Lure Tips

Watch My Lips 

The lip on a hard plastic lure determines the depth the lure is able to achieve, the width and frequency of the lure’s wiggle, and aids in snag avoidance. 

Lures designed to run very deep have long, wide lips that are oriented approximately in line with the fore/aft axis of the lure.  The lure shown is the Rebel Deep Wee-R.  For its size, it is a deep diving lure.   

 Lures designed to run very shallow have smaller lips that are installed at a steeper angle. The lure pictured below is the Rebel Wee-R.  The Wee-R has long been one of my favorite Bass lures.  It is no slouch as a Redfish catcher either.  It has a wide, flat lip with squared corners that keep it virtually snag free.  For saltwater use, remove the factory installed split-rings and hooks then replace them with stainless rings and saltwater resistant hooks.

Most modern lures have very strong lips that are seldom damaged.  Most early lures had metal lips that could get bent and out of alignment.  Lures like the Megabait Megadiver 25 and 30 have lips that are exceedingly tough.  Damage can still occur if you use the lip as a handle while unhooking a fish.  With the Megadiver, the lip is a molded extension of the lure body.

 

Chain Lure for Wahoo.

I’ve caught dozens, of Wahoo on this rig.  Wahoo like long lures that move fast.  The chain lure can be made as long as you might need to match the local baitfish.  I used 2 Mustad 34007 Size 12/0 Stainless Steel hooks with about 14” of chain to make this lure.  I carefully opened the eye of each hook and crimped it closed around a link in the chain.  Space the hooks so that one is far aft and the other is ~2” in front of the eye of the back hook. Choose chain links for the hooks that are oriented 90 degrees apart for a better hookup ratio.   I added a length of Surveyors flagging tape for added color. Hot pink has always been a favorite color for Wahoo. (At least for me)  The flagging tape is zig-zagged in and out of the links.   

I add a 3’ length of 49 Strand Aircraft Cable for a leader.  These lures are as close to indestructible as a lure can be.

Although I have no way of proving it, these lures must make a lot of noise as they skip in your wake at 12 or more knots.  My old Pacemaker cruised at 19kts and caught lots of Wahoo at that speed on these lures.  Big Dolphin were frequent catches too.

Chain Jig

Three or four links of chain Ty-wrapped to a hook will definitely catch Grouper.  Make one like the one I show below and try it, just for kicks.  If you are a “Doubting Thomas,” give it a try.  Pull one out when you have a crew aboard and say, “I’ll bet I can catch a Grouper on a piece of chain,” then catch one.

 

Easy Bonita Lure

Take a 2oz trolling sinker (cigar type)and remove the swivel from the fat end (if it has a fat end) Add a hook to the other end by opening the eye with your cutters and crimping it back closed over the wire loop on the sinker.

 

Next, scrape the lead with your pocket knife to make it sparkle. Tie it on to a short leader and you are ready to go. 

The baitfish are about 2-3" long right now so the sinker works fine. My Gulf Coaster works better but everybody don't have a box full of 'em on their boat like I do. 

Cast past the fish and reel as fast as possible. No sense casting if the fish are not bustin' on top. Wait for them to come up again. 

Trolling will work but casting is more fun and far more productive. 

I trolled a 16-32oz sinker just like this for thousands on miles when I was a kid fishing on the Gulf Pride.  I caught Kingfish, Wahoo, several species of Tuna, Barracuda, Dolphin and a Sailfish and White Marlin or two on nothing but a sinker and hook.

Flutter Spoons

The “Flutter Spoon” is a yankee lure, for sure but after Norm Dzkowski showed me one, the old “light bulb” lit up again.  As best I can remember, I never caught a fish on a Flutter Spoon but I’ve caught a bunch of Spanish Mackerel, Spade Fish and Mangrove Snapper that the Flutter Spoon attracted.  Here’s how.

 

I rig a Flutter Spoon about 18” in front of a Spanish Fly or a plain long shank hook baited with Mackerel belly strip or Bumper strip.  The Flutter Spoon gets their attention and activates the strip or fly.  In the illustration I used green mono rather than Fluorocarbon. 

I use the Flutter Spoon while at anchor about 90% of the time but it works well when drifting on a windy day.

 

Add Eyes for More Attraction

Do lures with eyes catch more fish?  Darned if I know but why not give them a try and find out for your self?  Witchcraft Tape Products produce “stick-on” eyes that adhere tightly to clean surfaces.  Take a look.

Add a Weed Guard to your Spoon

Some days weeds foul up your lures and your day.  When weeds are bad, you either move to another area or choose another method of fishing.  If you add a weed guard to your spoon, you can eliminate a lot of the problems. 

Here is how to do it with many single hook spoons.  Remove the nut and screw that holds the hook on.  In most cases, you will have to purchase a longer screw to accommodate the wire weed guard.  From the photo below, I think you will be able to figure out how to fabricate the wire guard.  I use #7 or #9 single strand leader wire.

 

 

Add a Tail to your Spoons

Some spoons work fine with a tail or trailer.  I’ve used a strip of Uncle Josh pork rind on spoons as far back as I can remember.  Take a look at the photo above.  The trailer is a pinch of Christmas Tree Tinsel wrapped on some soft stainless steel wire.  The spoon is a “King Spoon,” one of my favorites. 

Does the extra flash help? You’d better believe it!

 

Off Season Lure Care

I quit trolling for Grouper when the water gets too cold and take most of my lures off of the boat. I wash them in detergent and then Salt-X.  

Light scrubbing with Ajax removes rust from lures. Tarnish on spoons can be removed with a pencil eraser. Stainless steel spoons can be polished with 800grit wet or dry emery cloth.  A little Johnson's paste wax brings back the shine and preserves the finish on all lures.  I replace all split rings and hooks as needed. I plan to use all 150# test rings next season. 

Make sure everything is nice and dry before storing them.

 

Add a Little Fish Appeal to your Lures 

Here is a quick way to add a little color to your lures.  I've always liked lures with skirts or tails. The rub here is that some lures will not track properly with a skirt or tail. Vibrating lures like the Rattle Trap won't work with a skirt. The Stretch series can't handle much of anything behind them either.  

Cigar Minnows have yellow tails.   Why not spray paint the rear treble of your lures hot, fluorescent yellow? 

Cover the hook points with short lengths of plastic tubing to keep the paint off.  Spray with white primer--2 coats.

Spray with Fluorescent Yellow-2 coats.   After the hooks dry, spray with clear coat or use 2 part epoxy. As in all painting procedures, check for paint compatibility before painting.   Epoxy will work with darn near every paint and is very tough. Notice the short lengths of tubing in the pic below.  They were used to keep paint off the hook points.

Does this increase the lure's productivity? Darned if I know but it really shines in the water.

 

Bait Jig

Some folks tip a jig with a piece of fish or shrimp. It works best on certain styles of Jig heads. The “Banana” style jig head works best for me.

 

Baiting jigs that use plastic shrimp or grub tails causes the jig to twist and totally inhibits the action. A “Banana” head jig with a reversed bass style rubber (plastic) skirt works great with bait but I came up with a better rig a few years ago. I don’t know why I haven’t posted it here sooner. It is cheap, easy to make and incredibly effective. 

I make a truncated cone shaped skirt out of 4-6mil plastic. (Visqueen works fine) I size the skirt to fit the jig and tie the skirt on facing the front of the jig then turn it back down over the wrappings. This leaves sort of a hollow core that protects the bait from Pinfish but allows the smell to get out. It also protects the wrapping thread from Blowfish. I generally use my Snell Knot with 30# mono in place of thread when wrapping these jigs because it is faster and stronger than most fly tying methods. 

You can get the plastic skirt material in many colors. A heavy duty gallon Zip-Lok Bag™ will make a dozen or more skirts. Colored pennants used at car dealerships come in many colors including silver and gold metallics.

 

Using Live Bait on a Jig Head 

If you hook a live bait upside down on a jig head, the bait fish fights hard to right himself.  The extra commotion the bait makes gets extra bites.  I’m using a soft plastic minnow in this illustration but I bait the same way with a live minnow.

 

Walk Your Dog Easier

I never heard the term "Walking the Dog" when I was a kid but I darn sure practiced it with "stick baits" of the day which included Zaras. Mono was never used on bait casters of the day. We used "Black Silk," actually a braided Nylon. No leader, just tie to the lure.  

Nylon is slightly heavier than water so it sinks.  As it sinks, it drags your lure toward you, something that you don't want to happen when "Walking the Dog." Additionally, when the line sinks, you have a belly in it that slows up hook sets. 

We had a simple solution. We greased the first 10' of line (while it was dry) with fly line dressing or in a pinch, with candle wax. 

Mono was a pain in the butt to "Walk the Dog" with because it sank and wouldn't hold fly-line floatant for any period. 

With your line floating, you can twitch the lure slightly and hardly move it toward you at all.  This works great with Power-Pro.

My Dad was a master with the Creek Chub Darter and Dalton Special. He always greased his line. When his line started to sink after hours of fishing, he'd hook his plug on the front seat of the boat, apply a lot of tension and "Strum" the line. The vibration would sort of flip out entrapped water.  Next, he'd apply more fly line floatant and go back to casting. 

I think Dad picked up this from Percy Johnson.  Percy was a great Bass fisherman and the World's Sling Shot Champion.

 

Bulb Squid.  Toughen ‘em Up.

Bulb Squid, Tube Lures and Hoochies are similar and can be used in the same manner. They are fantastic with a Bonita strip but you can make them better with a little bit of RTV or Silicone Caulk.

These lures often split at the top of the head where the leader enters. A quick and easy solution is to insert a short length of an old brass tube ball point pen refill or plastic tubing right where your leader should enter.

Here is the easy way to do it and assure that the tube stays straight. Find a nail that will just fit inside the tubing and clamp it in a vise. Alternatively, you can drive it through a thin plank. Slide your tubing on to the nail. Turn the skirt inside out all the way to within an inch of so of the top of the head and push it down onto the nail/tube. Fill the inside portion of the skirt with RTV and allow it to harden.  The larger Bulb Squid will take several days to harden because the RTV requires air to harden.

These rigs troll perfectly and are a lot tougher than the original product.  Fish hold on to them well because they are soft and chewy.

 

 Experiment with Color

Dip gold hooks in red "Spike-It Blade Dip." The Gold hooks really sparkle through the red coloring.

Some folks swear by the bleeding hooks on Sabiki Rigs. One bottle of Spike-It will color at least a thousand hooks. It wears off after a while but you can quickly re-coat your hooks. The stuff dries in seconds.

If you want to do a little experimenting, use waterproof felt tip pens in various colors and color some hooks to see which color works best in your area. The gold hooks shine right through.

Spike-It costs about $3.95 at K-Mart or Bass Pro.

 

Spinners in the Salt

When choosing spinners for salt water, the first and most important consideration has to be blade material.  Plated steel blades just don’t cut it in the salty.  The easiest way to assure you aren’t buying steel blades is to take a magnet to the store with you.  If the magnet picks up the blade, you definitely do not want it.  Brass is the material to choose. 

 Blade shape is important for a couple of reasons.  First, long, narrow blades (Willow Leaf style) require more speed for them to spin.  Will Leaf Spinners spin close to the shaft and are, likely the quietest blades.  I use Willow Leaf Blades when I fish deep or for faster trolling.  They create a lot less drag hence they allow deeper and faster trolling.

Willowleaf, Indiana, Colorado

The next style is the Indiana Spinner.  This blade is tear drop shaped and spins slower and further from the shaft than Willow Leaf Blades.  Indiana’s give your rod’s tip a distinct throb as they spin.  The Indiana blade is probably the most versatile blade.  In all cases, I prefer hammered finish blades. 

The first spinner blade was very similar to today’s Colorado blade.  This blade is nearly circular.  The Colorado is the slowest turning spinner and the easiest to start.  Colorado spinners produce a strong vibration and a lot of drag.  I like to use single spins with a #4 Colorado blade for Trippletails.  Add a chunk of cut bait to a single spin, cast close to a channel marker and allow the lure to sink along side it.  Trippletails are not especially bright and don’t seem to mind the hardware.  I’ve watched them munch on the spinner for several seconds, spit it out then take it again. 

Spinner baits can be “in-line” where the blade revolves around a central shaft, “Over arm” where the blade revolves on a shaft that extends above the lure body or revolves on a swivel above the lure body or rigged as a “Tail-spin where the blade is behind the lure body.  There are many variations of each of these.

Inline spinner

Tail Spin

Over Arm spinner

A light “Over-arm” spinner, rigged with a #4 Colorado blade can be reeled right over shallow oyster bars with no snagging.  Light over-arm spinners are a great choice for Redfish, especially when used with a chunk of mullet. 

My “Grouper-Fly” is nothing but a 12oz “tail-spin” rigged to run hook-up so that it bounces over rocks when trolled. 

Spinners attract many species of fish in fresh or salt water.  Rig a spinner several inches in front of a live bait and you will get more bites for some species.  Vibrations given off by spinners, call up the fish.