I accidentally acquired an ROF 0 the other day. So this weekend Im out fishing throwing the ROF 12 and I stumble into a shallow fish bite. I had to kinda burn the ROF 12 while keeping my rod tip high, I lost three nice fish doing this (it was totally cool watching a large fish try to kill my bait in 2 foot crystal clear water on three consecutive casts). IMO, I lost those fish because I was realling too fast and they just werent getting the bait in their mouth.

So I threw the ROF 0. I was surprised to find that it sits a little too high in the water, such that upon a slow retrieval the tail does not waggle, in fact it does nothing, comes straight through the water like a stick. The fish wanted nothing to do with the ROF 0 (and I dont have a 5).

So here is the question. Has anybody tried to tweek the 0 so it sits low enough in the water that its tail waggles during a very slow retrieve? At this point the only thing the 0 seems good for is deadsticking and I dont deadstick. Any suggestions on this or general thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

If you look at the bttom of the bait on the belly you'll see a small hole. What I did was use a thin drop shot weight, 3/16 ounce. I pulled the swivle off and jammed it in there and glued the hole shut, now it's a 5. Hope that helped

Yeah, that helps. The one thing Im concerned about is if I do that does the bait still remain horizontal in the water? I dont want a nose up or tail down thing going on.

And I know I can play with weighting on my own to see what works best, but if I can avoid tearing my bait up and save some time through others experiences, thats the way I want to go. In other words, thanks for the suggestions.

Use nail weights. You can buy a pack of like 20 for a few dollars. Lunker City makes them. You can make your bait whatever ROF you want.

mine sits horizontal and swims perfectly, the nail weights are a good idea too, but the 3/16 weight was perfect to match the ROF5. So experiment and let us know how it works!

Those guys are right. You need to place your weights emediatlty above and behind the metal loop on the belly to balance the bait.
This is were the weihting is on the Rof5 So as log as you put them in straight it should fall leval.

I had the same problem, but I noticed that after a few casts, the little holes in the bait fill up w/ a bit of water and the bait starts to sit just a bit lower, and will kick when retrieved. I did not want to weight mine because I like to be able to deadstick it on top. Also, if I put the rod tip underwater, I can get it to swim about 6 inches down.

If you use a dropshot or mojo weight, you could attach a short piece of line to the weight before you insert it. Just leave 1/2" or so sticking out of the hole. That way you can easily remove it if you need to. It won't affect the action and isn't big enough to bother the fish :-)

Several comments. I did stick my rod in the water to try and achieve slight depth. I still had to reel too fast, and on long casts even that wouldnt work until the bait was somewhat close. Plus, I wasnt sure I would be able to set the hook if I got bit.

Matt, you suggest putting a weight both fore and aft of the stinger harness? Guess that means I have to poke a hole in the bait, right?

What Im gonna do is fill a bucket full of water, then attach mojo weights first by rubber bands until I achieve what I want. Then Ill insert them into the hole! I really dont want to poke a new hole in the bait since I would then have to seal it, and my 0 will never be a 0 again.

Great idea about the fishing line and removal.

What Id really like to do is find some tungsten nail weights, the smaller size likely would be easier on the bait during insertion, plus they wouldnt add unneccessary bulk to the bait.

I let everyone know what happens.

Nail weights wont hurt your bait and you should be able to remove them easily with a little preasure. What ever weight you choose they need to be as close to the little metal ring on the belly because that is were the weight is located on the other Rof's

I wanted the ROF 0 to fall very slowly, even much slower than the 5, so here is what I did.

I took mojo weights, and some slender drop shot weights with the swivels removed (the only things I had at home, others things would have been better). I filled a bucket of water to the top, then wrapped a rubber band around the middle of the bait. Next, I experimented with weights putting them under the rubber band on the belly. First finding, these baits are very sensitive to even slight weight changes. Once I found the amount of weight I wanted, I then took the rubber band off. I found that even the weight of the rubber band influenced the fall of the bait. Thus, I started over by taping each weight to the belly with as small a piece of scotch tape as possible. Be careful, I found that the scotch tape will pull some of the paint off the bait.

Turns out, I had to take pliers and very carefully remove A LITTLE lead at a time to achieve exactly what I wanted. Once I had the weight I wanted I lubbed it up with smelly jelly to avoid tearing the bait during insertion. I found that there is no room to push the weight through the hole and towards the tail. To do so you will have to push the weight through solid plastic. So what I had to do was push the weight through the hole towards the head, and it now sits to one side of the factory weight, you can not perfectly center this weight. The weight has deformed the bait slightly, but even though the weight sits to one side, the bait falls horizontally. And, the weight is easily removed, you can push it around with your fingers through the plastic. I did not seal the hole, although I may after I see how the bait fishes.

Sorry this is long, Im procrastinating like a big dog at work today. Im very happy with the results, cant wait to throw it this weekend. Thanks to all for the input.

So I took the modified 0 out the other day for the first time. First, the weights I inserted had a tendancy to want to come out of the hole in the belly. This caused some tearing, and eventually I started losing the weights too frequently. Ok, so I made an on the water seal using the Castaic soft bait glue. Second, and this is one I didnt foresee coming but should have, water temp influences how the bait falls meaning to get exactly what I wanted I would have to adjust the weight according to temp. But, I already sealed the hole. What I ended up doing was taking some split shot and crimping them onto the shaft of the hook that is buried into the belly. This worked and it was simple. I got bit a bunch of times but only put one of them in the boat x(

BTW Josh D, they work at night :7

Thats it, Im done with the zero, modified or not. I cant hook fish on this thing. Anybody have any suggestions on how to get better hookups with just the one treble on the belly?

Right off the bat yesterday I lose one pushing 10 halfway to the boat (nice, big jump:o) on the zero, then a little later had about an 8 go ballistic, jumping everywhere, right at the boat it pops off. I look at my bait and not only is it mangled, but the spit ring looked like a pretzel, Ive never seen that happen before. Guess I should have heeded the warnings and bought the hyperwires. I guess some peopld have to learn the hard way.

Put the 12 back on and got one good one, so I salvaged the trip.

Urban,


Sounds like you got into them! I figured they would work with the right presentation! What you should have done was gone home early. Got a good nights sleep and went fishing the next day!!!! :-) }( :D ;-) :P :+ :7 }( }( ;-) }(


Josh D.

Owner Hyperwire always always always. I won't fish baits unless they have hyperwires on them. It is simply the best split ring ever made.

All my baits now have hyperwires and two hooks. Also, I tried to skimp on the rod, and its obvious that what Ive done is throw the backbone out of my rod (lamiglass magnum grass rod, it doubled as my frog rod plus I could fit it in my truck since its telescopic. Guess Ill just have to open the slider and stick the rod through it). On longer casts I just cant get that hook home. Although I wanted to get a crucial, my buddy is bringing the heartland over tommorrow, right now I cant argue with the price. I really hope that rod works, I need a break. Ive lost more big fish in the last two weeks than I can ever remember.

I hope my problems are over

Dude I hate to say it, but the heartland rod is going to cost you fish on the hudd guaranteed. The tip is just too soft and not enough backbone. The Crucial extra heavy or the Okuma heavy would be a lot better option. I fish the Okuma heavy for that bait myself.

The reason everyone (myself included) learns the hard way on big bass is because big bass don't bite, fight, and pull like small bass do. And until you hook quite a few of them, you don't understand the dynamics of what is going on. People might catch hundreds of 2 to 6lb bass on a setup with few problems, and then they get drilled by a giant and all of a sudden things start to go wrong like bent hooks, pulled out split rings, broken line, not enough backbone in the rod, handle too small on the reel, etc. The easy thing to do is to chalk it up to bad luck but I say screw that! Bad luck happens, but the right gear can minimize the luck factor by orders of magnitude.

Honestly though, most people I meet and talk to are just too stubborn to listen to what I have to say about gear until they themselves get burned. Even then a lot of people stick to the gear they got burned on because 'it worked in fine in the past'. Hell I can't even get CV to change some of his swimbait gear and I've been bugging him about it since we started fishing together LOL. I personally don't understand that attitude, and I adapt my gear on an ongoing basis based on real concrete evidence. If I'm losing and missing fish, I change until the problem stops. If that means that I completely stop using a certain lure, then I stop using the lure. If that means I have to change knots or line styles or rods or reels or hookset angle or anything like that, I do it. My percentages this year are better than ever before as a result and you guys can do it to. Its not some big secret, its just trial and error.

I couldn't agree more with ya on that about gear rob. I was using just a regular flipping stick to throw a frog and it worked great on average size fish, but I had the worst luck getting the bigger fish to the boat. I finally got a rod with some real backbone and it has made a big difference in getting those double hooks penetrated into the fish's grill. :7

Rob hit it right on the head. I will second his opinion on the okuma rods. They can handle the big baits and fish and are very reasonably priced. I do own and use a Diawa heartland rod and it works great but I use it for 5in swimbaits like my bluegill and other smaller baits. It also makes a great rod for flipping jigs and casting frogs.

In my own defense from Robs statement about me not doing everything he thinks is right... Haahaahaahaa, juss playin brudda ;-) :+

I have lost a total of 4 hooked fish with Rob in the last 6 tournaments we've competed in.
Two due to line failer. One jumped in a bush when I was using 8lb line, another when my 25lb broke for no apparent reason, it was fresh line, tied the night before. Another because of poor hook location in the side of an 8-9lb fish with too stiff a rod, heavy line with zero drag and the boat drifting the wrong way. The first one I lost was totally my fault. I hooked a huge fish on the Heartland rod and didn't reset the hook more than once after she bit, she jumped and tossed my bait. Lets not forget the 12.49 and 10.4 I caught that day on the Heartland with no problems and I think it was a good thing I had that rod on for the 10.4 because I barely had her by the stinger in the side of the mouth and that little bit of give that rod allows may be the reason we got to see that fish at all..

I switched to a much stiffer rod per his request after that day and obviously it helps when controlling well hooked fish and getting a better hook up but the downside to stiffer rods and swimbaits is when fish are not hooked well, which is common. Stiffer rods do not allow a lot of give that is needed when playing poorly hooked fish. It can go both ways...cv