Bring on your DD22's . . .

. . . I'll see your 18' and raise you 25'.

At least, that's the general idea. Overall length is 6", the bill is 2.5" long and 1.5" wide, and the lure weighs 1.5 ounces. The edge of the bill has been sharpened and polished to slice through the water more easily and hopefully allow the bait to dive a little deeper.

Actually, I don't think this will be my most efficient deep diver design. That would have to be the long, skinny one I posted a while back (see pic below)—that thing casts like a rocket with no tumbling and dives fast without feeling like you've hooked into a brick. That baits' flaws are an action that's very tight, almost subtle, and the fact that it doesn't do well around weeds. With a wider bill it might have a more active swimming motion and deflect better, but that's something to experiment with next year when the water thaws.

Back to this bait: This one should have a much more pronounced action and will hopefully dive nearly as well as my previous bait, but with that wide bill I'm a bit worried that it might tumble during casts. I used 1/8" lexan sheet to try to minimize that problem; I've found that thicker bills usually don't act like sails as much as thin bills and can also help stabilize the bait. Hopefully this lure is aerodynamically sound so it will fly straight and not turn cartwheels in the air.

I also expect this bait to pull approximately as hard as a Hummer H2 truck when put in the water. The downside of that massive bill generating that depth and action is very high resistance once it's in the water.

Tight lines!

Ben