Tweaking Big Rubber Musky Lures
The current era of big rubber musky lures are far superior to anything available to anglers in the past. Robust strong plastics, vibrant paint jobs coupled with numerous wire harness options, the latest big rubber musky lures simply put the previous generation to shame.
While it is undeniable that rubber musky lures have been highly effective sense their advent, even today’s modern musky marvels can still use a bit of tweaking. With this in mind let’s look at a few ways you can maximize your big rubber musky jerk baits.
- Upgraded Hooks
While all manufacturers use good hooks, they simply don’t use the best hooks. As a lure designer I can tell from firsthand experience it boils down to dollars and cents. All musky lure companies have to outsource their hooks, be it from a major player like Mustad or VMC or going straight to China for an affordable solution, the bottom line dictates the hooks used on mass production baits.
With muskie strikes hard to get on the best of days I make sure to upgrade the hooks on all of my rubber jerk baits. My go to hook is BKK. These premium hooks are available from the Musky Shop and are insanely sharp right out of the package. Not only are BKK hooks extremely strong, but they are also offered in short shank wide gap models. I find that using a short shank oversized treble on lures like Bull Dawgs and Medussa instantly increases the hook up percentage.
- Swivel Hooks
This mod is based on using the afore mentioned short shank BKK hooks.
The biggest of big rubber baits are heavy by their very nature and unfortunately big muskies can use this weight to fling large lures while headshaking during a fight. To prevent muskies from headshaking and dislodging mega rubber lures like Pounders and Monster Medussas I will use a heavy weight swivel between the hook hangers and a short shank wide gap hook.
The usage of a swivel makes it nearly impossible for a muskie to headshake out even a massive rubber musky lure. As a musky shakes its head sub surface the swivel between the hook and hook hanger does not allow the weight of the lure to be leveraged nearly as much during headshakes.
- Bury Hooks
While one might think that six hook points are better than four when it comes to big rubber musky lures this is often not the case. Take advantage of the softer rubber bodies and bury a point from each hook into it. This will ensure that you get hook penetration when setting after a strike.
Often muskies hit rubber lures with killer intent and during these strikes the hooks may not be pointed with their business end towards a muskies jaw. Burying your hooks into rubber baits greatly increases your big rubber hooking percentage. I would note when burying hooks into rubber jerk baits be sure to leave some slack in the split ring to prevent constricting the lures over all action.
- Wire Bending
While some anglers prefer flexible wire harnesses, I am still a proponent of those in the ridged wire variety. A rigid wire internal harness allows for a bit of tweaking to not only the action of your rubber lures but also running depth without changing the weighting.
By bending the internal wire hardness of a Bull Dawg in such a manner that the head of the lure is in a more upwards position the lure will run noticeably shallower. Conversely bending the harness so that the head is in a more downward position will increase the lures over all running depth. Taking advantage of the pliability of these internal wire harnesses allows for quick on the water adjustments when confronted with new cover and structure throughout the course of the day.
- Dozer Blades
The Heli Dawg has been around for many years for good reason. At times muskies like the added thump and flash that only a blade can provide. But fear not you can quickly and easily add a top blade to any rubber musky lure by simply using a piece of bucktail wire, a swivel and bit of heat to get the job done.
Start by making a small loop end in your bucktail wire followed by attaching a swivel and blade with split rings. Once you have made your wire with a blade heat the opposite end of the wire with a small torch or other heat source. For safety don’t hold the wire with your hands while heating It up. Once the wire is hot slowly bury it at an angle deeply into your rubber my lure and allow it to cool.
While this wire and blade could potently fall out from a strike or the subsequent fight, a wire and a blade are a small price to pay for a musky in the net.
- It doesn’t get much simpler than adding a split ring to a lure as a means to help its action. While most rubber musky lures don’t come with a split ring at the line attachment most of them are helped by the addition of one. I recommend using oversized super #7 split rings on the line attachment of your big rubber musky lures. These magnums sized split rings can instantly open up a lures action allowing for more side-to-side motion on the fall. Split rings also help in making your big rubber lures a bit more erratic on the pulls and light taps.
While there are endless ways one could tweak or modify bug rubber lures these basics will undoubtably help you increase the number of strikes you are getting and the number of muskies that you land.
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