Last night I was fishing the dock and got absolutely crushed by a bull red and lost it to straightened out hooks. This morning I straightened out the hooks and gave it another try and the lure wasn't swimming quite right. A close examination of the lure and I found the reason, the eye for line connection was bent off true. A little trial and error with tweeking it towards straight and I was back in business.
The lesson here is that the same thing can happen to our offshore lures as well with big fish, so it's a good idea to check the lure after each fish. This way you won't throw a lure that won't run true and get strikes.
Yea those light pins dont take much. Im a fan of the mirro lure 17mr if i throw anything in hard plastic around docks
My favorite is the doa shrimp especially at night
HJ this is a $9.00 Trout lure not a Tuna lure. If a straightened hook breaks on a Speckled Trout, that's a clean release just about. As Capt'n Ahab would say..... "There be no straightening of tuna hooks!"
Understood on the lure.
When I use lures like that with the potential
of larger fish attacking them,
I usually change out the trebles with
mustad 3x trebles. Costs about $1 to do,
and then I don't lose that bull whatever
to straightened hooks.
^Good point, I'll pick some up next time at the tackle shop. I tried the Alive Shrimp tonight and it worked pretty good. Big Trout just looked at it in the light, not interested in eating it.
Its not just checking lures after a fish.
if I'm not using one of my own creations I test swim EVERY lure I buy straight out of the box & tune it myself..............rarely is a commercial lure tuned perfectly......... they play safe & tune reliably ( you can't blame the practice).......so there is always room for improvement, where the angler knows how to do it.
Stronger hooks that are a little bit heavier add more 'righting moment' to the balance of the lure & enable more towpoint adjustment for action improvement.
When you work a doa and you think your going slow enough..... go even slower. Also a fly works well in a mullet pattern.... i love seeing fish in the lights ,snook are fun as hell when dock light fishing
To date I haven't found the "perfect" HTDI online for tuning stick/jerk baits. Various manufacturers explain how to tune their lures but none seem to be all encompassing. Some address the tow point ring, others the tail ring and I haven't seen one that addresses the belly ring. Some guys like Dennis make lures so they should be able to give us some straight skinny on HTDI.
The DIY lure forum has a 'sticky' on this subject & a couple of years ago we ran a lure tuning exercise as part of a lure making tutorial over a couple of months.
90 % of tuning is in the tow eye ( the tutorial explains in detail how changes to the towpoint, L-R-up-down alters water resistance hydrodynamics & buoyancy-ballast balance affecting "righting moments" in the dynamic of lure action ).
Tuning however cannot fix a poorly made lure.
If you still have queries after reading the tutorial post back in this thread & I'll try to help.
To date I haven't found the "perfect" HTDI online for tuning stick/jerk baits. Various manufacturers explain how to tune their lures but none seem to be all encompassing. Some address the tow point ring, others the tail ring and I haven't seen one that addresses the belly ring. Some guys like Dennis make lures so they should be able to give us some straight skinny on HTDI.
On cranks it’s the hook eye on the bill but not all have this. Some have the eye on the lure. Not sure you can tune a jig or spoon. The hook style and weight matters. I found out running singles on the tail point down acts as resistance to get the lure tracking deeper in stuff current and/or heavy wind days. Type of treble on the belly may affect not only depth but wobble. Even spinnerbaits go off kilter if the arm gets bent. Many variable. Experimentation sometimes the only way to find out. Clear pools or water access helps but sometimes you need actual conditions to get the best understanding. Ultimately. Getting bit best confirmation the adjustment worked. Not getting bit doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t. Unless others are than perhaps try something else until you do.
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