Vacuum sealed lures for yak fishing, take 2

Not so long ago I wrote about how I had taken to vacuum sealing lures in plastic as an ideal long-term and on-kayak storage solution and it hasn't taken me long to stumble upon the concept's Achilles heel and how to overcome it. The weakness of my original approach was that although the vacuum sealing process worked well from the outset, it didn't take long for the hook points to protrude the plastic and thus undo the vacuum seal. Although the lures were still relatively well protected and easy enough to store, this wasn't an ideal scenario.

In order to overcome the problem I resorted to using cigarette filters as protectors for the hook points. My first experiment doing this worked out so well that I decided to redo the sealing on all of my lures. This time I didn't just use filters to prevent hook points from puncturing the plastic, but I also took the opportunity to sharpen every hook point, replace most rear trebles with single hooks (to minimize damage to fish and increase chances of solid hook up on a billfish), spray all hooks with a mist of WD40 and even wipe on a small amount of attractant paste to seal in just a hint of garlic-flavoured goodness. This, I figured, would help the odour permeate throughout the lure and save me the time and hassle of doing it in the kayak. Here's the basic steps involved.

After ensuring all hook points are suitably sharp before sealing away (I use a diamond file for this job), spray on a light film of WD40 (allow this 10 - 20 minutes for excess to dry and drain away) and then place the filters firmly over each hook barb. 

Place the lure inside the plastic bag, which needs to have enough size to allow for the vacuum sealing.

Place inside the sealing device, suck the air out and finish off with a heat seal.

Your lure is now beautifully sheathed in a protective layer of plastic that should be ideal for both long-term storage and for use on a kayak.

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