Look how much more "LIFE-LIKE the Fin-S Fish on top and in the middle looks, more than the other three baits. Striped bass will key on those eyes and strike that lure more readily than one that is just plain out of the package. A little time spent on making your lures look more like the real thing can pay off on days when the fishing get tough.

"ENHANCING SOFT PLASTIC LURES"

One thing that saltwater anglers can learn from their freshwater counterpart is how to make a good lure even better. Freshwater anglers are always looking for an edge or a new presentation of an old bait. Tournament fishing for big money has no doubt helped that thought process to accelerate into dozens of new ideas and techniques.

As saltwater anglers or even new freshwater striper buffs look to improve their lures there are a whole array of tricks and ideas that we can use to fool "old pajamas" when he believes that he's seen everything that we have to offer him.

DYES:   Freshwater anglers have known for years that by adding a different color tail to a worm or crayfish bait that it could make all the difference in the number (s) of fish that are caught on any given day. They developed some pretty amazing products over the years and these should be of interest to every saltwater and freshwater angler out there.

Fast drying colored dyes are available from Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's or Jann's Netcraft for enhancing any of your plastic lures in only a few seconds. You can turn a tail to chartreuse, black, red, white, yellow or green in an instant just by dipping it in a small jar of dye. The dye dries in seconds, if not instantly and won't run or drip all over your boat or truck while doing it. I've used this dye for quiet some time now and haven't had any problems with it at all. This is very useful in dark, stained waters or when there has been a lot of run-off form heavy rains and storms. It also adds contrast to your lure when fishing and sometimes that slight variation is all that is needed to draw a striper's attention to your lure.

EYES:    When you look at, lets say, a plain Slug-Go, Fin-S Fish or big shad body or any type of large plastic lure, you see a long, fat, thin or thick piece of rubber. But by placing eyes on that same lure you create a whole different look and you instantly think- wow- this thing looks real.

It's long been known and an accepted fact that eyes are an attraction to predator species both in live baits and artificial baits as well, when viewed by predator species. Fly fishing anglers have known this for many years and have utilized that predatory response to their advantage by adding large eyes to the flies that they design and create.

There are now companies that are manufacturing plastic screw-in eyes that you can twist in on the heads of large plastic lures. Both Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops, as well as Netcraft carry this type of add-on eye in their catalogs. If you want to get fancy, try fly tying eyes that are 3-D, or hologram flash or any other number and array of flashy eye designs that are used to draw attention to your lure. These can either be the stick-on types or you can glue them on. The Netcraft catalog out of Ohio has eyes in all sizes, colors and shapes at very reasonable prices.

 Eyes can also be made from ordinary bead-chain in gold, silver or black. You can add these to the smaller size shad bodies or Slug-Go's or Fin-S Fish as eyes and also a little bit of extra weight for casting. The larger size bead-chain can also be dipped in paint to change the color as well. Cut a set of bean-chain into pairs, then punch a hole in the plastic lure and push the bead-chain through it. You now have a weighted shad body or Slug-Go type bait with eyes. The lure will tend to dive head first when jigged or twitched and will look twice as alive at it without this addition to its body. Something monster striped bass love.

GLUE:   Once you get into fishing a lot of soft plastic baits you will quickly notice how endless the possibilities are for fishing them in countless numbers of ways and methods. A handy, and almost necessary item to have is some good glue for doing all sorts of jobs, add-ons and extras to your lures.

One of the best glue formulas out there today is a product called, "Pro-Soft Bait Glue". This stuff is simply amazing. It was specially formulated for working with soft plastic and it works great. You only need one drop of it to bond any piece of plastic or other object to your lure and it will hold forever. The one thing you don't want to do with this glue is leave it on your boat or in your truck, as the heat and sunlight will cause it to evaporate quickly.

RATTLES:   You can make your plastic lures a lot more appealing to monster striper's by adding a plastic worm rattle to it. Sound is one of the best triggering responses to a fish's natural instinct that we can use. Their lateral line is a virtual sound enhancing mechanism that absorbs all noise around his living space. It lets the fish know when there is food available as well as danger. Plastic worm rattles can trigger aggressive reactions to an otherwise docile fish.

I like the large sizes made of glass with two or three BB's inside the chamber. To get it into the bait, there is a small brass tool available that you insert into the body of the lure and pull out a plastic plug, which leaves a hole. Once its out, just insert the plastic rattle into the chamber the tool created and glue it in place. The tool is available from Bass Pro Shops and I believe it costs only Two-bucks. You could make your own, but hey, two bucks.

TOOTHPICKS:   Toothpicks are a handy item as well to have on board your boat or in your truck. They are cheap, they don't or won't rust, they take up very little space, weight almost nothing and can be stored just about anywhere to perform a number of different jobs. Use them to peg sinkers when Texas-Rigging, or to peg the heads of big plastic baits in place that have been ripped or torn or use them to push through the eye of the hook and bait to keep the lure in place or popper heads in the proper position when casting.

HOOK WEIGHTS:  Many of the hook companies now have hooks that come weighted as well as add-on weights that attach to the shank of the hook. These usually fit worm hooks, tube bait hooks, wide bits hooks and just about every type of hook imaginable. Lunker City now offers a weight system that be easily attached to the shank of a hook with two small O-Rings to hold the weight in place.

These weights aid in fishing your bait deeper in the water column and also aids in casting when wind becomes a problem. On many days the big, monster striper's will be holding just a bit deeper than most of the other fish and getting down to them can become critical. A weighted bait is the answer to this problem.

Try some of these tips this season and you'll see that they work when other things don't. Think outside the box and you will begin to catch a lot more monster striper's.

Captain Jim White/White Ghost Guide Service.

Captain Jim White