfish, as well as the Evergreen JT and they all sit nose up as well. Outside of some of the larger pencil poppers, those are my go-to top waters.

[Captain Phil]

About 80% of my summer bass fishing is done flipping and pitching.  I started this about 25 years ago when we moved to Central Florida. I am always looking for ways to improve and recently fell into something that has made a real difference for me.  One of the problems with this style of fishing is hooking fish.   No matter how careful I am, it seems the hook sometimes misses the fish.   I have lost some large fish in this way.  Switching to braid made a significant difference.  Our water is murky and the fish are in deep cover, so I don't use a leader.  The big change was in the knot I use to tie on the hook. I use what Roland Martin calls a nine times Snell knot.  Roland has a video on YouTube called "The Perfect Setup for Pitching and Flipping" that shows this knot and what it does.  Using this knot makes the hook always turn up in the perfect angle for penetration.  When I watched it the first time, I couldn't believe I missed this all those years. It sticks the fish first time ever time.  Try it and see what you think. 

[RDB]

17 minutes ago, crypt said:

added small willow blades to the back of my worms years ago. now everyone uses them. still do it to this day though.

I bought some screw lock willows to do just that but never remember to try.  I’ll have to add it to the list.  
 

The other thing I found interesting but haven’t tried is adding a willow to the line in front of a regular sized swimbait.  There is a Japanese company that sells them and they come on a tab and slip on your line like a bobber stopper.  I saw a few Japanese videos where they say it presents a look like a bait fish chasing a smaller baitfish.

9 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

About 80% of my summer bass fishing is done flipping and pitching.  I started this about 25 years ago when we moved to Central Florida. I am always looking for ways to improve and recently fell into something that has made a real difference for me.  One of the problems with this style of fishing is hooking fish.   No matter how careful I am, it seems the hook sometimes misses the fish.   I have lost some large fish in this way.  Switching to braid made a significant difference.  Our water is murky and the fish are in deep cover, so I don't use a leader.  The big change was in the knot I use to tie on the hook. I use what Roland Martin calls a nine times Snell knot.  Roland has a video on this knot on YouTube.  Using this knot makes the hook always turn up in the perfect angle for penetration.  When I watched it the first time, I couldn't believe I missed this all those years. It sticks the fish first time ever time.  Try it and see what you think. 

I will absolutely check it out.  The only time I use a snell knot when I use a flippin’ hook but I’m not familiar with the nine times knot.

[Mobasser]

Carefully bending the lip on a Jitterbug, to get the best sound and action

[Mike L]

I add a spinner blade to the shaft of the hook when using a paddle tail swim bait in very murky water. (Gambler produces a pre made one called the “Duz-It”)

 

Sometimes I’ll add a spinner blade to the back of a stick bait when swimming horizontally. 

(Profound Outdoors produces a pre made one, but don’t recall what they call it.)
 

Aways use a red front treble on jointed wake baits, traps and jerks while also always adding a feathered one to jerks only. 

 

Reverse the front blade on prop baits. 
(Experimenting now with reversing the rear only, that was told to me by a pro while marshaling an Elite event.)
 

Always have used a Snell Knot for all bottom contact plastic presentations. 
 

Sometimes I will use a razor and split the tail of a paddle tail worm. 
 

Sometimes I will leave the tag attached on a Rage Cut R. 
 

Bend the blade a little on a buzz bait for added noise. 
 

 

 

Mike
 

 

 

 

 

30 minutes ago, RDB said:

I bought some screw lock willows to do just that but never remember to try.  I’ll have to add it to the list.  
 

The other thing I found interesting but haven’t tried is adding a willow to the line in front of a regular sized swimbait.  There is a Japanese company that sells them and they come on a tab and slip on your line like a bobber stopper.  I saw a few Japanese videos where they say it presents a look like a bait fish chasing a smaller baitfish.

Gambler sells one called the Duz-It

I use it all the time and it works 

 

 

 

 

Mike

39 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

About 80% of my summer bass fishing is done flipping and pitching.  I started this about 25 years ago when we moved to Central Florida. I am always looking for ways to improve and recently fell into something that has made a real difference for me.  One of the problems with this style of fishing is hooking fish.   No matter how careful I am, it seems the hook sometimes misses the fish.   I have lost some large fish in this way.  Switching to braid made a significant difference.  Our water is murky and the fish are in deep cover, so I don't use a leader.  The big change was in the knot I use to tie on the hook. I use what Roland Martin calls a nine times Snell knot.  Roland has a video on this knot on YouTube.  Using this knot makes the hook always turn up in the perfect angle for penetration.  When I watched it the first time, I couldn't believe I missed this all those years. It sticks the fish first time ever time.  Try it and see what you think. 

There are many ways to tie a Snell. 
Rolands is the easiest and fastest but for some reason I keep twisting too much. 
 

The one I’ve used for years is where the main line is laid on the shaft. 
 

(Best knot for all bottom contact)
 

 

 

 

Mike

[Mike L]

1 hour ago, crypt said:

added small willow blades to the back of my worms years ago. now everyone uses them. still do it to this day though.

Profound Outdoors sells one pre made but don’t remember what they call it. 
 

Some days it makes all the difference. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[Captain Phil]

56 minutes ago, RDB said:

I will absolutely check it out.  The only time I use a snell knot when I use a flippin’ hook but I’m not familiar with the nine times knot.

 

Roland's method is easy enough to tie.   Pretty much any snell knot will do the same thing.  It's the way the snelled hook reacts behind a concave end bullet weight.  He shows you this in his video and it's eye opening.  I wondered if it would make a difference with a live fish?   It does.  

[Deleted account]

14 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

I wondered if it would make a difference with a live fish?   It does.  

Seeing that's where snelling came from, yeah...

 

[T-Billy]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

About 80% of my summer bass fishing is done flipping and pitching.  I started this about 25 years ago when we moved to Central Florida. I am always looking for ways to improve and recently fell into something that has made a real difference for me.  One of the problems with this style of fishing is hooking fish.   No matter how careful I am, it seems the hook sometimes misses the fish.   I have lost some large fish in this way.  Switching to braid made a significant difference.  Our water is murky and the fish are in deep cover, so I don't use a leader.  The big change was in the knot I use to tie on the hook. I use what Roland Martin calls a nine times Snell knot.  Roland has a video on YouTube called "The Perfect Setup for Pitching and Flipping" that shows this knot and what it does.  Using this knot makes the hook always turn up in the perfect angle for penetration.  When I watched it the first time, I couldn't believe I missed this all those years. It sticks the fish first time ever time.  Try it and see what you think. 

I use braid and a snelled straight shank for nearly all my Trig fishin. Easy to tie, fantastic hooking and landing percentage, comes through cover better than other hooks,and your trig lands upright everytime. I use the snell Tharp shows here. Easy to tie with just a little practice, and it's never once failed me.

 

[RDB]

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

Reverse the front blade on prop baits. 
(Experimenting now with reversing the rear only, that was told to me by a pro while marshaling an Elite event.)

I know prop baits are big and Florida but I have never really thrown them, so I picked up a few Lucky Craft Kelly-J’s and a Crazy Ace a few weeks ago.  I never would have thought about reversing.  How does it change the action?
 

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

Sometimes I will use a razor and split the tail of a paddle tail worm. 

Never done this either.  Do you split just the paddle part?  Since each side has half a paddle, does it just produce random movement.

 

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

Sometimes I will leave the tag attached on a Rage Cut R. 

I’ve done this a number of times but it wasn’t intentional.

 

2 hours ago, RDB said:

The other thing I found interesting but haven’t tried is adding a willow to the line in front of a regular sized swimbait.

Here is a pic of the willow blade attached to the line.  Decoy is the seller.

 

 

[Mike L]

13 minutes ago, RDB said:

I know prop baits are big and Florida but I have never really thrown them, so I picked up a few Lucky Craft Kelly-J’s and a Crazy Ace a few weeks ago.  I never would have thought about reversing.  How does it change the action?

 

 

By revering the rear blade it makes the bait dig rear down when twitching. 
The overall action doesn’t change that much but did have a different side action and just an overall different look when he was working it. 
I haven’t tried it yet but as I said, my pro that day swears by it. 
 

Revering the front blades makes it spit much more. 
 

19 minutes ago, RDB said:

 

Never done this either.  Do you split just the paddle part?  Since each side has half a paddle, does it just produce random movement.

 

What I do is split the flat paddle to where it meets the worm itself, then cut each side about 1/16”   
Now I just made a poor man’s speed worm, that I can rig 2 ways for different actions depending on how I rig it. 
 

 

23 minutes ago, RDB said:

 

I’ve done this a number of times but it wasn’t intentional.

 

Keep in mind the Cut R wasn’t designed to be fished with the tab, it’s there to keep the tail straight in the package. 
Big O, the designer of it was pretty clear about that. 
 

But I found by leaving it on, it ever so gently slows down the tail speed while at the same time the tag is wiggling…

Just another look. 
 

 

34 minutes ago, RDB said:

 

Here is a pic of the willow blade attached to the line.  Decoy is the seller.

 

 

I heard about doing that but never tried it. 
Do you get any miss hits with the blade in that position??

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Mike L]

@RDB

One thing I forgot…I don’t have both blades reversed one bait. 
I only have 3..One with the front reversed and one with the rear reversed and one as it came. 
 

Looks matter when it matters how it looks. 
 

 

 

Mike

[RDB]

10 minutes ago, Mike L said:

I heard about doing that but never tried it. 
Do you get any miss hits with the blade in that position??

I haven’t tried it either.  It’s one of a number of things I have bought to try out but always forget about when I get to the lake.  There is really no need to purchase the kit…it’s just a willow blade on a split ring attached to a swivel and held in place with 2 bobber stoppers…super easy DIY.  I don’t have one in front of me but the blade is small…I would guess a #3.

[RDB]

3 hours ago, Mike L said:

Reverse the front blade on prop baits. 

One last question.  When I was researching prop baits, my memory is that one of the complaints on some brands was that the spinning of the blades would cause the blade to work free and result in lost blades if you didn’t watch closely.  When you flip the blade, does it re-seat fairly tightly or do you use something to lock it in place?

[Mike L]

31 minutes ago, RDB said:

One last question.  When I was researching prop baits, my memory is that one of the complaints on some brands was that the spinning of the blades would cause the blade to work free and result in lost blades if you didn’t watch closely.  When you flip the blade, does it re-seat fairly tightly or do you use something to lock it in place?

I’ve never had that happen, nor have they come lose after I’ve turned them. 
They retighten easy enough. 
Just make sure you put the cap on first. 
 

I suppose you could put some type of sealant if it did. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Captain Phil]

My goto prop bait is a Devil's Horse.  There are many small modifications that anglers have done to these baits over the years.  The Devil's Horse is made of wood and has soft tin blades that are easy to bend and shape.  For years people have been changing the pitch of the blades.  You can affect the movement and action of the bait in this way.   You can actually reverse the pitch of the blades without removing the front and rear screws.   Be careful when removing these screws as water can get into the hole causing the screw to pull out or split the bait.  Another thing you can do is change the hooks.  I use #6 Gamakatsu hooks on mine.  If you change the back hook to a #4, the bait nose will tilt up and the rear blade will throw more water.  Some people put split rings on the hooks.  I don't as this can cause the hooks to tangle.  These baits work best with heavier line as the front blade will tangle if the line is too thin.   Another reason to use heavy line is the Devil's Horse is a big fish bait that needs to be thrown in and around cover.  There is very little you can do to a Devil's Horse that won't catch fish.   It pays to experiment.