Modifying Lures?

[Bazoo]

I have seen mention made by many folks here that they exchange the hooks on lures they buy (why, if it's got a sharp hook, is beyond me), but anwyays, I never see anyone mention modification of lures.

 

I was listening to Jimmy Houston's Catch a Better Life channel and he mentioned modifying lures.

 

First, he mentioned removing about 30% of the strands from swimbait skirts, and named a pro that taught him this (I don't remember who).

 

Second he said he'll take a jerkbait and scratch the paint up to make it mottled, then bend the tie loop up so it won't dive very far.

 

I got to thinking, I don't ever hear yall mention doing this. Is this sort of thing common and just not spoken about? Do the pros do it regularly?

[scaleface]

I like to rough up tubes with my fingers real good, a Randy Blauket hack. Then I keep that tube on until it literally cant be used anymore. The more chewed up it is , the better it works, at least thats the way it seems.

[PaulVE64]

With the plethora of lures out there you can almost always find what you want.

Also I think almost everyone does "adjust" their lures. Removing strands, cutting them short, cutting and bending weed quards.

Many times I've adjusted a line tie to make the bait track better.

And I will bet you that every pro modifies their lures.

[GreenPig]

I'll add lead wire to cranks to make them slow risers or suspenders, lead wire to jerkbaits when I want slow sinkers. Roughly half of my glides and multi jointed swimbaits get a weight adjustment. Jig skirts get various adjustments too.

[Pat Brown]

Oh my goodness yes.  Buzzbaits and Frogs get lots of modifications.

 

Making the blades squeal more, adding holes, changing the angle of the bends on the blades, bending the hooks out on frogs, replacing frog skirts with worms and other such things, adding trailer hooks, adding trailers, subbing big blades onto small buzzbaits and small blades onto big buzzbaits, adding bends to the buzzbait wire to change the hook gap, changing skirts, coloring the frogs or buzzbaits with markers to more closely resemble forage etc etc etc etc.

[gim]

@Team9nine probably mangled up a small piece of elaztech when he set a record. That would be referred to as “natural modification.”

[LrgmouthShad]

I modify many lures in some fashion. 

Don’t even get me started on spinnerbaits 

[WRB]

Tinkering ( modifying) with bass lures is a common practice. 
Adding colors to lures is probably the #1 modification. Tunning the lures is #2 as few come out of the box with the action we are looking. #3 is changing hooks size, color, style and adding dressing like feathers.

#4 changing ROF (sink rate) by adding weight.

#5 changing sound like running silent or adding rattles,

Very few bass anglers use a lure out of the box, tinkering is a big part of bass fishing.

Tom

[Bazoo]

Thanks all for sharing. This is of interest to me, because most of the time I use a lure as it is. Of course I'll bend the eyelet on a crankbait to get it run straight, and I do open up the hooks on frogs... but other than those things, I pretty much use everything as it comes out of the package.

[Sasquatch]

Watch the Miliken video on modifying some of the cheaper glides, been doing that for a while. 

[geo g]

Fun tactics I have tried!

 

1).Hard jerkbaits, I will change treble hooks to bigger ones..

2). If they have three, I will remove the middle one, and just use the two big trebles.

3}. In very weedy areas I have removed all trebles and changed to a #4 WGH with a weed guard.  No trebles!

4. With tubes and a Carolina Rig, I pack the hollow body tube with  styrofoam. Then Texas rig through the styrofoam and tube.  Floats nice and high behind the big weight.  Will dance in place with the  slightest shake.
5).Plastics I bite a chunk off the original to get a clean head when it's torn up, or just to down size the bait.

6). A floating broken back rapala, I have taken the back half off and replaced the back half with a texas rigged grub, no treble hooks.    Great top water in matted vegetation. 

7).Ran out of Zoom Flukes, noses all torn up.  Wacky rigged them and the bite was back strong!

8). I have put a Clouse Fly Jig a foot behind a floating rapala.  I have caught bass on the Jig.

9). Ran out of bullet weights, so I hit the wife's sewing kit and found beads of all different colors, and the catch was good, saved the day.  Add a little color!

10). Sometimes experimenting is just a blast!!!!!!!!!

 

[scaleface]

One night I could not catch a bass on a buzzbait, although I was getting hits regularly .   I took some needle nose pliers and bent the wire frame in a stair step fashion "Cavitron style" and started hooking up . The bait was riding slightly deeper. I now do that to all my buzzbaits since I pour my own . I believe I get a higher percentage of hookups. I made a jig to bend the wires to keep them straight. Its just two nails in a 2x4.

[Pat Brown]

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

One night I could not catch a bass on a buzzbait, although I was getting hits regularly .   I took some needle nose pliers and bent the wire frame in a stair step fashion "Cavitron style" and started hooking up . The bait was riding slightly deeper. I now do that to all my buzzbaits since I pour my own . I believe I get a higher percentage of hookups. I made a jig to bend the wires to keep them straight. Its just two nails in a 2x4.

 

 

Fish also are more apt to snarf that lower hanging fruit quite literally.

[king fisher]

Ever since I was a kid I have had the exceptional ability's to take a lure that catches fish daily, and by modifying it make the very same lure never get another bite.  When I modify a lure, it is impossible to bring the lure back to its original fish catching form. 

[Zcoker]

I modify most all my lures, that or just build them myself. The right sound/vibration at night gets the big strikes, so tuning the lures just right makes modifications mandatory. Sometimes I need to build lures from the ground up, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, buzzbaits, jitterbugs, etc. Hooks/split rings get upped in size relative to the bucket mouths that I'm after. Blades get changed and tuned. Super strong saltwater hardware comes into play, BKK Fangs. Strong trailer hooks go on everything with a fail safe keeper system. Often I need to make the lures much stronger because the fish that I'm catching are 8 plus pounds. Fish like that will make short work out of cheap hooks, flimsy split rings, and so forth. A store bought lure will rear it's ugly faults with any giant everglades bass!

[Swamp Girl]

54 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Ever since I was a kid I have had the exceptional ability's to take a lure that catches fish daily, and by modifying it make the very same lure never get another bite.  When I modify a lure, it is impossible to bring the lure back to its original fish catching form. 

 

Your humility and humor shine and shine.

[king fisher]

My first attempt at modifying lures took place in the winter of 1977.  I lived in Eastern WA and all the lakes were froze solid.  I had read every bass fishing article from every magazine I could get my hands on.  Hunting season was over, so I was getting cabin fever in the worst way.

 

One day I decided to see if I could modify some plastic worms I had bought.  I may have invented the first creature bait, but my experiment never got past the experimental stage.  I had a pack of ribbon tail worms, that I had never caught anything on.  At the same time Mister Twister had came out with a soft plastic they called a centipede.  The adds for this new plastic were in all of the magazines.  Of course I wasn't able to buy any of these new lures where I lived so I decided I would make a similar lure only better.  I cut the ribbon tail off of two worms, and used a soldering gun to weld the tails to a intact ribbon tail worm.  The result was what I called a three tail monster.  A few days later I decided to add two more tails further up the worm body, making a real dinosaur of a bait.

 

I was sure this would be the ultimate soft plastic.  I had never had luck with worms, and was convinced they didn't have enough action.  I was sure this new creation would have action in spades.  O course it got the bath tub test and yes all of those appendages created an irresistible disturbance in the water.  I even envisioned using it as a surface lure.

 

Finally spring came and I tried my new creation at the lake.  My friend took one look at the lure and laughed.  I made a few casts and didn't get bit.  I never caught anything on my proven old standby lures that day, but the ridicule from my buddy was enough to shelve the creature bait project for good.

 

I also ruined a productive Arobogaster, and a perfectly functional Hot N Tot that winter drilling holes in them trying to add rattles.  I was able to get the baits to rattle, but they never swam true.  

 

I never gave up attempting to modify baits, but success has been rare.  I am certain my first creature bait would have worked, but it was years before I ever caught a bass on any soft plastic, so my confidence level in the bait was zero.  If I had gone fishing with a more open minded friend that spring day, and a big bass would have hit my creation, I may own my own soft plastics company by now, but Peer pressure and cold high water in the spring, may have cost me a fortune.  Maybe I still have time to hit on the next great thing or at least ruin more lures.

[Mike L]

One of the most effective mods I’ve ever done I got from my pro at an Elite event I Marshalled for….

Reverse the front blade of a prop bait!

 

Others…

*Leave the extra plastic in place on a Rage Cut R that holds the tail section. 
*Add dye to the end of a stick bait (both ends in unusually stained water)

*Change the front treble hook to a one size larger red one on walking top waters, jerks, cranks and light traps 

*Add feathered hooks to all jerks and walking top waters. 
* Shorten 1 side of the 2 strand frog legs if it doesn’t walk in place enough 

(Not needed for the original Scum Frog)

 

Etc

Etc

 

 

Mike

[Zcoker]

Here's an example of some creative lure modification....modifying a small 4in lure that is normally a lite tackle minnow lure into an all out monster getter.  400lb #19 stainless thru wire threaded by hand from nose to belly to tail. This lure has produced 180lb tarpon off the beach....no boat to chase them down, all tackle and two feet. I call it the BEAST! 

 

[Munkin]

16 hours ago, scaleface said:

One night I could not catch a bass on a buzzbait, although I was getting hits regularly .   I took some needle nose pliers and bent the wire frame in a stair step fashion "Cavitron style" and started hooking up . The bait was riding slightly deeper. I now do that to all my buzzbaits since I pour my own . I believe I get a higher percentage of hookups. I made a jig to bend the wires to keep them straight. Its just two nails in a 2x4.

 

Do you have any pics you want to share?

 

I used to modify spinnerbaits and jigs all the time. Figured out it was just easier to build them the way I wanted than to modify.

 

Allen

[FishTank]

This thread reminds me that once a year or so I let loose of an idea or lure that has brought in some good ones. So here you go....

 

3in Megabass Hazedong Shad in Ghost Shad (this color is the one to use) colored with Dip It Markers. I have several weird combos but at the moment this is the one.

 

 

[scaleface]

18 hours ago, Munkin said:

 

Do you have any pics you want to share?

 

I used to modify spinnerbaits and jigs all the time. Figured out it was just easier to build them the way I wanted than to modify.

 

Allen

I bend it before adding the blade to keep it flat.

[fin]

 

😄😄

 

 

[Bird]

There was a guy on here several months ago that removed ALL the hooks from his baits and fished with them 😳....... and posted about his experience. 

 

I bend frog hooks, adjust blades on Devil's horse and trim jig skirts, that's about it.

[Munkin]

On 6/1/2024 at 4:42 PM, scaleface said:

I bend it before adding the blade to keep it flat.

 

Thanks for sharing this! I have hand bent some like this in the past just never figured out how to do it consistently. Now I can get them made however I want if I order 5-10k frames.

 

Allen