Fishing lures used as is or not?

[Micheal]

After reading several articles in some of the fishing magazines about how the fishing "pros" alter brand new, out of the box, fishing lures, by adding weight, adding color, changing hook sizes, removing certain hooks completely, or going from treble to dual or a single hook, bending eyelets, or other things.......

So I was wondering do you do any of that or do you just fish with what the factory put into the box?

Me? I mostly think that the lure companies, after R&Ding things to death, wouldn't put out something that wouldn't catch fish. so I "use as is".... Although I have been known to replace hooks that have bent or dulled overtime - but not change the size of the hook nor alter the lure in any other way.

[Nimrod]

Fishing lures are designed to catch fishermen, not fish. It has to appeal to you so you buy it.

The only change I make to lures and bare hooks is to sharpen them. Even brand new hooks need to be sharpened. To test a hook, lightly drag the point across your thumbnail. If it skates across, it's dull. If it immediatly digs in, it's sharp. Sharpen with a small file or sharpening stone.

A really sharp hook will set much eaiser and at the slightest contact. You get better and more hookups (get your mind out of the gutter).

[bignugly]

I have had better luck with organic fishing lures-worms, minnows and such.

[alleyyooper]

Depends on the target fish and lure. Most of my top water lures I change hooks to weed less. I also change colors on lures to colors that are proven to me and I can no longer find the lure in that color.

Is a good pratiac to sharpen the hooks on lures, they get tossed about before being packaged many hooks are dulled.

Al

[notbutanapron]

Fishing. FISHING. I used lures. I used corn. I used bread. I used yabbies. I used steak. I used worms. I used crab. I went fishing 4 days a week for six weeks straight, four different dams. At one, I stood in the shimmering scales of fish caught earlier in the day. I NEVER CAUGHT A FISH. Two years eventually passed of, every few weeks or so, thinking I could catch a fish. No. You know what I cannot do? Catch a fish. Not with worms. Not in the ocean. Not in rivers, nor creeks. NO, Sam I Am, I had no fish on ham! Hundred dollars in licences [see why I stopped paying them?], two hundred in various fish-based meals, countless dollars in petrol, snacks, lures, lines, rods...

Then one day about two weeks ago I am fishing in a desolate spot on the edge of a grassy hill on a beautiful Australian river that I noticed had some Hare Krishnas had set trap in down further. I figured, this has to be the spot. And lo and behold, after years of incredible determination [some call it stupidity], I finally caught a fish. I CAUGHT A FISH. .....a cat fish. By the fin. With an empty hook.

Anyway, I think Nimrod is onto something.

Thank you and Goodnight.

[Nimrod]

It's much harder to catch fish down there because they are all swimming upside down.

Say goodnight Gracie.

[Lilith]

LOL, every fisherman you ask will have a different set of "rules" for fishing lures. My practice is to look down the bank and see what the guy who just landed that fish was using, then building something that looks like it. It will vary day to day and week to week what I build, but I catch a fair amount of fish. If the fish aren't biting what I have on, I try something else. There is no reason to leave a lure as is from the factory ... unless it is working. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Or, fix it till it is broke. Either way, I think everyone can get lucky enough to land an awesome fish.

Here is what my son caught when kept busy with a weighted hook and a piece of pink yarn on a slip bobber thrown into the center of an eddy to keep him busy and out of the river. It was only 9 days after his 8th B-day.

[Oldcountryboy]

Back in my younger days my fishing buddies and I use to buy those top water blade runners and on our way to the lake we would tie them to the truck antenna and let them whirl away in the wind. We believed this would break them in and be in top notch fish catching shape by the time we would get to the lake. I really don't know if it actually did or not, but we believed it did.

But now days I basically only fish for sandbass, smallmouth bass, and sunfish. It don't take a lot of fancy gear to catch them.