I was fishing with a friend last week. We were walking rats along rocky shorelines. The person I was fishing with was not the most accurate caster. He hit the rocks often (he was using my lures), which resulted in breaking off two hitchhikers from the rat lures. Also he bounced a fish off the deck of the boat and broke the hitchhiker off a lure. I had a dozen and a half rats on the boat so just changing lures was the solution. Even though I have been using an epoxied hitchhiker for two months without a failure, the incidence gave me a reason to build the rat so the hitchhiker can be replaced while fishing.

I drilled out the epoxy and the remains of the broken hitchhiker and screw in a small screw eye just below the surface. The hitchhiker then can be snapped on the eye or (even better) cut and shorten the snap end of the hitchhiker and make a bend tighter to the coils, which when done accurately mean the hitchhiker is exposed the same length as if it were epoxied in. The tail is a little harder to install because the hitchhiker is not ridged however this method holds the tail as well as the epoxied method.

Hope I have helped.

Henry

P.S. I have been experimenting with different hardwoods (and combinations of hardwoods glued together) in regards to action, weight, sound, color, etc. On the internet, I learned about an African hardwood that is decay resistant, dense, has a good sound and great color. It is a deep brownish red. I am into the color of the wood because most of the rat lures I make are not painted, just a clear finish. Anyway I was lucky enough to obtain some of the African wood, check out the color on the attachment.


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