Whopper Plopper Madness Dam Area

[Bill Babler]

He is also fishing a knock off megabass that he buys for 9 bucks and then takes it to Tim Hughes to paint and adds his own hooks and splits.  It is really working well for him.

[Mitch f]

Call it overkill, but I replace all my hooks on everything, including brand new Lucky Craft, right out of the box. If I can get by with the right size, I always use Gamakatsu EWG trebles in either standard length or short shank. Owner round bend are excellent as well. The Aaron Martin Gamakatsu hooks are sticky as heck but they are a little too thin for my taste.

[Ham]

Well then. I'll take some time and swap out rings on the Lucky Strike RC STX. Bill , What is your experience with the Lucky a Strike RC square bills? I use a lot more of them than I do the STX. Again, I have not had an issue, but would rather swap them up front rather than lose fish. 

Mitch, some hooks are obvious crap, but I don't swap everything just because. I do think that's overkill, but I certainly don't mind you swapping all that out. I sweat details that nobody else cares about. I have swapped out round rings for ovals because of my knot wanting to rest in the gap where the wire ends. I have added rings to the nose of top waters and hook hangers on old baits, but almost never have had to replace split rings because they were failing.

[Bill Babler]

Ham, I have a bunch of the old Balsa Bee I throw when I am in the square bill mode and have no experience with them.  Really the only issue for us has been the white bass with the rings.

[Mitch f]

If the stock hooks won't pass the standard fingernail test on all three trebles, they're gone. I don't have enough confidence in my ability to sharpen trebles good enough by hand. 

[Ham]

23 minutes ago, Mitch f said:

If the stock hooks won't pass the standard fingernail test on all three trebles, they're gone. I don't have enough confidence in my ability to sharpen trebles good enough by hand. 

Mitch, I probably am not Pro level with my hook sharpening, but a few quick strokes with an EZ Lap diamond sharpener gets them sticky sharp. I test mine the same way you do. Almost any hook is going to get dulled after banging around on rocks. I try to NEVER fish without a hook sharpener.

[Ham]

25 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

Ham, I have a bunch of the old Balsa Bee I throw when I am in the square bill mode and have no experience with them.  Really the only issue for us has been the white bass with the rings.

OK. I would think they buy all their split rings from one vendor and use the same rings across their entire line of lures. I will visually compare the two lures and swap out stuff as needed.

[Champ188]

Well, I'm not the most anal guy in the world about stuff, but I don't consider myself careless either. Point is, I've never had a problem with the split rings on RC STX jerk baits. Caught hundreds of LM, SM and K's and won quite a bit of money on them. Donna and I have both caught fish up to 7 pounds on them.

I gotta say, I throw my jerk baits on 8-pound Maxi or P-Line mono, and I don't believe you can straighten those rings without breaking the line first. Besides, if you're using the right jerk bait rod and playing the fish right, you just won't put that much stress on the rings.

[fishinwrench]

All of this immediate hook and split ring upgrading on every bait y'all buy is crazy.  If it just gives you something to do and you enjoy doing it then that's cool, but making up gay excuses for doing it, and encouraging others (especially new POOR anglers) to do it religiously is kinda lame.  

I like bronze hooks, so if a bait comes with shiny nickle plated hooks I swap them out, but otherwise I think the stock hooks on today's quality baits are perfectly fine. (With recent exception to WAR EAGLE....but you can't swap those).  ?

[Mitch f]

5 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

All of this immediate hook and split ring upgrading on every bait y'all buy is crazy.  If it just gives you something to do and you enjoy doing it then that's cool, but making up gay excuses for doing it, and encouraging others (especially new POOR anglers) to do it religiously is kinda lame.  

I like bronze hooks, so if a bait comes with shiny nickle plated hooks I swap them out, but otherwise I think the stock hooks on today's quality baits are perfectly fine. (With recent exception to WAR EAGLE....but you can't swap those).  ?

If you dont want to do it, don't do it...if you're poor, dont be so easily offended...I thought you were a tough guy?