modifying bream hard bodys

[nuggstar]

just curious. who here doe's mods or tunes there bream hb's.
i do, i change the trebbles to owners. i stuff with tow points to make it track straight. and on some lures change the shape of the bib to get a better action or run at the right depth. i stuff around with different weights and different size hooks to change the boyancy of the lure to make it either a floater, sinker or a suspender. i even go as far as filing off any bures or sharp bits that may do damage to my leader. do any of you guys do stuff like this or am i just way to obssesed and is there anything that you guys do that i have not mentioned above.

[2manylures]

What sort of lures do you buy &/or use, makes, models & then modify champ.

[Little grey men]

G'day Nuggs, Don't play with bream lures but I sure do stuff around with Bass lures a lot. Eyelets are straightened to track some lures, sometimes out of the box and sometimes after a big bass has violated my little bits of plastic. Drives me nuts when you retrieve a new lure and it swims off on some weird angle.
Hooks and trebles are constantly replaced, filed or snipped. One of the first things I do when I get a sinking lure is to snip off the point on the lead treble to make it a bit more snagproof, because where i fish is as snaggy as all hell.
I'm constantly grabbing the pliers to bend my trebles back into shape after freeing them from snags and sometimes from bigger fish going crazy, especially the double hooks on the evergreen littlemax. They bend like paperclips when any bass ove 45cm wants to play.
I love tinkering with this stuff. It keeps my fingers busy and stops me from picking my nose.

[nuggstar]

rmg BABY scorpions work well with a bit of toying with. i grind down the bib to make it a shallow runner and the other is to try and make it a less snaggy supender by removing the metel tow point bit in the bib and useing a tiny beed under the bib to tie to, and run the line thrugh the slot in the bib and puting on a bigger trebble on the tail and removeing the belly hook. i now they do the bib grind to the jackall chubbie deep to make it a mid deep, iv never tryed it with the chubbies but i have done it with my predateck min min deep. now its a mid deep and kills the bream in twinn waters. if i get a new lure that dose not come with owner hooks , or some good quality hooks ,i replace them befor i use it. i did a bib shave on a sx40 and a cod stoll it on the second cast. any lure can be tweeked but i try and do it to the cheaper lures that have not been to produtive for me so if i stuff it, its not that bigger loss.

[Roo]

I ground the bib off a little cheapie 50mm jerkbait to make a surface twitch bait...didn't work too well, it just spun loops. scraped all the paint off it to find one of the ball bearings in it had lodged in one spot off centre.....I'm thinking i'll drill it to release the ball, then glue up the hole. it is fun to play around with them. I might start doodling with a Sprog (kokoda SX40 knock off) to see what i can do with it. currently it swims in loops and sinks! if i can make it suspend and track straight, it will be a useful lure.

LGM, i like the idea of snipping off a point from the lead treble.

Cheers Roo.

[the gecko]

I noticed on the Fishing DVD that Dizzy uses a bit of lead tape on the bottom of some HBs to get em deep, I think they were jackall Crankbaits. He also scratched paint off some HBs to make em look all white and natural.

He was fishing for jew in the Clarence, and wanted to chase diferent depths at diff times of the tide.

good luck nuggs, I wish I was better at HBs, they seem to be my weak point. I see you do ok with em tho.

[Tetsuo]

The only mod I've ever done apart from changing broken trebles is to crimp a split shot onto the leader to make it sink...not actually the lure itself though

[nuggstar]

im working on a unproductive juro(strike pro) pigmy right now hehe. iv scrached off all the paint to make it clear. rounded off the bottom of the bib to make it crawl over rocks better and iv shaved off a heap of plastic on the belly and around the bottom of the bib and on his head to make it a bit lighter so i can run bigger hooks, only shaving on the thick parts of plastic. i will let ya's know how well it go's on the weekend.

[nuggstar]

it works now. it kicks a$$

[NAGG]

I play around a bit with lures ....... mainly changing hooks & rings to turn floaters into suspenders & vice verse .......... double split ringing
Some tuning of the tow point ....... Like with Pygmys;)
Occasionally ..... a little bit of sticky lead

Thats about it for me

Nagg

[Gagga08]

Most of the bream lures I purchase are high quality lures worth close to $20 each. Such as the Ecogear range. The companys that produce these lures spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of money on research and development to make sure that the lure is perfect when it leaves the factory. Lure companys have a lot to lose if they don't do this, reputation is everything in the fishing industry, this is particularly the case with bream hard body lures, as it is such a competive maket.

The point i'm trying to make is that why would you mess around with a lure that has had thousands of dollars spent on its research and development to make it the best lure it can possibly be?

If your messing around or modifying your lures then I think your crazy, or your buying crap lures in the first place.

G

[alphas]

T ilsan bass ALWAYS seem to need a tweak to get them to track straight for me..
Good on you nuggstar for havin' a go,I like people who think out of the square...
even if it means you get branded crazy:o

[nuggstar]

Most of the bream lures I purchase are high quality lures worth close to $20 each. Such as the Ecogear range. The companys that produce these lures spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of money on research and development to make sure that the lure is perfect when it leaves the factory. Lure companys have a lot to lose if they don't do this, reputation is everything in the fishing industry, this is particularly the case with bream hard body lures, as it is such a competive maket.

The point i'm trying to make is that why would you mess around with a lure that has had thousands of dollars spent on its research and development to make it the best lure it can possibly be?

If your messing around or modifying your lures then I think your crazy, or your buying crap lures in the first place.

G
ok yer i buy some crap cheap lures but i do lash out on a lot fancy ones and even the expencive ones can be made to run even better with a bit of playing with. iv had more eco's than you can poke a stick at and iv had heaps of them that did not run right out of the packet, be it swimming to the left or right, or it sinks or it floats to the surface to quick and not saspending like they should, or it has some sharp edges on it that can cut or chafe leader, or the split ring on the tow point is dodgy and can let line into it or even worse it is sharp on the ends and will cut your leader so a lot of them have to be removed or replaced. sometimes the fish are in a surten level of the water colum and to fish that area(strike zone) right, you sometimes have mod ya lure to run at that depth, be it running deeper or higher in the water. i have lost a lot of lures in the past and missed a lot of fish from little things like this and with the cost of every thing going up, sometimes i can't afford to get the fancy lures so i have to make do with what i have or can afford at the time, but i can make a cheap lure run just as good if not better than the flash ones with a bit of playing with. plus i get more of a buzz from knowing that the all fish i just caught was on a cheap crappy lure thats not working for anyone elce to well, and it dose not sit in my lure box not getting used. i like to have all stuff WORKING right

[Gagga08]

Fair point Nuggstar. Fixing factory faults is definately a good reason to be modifying lures!

[Outsider1]

If you watch or read Starling' and Bushy's stuff you will notice that they spend a lot of time modifying and tuning lures, literally from when they open the packet! And on both hardbodies and softs.

I would be surprised if the ABT competitors don't do the same thing all the time. When you think about it is would not only help fine tune the lure, but also make you very aware of how it works.

Good topic Nuggs

Cheers

Dave

[Roo]

There was an article in the ABT tournament angler mag that included modding the bibs on Jackal Chubbies to run at custom depths.
I thought jackals came with sat nav and stun guns already fitted.:-/ Hey nugg, there's a project for ya!!;D ;D

Cheers Roo.

[bigtez]

I have occasionally put a small split shot sinker on the shank of the belly treble on small floater to slow the wobble down. Works pretty well when the bream are a bit spooky.

[2manylures]

Most of the bream lures I purchase are high quality lures worth close to $20 each. Such as the Ecogear range. The companys that produce these lures spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of money on research and development to make sure that the lure is perfect when it leaves the factory. Lure companys have a lot to lose if they don't do this, reputation is everything in the fishing industry, this is particularly the case with bream hard body lures, as it is such a competive maket.

The point i'm trying to make is that why would you mess around with a lure that has had thousands of dollars spent on its research and development to make it the best lure it can possibly be?

If your messing around or modifying your lures then I think your crazy, or your buying crap lures in the first place.

G

Well put G. Tuning is one thing & at some point a lot of lures have to be tuned.

I have around 25,000 lures and have only cut lures to check the make-up. Never modified them to swim.

[nuggstar]

im going crazy looking for new lures to play with. its like a drug

[84mick]

I have around 25,000 lures and have only cut lures to check the make-up. Never modified them to swim.


Well ok then you can store a few lures at my place if you really need to. ;) ;)

[reidy]

I ground the bib off a little cheapie 50mm jerkbait to make a surface twitch bait...didn't work too well, it just spun loops. scraped all the paint off it to find one of the ball bearings in it had lodged in one spot off centre.....I'm thinking i'll drill it to release the ball, then glue up the hole. it is fun to play around with them. I might start doodling with a Sprog (kokoda SX40 knock off) to see what i can do with it. currently it swims in loops and sinks! if i can make it suspend and track straight, it will be a useful lure.

LGM, i like the idea of snipping off a point from the lead treble.

Cheers Roo.
Good day Roo,
grabbed 4 sprogs out of the locals discount bin and they all track the same as yours.A bit of tweeking as you say and their away.A much cheaper sx40 at $4.00 ea.Fun and games in the swimming pool,look out kids that one bites lol
Cheers
Reidy