I have a bunch of Rapala original minnows (7's and 9's, two treble only models) that I thought the treble hooks, being size 7, were just too small. So I swapped them out to size 6 and I discovered this changed the whole action and float level of the bait when in the water. I'll have to experiment with this some more since I might actually end up liking this. It acts sort of like a very shallow suspending jerkbait now. But I have x-raps for that. I normally go with the original minnow when I want to use a topwater. So the changes I made are taking away from that.

Ok, now that the backstory is told, I also noticed that the split rings on these baits are pretty beefy compared to some others and I wondered if I went with some smaller split rings would it possibly make the bait act more as it once did, only have the larger hooks still? Anyone else switch hooks on these before?

What hooks did you put on them?  Jerkbaits are very sensitive to weight change, especially balsa baits.  Going to a lighter wire hook might be an option.  I'm not sure that changing the split rings will make enough difference.

I used Eagle Claw Laser Sharp #6 trebles. They look like (and might be) black nickel, similar to what comes on Rapala lures now. Some of these baits are newer and had black hooks, but some had the old bronze hooks, being older lures. I'd say for it to make much difference I'd have to go pretty small on split rings. That might not work, or be too weak. I don't know. I can try one bait and see. Worst case I switch them all back. All 9 of them, ain't that gonna be fun!

I remember that Iaconelli was making shad raps suspend by just changing the belly hook. i imagine the split rings would make a difference.

Original Rapalas always seemed to me to have disproportionately small hooks. Now I know why.

You can try short shank hooks which will probably make a bigger difference than changing the split rings.

The lure imo has to be extremly light for a spit ring to make a difference.  Split rings are measure in grains not grams.  Just for something to do I just weighed a few split rings, a 65# ring weighed 5 grains, a smaller one only weighed 3 grains and some I weighed I had to convert to pennyweight and they were barely at .1 dwt.  15 grains to a gram and 28 grams to an ounce.  Split rings are pretty light.

That´s a trick I´ve been doing for decades, changing the hooks on my Shad Raps to make them suspend.

 

The catch here is that changing the split rings for smaller ones isn´t going to make a difference in the bouyancy after you changed the hooks for larger ones.

Some split rings sold have a pound rating , just like a swivel.