|
|
Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | I don't want to ruin the thread about Suicks in the Figure 8, so I'm starting a new thread.
Steve mentioned in that thread how he tunes them so they also walk the dog as well as glide.
Steve, could you please share how you tune them this way? I tried to tune a couple this weekend for the first time, and they only rose one way if that makes any sense. After several pulls, they would, flounder, I guess would describe it. I bent both corners down, and tried to bend them equally.
While fishing with Mike Koepp, I used his, and they seemed to bob up and down almost in a V shape.
I hope this makes sense. My ignorance is showing.
Kevin
PackerHopeful | |
| | |
Posts: 32902
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Each has it's own special rock and roll point. The biggest factor I see in DE-tuning a Suick is bending the tail down too much. Start with the tail just a bit turned down, maybe an eighth of an inch. Watch the way the bait runs, right or left, and bend the tail a bit on the opposite side until it runs pretty straight, then in very small increments, bend the tail down until she dances. | |
| | |
Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | Thanks Steve. I guess I was on the right track, but needed more time than I had to work on it. They are very cool baits, and getting proficient with them is part of the continuing plan. I haven't used them much. Saturday on Okauchee seemed like a good time to dance them through the weeds, but of course they were tuned badly.
Kevin
I need to get back to the learning part of the plan. | |
| | |
Posts: 7056
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | You're fishing with me on Saturday, I believe. We'll mess with them for a bit, gett'em running well. If we cant get the tail tuned right, generally bashing them against a concrete structure of some sort gives 'em a little personality, and thusly a little bit of attitude when they run. | |
| | |
Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | Let's find some concrete. I can probably hit that.
Kevin
Back to the Plan. | |
| | |
| Buy your suicks from 'chain stores",,,Fleet farm,Walmart,Cabelas,gander mountain,, etc,,they have liberal exchange policys so if you get a suick that you cant tune no matter what you can bring it back for another one | |
| | |
Posts: 723
| NO matter what, you can tune any suick, and I mean ANY! by turning the eyescrew, bending\twisting the tail, dog-earing one of the corners on the tail, you can make any bad suick into a fish catching machine, but, after it gets eaten, re-tuning is sometimes necessary.
| |
| | |
Posts: 5874
| An absolute must for getting a Suick to run correctly is to make sure the cotter keys(hook eyes) are in-line. Turn the bait upside down, and sight down the belly, looking at the eyes. They should be perfectly in line. Twist those that are not, to line them up. That is the first step, before even putting the bait in the water.
| |
| | |
Posts: 2030
| whats a bad Suick? I have never had one that doesn't dive/rise? | |
| | |
Posts: 1120
Location: West Chester, OH | Has anyone replaced cotter pins on a Suick? The factory pins appear to be brass: Did you use steel or brass replacements? | |
| | |
Posts: 691
Location: nationwide | Best way to tune a Suick is cremation in a wood stove, then go buy a Bobbie bait.
Sorry, couldn't resist. The last time out I had a little disagreement with a couple of my Suicks hence the sourness towards them.
Corey Meyer
| |
| | |
Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | Corey, did they sass ya'? No one likes a sassy bait.
Kevin
Back to the original Plan. | |
| | |
Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI |
What the hell's going on around here lately, even a post about tuning a bait get's weird. I thought the nastiness waited until winter when no one could get on the water?
Kevin
Bact to the original Plan. | |
| | |
Posts: 7056
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Kevin,
It's called WinterNet. Makes everyone angry that they cant chase muskies, so instead of working that anger/angst/frustration out in positive ways, they find topics to fight about on the internet. Lambeau is working hard to get it put into the DSM. | |
| | |
| I like Suicks and Bobbies equally well. The little separate tabs on the Bobbie's tail can be bent (the extreme left edge one and the extreme right one) to make it wobble on a longer pull, and especially through a F8. Like Worral said, ease a Suick's tail down bit by bit. EVERY and I mean EVERY Suick runs different. I use a 5/8 bell sinker on lots of mine (weighted and unweighted). I adds depth and clunks off the belly. Some have a small hole worn thr just behind the front hook. Lead solder works well too, but you don't get the sound. Night Hawk (white with orange scale and hot orange belly), Purple Rage, Orange belly w/ black gold glitter back, and Jailbird are probably my favorites. I paint a lot of them also, I did a gold glitter jailbird that looks great in the water this summer. Hook size/wire dia. is important too. Mustad 3x trebles are as thick as coathanger wire but sharpen down to a great point, and they add a lot of weight for running depth and suspending. By the same token, thin, light hooks help baits through weeds and stuff. In NW ONT last season, we did great surface fishing Suicks. Just like a Bulldawg, lay the belly down flat on the cast for that nice 'smuck' sound, and leave 'er sit. Few pulls, leave her float back up and sit. This worked on fish to 48 inches from ice out until July 4th. Some Suicks chop left to right, some run dead straight, others run great out of the box, others need work. They all catch fish. I use a splt ring off the nose directly to the leader. Getting into the boat with someone who fishes them and knows the ins and outs is a great idea. Try the bell sinker as fall rolls along, on a bait that's already weighted. Throws like a bomb, hangs deep and fish kill them. I fish with more than one guy who's given up on the $65 gliders after seeing a tuned $20 Suick or Bobbie work. No contest in the weeds, that's for sure. I like a short rod, 6'9 and the 7'0 Premier, and fish out of a deep V Lund, lower gunnels are way easier to jerk from. Long pulls, wrist snaps (like with a Husky Jerk or baby minnow bait), hard taps, suspending, surface fishing, floating them up with twitches, it all works. Basic design that's been around forever and still does a lot of damage. I also up size to a 5/0 on the front of the biat and use 4/0's near the tail sometimes to pull the nose down. They hit them head first most of the time, the bigger hook up front helps a lot. The big, broad-sided gliders and stuff they make now are the ones that give jerkbaits a bad name as far as hooking goes. Suick's a thin, slender profile, fish have no problem eating them, with sharp hooks you'll get most of them well. I haven't missed any fish on Suick this season so far (now there's a jinx). I find they're great hookers. | |
| | |
| ...The surface Suicks ice-out stuff was on pike, not muskies, just to be clear. | |
| | |
Posts: 8797
| 1. Remove lure from package
2. Clip lure onto leader
3. Throw lure
4. Bend tail down slightly
5. Throw lure again
6. Bend tail down some more
7. Throw lure again
8. Put back in tackle box
9. Read everything you can find about how to tune a Suick
10. Dog ear the tail
11. Throw lure some more
12. Bend tail some more
13. Throw lure some more
14. Go to musky show and see what certain renowned fishermen have done to their Suicks
15. Bend tail some more
16. Wonder if you just got a bad one
17. Buy another Suick
18. Repeat step 1 - 13 with new Suick
19. Wonder if maybe you just don't know how to work them right
20. Fish with guide friend who says "hey, you got any Suicks??"
21. Hand Suick to friend
22. Watch friend throw Suick for three casts and say "wow this one runs AWESOME, can I keep it?"
I guess what I'm saying Kevin is give it to someone who loves them and let THEM tune it for you. And then if you can get it back, do not EVER let it out of your sight!
| |
| | |
| That is funny stuff! You beat me to it bud, I was just about to say I'll take any and all Suicks of guy's hands who don't like 'em. | |
| | |
Location: Northern Wisconsin | i love suicks. you cant really work them wrong. i used to hate them until i actually caught a musky on
one. usually they run to one side out of box. i turn the screw eye the opposite direction and it usually makes them
run better and i mess around with the tail. bending it to much makes them bad. some of mine work
good with hard pulls some work good with soft but my favorite works no matter what you do.
i like mine to go down and shake around and go to side to side slightly. i cant predict what my good one does.
it goes every where | |
| | |
Posts: 811
| A lot of good advice has already been given, if I was to add anything else it'd be just take your Suicks down to the boat launch or to a local pond and just tinker with them until you get the action you want. You'll know right out of the box when you've got a good one but those are far and inbetween. I own a couple of Suicks, and one is a 9" Non-weighted that just needed the screw eye bent. The other is a 10" Weighted that needed the screw eye bent and some weight added to the front hook. They're all different and each will require something a little different. | |
| | |
Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | That's exactly what I was going to say. Kevin, take a bucket (or whatever it takes to transport the suicks you have) and head to Smokies. Then chuck those dudes off the pier and tune em there. You might even score a fish doing that. | |
| | |
Posts: 3876
| I really like suicks and do well with them, for me. Years ago I received a long "How to fish a suick." response from Rollie of Rollie and Helen's. What I recall...
* Among the suicks your looking at, buy the one with the highest-placed eyescrew. Don't know what the rationale was, but that's what he said. I can't tell any dif on mine (I have about 10).
* Line up the eyes that hold the hooks, it is critical, like what Shep said.
* Don't bend the tail much to start, take your time, don't bend it much. And carefully bend the "flaps" down slightly one way or another if the bait is running way left or way right.
Now I'll add my own observations, the first one being really bold...
The suick that boats the most fish is the one that has the most side-to-side "death wobble" on the rise. On the pull the bait dives, then with slack the bait flattens out and drifts up toward the surface, wobbling side to side. These baits don't nose up toward the surface, they drift up flat, and facing the bait, they rock back and forth from 10:00 to 2:00. Of the 10 or so suicks I have, only two do the death wobble great, both are unweighted. One is the killer killer, man does that bait work great and I've caught many of my fish on it.
Ever slow troll a suick? They work great, if you are confident of the bait's action back there. Especially good slow-troller if you are snaking your way thru timber, deadheads and such; if you hook up on wood the bait is never more than 3-5' down and you'll get it back. You gotta do the pull-the-bait-forward and the drop-the-rod-tip-back to allow the bait to rise a foot or so. | |
| | |
Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Ranger, try to speed troll one.  | |
| | |
| you can tune a suick but you can't tunafish
Planned Muskyhood | |
| |
|
Tuning a Suick