Customize Your Bladebaits For Bigger, Better Walleyes

THE OL' MAGIC MARKER, PAINT, AND NAIL POLISH TRICK

Another of Bobby Jacobsen's innovations is to paint eyes on his bladebaits, using red paint for red eyes. Using a household marker like a black Sharpie, you can color in vertical stripes (for perch) or black dots (for crappies). The Scented Double Markers from the Spike-It Bait Company (available through Bass Pro Shops) offer coloring pens in Chartreuse-Red and Chartreuse-Orange with the added value of scent enhancement (garlic and gamefish). You can also dip your blades in Pro-Tec Powder Paint, the same kind of stuff you dip jigheads in.

Lastly, if your household is like mine (wife and two teenage daughters), there's lots of nail polish in the house. Glitter nail polish can be awesome for adding reflective color that looks like tiny scales.

HOOKS

Most bladebaits come equipped with two sets of treble hooks. A recent trend, however, is to replace these with two sets of dual hooks--the hooks facing the center of the blade removed. You can buy premade dual hooks or simply use a pair of wire cutters to snap off the third hook on each treble. Other variations include removing the forward treble altogether. Some anglers also use a single Siwash style hook on the rear--and nothing else.

SCENT

Experiment with adding scent to a blade via a pinch of nightcrawler, Berkley Nibble, or a minnow head. This can be done without hindering the action by adding the bait to the center-pointed hook of the forward treble. Also smear the blade with a gel scent like Smelly Jelly (anise scent being one of the best). Some ice jiggers are known to add a spike (maggot) or two to the front

treble hook.

SNAPS

Most blades come with some sort of snap for attaching your line or leader, inserting it into one of the hole positions along the top of the blade, resulting in a different attitude and vibration characteristic. One school of thought, however, is that snap swivels hinder action and slow response between you and the blade, particularly when a fish strikes. If your blades have a snap swivel, simply remove the upper barrel and keep the snap. Northwest walleye anglers typically use a chrome Duo-Snap, also known as a fast-lock snap.

An innovation that might just catch on is adding a small O-ring rather than a snap. It's less obtrusive, has less effect on action, and still protects the mono leader.

The upshot is, there are many modifications possible with bladebaits. Be creative and add your own ideas and creations to the bladebait debate. n

*Dusty Routh, an outdoor writer, newspaper columnist and book author hopelessly addicted to walleye fishing, is a resident of Issaquah, Washington.