Beating the Winter Doldrums

At least once in a while during the off season months there isn't a football game worth watching, there are no sport shows to go see, the weather is crummy and nothing in the refrigerator looks interesting. Let's face it, this could be a long weekend. Well fear not. I have a solution. If you are really serious about finding a weekend project, this idea may even last you more than one weekend. In fact, you might get so entranced that this could consume your whole winter. The anticipation of hurrying home after work to see if your mail order arrived so you can plan out this coming weekend may soon become a reality.

We have all heard about keeping your hooks sharpened. There are a number of sharpening devices on the market and you probably have a couple around. One that I have found very efficient is a pair of 5/32 chain saw files. Seat these in a wood file handle and tape the ends together. This will fit in the tackle box or in the boat for quick touch ups. But, have you considered pinching your hook barbs down and going barbless this summer? While you're at it you should consider carefully bending your hooks out on a treble. The advantage here is that you will slightly increase your hooking percentages.

Pick up a roll of Velcro tape with the adhesive back. Using the looped surface (as opposed to the hooked surface) stick a small piece on your favorite lures. Placement is pretty much a matter of personal preference. Consider under lips, on the belly, under tails,

as long as it doesn't inhibit the lure action. There has been quite a bit of research done on "Chemoreception" or what makes a fish strike. Fish attractants are a large market today. Not only do they have products to remove scents that repel fish, there are a myriad of products available to choose from. It is all based upon a fishes' ability to detect specific odors. The fishes ability is extremely acute, especially in water which intensifies this smell. The key words here are "strategic dispersion" or using a product which will create a potent smell path. Whatever you decided to use the Velcro will help hold this product longer than just applying it to a smooth plastic or wood body of your lure.

Along a similar line is the addition of prism tape to your lures. This will create a great deal of flash to assist a fish in finding your lure. The light gathering ability of prism tape will enhance your lure in the water. Use the prism tape on your bucktail blades too. Before I leave this discussion, take a look at repainting your worn out lures with some "glitter" in clear gloss glaze finish. This too will add the flash you might be looking for. While we're on more flash and brighter lures, get out that can of Brasso and shine up those bucktail blades. A coat of nail polish will touch off a shinny blade and prevent oxidation or dulling of the blade.

While you're applying the prism tape you should consider applying big eyes. The big eyes trigger strikes. Enlarged eyes are a sign of fear. Look at all the muskie lures on the market with eyes. The lure manufacturers are applying eyes for a good reason. You should consider these reasons also.

If your hooks on your lures are the standard application, you might consider removing those hooks and adding split rings and replacing the hooks. Using split rings will increase the hooking range and decrease the leverage a fish can use against you. By simply adding to your hooks you will catch and hold many more fish. This is especially important on your jerk baits.

There are many ways to weight lures. One of the simplest ways is to wrap a 2" piece of soldering wire around your hook shank. If you use this on your jerk baits, be careful as the additional weight will tend to dampen your action by slowing down the rise of the lure. This is the time when most of your strikes may occur. They say 75% to 90% of the fish hit the lure on the rise, following the jerk.

Other ways of weighting your lures is to place weights like lead bullets on top of your lure and float it in an aquarium to see the exact angle you wish to achieve. Then drill the lure and either epoxy the lead bullet in the body or screw in washers on the underside of the lure. There are commercial lead plugs (washes) that can be purchased and applied. The nice thing about these plugs is that you can change the weight by unscrewing the plug and adding a larger or smaller plug.

Another way of adding weight is to drill a hole in a hollow plastic body lure and add vegetable oil. then epoxy the hole. This will give you a different action entirely to your lure, so experiment to determine the proper action for you.

Staying with these hollow body plastic lures for just a minute, this is a great way to add rattles. Drill the hole in the body and add some lead or steel shot. You can either add a number of small pellets (#9 shot) or you can add just a few larger pellets (#2 shot). You choose. Rattling a lure will definitely increase strikes from lethargic muskies. They are also great lures for night fishing or stained water fishing. Definitely a rattle can add a new dimension to your musky fishing.

Figure 4
Rattling lures have attracted bass and bass fishermen for quite sometime. Now a number of plastic lures are manufactured with rattles and Gries Ojibwa is the only wood lure with rattles. It is not difficult to add a rattle to your lures with various sized lead or steel (bird) shotshell shot

As an inhancer to your bucktails, you might consider adding a rubber grub. Colors are important here. I would suggest contrasting colors. If your bucktail is black add a white, yellow, or orange grub. You might even try some of the scented grubs for a little added feature. There are a variety of grubs on the market. There are straight tails, screw tails, twister tails, split tails, etc. I would suggest an assortment of colors and styles just to have in the boat for slow days or days when you are having a lot of follows and can't get a strike to save your soul. This added feature might just "make your day."

When you're on the water you might try some pork rind. Using rubber grubs or pork rind on your rear treble hook sometimes changes those followers to strikers.

Figure 5.
Adding a rubber grub offers a different look to your bucktail. Adding a scented "Power Grub" or tube jig makes a lot of sence. Adding a couple of twists of lead core solder around the hook shank will add weight to your lures and is easily removed.

The addition of a dressed skirt to your favorite bucktail will increase the length and create a tandem bucktail for you. These dressed skirts can be added by the use of a split ring attached to the eye of the hook allowing this main hook to hang down. In addition these skirts can be used on deep diving crankbaits. This will give you a new pulsating action to that lure with the addition of the hair.

Sometimes your favorite lure just doesn't reach the depth you really need. The first thing you might do is to bend the lip with a pair of needle nose pliers. This may change the action of the lure also, so be careful. Another thing you can do is to change lips. When you add larger lips it is always a good idea to first fill the existing hole with a couple of tooth picks and some waterproof Titebond glue. Then install the larger lip. The screws will now be going into the smaller hole and will have a good holding power. You can also either replace or add another screw eye to the front of your lure. The placement is critical here. If the screw eye is placed above the original eye it should make the lure run deeper.

Again don't forget, drill the new hole smaller to provide a good grip for the screw eye threads. Some lures like the Believer already have the second eye installed. There must be a reason for this. It makes sense, so don't be afraid to try it.

As I mentioned previously wrapping a 2" piece of lead soldering wire to the hook shanks will add weight too. You can vary the amount of soldering wire you add to each hook. You might add more wire to the front hook less on the middle hook (about 1" or half as much) and just a couple of turns on the rear hook. The idea is to see what works for you. So try it all.

Finally leave us not get so engrossed in everything else that we skip some basics. Pick up your rod and look over all of the windings on each line guide. Take a dry cotton swab and run it through each guide to see if any cotton sticks to the guide. If so this guide should be buffed smooth or replaced. A rough line guide will ruin your fishing line faster that anything else. It may be necessary to touch up some of your guides with a little Flexcoat.

Now check out your reel. First, remove all of last years line and respool with new fresh line. You may also want to take your reel apart and clean it thoroughly. If you are not familiar with how to do this correctly, take it into a shop and have it done right. Do not take chances here. The cost to clean and adjust most reels runs from $5.00 to $10.00. That is cheap at twice the price, so don't risk creating a problem for yourself.

There are a multitude of muskie lines available on the market with new line products coming out each year. This might be a good time to try something new in muskie lines.

Now that you're almost finished, don't miss your leader. Whether you make your own or buy pre-made leaders, this is the time to cull out your old and doubtful leaders and re supply with some new materials, leaders, swivels, etc. Checking all of this out now will bring up your confidence level this summer and make your favorite trips much more memorable.

Through out this whole procedure you might have been making a list of the items you need to replace or don't have. Now you can sit back down in that big ol easy chair and look through all of your Spring Fishing Catalogs. Make up an order to fill all those voids in your supplies. This is the time to get your order placed and have everything on hand for this season. Good luck and Good Fishin!

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