11. Make a Frog a Popper with
A Suction Cup
Turning your favorite “standard”
frog into a popping frog is easy with
a suction cup. First, clip off the “nip-
ple” on the suction cup and pierce a
hole through its center with a thin
tack or nail. slide a rubber bobber
stop up the line, followed by the suc-
tion cup. Now tie on the frog and
push the bobber stop down to hold
the suction cup in place. suction
cups are cheap and come in packs of
several. You can also try to Paycheck
Baits Nose Job, which serves the
same purpose.
– Curtis Niedermier
11.
12.
12. Prevent Swimbait Tears
With a Toothpick
A soft-plastic swimbait body or
straight-tail swimbait body (like the
Jenko Tremor shad or Castaic Jerky J)
can tear easily on the hookset when
the plastic is forced down the hook
shank. A toothpick, carefully inserted
through the body, blocks the plastic
from sliding and tearing. Jake
Lawrence, Costa FLW series pro from
Paris, Tenn., has perfected the trick.
First, he glues the jighead in place and
tests the bait to make sure it’s running
true. Then he inserts the toothpick
through one side and out the other,
so that it rests on top of the hook
shank just in front of where the hook
bend begins. When using a hollow
swimbait, he always glues the ends of
the toothpick in place. Lawrence says
using the trick has made a single hard-
to-find Jerky J last for a week or more.
– Curtis Niedermier
13.
13. Turn a Swimbait into a
Line-Thru with a Pop Rivet
Lawrence also converts unrigged
swimbaits into line-thrus using two
techniques. Originally, he pushed the
rivet end of a pop rivet from the
belly up through the nose of the bait.
He then passed his line through the
rivet and tied on a belly treble hook.
small nail weights inserted as low in
the belly as possible helped “bal-
ance” the bait for proper action.
More recently, Lawrence discov-
ered the Fattube Line Thru swimbait
Tube (visit TackleWarehouse.com). It
looks like a rivet, but comes in a
weightless plastic version and sever-
al weighted versions made of brass.
To rig the Fattube, Lawrence first
pushes a toothpick through the bait,
from the nose to the belly, to “pre-
drill” a channel. He then slides the
Fattube right over the toothpick (to
make sure it’s straight), removes the
toothpick and ties up.
Either method works, but the key
is to keep the bait straight, and to
run the rivet or Fattube at the cor-
rect angle. With either, the broad
end should be on the belly side. Line
it up by laying the swimbait down on
its side, holding the rivet or Fattube
outside the body, and marking the
exit point on the belly. Then rig it.
Expect to tear up a few baits in
the process of learning how to make
this rig, but Lawrence says once you
learn to do it properly the swimbaits
will last a long time and are highly
effective.
– Curtis Niedermier
EPOXY: YOUR ULTIMATE TOOL
By Sean Ostruszka
Anglers carry a lot of tools with them on the water, though there’s one they should have,
but often forget: epoxy. Whether it’s resealing a crankbait, welding that piece of your trolling
motor back together to finish your day or fixing any of the thousands of other things that can
break on the water, epoxy is often the cure-all.
Choose a clear, waterproof, five-minute epoxy. store it in a plastic bag with some paper
cups, Popsicle sticks for mixing and craft paintbrushes for application.
Five-minute epoxy cures fast, so make sure everything is ready to be glued back together
(dry and ready to be assembled) before mixing it. Also, once you feel it warming up through
the paper cup, it’s curing, so waiting an extra couple seconds after that point will minimize
drips, as the epoxy will set even faster once applied. ■
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FLWFISHING.COM I WINTER 2019