Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | I'll start this post off with a sad but true story. Back in 1986 and on one of my very first trips with my new Drift Boat, I was (drop back fishing plugs) on the Big Manistee River for Steelhead's. I was using some of the original Storm Wiggle Warts. Back then the Warts came equipped standard with Chromium Eagle Claw style turned in hooks, that (in my opinion) were to small and the wrong design shape and style for the Wiggle Wart. They tended not to hold very well anything that would jump, twist or thrash after being hooked. I would prove this many, many times on this late October day when me and a friend went a miserable 1 for 18 on some fresh river run chromers.
I started almost immediately after that first trip in changing the hooks on many of the Storm products. I also wrote about and shared my hook modification ideas often in the monthly MSSFA newspapers and the STS magazine. Then a few years later (1987) after being put on Storm Lures writers list, I was privileged to help them choose the newer hooks they would use on many of their Lures. Running my Guide service under the business name "Steelie Dan's Guide Service" I was extra privileged when Storm came out with and named their new Wiggle Warts, (especially made and named for Steelhead fishing) with modified hooks, the "Steelie Wart".
Around that time when targeting King Salmon on these rivers, I also experimented with using double Split Rings on front and back of my larger Hot-N-Tot lures. This allowed the lure to be twisted twice as far as a single split ring would, without giving the fish a twisting hinge point against the lure to dislodge the hooks. Kings are almost famous for this twisting, rolling and jamming maneuver, working the lure against the hooks (in some cases) ripping them free. I just seen an advertisement on TV for what I've been waiting for all my fishing life. Here's the link.
http://basstarbaits.com/spintech/ |
