Since I was still getting some cross-over between the top and bottom color plastics, I cleaned the JB Weld out of the 4" Ripper molds and went a different direction using a 5/8 bit in the drill press and doing an end injection port in both molds. I closed off the original injection port-runner with JB Weld again and then cut some thin metal plate and ground out a little metal along the back of the Ripper body to make a hook slot. These baits with the weighted hooks can be shoved right into the worst slop and stay weed free thanks to that slot on the back and tying directly to the hook's eye. When a fish hits the hook-up is immediate.
This mod works even better than the other mod to the 90 degree throat at the bottom of the original runner. The top side hook slot is something I am asked quite often on....as in why there isn't one. Now there is one.
We.ve been focusing on 2' to 5 ' water with both visible weeds/slop and submerged weeds and have been plucking some really nice bass and pike just casting and swimming the Rippers back on a 4/0 Gammi cast with 1/16 weight. We've seen two bass in the 5 pound range and a really nice pike on the last trip, Thursday. Four dogfish graced my buddy's tackle the last trip so maybe I've broken the bowser spell that has hung on me a while now. Its amazing how clean the Rippers come back even after tossing it out in pure slop....but that's where the bulk of our bass are coming from....now with the slot for the hook's point to be tucked out of the way of anything that might want to snag onto it. I do a slight touch-up on the weight after its cast on the hook by using a fine flat file to taper the lead on the hook enf so it slips right thru the plastic on the nose without making a big pathway thru it. The plastics stay rigged well by doing this. After five or six fish I use supper glue if the plastic wants to slide off the jog in the hook. When the nose ends of the baits get beat up some I keep them after switching them out for a new bait and dip them in hot clear or maybe even watermelon plastic a couple times to create a new hooking surface....works wonderful but does add a knob to the bait. I haven't seen any difference in hits doing this but then we are fishing bass and pike.
