I JUST BOUGHT THE OSPREY ,I HAVE ONE OF THE FIRST THAT WAS MADE IT HAS THE TWO HOOKS OUT OF THE TOP OF THE BAIT.THIS OLDER ONE SEEMS WEIGHTED DIFFERENT THAN THE NEW ONE , I DONT EVEN THINK THE NEW ONE HAS ANY WEIGHT AT ALL .WELL HERES THE QUESTION WHEN I REEL THIS THING IN AT ANY SPEED IT ROLLS ON ITS SIDE.CAN YOU FIX THIS PROBLEM OR IS IT A BAD (EXPENSIVE) BAIT?

I have been tuning and getting numerious baits ready ro fish and here is what I did. I use the same modification that is used on the new modified ospreys. I used a plastic extractor that is normally used to put rattles in worms, it is just a sharp piece of about 3/16" brass tubing that you push into the bottem of the swimbait. Then you take tweezers and pull out the plastic still left in the hole you made and stick a mojo weight or piece of lead round river type weight up inside the hole and put a drop of superglue on it after is is in place. You don't have to have aplastic cutter, I have a few pieces 3/16" diam by 3/4" that are sharp on one end you just shove into the bait. the minimum weight I would install is 3/16 oz. and up. This should help as well as tuning the front eye.

I hear that guys use nail wieghts like the ones you would use for a sluggo and stick them into the sides of the bait (parallel) to weight it so that it runs straight. Almost all big baits are very prone to running sideways if they are not perfectly aligned. With the wooden baits, you tune the eye, with the rubber baits, just use a little weight to modify the action.

I have some of those nail weights also, and there is not really enough weight in them to make much of a differance. They use those alot in the castaic gizzard shad.

HARRY,
We have sold around 4500 custom rigged Ospreys since this past October and have spent countless hours experimenting with them. We are able to get about 95% to run straight at any speed.
The ones that don't typically have an off-center nose hole and there is nothing you can do with those. You need to check that when you buy them.
I won't go into the whole process but the key things are the alignment of the hooks to the body, the belly weight and using lead nail weights to offset the tilting of the bait.
Both hooks need to be inserted so they are in line with the bait and each other. The rear hook can cause a kink in the back of the bait if its not pushed in straight.
I like to cut the hole for the belly weight at a forward angle underneath the line tube and dead center. It helps to have the added weight towards the head of these baits as they normally want to plane upwards. We use a 5/32 oz. Mojo weight for both the 7 and 9 inch.
We then test the bait in the pool. If the bait wants to roll up on one side, we insert one nail weight about 1/3 up from the belly and just behind the eye. Push it straight in towards the tail at a slightly inward angle. If the bait still rolls, put another one in about 1/4" higher on the body. Sometimes it may take 3 or 4 of these and then the bait will roll up slightly on the other side. When this happens, back out the last weight you put in and cut off about 1/4 inch at a time until the bait runs true. We use the 3/64 oz. on the 7" and the 3/32 oz. on the 9".

Hope this helps. Jeff T.

I just fished a 12" osprey over the weekend and was not at all impressed with this bait, the 9" ran ok in my pool though. Buy a castaic softbait trout, they kick butt.

We (UMA-X) are the distributors of Osprey and are curious where you found one of the old Ospreys. You did not say but I assume it is one of the lead weighted models with hooks on top that predates the current lead free Talon model. This old model has not been made for a long time and Steve Harner, the owner of Osprey, would be interested in getting one for himself. Does the place you bought it have any more or would you like to trade him for a current model? You can email me a message at cv@umaxco.com or call at 562-434-7925. Would like to talk to you. Thanks

Chris Vella