Tweak a great striper lure to make it perfect for your fishing conditions.

By D.J. Muller

Now I am not one for messing with someone else’s work, but I have modified some of my lures to help them fit different scenarios I encounter in the surf. In many cases I have taken an already great lure and made it highly specialized for specific sets of conditions. One lure I’ve had great success modifying is the Super Strike Super ‘N’ Fish, which is a popular needlefish lure.

Have you ever thrown a sinking needlefish plug into a deep, fast current? You think it’s running deep at first, but you are surprised when you realize that your lure is really sliding across the surface as you retrieve it. This is not what you want! To counter this, I’ve made adjustments to the Super ‘N’ Fish to help me fish it more effectively under certain circumstances.  
Because Super Strike lures are made with a series of hollow chambers inside, they lend themselves well to being loaded. Loading a lure simply means adding weights or liquid to slow the swimming action, accelerate the sink rate of your plug and/or increase casting distance.

Loading The Super ‘N’ Fish
This lure is piece of cake to load. I started out buying the transparent needles because I didn’t want to drill through one of the important pieces of inner structure that hold the lure together. Once I saw where I could drill on the transparent ones, I could then drill the solid color needles by simply matching measurements.
I drill my holes with a 1/8-inch drill bit and I load the lures with number 8 lead shot. I prefer lead because I’ve found that the steel shot rusts. I chose number 8 because the small size shot more completely filled the cavity, allowing me to add more weight.
The other tool needed for loading is a scale. I use a digital postal scale. I load the shot, periodically weighing the lure until I hit my desired weight. I then seal the hole with epoxy when I am finished. The process, overall, is fairly simple.
On the largest Super ‘N’ Fish, which weighs 1¾ ounces, I like to completely load the small forward cavity first. This helps offset the weight that I will add to the large rear chamber. I am not particularly looking for balance but rather weight. Once this lure is in fast-moving water, it will automatically be pulled level, with its head slightly higher than the back end as I retrieve it. On the 1½-ounce model, the front chamber is too small to fill, so I only fill the big back chamber.

Optimal Weights
I have experimented with loading Super Strike needlefish for a couple of years, and have found that the 1½-ounce and the 1¾-ounce needles can each be loaded to a few different weights for fishing a variety of conditions.
I like to load both the 7-inch, 1½-ounce plug and the 8-inch, 1¾-ounce version to weights of 2 ounces, 2 ¾ to 3 ounces, and 3½ ounces.
You now have incredible casting even on windy days, the ability to get down in any kind of water, and complete control over lure depth with your retrieve speed. The aerodynamic shape of these lures already makes them lures that cast well, and with the added weights, I’ve slung these plugs fly more than 60 yards in a 40-mile-per-hour wind.
As if the casting distance and ability to get down quickly isn’t enough, once you load the Super ‘N’ Fish with shot, it adds another ingredient to the fish-catching recipe – sound. It is not a loud annoying sound, but rather a subtle, “Shhh-shhh.” The lure generates just enough sound to drive stripers in the area to send in a reconnaissance team.

Fishing The Super ‘N’ Fish
I like this loaded lure for specific situations, many of which are commonplace all along the Striper Coast. So unless I am in extremely calm conditions, which I do not favor, there will be at least a couple of these needles in my bag. I like to use these lures specifically to make long casts to deep, fast water. An area where water is pouring over and around a rocky point or reef and dumping into a deep-water cove adjacent to it is a good example of a place where the loaded Super Strike needles will come in handy. I can think of many locations where I have fished this type of situation with success.
I’ll drop a long cast upcurrent of the point and then let the water sweep my plug around the point, dropping it into the deep cove on the other side. This is usually where the fish will be. Now, as far as retrieve, as soon as your lure hits the water, you want to come tight very quickly, lest your lure get hung up on the bottom. Use a high-speed retrieve to catch up to the lure as fast as possible, but don’t begin reeling your lure in. Once you catch up to it and feel the weight of it, gently lift and drop your lure while reeling only fast enough to keep your line taut and your lure off the bottom. You will want to make sure you can feel the lure’s every movement.
Remember the weighted needle will “want” to go deep, but you can offset that by keeping a good pace on your retrieve. If you feel the lure hit bottom, speed up your retrieve slightly, and if you feel that you are not deep enough, slow the lure down. Remember that the bigger bass hang closer to the bottom, so you may want to “find” bottom and then keep your lure just above it.
Another application for the loaded Super Strikes is rough surf. This lure cuts though wind like a bass through a bunker school and sinks immediately, giving the bass in the churning white water a good-sized offering to lock in on. It also will not get knocked around like a lighter lure might; the modified Super ‘N’ Fish will sink right down into the strike zone and stay where bass can get a clean look at it.
When sand eels are present, this lure rises to the top of my rotation. When the surf is big and clean along the sandy beaches, I like to throw longer-than-normal distances, beyond and around the bars, where I need my lure to get down immediately into the foamy brine where bass are seeking out sand eels displaced by the pounding waves. Most standard needles don’t have the ability to get down quickly enough in rough surf, in-between waves, but the loaded Super ‘N’ Fish does.

Time and Place
If you are not sure which loaded needle to throw and when, here are some guidelines that I loosely adhere to.
I will use the standard (un-weighted) Super Strike needle and several other styles of needlefish plugs in “normal” conditions, such as a relatively calm surf and quiet water. When the surf is moderate, with a moving, but not ripping, current and/or when I need that little extra distance, I throw the loaded 2-ounce Super Strike. The next weight is where the Super Strike really starts to shine, and is my favorite to fish. The Super ‘N’ Fish that I have loaded from 2.5 to 3 ounces, in either the 7- or the 8-inch size, is my go-to plug in a stiff wind, and/or when I’m fishing deeper water and have a moderate to fast current. I use it when I want my lure at a moderate depth. The 3½-ounce is the big daddy. When there is huge rolling surf and hard pulling water, and a driving wind in my face (the kind where I need a toothpick to get the sand out of my teeth) this is when this lure comes out, often when the bass are right at your feet. This lure probably wouldn’t be a plugbag regular, but I would pull it from the stash when the weather gets nasty or in a post-storm surf.
By taking an already highly effective lure and modifying it to meet your needs, you will broaden your possibilities and add another weapon to your arsenal for that set of conditions. With the modifications that I have made to plastic lures, I have given myself many more options than the standard “plugbag regulars” offer, especially when the weather and wind throw a change-up. By loading the Super Strike Super ‘N’ Fish, I have made it a lure that can then be used almost anywhere at any time.