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On my last two guided kayak outings in TX and FL the guides gave me a Heddon Super Spook Jr. to throw. Believe it or not, I had never fished a "walk-the-dog" lure prior to last November. I quickly learned the technique and I was quite impressed at the back and forth motion of the Heddon lure. It looks much like a snake slithering through the water. I caught specks and reds on it and I strongly suspect it will work for stripers here. At 3.5 inches the Spook Jr. is a perfect size for light tackle casting.
However, neither guide fished the lure with in-line hooks. They left the stock trebles on it. I do not like fishing with trebles for the common reasons that have often been cited here -- they're hard to remove from a fish and they pose a hazard to the angler when landing a particularly active catch.
Today I visited Bass Pro and picked up a Heddon Spook Jr. and some inline hooks to put on it. Special thanks to Harry (On-the-fly) for finding those VMC inline hooks for me. Darned if I could see them in the racks. Harry went right to them.
Spook Start.jpg
Note the inline hook I chose was a 2/0. I don't know what size the trebles were but my goal was to approximate their gap with the inline hook. See here:
Hooks.jpg
Even though the Heddon lure I purchased did not come with a dressed rear hook, I decided to tie some bucktail and feathers on it. I like to dress the rear hook on my surface lures the same as I do on fly rod poppers. I'm not sure it's needed on a hard plastic baits but I think it provides a little more attraction to the fish. It can't hurt, I believe.
Hook tied.jpg
I tied in white bucktail a few strands of red crystal flash and get this...pelican feathers. They were retrieved off the water by Tampa kayak guide Neil Taylor and brought to me by John Veil. I'm reasonably certain I'll be one of few anglers casting a Heddon Spook Jr. to stripers this year with pelican feathers on the rear hook!
If you're going to change hooks on lures split ring pliers are invaluable.
Pliers.jpg
So here is the before and after versions of my new walk-the-dog topwater bait:
Spook Before.jpg Spook Complete.jpg
I'm looking forward to using it.
However, neither guide fished the lure with in-line hooks. They left the stock trebles on it. I do not like fishing with trebles for the common reasons that have often been cited here -- they're hard to remove from a fish and they pose a hazard to the angler when landing a particularly active catch.
Today I visited Bass Pro and picked up a Heddon Spook Jr. and some inline hooks to put on it. Special thanks to Harry (On-the-fly) for finding those VMC inline hooks for me. Darned if I could see them in the racks. Harry went right to them.
Spook Start.jpg
Note the inline hook I chose was a 2/0. I don't know what size the trebles were but my goal was to approximate their gap with the inline hook. See here:
Hooks.jpg
Even though the Heddon lure I purchased did not come with a dressed rear hook, I decided to tie some bucktail and feathers on it. I like to dress the rear hook on my surface lures the same as I do on fly rod poppers. I'm not sure it's needed on a hard plastic baits but I think it provides a little more attraction to the fish. It can't hurt, I believe.
Hook tied.jpg
I tied in white bucktail a few strands of red crystal flash and get this...pelican feathers. They were retrieved off the water by Tampa kayak guide Neil Taylor and brought to me by John Veil. I'm reasonably certain I'll be one of few anglers casting a Heddon Spook Jr. to stripers this year with pelican feathers on the rear hook!
If you're going to change hooks on lures split ring pliers are invaluable.
Pliers.jpg
So here is the before and after versions of my new walk-the-dog topwater bait:
Spook Before.jpg Spook Complete.jpg
I'm looking forward to using it.
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