i have a BW trip planned end of sept. havent been fishing around home much. so i decided to modify some spoons tonight. the 1st pic bottom cleo, i got at some flea market(it's 1.4oz) and the dress was added by somebody. and i start using it this year and had some good success. so i added some more dress to some other spoons. i feel it gives the same weight lure a larger profile to attract the big ones.got the dress/fur off of ebay.the white is mountain goat-the top 1 is an african animal-and bottom flashabu.

Beaver Flick with a red hook swapped on

For me, it's not a modification thing...it is imagining(or thinking) out of the box, on what a particular lure or soft plastic COULD do.

For instance, one of my fav. summer thick cover tactics is flipping/pitchin a Salt Craw(or plastic equal) at night. Nothin' new, standard stuff anywhere....EWG gap 5/0 bullet weight sinker and a pool cue for a rod. But what else can you flip?? Remember depth-speed-location(the mantra)...Sluggo(no weight)?? YEA....Senko...Yea. (That's a night-time money combo!!). Fluke?? ya' betcha!!. That is what winter is for...to sit in front of the TV with a couple of soft plastic styles and IMAGINE what you can do with it.

On pressured water(think Minnetonka, Pepin, Ft. Gibson(Okla.)), a buzzbait soon wears out it's welcome. The person who catches the most fish on a buzzbait is the first person to use it, and the first person to STOP using it!! Replacement?? Try a Mogambo grub by Kalin. Rig it Texas style with a 5/0 EWG and reel it kinda slow on the surface. The head wiggles back and forth sorta like a Spook, and the tail buzzes and gurgles on the top. Rig it hook point up, tail pointing down. Completely weedless, so good on fall Pike on dying weed edges it's not fair.

I'm not a big color guy, but.....I learned this tip from a member of the now defuncted Bass 'N Gal tounament trail. Back in the 80's the Salt Craw was king, in a rainbow of colors. Flipping around flooded willows was/is standard stuff. After a while, the larger bass sorta picked up on the fact that a black/blue thing might NOT be a shad in the willows. One of the colors offered by Gene Larew for a SC was white with black claws...there ya go, a shad in the willows!!

Rapala Origional Floaters F11 F13 with lead tape to get them down just a bit. They also cast farther. Deadly on a shallow reef at dark.