If you can't go fishing....

[Al Agnew]

the next best thing is to putter with your fishing stuff.

I've been in major lure designing mode, and also am going to experiment a little with rods, in between getting caught up on all the business stuff and household chores I had to do after being gone more than a month. Very few free days, but a couple hours here and there.

One of my holy grails of lure design has been to come up with a prop bait that also walks the dog well. Props on a lure tend to kill any zig zag action, and a prop on the front is nothing but a line fouler when you're doing the usual twitches on slack line for walking the dog. I've been playing with ideas for this for several years now, trying different balance points, different size props, different lure shapes. As I reported in the thread on the last trip I went on, I've finally gotten one to work fairly well. It takes a gentle twitch on just the right amount of slack, and it won't work well in stronger current, but it may be about as close as I can come to getting one to work.

I've bought a pile of different poppers looking for those which spit and walk. The Lucky Craft G-Splash has come to closest to what I've looked for, with a Megabass a distant second. Nothing else has come all that close. I want a fairly radical walking action, where the lure zigs and zags almost straight to the side while spitting water. The other day, I happened upon an old Pop-R that I'd modified the way Zell Rowland originally did it. He sanded it until it got noticeably slimmer, with sharper edges on the cupped face. Rebel tried producing a version that looked more like Zell's modified ones, but it didn't do what his did. Back probably 10 or 12 years ago when I tried modifying one of the original Pop-Rs, the ones with the Rebel textured sides, I was really impressed with it. I did up two of them and fished them for several years, catching a lot of fish on them. On the one that was the better of the two, I re-tied the feathered treble on the rear with marabou instead of the hackle feathers that Zell did. I stopped using them when they got so worn out that the paint was mostly gone and the feathered trebles were almost naked. I don't know why I didn't do up a couple more back then, but instead I got seduced by the high dollar poppers.

Well, as I said, I came upon that old one I'd modified, and decided to repaint and refurbish it. I finished it and tried it out in the pond with a feathered treble. That thing walked and spit FAR better than any of the high dollar ones I'd bought over the years. So I found another one in my old lure stash, and sanded it down and repainted it. Then I tied up marabou trebles for both of them, and tried them out today in the pond. I immediately removed the Megabass poppers from my tackle box and put those two old Pop-Rs in to replace them.

I've also been making more Subwalks, trying different body shapes, and now have three that really walk, FAR better than the store bought version. And I've been making some regular spinnerbaits that are more compact and slightly smaller than what I have bought recently. The bass in my pond absolutely loved those things.

I now have more homemade or at least home modified hard baits in my tackle box than I do commercially produced ones. All my twin spins, buzzbaits, and most of my spinnerbaits are homemade. I've got only homemade prop baits, and homemade Subwalks. I still carry Sammys and Sexy Dawgs, but now also have a bunch of homemade walk the dog lures. There's my homemade crankbaits, and even some of my Wiggle Warts and Middle Ns are modified. Only thing I haven't tried making or modifying is jerkbaits.

As for my rod experiment, it's nothing new to many but it will be to me. I've always used spinning gear for most of my jig and soft plastic fishing on the rivers, using braided line, while all my hard bait fishing is done with casting tackle and co-poly line. But I gotta be honest...I HATE spinning tackle. My dislike for it is probably one reason I don't fish jigs and plastics all that much. About three years ago I switched to casting tackle to fish hair jigs in the winter.

I acquired an old Loomis casting rod a while back that was missing three guides. It's a 6 ft. medium action, and I decided that it might just be a good river jig and plastic rod IF I used braid. So I put some 6/20 Power Pro on one of my old Green Curados, and put new guides on the rod, and tried it out today in the pond. First I tried it with a length of 10 pound test McCoys for a leader. The rod and braid was too much for it...I broke off two fish setting the hook. So I'm going with the straight Power Pro. We'll see how that works out.

[fishinwrench]

Storm Chug bug is a walking fool. Just use a loop knot.

[Al Agnew]

Chug Bug has a different profile and different spitting action from what I'm looking for. It's a good lure, though. Lucky Craft Gunfish walks even better than the Chug Bug and has a similar profile to it. The smaller versions of both lures don't walk nearly as well as the larger versions.

[joeD]

This caught fish yesterday without modifications. Please explain.

[fishinwrench]

This caught fish yesterday without modifications. Please explain.

Your fish are gay.

[Guest]

One of my holy grails of lure design has been to come up with a prop bait that also walks the dog well. Props on a lure tend to kill any zig zag action, and a prop on the front is nothing but a line fouler when you're doing the usual twitches on slack line for walking the dog. I've been playing with ideas for this for several years now, trying different balance points, different size props, different lure shapes.

I found the $1 bin at walmart carries a cotton cordell crazy shad with only a single tail prop, no front prop.

That little bait walks the dog like a champ while spraying water.

It's my go-to topwater during the dog days of summer when the creek get low & slack.

I haven't found another lure at higher price point that can compare.

[Old plug]

That is what I do...every time I fish.

I found the $1 bin at walmart carries a cotton cordell crazy shad with only a single tail prop, no front prop.

That little bait walks the dog like a champ while spraying water.

It's my go-to topwater during the dog days of summer when the creek get low & slack.

I haven't found another lure at higher price point that can compare.

X 2

Yeah iseen that at our Walky World here and bought three. Those are real god topwaters.

A few years. ago I started turning my own cedar top waters out on and used the same basic I remebered from the crazy shad such as balance and single hook. They are round shape but still walk and sputter. i think they would be evn better for walkinhg if changed the 1 1/4 inch props to something smaller. I do hot worry a whole lot agout color. Mine are all whateve color the cedar was I made them from with a few coats of some type clear sealer.

[jdmidwest]

This caught fish yesterday without modifications. Please explain.

I will second that motion. Why fk with perfection.

Gold and black is better though.

[joeD]

wrench- that response was darn funny! I'm jealous that I didn't come up with it! It IS a "garish" lure that is "out there."

Regardless, tinkerers like to tink, so good on them. The "EASY" button is my friend.

[Al Agnew]

Hey, any fool can catch them on a lure they buy at Walmart. To catch them on something you made yourself, that takes skill