Fishstix024 Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 Over the weekend I fished the WWBT series event as a Co-Angler at New Melones here in NorCal. My 1st day Pro is a well know guide at Clearlake and a bigbait guy. We hit it off well and fishing was pretty good. No fish on the big baits, but we each boated over 20 fish each for decent limits. While we were talking big baits he pulls out a Baitsmith I'd never seen before. It was a super slow sink Mag with bottom hook hangers. He made a few casts and it swimming similar to a nail weighted ROF 0 Hudd, just under the surface. Turns out this is an older bait and no longer in production. Here in CA with our ultra clear lakes, baits that can be fished in the top 2ft of water can be deadly. I've seen fish pull off the bottom in 20-30ft, just to come up to inspect a big bait on the surface. My question for SU is: Has anyone ever cut out the harness on their mag and removed some or all of the weight, then reinstalled the harness? I've heard it is possible, just not a common mod. Not gonna lie, i'm pretty hesitant to cut into one of my favorite mags to attempt the mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steezykane Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 don't cut out the harness totally. I did this to one of mine, just cut open on the bottom with a razor blade, use cutters and cut off a tiny bit of lead at a time until the desired sink, because too fast too quick is never a good thing haha. Can cause the bait to not keel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigworm Posted April 6, 2019 Report Share Posted April 6, 2019 On 4/2/2019 at 3:37 PM, steezykane said: don't cut out the harness totally. I did this to one of mine, just cut open on the bottom with a razor blade, use cutters and cut off a tiny bit of lead at a time until the desired sink, because too fast too quick is never a good thing haha. Can cause the bait to not keel. What he said^^ really easy to slit open belly and clip the lead. It doesn’t take much to change the sink rate. I cut a section from the middle of the lead so the bait sank more horizontal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Weruso Posted April 8, 2019 Report Share Posted April 8, 2019 I drew up a quick diagram of my heavy baitsmith turned into a ROF 0 or ROF 2. This is the way i saw mine was made, i don't remember if the very front chin eyelet is connected to the eyelet jig hook mold. If it is i'm ok tying a hook there, if not i can't obviously lol VolunteerSwimbaits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Weruso Posted April 8, 2019 Report Share Posted April 8, 2019 forgot to mention the yellow circle is the foam body attached to the jig gook and top wire eyelets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishstix024 Posted April 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2019 Right on! Thanks for the image Neil. I'll be slicing and dicing this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catching_california Posted May 30, 2021 Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 Does anyone have photos of the baitsmith/hawg hunter being cut open? I'm kind of confused on the diagram up top. Any help would be greatly appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattGbaz Posted May 30, 2021 Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 take harness all the way out use a weightless beast hook rig a treble to the bottom of the beast hook with braid etc. add a little bit of lead tape if necessary to make it swim straight. never done it on a baitsmith, but have on other wedge tails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Weruso Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 I removed the whole harness and cut out lead. Still have that baitsmith that has a XSS sink rate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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