Crankbait hooks

Straight out of the box most of the hooks that come stock on crankbait’s leave something to be desired. I’ve tried sharpening my hooks in the past and I’ve just never been good at it. Maybe I need to have a sit down with a friend who is experienced with sharpening hooks and have him school me because I know there have been times that I’ve been on the water and dulled a hook on a rock or tree and didnt have a replacement hook with me and it would have been nice if I could have just touched up the hook a little.

Several companies make quality replacement hook, from my personal experience, so this is just my opinion, while Gamakatsu hooks used to be one of the very best, I feel that over the years their quality control has gone down some. I have found that one pack will be great while the next pack, lets just say, leaves something to be desired.

In my opinion the Daiichi Death Trap Trebles are some of the finest made, yes they are a sponsor of but after using them I can honestly say that I would not hesitate to pay full price for them, in my opinion, they are that good! As to which size hook to use just match up the size of the hook that came originally on the lure. Some people like to go either smaller or bigger but I believe the lure companies used a specific size after tons of research to be sure the lure runs true and it achieves the best action and the hooks don’t get tangled with each other.

After replacing the hooks, and me being me, I can’t leave well enough alone and have to make what I consider are improvements. Years back I remember buying an Excalibur Fat Free Shad crankbait that had what was called a Rotating Treble Hook which according to the company featured a 6-degree counter rotating shaft in each hook bend. All this meant was that the points of the hooks shafts are slightly bent so the points are not lined up with the shaft. According to the company “This gives them a counter rotating angle in each hook bend, each of the 2 free points of the rotating treble hook travels counter clockwise once contact is made. This movement of the hook points results in at least one other point coming into contact with the fish! This unique treble hook can increase your hook ups by 30%!” From my personal experiences, this little modification has helped me hook and land more crankbait bass. The biggest down side that I have found to modifying the hooks in this manner is they seem to grab everything, sticks, trees, rocks, etc. To perform this modification is very simple. All I do is use a pair of pliers, grab the hook close to the bend and bend them slightly so the point is not in line with the shaft.

I have been intrigued by the new Basstar SpinTech Treble hooks with the built in “Swivel” but have yet to give them a try. In my opinion the ideal of a treble hook that spins freely should mean less bass lost because as the fish throws his head back and forth he will not be able to use the hook as leverage against the lure to shake the hook because the hook spins instead of holding still.

Try changing out or just sharpening and modifying your stock hooks and I can pretty much promise that you will land more fish.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

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Upgrading the Drag and Servicing an Abu Revo

Today I thought I would explain how to upgrade the drag on a Abu Revo Skeet and seeing how I’ll be tearing it down I figured I might as well service it at the same time.

I’m going to try something a little different, this post will be a video post, hopefully this will work. By the way, just a warning, the video is almost 30 minutes long so it might take a few minutes to load up so please be patient. Also, if you double click the video you can view it in full screen mode.

Disclaimer: Any servicing you do to your reel you do so at your own risk and I will not be held responsible for any damage caused.

One trick I thought of after making the video is after you remove the cover take a few pictures of the internals with your digital camera. That way, in the event that parts fall out you can compare your pictures with the schematic and you should be good to go.

Well, what did you think?

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

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Winter Time Blues Part 1

Ah winter, snow on the ground and a chill in the air. As a “Weekend Warrior” bass fishermen I tend to have a love hate relationship with this time of the year. Yes the fishing can be great this time of the year but with the “Moody” weather that usually happens this time of the year it makes it difficult. It seems that during the work week the weather is nice but when the weekend rolls around and the winter storms roll in. I personally consider taking leave during the week but I would rather save the leave for the upcoming late winter/early spring bite.This discussion I’ll talk about what I do if I don’t take leave during the week. In winter time blues part 2 I’ll share some tackle modification tips and in part 3 I’ll share some tactics I use when I decide to pull the trigger and go ahead and take leave this time of the year.

So, here it is Saturday, the clouds are rolling in, the weatherman says the snow level will be down to 3000 feet and in order to get to my local lake I have to go over the mountains where the elevation tops out at 5553 feet so I’m pretty much stuck at home just wishing I was fishing so what’s a fisherman to do?

Now would be a great time to service your fishing tackle, service your reels, change out your line and make some modifications to my fishing tackle.

First and foremost MAKE SURE you have or get schematics for your reels before disassembling them. It’s a bad thing to take apart your reels and not remember where all the parts go. Anyhow, clean out all the old grease, I use cotton tipped swabs myself for this. I then use them dipped in rubbing alcohol to completely clean out the grease and oil. Make sure you use a good quality lube and oil to service your reels, this will make a world of difference when you use it next. Me personally, I prefer Garcia lube and Remington Rem-Oil gun oil. Yes, there are allot of other excellent choices but these are the ones I personally prefer. Clean the reel externally, just to make it look nice and spool up with new line. The last thing you want to happen is to hook into the fish of a life time and loose it because your old line broke.

On your rods, clean the handle, it you have cork grips DO NOT use rubbing alcohol, this will ruin the cork. Simple Green works very well, just don’t saturate it! If the cork is heavily soiled you can use some extra fine sand paper and sand lightly, don’t remove to much cork. Wipe out the line guides, here again I use cotton tipped swabs dipped in Simple Green. Finally, wipe down the blank, again, I use Simple Greed and a micro fiber cloth to clean off the accumulated residue from the previous fishing season.If your lucky enough to have a garage where you can park your boat, trust me, I am jealous of you. I am fortunate enough to have RV access on the side of my house where the wind does not normally blow. I’m hoping soon to install a car port type cover. Until then I have to cover and uncover my boat whenever I need to access it. Even during the winter you cam perform maintenance on it. One very important things to do is if you don’t take your boat out very often this time of year you need to make sure you flush the system with the “Rabbit Ears” and garden hose at least once a month. This keeps your impeller from getting to dry and brittle therefore it does not flow water like it used to and in turn it does not cool your motor like it used to so its pretty important to avoid very expensive damage.

As for the impeller, changing it out at least once every 2 years is very good practice and cheap insurance. You can either do it yourself which is not all that difficult as long as you have a Mercury manual and the right tools or take it to your mechanic. Usually they will charge considerably less during the winter because they want the business. During the hotter months they can raise the rates because they know allot of people will be needing their services, basic supply and demand laws here.

While your in there make sure to change out your lower end oil as well as clean out any fishing line on the shaft. Look for any signs of water in the oil, this means that the seal is damaged and needs replacing.

Check the 2 stroke oil level in the oil reservoir, if you have a 2 stroke motor. Remove the propeller on your trolling motor and check for line. If you have trailer breaks check the fluid level of the master cylinder. Another big thing to remember is to make sure your bearing buddies have plenty of grease. That’s the last thing you want to happen, hook up the boat, get going down the road and having a wheel bearing go out because its dry. Make sure your tires are properly inflated to the correct pressure. This helps them wear evenly as well as improves your gas mileage.

I hope this helps alleviate some boredom we all experience when we cant get out and do some fishing. Be sure to check back soon for part 2 and 3 of Winter Time Blues.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

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