Nick's Fishing Blog: How to Change the Hooks on a 5" Russelure

Russelure hooks were rusty after sitting in the off season

In getting ready for this year's offshore season, I was checking through my trolling lures and noticed some of the hooks were a little worse for wear with corrosion. I decided to change them out for some fresh new hooks. The front hook on the Russelure did not have a split ring and that threw me for a loop. Surely you can change out the hooks on this lure and it's not useless once the first hook corrodes! I sent an email to customer service at Russelure and Mike responded quickly to use a split ring. I went and bought some and got straight to work. Here's the steps I followed:

1. Clean up your Russelure and assemble all the tools you'll need.

5" Russelure
Mini Bolt Cutters
Split Ring Pliers
3/0 4x Strong Short Shank O'Shaughnessy Trebles
#6 Size Split Rings (50 lb rating)

The tools you'll need to get started

.
3/0 Short Shank O'Shaughnessy Trebles match the originals. You can go bigger if you need to.

2. Remove the old rusty hooks

Use split ring pliers to remove the rear hook. Change the split ring also if its rusty!


Use the mini bolt cutters to remove the front hook

3. Install the new split rings and the new hooks


Use your split ring pliers to install the new split rings. You'll add one to the front part of the lure where the old hook was and you may or may not replace the rear one based on its original condition.