DJ Vamp fishing lure

My friend was thrilled to have a new source for his lure, but had serious reservations. Now other people are going to find out about this thing

The plastic version had three surface mounted trebles. I, over time, replaced these with two screw eye and split ring hung trebles, and added a bit of internal weight, the natural buoyancy of the red cedar being much higher than the hollow plastic.

Confidence is important, but as I began fishing the Vamp I discovered how incredibly versatile it was. Tied on with a loop knot, it can be twitched and walked on the surface, or pulled under to become a darter. One very effective retrieve is to pull it under and stop it with a sharp twitch or double twitch, allowing it then to float back up.

Some time back, a gentleman came to me and asked if I might carve some lures like the old ones he used. He had searched tackle stores for the past thirty years for remaining plastic copies of the discontinued lure, but they had become too hard to find. He was afraid to risk the loss of his last ones. I made some and he was a happy man. He told me the Vamp was an incredible lure for big saltwater trout, but I thought it was just his favorite, confidence being a big factor in fishing.

At some point in time, an enterprising soul discovered that if he removed the metal lip and repositioned the screw eye, he then had a surface twitchbait / shallow diver darter that caught more fish in more situations than the original.

Introduced by Heddon in the 1920's, the Vampire Minnow was a wooden, metal-lipped diving lure. A later version of plastic was made as injection molding took over the industry.

Captain Dave Jefford, the Lureman, says of the DJ Vamp:

try fishing lure    to get through more products