Soon after I became a bass addict in the early 1970s, I learned of a Missourian named Charlie Campbell who was a magician with a Zara Spook.
His name was synonymous with the dog-walking plug for decades. The aging, endearing Campbell, 77, continues to stuff his livewell with Spook fish in local bass tournaments. Over the past eight years or so, Campbell has also been duping bass on a 5/8-ounce Mann's 1-Minus that has been modified to wake the surface.
It is the brainchild of Francis Aldridge, a former tournament buddy of Campbell's who has now passed on to fish eternal bass waters. The modification involves drilling holes and balancing the 1-Minus with BBs to make it tail-heavy.
This change prevents the lure from diving and makes it swim with an exaggerated wobble. Modifying the jointed minnow
Charlie Campbell also modifies Cordell's Jointed Red Fin and other jointed plastic minnows to turn them into wake baits.
His jointed wake baits make hay when postspawn bass suspend 5 to 15 feet deep over deeper water out from the shoreline. "I hold the boat about half a cast from the bank and fan cast into the middle lake," said Campbell.
This tactic had Campbell culling 3-pounders during a tournament at Bull Shoals. He gave one of his jointed wake baits to his partner who won the nonboater side of the event with it. Campbell uses a small diameter, cylindrical mojo style sinker to shift the lure's balance toward the tail and keep it from diving on retrieve.
1. Select a drill bit that makes a hole just large enough to accommodate the sinker.
2. Drill a hole in the belly of the minnow's front section 1/2 inch from the joint.
3. Insert the sinker into the hole as far as it will go.
4. Snip off the excess lead with side cutters. This also closes the hole in the weight.
5. Glue the sinker into the hole with epoxy.
6. After the epoxy dries, file off excess lead flush with the bait.
7. Coat the hole with epoxy.
8. Swap the rear treble for one that is dressed with white feathers.