Frankenlures?

[rboat]

An earlier thread got me wondering, do you have any lures you have modified or put 2 lures together and came up with a true fish catcher? A couple years ago I was adding a trick worm to my spinnerbait and the catch rate was on fire. Now they do not look at it. 😒 When I was a kid my father grabbed a lure out of his old triple tier stepped tackle box. Instead of 1 lure there was a tangled mess of about 3 lures. He decided to tie it on anyway since they were very stuck together. 1st cast he nailed a 3 pounder, and the gob of lures was still stuck together. We laughed about that one for years. You guys got any MacGyver lures you care to share with the class?

[king fisher]

When I was 14 years old, one winter I got bored and with a soldering iron, attached curly tail worm tails to a ribbon tail worm making a multi tailed, monster that looked  similar to a modern brush hog.  This was in the winter of 1977 long before creature baits were on the market.  Unfortunately when the ice melted, and the bass started biting, I never even tried my new creature bait.  Spinnerbaits were working that spring, and as summer came along, I fished topwater and crankbaits.  I always tell friends I invented the creature bait, but never got any credit, bass, or money for my invention.  I also drilled holes and put BB. in some of my plugs that winter.  They weren't the first rattling crankbaits, but I had the only Arbogaster, and Hot n tot with rattles I have ever seen.  I am glad I now live where there is no frozen water in the winter.  I no longer get bored and ruin perfectly good lures waiting for the snow and ice to melt.  

[Bankc]

One of my more successful lures over the years has been the jig and lizard.  Cut the head off a 6" zoom lizard and rig it up on the jig like a trailer.  Not terribly creative, but I've caught a ton of fish that way. 

 

One time I made a spoon out of an actual spoon.  But then I took the handle that I cutoff from the spoon and put a twist in the middle so it would spin in the water.  It looked good swimming in the water, but it got snagged and I lost it on like the third cast.  So I never caught anything with it, and never tried to make another. 

 

I also made a soft plastic mold using a masonry drill bit as the model.  I've caught quite a few fish on those.  I've even worn out the mold and had to remake it once already. 

 

And I've made a few chatterbait lips for of crappie marabou jigs.  They work about as well as the big, store bought ones, which isn't all that great in my opinion. 

 

I also made up a Carolina rig, only with a tube at the back, and packed it with Styrofoam so it would float.  Kind of like a drop shot, but in reverse.  If I ever got bit with it, I never felt it.  So that was a dud. 

 

And I've tied a crappie sized swimbait (a 1/8oz. jig head with a soft plastic boot tail body) up about a foot in front of a larger bass sized soft swimbait.  Used a palomar knot for the crappie swimbait like you would a dropshot.  Haven't really had any luck with that one either.  But I feel like it's got more potential than I've given it. 

 

I don't know if any of those qualify as true Frankenlures, but those are the first ones that come to mind. 

[DaubsNU1]

My Brother does this a lot. Especially in preparation for our trip to Canada to chase pike.

 

I do not think he caught any fish on his "franken-lures," but it sure was fun watching him design, build, and fish them.

 

Good luck!!

[PaulVE64]

Every Pike and a few 'eyes have given me back frankenlures.

Tubes and spinners mostly mangled and gashed up. Its horrific to behold.

[LrgmouthShad]

No I don't do anything crazy. A guy years ago on Badin in NC told me I should try a carolina-rigged crankbait. Since then, I've seen a few members on here say it is legit. That includes Glenn if I remember correct. So, I don't think it is a gimmick.

[VTFan]

I was cleaning out my tackle bag one day and found the broken halves of two plastic stick worms.  One was a red shad color, the other was baby bass. So...I got the idea to meld to two halves together using my lighter. The next time out the bass were killing it fished wacky style! Then the question was, which color do they really like, the red shad or baby bass. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[papajoe222]

Back in the early 70's, there were articles in 'Fishing Facts' about making and using creature baits (there weren't any mass produced ones available then). I figured, why not and attached two worms together at a 90 degree angle. The resulting 'creature' caught a ton of fish, but twisted my line badly, to the point that I stopped making and using them.  I've done some other lure modifications since, but the only one I still do is tune crankbaits to run to the right or left, for dock fishing.

[scaleface]

I once put a small Johnson Silver Minnow inside a tube and skipped it under boat docks. Didnt catch a fish but it skipped great.

[Zcoker]

I made my own Frankenstein musky Jitterbugs Lol. The original wooden ones are insanely priced, so I just made my own out of aromatic cedar. Cost me next to nothing but a bit of time. They're much bigger with nasty BKK saltwater Fang hooks and "tuned" to perfection. Tuning is by raising and forming the front cup to get the sound just right. Tuning also effects the wobble in the rear. They're been through the test with some giant bass and are holding up surprisingly well. The swim is impressive. Only the biggest bass grab it! 

 

 

 

[rboat]

As a kid I grew up in an area where each fall was pheasant hunting. I was too young to shoot, but thought the rooster pheasants had beautiful feathers. One day I took a large split shot, stuck a hook and some colorful pheasant feathers in it and mashed it together to make a jig. It caught several fish of different species before I lost it to a snag. Never made another, cause I started purchasing lures with my allowance and odd jobs, back when tackle was cheap.

[Bankc]

19 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

No I don't do anything crazy. A guy years ago on Badin in NC told me I should try a carolina-rigged crankbait. Since then, I've seen a few members on here say it is legit. That includes Glenn if I remember correct. So, I don't think it is a gimmick.

In the old days, I used to hear of people tying on a spoon and a crankbait to get the crankbait down deeper.  I think they used a 3-way swivel and a longer leader for one than the other so they don't get tangled.  I feel like it was a trolling thing. 

 

I seem to have a memory of doing that once, but I can't trust that I didn't just see a video of someone else doing it or something.  It's a pretty fuzzy memory. 

[Fishingmickey]

I use large deep diving crankbaits for a "poor mans" down rigger.  A couple of the San Antonio lakes are stocked with Redfish. Trolling/downrigging has been the common method guides have used for catching them.  18 to 25' is about the normal depth I try to fish.

    I like to use The larger deep divers and remove the hooks. I tie about 5-6' of 20lb Mono or Fluoro leader to the middle hook attachment point. I usually use Storm swim shad in the 1/8 or 1/4 oz on the business end of the leader.   I run 30# braid from the rod to the deep diver. The deep diver is usually a 6XD or DD22.  I find that the thin braid really helps get the crank bait deep and the crank bait really imparts some excellent attraction and vibration to the swim bait. 

FM

[J Francho]

@LrgmouthShad not exactly a c-rig crankbait, but I have pegged a bullet weight to get a crank to go deeper than its normal running depth. Look up "jacking a crankbait" as it's pretty similar to what I was doing. 

[Koz]

Shaky shot. A combination shaky head and drop shot.

 

Next up is trying a Carolina shot.

[TheSwearingAngler]

The drop dead ned… it’s a dropshot with a ned rig as the weight.. it’s fun when they hit guessing which of the 2 presentations they went for.