Don't see this reported much, but here's a neat winter project. For several years I had a treasured long A floating Bomber A with the usual three hooks with a screwed in tail. (These baits were common in the 80's.) What made this one bait such a treasure was that in a heated tacklebox the girth of this lure had swelled a bit making it visibly fatter. The extra air inside really made this lure dance and shimmy with its greater buoyancy like no other long A I had.  I could even kick its tail out of the water and make it stand on it's head with very little forward movement. What a spawn bait it was! It was truly an awesome fish catcher. My others Long A's just didn't look or perform anywhere close to the "blowed up" one.

Finally, I got the nerve to try fattening up some other screwtails to get this desired action. So here's the recipe that worked for me. Bring water in a 2 qt. saucepan to a boil or near boil. Take the middle ring off it's eyelet and attach a decent pair of hemostats to the middle eyelet at an angle comfortable for inserting all of the model A except the lip into the hot water. After about 25 seconds you should start to see very tiny bubbles forming on the outside of your lure.  For me that was a sign that I needs just five or ten seconds more of heating. Pull the lure out of the water to inspect it.  You should see the lure fattening up a bit. Let it cool still secured with the pliers. A couple of more 20-30 second dips may be necessary. I want a lure that is noticably larger in diameter perhaps by 1/8 inch.  Go slow as this process can't be reversed. One good thing is the dipping will not harm any of the finishes.  Again, do not dip the bill into the hot water.

Unfortunately, the newer model long A's  are made of different plastics which I could not blow up.

Lot of pro's use the A as a wake bait, and the blowed up model will outwake just abouty anything else. Fiddle around with the line tie, eyelets, hooks and line to get the action that works for you. Nothin' like fishin' in the kitchen in winter! And let me know if you were successful.

I cannot believe you gave out the secret bait.   Now there will be blown up long A's all over the place.   By the way I have witnessed first hand the destruction the fish try to put on that particular bait.   

Marty,

I shouldn't have all the fun myself.  Your new balsa minners might act just as well.

Hey, I did that years ago. Left a couple on the dash of the truck. They sure blew up all right. Beyond hope.

Thats cool how you took the time to figure out how to do that. Very interesting.

Yep, I had a whole flock of Rattle Traps that heated  to become worthless fat guppies.  Those old amber colored boxes were not meant to be left in the sun! I just got lucky with the A's.

A perfect example of making lemonade out of lemons.

Well done.