Fish bit the strangest things!

As many of you know from some of my posts, I like modifying soft plastic lures and testing them in local waters.
Yesterday I took the claw from a 3" crawdad grub and attached it to part of the body of other lures. I didn't expect much just looking at it in my hand, but man did it catch fish!

https://i.imgur.com/pQsvQUg.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/QRoouHX.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/l3RAzqB.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/Plgu5r7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YOqzNgS.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/KTXUoFs.jpg

Part of the success using the lure and other soft plastics was the 1/24 oz jig head that worked well in water 3-7' along a 50 yd stretch of shore. No other areas I hit had fish present which I found normal considering the weird year and above average rainfall. But using this design?!! The action in the water did reveal a nice twitch of the claw at the slowest retrieve.

Other modified lures allowed me to catch 43 fish in 5 hours.

Here are a few of the others:
https://i.imgur.com/Df1oX6N.jpg​https://i.imgur.com/LOWluTH.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/7ca44BQ.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/x6flqwD.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/Namy2eP.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/z9dMytS.jpg?1

Variety is the spice of fishing IMO and it came through on what should have been a very difficult summer afternoon.

That claw makes a great looking tail.Good job.

I still have a ton of my dads bass fishing plastics. I'm planning on modifying and following these steps as well as producing some jelly jigs. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

Good job on the baits, unusual works best sometimes as they haven't seen it before. And I'll take a couple of dozen of those yellow perch. YUMMY!!!

now you started something ----- all the plastic jig companies are gonna start making the claw jig

Sweet!

Gotta call that one "The Claw"......LOL

Nice catches....

That black claw looks like my #1 go to bait for bluegill: beetlespin!

These look AWSOME!!!! glade they worked out real good. Just goes to show what a little imagination will do....catch Fish, and lots of them...Congratulations on a job well done, and thank you for sharing with us less imaginable....lol.

As usual it's my great pleasure sharing with gents such as yourself that are open to new ideas and appreciative of efforts posting photos that prove a point or two or three, etc, etc. LOL
Crappie.com is my favorite fishing site with its superb moderation and members.
Thanks again. More to follow.

(But I'm sure some lure companies aren't too happy especially when it comes to recycling lures via modification.....)

how are you putting them together? heating the two pieces and sticking them together, or are you using some type of glue?

You might try Mann's Jelly worms Fire Tails. When I used to use them fishing bass the bream would always grab the fire tail and pull it off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

how are you putting them together? heating the two pieces and sticking them together, or are you using some type of glue?

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I believe he uses candle flame ... but, glue would work (esp. when mods are being done in the boat). If using glue, I recommend Loctite Super Glue Gel Control (blue/grey bottle), as I've used it to glue plastic bodies to jigheads & had excellent results.

I sometimes use Pro Soft Bait Glue but is doesn't work on all plastics and takes time to set before putting the mod down. I've never tried Loctite but I'll give it a try. A candle flame is quick and easy but you need a steady hand and an good eye for making sure the parts are lined up exactly and straight. But even with a candle, I use a battery powered heat gun to smooth around the seam otherwise one or two fish will cause the seam to come apart. I use a Weller ($13 at Amazon) and three rechargeable batteries.

The advantages of modification include:
1. changing a tail or adding a different body to a tail and then throwing the body or tail in the garbage or storing them for future mod
example
2. changing the action, profile and/or size of a lure - it can make a huge difference!
3. using lures you've had in storage for years and putting parts of them to good use
4. knowing you can remake and therefore keep certain designs at hand when needed
5. not being limited to existing designs, most of which you'll find are inferior to you own imaginings or mine (which you are welcome to copy at any time).
6. seeing that color is secondary to design, but may enhance it. The Claw may work with most body colors, for example.
7. the realization why fish bite lures:

if what they see excites and incites - they strike!

All the other reasons not design-related matter not and more important - it becomes self evident that a lure can look and move completely unnatural and catch fish galore almost any month of any year. The problem is, is that there will be so many good designs you may come up with, you'll have a difficult time choosing!

As regards size: certain designs do better at certain times when reduced in size such as when the bite is tough.
in waters that have decent size panfish (though bass and pickerel will attack), a larger size
really does incite larger fish to strike.

As regards lure action-by-design: much of the time subtle-action tails or no tail generate the most strikes. In this case slow retrieves with pauses and subtle rod tip actions incite the strike. Different bodies with different tails can surprise you at how well they improve fish counts. In the following example I cut off the curly tails from two grubs, melted the ends together, wacky rigged the lure with a 1/24 oz jig and caught fish like no tomorrow!
https://i.imgur.com/jR1Xv4h.jpg.

...and then I rigged it the usual way and caught fish like no tomorrow!
https://i.imgur.com/XYu7zQy.jpg

Never assume anything when it comes to lure design. You never know until you fish it.

Thank you CrappiePappy and Spoonminnow. This sounds like what will be one of my winter time projects to keep me busy and not going stir crazy on those days there's freezing weather out and I'm stuck inside. Will help with the boredom for sure...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

Thank you CrappiePappy and Spoonminnow. This sounds like what will be one of my winter time projects to keep me busy and not going stir crazy on those days there's freezing weather out and I'm stuck inside. Will help with the boredom for sure...

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Why wait until winter?!!

Well right now I have two projects going on that takes up 90% of my days and when I get done with them or decide I'm done for the day, thier's cooking dinner, and then I'm exhausted and want to go to bed. After a cup or two of coffee in the AM I usually start working on the projects...remodeling a bit of this mobile home. Try to have each project done before momma gets home on week-ends she comes home. sometimes it's two weeks and sometimes it's every week-end. try to surprise her with what I got done. and when I'm not working on the house, I'm working on my boat, see thread, "let the restore begin" here in the Missouri state section....

man you got spare time bro …...LOL
looks like it worked out well to me …
KABOOM :highfive

Good pics and post.

Thanks Ketchn and SpeckeledSlab...Don't want to high jack this thread...yep Ketchn, I got spare time right now, and use it for eating and sleeping. Occasionally in a day I'll jump on here and see what's happening, and make a post or two. Usually while feeding my face...LOL...

I forgot to mention: it doesn't take much heating to start the end of a cut off lure to become molten. Too much and it catches fire and may burn (just blow it out and continue). Unless one part is very thin, I heat both parts and hold them together for four seconds after which I may either roll-the-seam over the flame to smooth and reinforce it or use the soldering gun for the same reason. The bond is as strong as if the lure came out of a mold in one piece.

Thanks, going to try this this weekend.