Greetings from Capt. Dave & BAYMEN!

Here is some useful info on how to modify Heddon Saltwater Super Spooks. Why modify them? The number one reason is the Super Spook comes with Three Sets of treble hooks. If you fish spooks a lot like I do, you know that three sets of trebles put a lot of holes into a fish. They can also rip up a fish’s soft tissue inside the upper part of the mouth. They can also get into the gills and puncture them and cause the fish to bleed. And in rare cases, the trebles can get caught in the esophagus deep down in the throat making removal next to impossible. So, in short, I have gone to modifying my Heddon Saltwater Super Spooks (and all my hardbody lures) to decrease injury and/or mortality to the fish.

In my case as a guide of 31 years on the Massachusetts coast, I use my Spooks for Striped Bass, mostly in shallow waters over weed beds and up on the flats, and also in shallow, narrow cuts and guzzles. The Spook’s “Walk The Dog” action once you master it, is absolutely deadly and striped bass can’t resist it. The hits are often explosive and very exciting for the angler.

 So, for the sake of the fish, our precious resource that we rule over as anglers, I have started modifying my Spooks. Here is what I do.

1. REMOVE the center treble and the split ring and safely discard.
2. REMOVE the front and rear treble hook and split rings and safely discard.
3. REPLACE the front and rear split rings with larger, stronger split rings size 6X H.
4. REPLACE the front and rear treble hooks with BBK  2/0 55lb Single Inline Hooks.
5. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure the replaced front and rear hooks face outward.

That’s all there is to it. I have tested this modification on my Heddon Super Spooks and using the “Walk The Dog” swimming technique, they swim amazing. Also, there is a very insignificant drop in hook-up rates, maybe 10%, due to fishing with two single hooks as opposed three sets of trebles. But 10% is insignificant and a tiny price to pay for assuring the striped bass we catch and release are released to live on and breed and make new striped bass to sustain our striped bass fishery on the Atlantic Coast.

And who knows? That fish that you release in great shape may be the fifty pounder fish of a lifetime that you land ten or twenty or thirty years into the future…

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com 31 Years Guiding The Bay. Still In Love.

Soli Deo Gloria!

POSTSCRIPT: With special thanks to Baymen Dick Bowman who turned me on to single inline hooks. He did a ton of research and put the first BBK inline single hooks into my hands along with split ring pliers and 30lb mono leaders. Dick also gave me a topwater popper called the COASTAL POPPER by INTENT TACKLE COMPANY. These poppers come already rigged with single inline hooks and are ready to fish. If you read some of my other recent Baymen Fishing Reports, you will see we slam striped bass on this popper!