Hold it one second, I am tired of throwing away my soft plastic lures after only using them to catch two or three fish because the hook will no longer stay in place.  I mean there has to be a way to keep “casualties by fish” to a minimum.  The battle lines have been drawn.

I make the first sortie, a cast to an unknowingly, naive fish that engulfs my hollow bodied swimbait, but this time he cannot throw my lure. The battle rages on till it submits next to the boat.  I quickly release this fish and cast back out to the honey hole; no readjusting, no replacing the swimbait that the fish just annihilated.  The Change-Up has just scored one for my side.

The Change-Up by crème lures was developed by Crème Lures (www.cremelure.com) along with Eric Pottkotter.  Pottkotter a full time fishing guide on Lake Palestine in Texas and professional tournament angler worked on and off with the proto Change-Up since 1996.  After making some changes to the organ design, the final product was ready for anglers to fish with.  The Change-Up has been available for just over a year.

Change-Ups are a rigging system for hollow belly swimbaits, frogs, FishFrog by Crème, soft jerkbaits, soft stick baits, and other soft plastic lures.  “Any size hollow belly lure, lures with cavities, or solid lures can be rigged with the Change-Up,” explained Pottkotter.  The Change-Up has a screw lock that attaches to the nose of the lure then an “L” shaped piece of light-gauge wire is inserted into the belly or underside of the lure.  The “L” shaped wire has a built in hook hanger where hooks of any size, shape, or brand can be attached.  Every Change-Up comes with a 4/0 frog hook but can be quickly changed to fit the conditions or cover an angler is fishing.  “I like to use a 4/0 treble hook exposed in open water for large swimbaits but will texpose it around cover,” said Pottkotter.  In some situations, Pottkotter will use a single hook with a swimbait but it depends on the brand and how he wants to present it.  “The key is to have the head wobbling along with the tail moving,” revealed Pottkotter.

Change-Up’s come in four sizes: no weight, 1/16-ounce, 1/8-ounce, and 1/4-ounce.  Depending on the cover and what depth you intend to fish, those weights should work in most situations.  Although the Change-Up made rigging easier, setting the hook on a swimbait can still be challenging.  Pottkotter explained how he sets the hook with a swimbait rigged with a Change-Up, “I like the fish to load up on the rod tip as I make a steady retrieve,” he continued, “to set the hook, I just pull back on the rod tip and increase the speed of the bait to get a good hook set”.

It is easy to see that hollow and solid bodied lures catch fish by the number of them available in tackle stores and sporting goods catalogs.  The battle line has been drawn between my expensive, fragile, hollow bodied swimbaits and my wallet.  I am bracing for war and taking some Crème Lure Change-Up’s with me.  No doubt, there will be less “causalities by fish” in this battle.