Seven bait modifications to prepare for open water

With open-water fishing season inching closer, it's a good time to start making preparations to your gear now. There are some subtle bait touch-ups and tweaks that can help you achieve fishing success in 2021.

Most commercially-made baits are designed to work right out of the package, but there are ways to modify lures to adapt to a variety of situations and species.

Here are seven easy alterations you can make to your baits that take only a few minutes and will help you catch more fish!

1. Paint job: If you like fishing plastics (worms, crayfish, creature baits, etc.), dye your baits to increase color contrast. With plastics, the key is highlighting the action of the bait. By dyeing the tail of a plastic worm or the appendages on a craw or creature bait, you can add some great contrast that fish will notice.

2. Glow up: Plastic baits don't have to be the only ones getting the dye treatment. Repainting old jig heads can revitalize existing tackle. Fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark paint is a sneaky good way to catch more fish in lowlight conditions and darker-stained water.

3. Stay sharp: Nothing is worse than losing fish because of dulled hooks. The new crankbaits you bought last spring might have come with "chemically sharpened" hooks, but keep an eye on them. Running your hooks through a sharpener or file is always a wise strategy.

4. Feathered friends: While feathered treble hooks aren't a fit for all types of crankbaits, swapping them out for the stock hooks on floating crankbaits, jerkbaits or slashbaits is a great way to boost profile and action. During extreme early season conditions, the addition of a feathered treble just might tempt passive fish to strike.

5. "Eye" see you: Fishing with spoons is becoming popular again. They've been thrown for ages with big-time success, but there are times where their plain profile can put you at a disadvantage. To make your spoon a little more lifelike, consider adding a tackle-grade fish eye sticker that are available at most retailers.

6. Let your guard down: Bass jigs are great, and that's usually because they are weedless. However, there are some manufacturers that go a little overboard with the density of the weed guards on their jigs. By trimming down the weed guards just a bit, you can increase your hook-up ratio and make your jigs more enticing.

7. Something smells: Many anglers like adding scent to their baits for added attraction. To maximize attraction, I'd suggest putting your baits in a zipped plastic bag with a good amount of the scent and letting it sit for a couple of weeks to add more potency and attraction.