I have found that wrapping lead soldier around the shaft of trebble hooks on my minnow Lures not only lets you cast out further without tangleing, but pulls down the lure hook first which lets you crang several times, let the lure sink evenly or hook first, then cranking again makes the fish think the lure is bait fish trying to escape toward the surface......using these fresh water bass lures like this is deadly around the kelp forests off San Diego, and the local lake bass like it too....

another note, i find that for loading line on my reels, I put a large C clamp in the edge of my work table and sliding the fishing line spool onto the clamps handle works very nicely.....I push a box or something up against the end of the C clamps handle so the spool can't come off.......

Lewis

I'm not being critical of a good idea but rather refining it: Go to a shop that sells fly tying supplies and buy a spool of lead wire used for weighting flies. You can also use this for keel weighting hooks.

You can buy this from www.barlowstackle.com and other online component suppliers as well.

http://www.barlowstackle.com/Soft-Lead-Wire-for-Flies-P1318C167.aspx

read the thread on jerkbaits without rattles.

bo

What's done here for extra distance and or lure depth is either a light egg weight above a swivel or a split shot on your leader. I see this done dozens of times a day, have done it myself. I have used slightly heavier hooks, 4x as compared to 3x, if the lure is light I've seen a difference in the way the lures moved, I didn't like it. I personally would opt to add weight elsewhere, not the hooks, but experimentation is good, you may hit upon something.