ADDING RATTLES

Though countless lures rattle, many top anglers like to add rattles to quieter baits like soft plastics, hair jigs, and spinnerbaits.

Insert Rattles -- Small glass and plastic chambers can be inserted into soft plastic baits to provide a soft rattle when the bait's moved. Place them horizontally in Texas-rigged or Carolina-rigged worms, lizards, craws, and grubs, or into the tail section of soft stickbaits, to allow the most lure movement.

External Rattles -- For sound unimpeded by plastic, attach larger rattlers like Woodies Versatile Rattler to the outside of the hook shank with super glue. These rattles also can be strung onto fishing line or glued to spinnerbait arms.

Cuttin' Up -- With a tool like Don Iovino's Grub Cutter, remove a plug of plastic to house a rattler. Mid-South Tackle's pork-shape plastic trailer comes with a hollowed-out area, to accommodate their plastic rattle chamber that has a loop on one end to secure the rattling trailer to the hook of a jig.

Scent Pockets -- With coring tools, a tinkerer can hollow a bait and fill the cavity with foam to create a floating bait, or place scent-flavor products within for extended sensory output.

RIGGING WRINKLES

Minor alterations can give plastic baits a different look and action. The key, of course, is reading the mood of the fish and tuning your rig to the fish's mood.

Floater Rigs -- We've described floating a tube with foam. Betts' Carolina Floater will do the same with lizards, craws, or other plastics. Floaters are shaped like a bullet sinker, so they slide on the line. Peg one in front of a Texas-rigged worm to make a true floating worm. Or reverse the float to create a poppin' bait. Rig one in front of a Carolina-rigged bait to float it above the sinker. Pull the sinker into the nest, then yo-yo the bait up and down and watch the bass breathe fire.

Reverse Rigging -- A simple trick for Carolina-rigging or Texas-rigging involves reversing the bullet weight so the concave end digs into the bottom to create extra disturbance.

Brass and Glass -- To increase the noise of a Carolina rig, place one or more glass beads and a brass clacker between the sinker and the swivel.

Pegging Weights -- A toothpick was the classic method for pegging sinkers, though Gambler's Florida Rig now dominates that scene. Mojo Tackle's threading tool and rubber strips also peg sinkers, and the system holds better than a toothpick. Top Brass Tackle's rubber Peg-It is another device for pegging sinkers.

Spoon Tuning -- When fishing a weedless spoon like the Johnson Silver Minnow, snip off the last half inch of the wire weedguard. Then impale a large grub on the weedguard and stick the single hook into the grub body for extra action and even a more-weedless retrieve.