Best Fishing Lure Ever - Pike and Bass
Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 8:34 am
OK... the title is maybe a little tongue in cheek...
Some of you know that I am a dedicated (addicted) inventor, never satisfied to leave well enough alone.
Last year I bought a real-looking mouse lure and found that it was absolute fantastic at getting fish to strike, but the actual hook-up rate was awful. I likely caught 1 fish in 50 that would strike. They seemed to always just hit the tail. Also, with this mouse (and many of the hollow-body frog lures) they tend to sink, especially if you have a metal leader on them.
This weekend I tried out a modified version of the lure and it was absolutely unbelieveable!!! Caught more fish than I could count until a monster pike snapped my line like it was thread.
Since i had to build another one I decided to take photos and share. Let me know if you build it and do well.
This modified lure solves several of the shortcomings of the original:
1) Won't sink, even when waterlogged
2) Has a stinger in the tail, orientation keeps hooks above the water surface so still very weedless
3) Has stabilization beads on the hooks, so if it leans one way, they bring it back on level (like a pontoon boat)
4) Beads also glow, havent tried it at night yet...
5) Bright yellow corn grabs extra attention and keeps nose up when using a metal leader (add more corn for longer/heavier leaders).
Here is most of what you need (glow beads not shown).
Lure, soft closed-cell foam (packing material, whatever), glow beads, floating carp-corn foam.
When used out of the box, the lure works well in terms of buoyancy, but gradually takes on water and sinks. I find many strikes occurr when it is sitting motionless (like it is tired out) but the lure tends to sink if you don't keep reeling it in and squeezing it empty every time you reel in.
Here is the lure sitting on the bottom of my container (hard to tell with the clear water) when you squeeze the air out of the body.
Modifications:
Remove the weighted plug from the body. It is glued in, but not too strongly so you can work it out with your hands or pliers. It is OK if body tears a little, but I found most came out cleanly. I rotated the body around the hooks to get them out of the way. Instead of using weight to keep the mouse upright, I am using the beads on the hooks. Also, the hooks themselves tend to be bottom-heavy so the weight isn't needed to keep it upright.
Now cut a strip of foam that is about 50% wider than the mouse, and same length, I also rounded the front end to roughly match the mouse's nose profile. Fold it lengthwise and push it into the hole. It is tough to do, little soap helps. Once it is inside it kinda springs open and sits against the top of the mouse body.
Rotate the hooks back into position, put the stinger hook over one of the body hooks, and embed into the top of the tail, leaving some slack since the tail is stretchy and you want it to wiggle. Then thread a glow-bead over each hook. The soft beads seem to be best for this as they sit in the curve of the hook and have better buoyancy. Finally, put a hole in a piece of corn and push it over the nose ring. I have also attached a barrel swivel to add weight and show that it really keeps it's nose up.
This picture if of a fully water logged mouse, yet it still sits up great in the water and really attracts fish attention, especially if you reel it in bursty, so it appears to be getting tired. Quite often I will have sunfish pick at it until something larger comes up and hammers it from the depths.
I am also open to suggestions!
I did think of using hotglue injected inside it. The buoyancy is good, but I felt it would be much too hard, it would prevent the main hooks from ever working. The soft foam inside doesn't seem to impact the occasional hook-up on the big hooks (from larger fish). But the vast majority of fish are caught on the stinger in their lips.
Some of you know that I am a dedicated (addicted) inventor, never satisfied to leave well enough alone.
Last year I bought a real-looking mouse lure and found that it was absolute fantastic at getting fish to strike, but the actual hook-up rate was awful. I likely caught 1 fish in 50 that would strike. They seemed to always just hit the tail. Also, with this mouse (and many of the hollow-body frog lures) they tend to sink, especially if you have a metal leader on them.
This weekend I tried out a modified version of the lure and it was absolutely unbelieveable!!! Caught more fish than I could count until a monster pike snapped my line like it was thread.
Since i had to build another one I decided to take photos and share. Let me know if you build it and do well.
This modified lure solves several of the shortcomings of the original:
1) Won't sink, even when waterlogged
2) Has a stinger in the tail, orientation keeps hooks above the water surface so still very weedless
3) Has stabilization beads on the hooks, so if it leans one way, they bring it back on level (like a pontoon boat)
4) Beads also glow, havent tried it at night yet...
5) Bright yellow corn grabs extra attention and keeps nose up when using a metal leader (add more corn for longer/heavier leaders).
Here is most of what you need (glow beads not shown).
Lure, soft closed-cell foam (packing material, whatever), glow beads, floating carp-corn foam.
When used out of the box, the lure works well in terms of buoyancy, but gradually takes on water and sinks. I find many strikes occurr when it is sitting motionless (like it is tired out) but the lure tends to sink if you don't keep reeling it in and squeezing it empty every time you reel in.
Here is the lure sitting on the bottom of my container (hard to tell with the clear water) when you squeeze the air out of the body.
Modifications:
Remove the weighted plug from the body. It is glued in, but not too strongly so you can work it out with your hands or pliers. It is OK if body tears a little, but I found most came out cleanly. I rotated the body around the hooks to get them out of the way. Instead of using weight to keep the mouse upright, I am using the beads on the hooks. Also, the hooks themselves tend to be bottom-heavy so the weight isn't needed to keep it upright.
Now cut a strip of foam that is about 50% wider than the mouse, and same length, I also rounded the front end to roughly match the mouse's nose profile. Fold it lengthwise and push it into the hole. It is tough to do, little soap helps. Once it is inside it kinda springs open and sits against the top of the mouse body.
Rotate the hooks back into position, put the stinger hook over one of the body hooks, and embed into the top of the tail, leaving some slack since the tail is stretchy and you want it to wiggle. Then thread a glow-bead over each hook. The soft beads seem to be best for this as they sit in the curve of the hook and have better buoyancy. Finally, put a hole in a piece of corn and push it over the nose ring. I have also attached a barrel swivel to add weight and show that it really keeps it's nose up.
This picture if of a fully water logged mouse, yet it still sits up great in the water and really attracts fish attention, especially if you reel it in bursty, so it appears to be getting tired. Quite often I will have sunfish pick at it until something larger comes up and hammers it from the depths.
I am also open to suggestions!
I did think of using hotglue injected inside it. The buoyancy is good, but I felt it would be much too hard, it would prevent the main hooks from ever working. The soft foam inside doesn't seem to impact the occasional hook-up on the big hooks (from larger fish). But the vast majority of fish are caught on the stinger in their lips.
