RiverMan

I have never tossed a Hughes River, I would like to but I can't bring myself to kick out fifty bucks or more for one of them. The HR baits are very popular though and there must be a reason guys like them. The paint jobs on the baits are excellent and this probably doesn't hurt things. Cedar is a very porous wood and lends itself well to lure-building. With all things being equal (size, shape, etc.), I have found cedar to provide better action than any other wood I have tested. Try it for yourself, make three identical glide baits from cedar, mahogany, and poplar, you will note the cedar glides further, rolls more, and is much more "fishy" looking in the water. I currently don't use cedar though for two reasons, it's too soft and the extreme amount of lead necessary to correct sink rate. I do have a good stash of cedar though and certainly won't "rule it out" for future projects. Jed

Well my computer completely "died" Friday so just now getting back to this thread. For some reason while I was downloading the new MS Service Package my machine froze up and wouldn't go any further! Anyway, I'm disappointed that I have yet to be able to find a good source for us to donate our efforts to...we have had some good suggestions but it doesn't sound like we have settled on anything as a group. I guess there really isn't a "big hurry" at this point but at the same time I would like to keep our momentum going foward. I know we can start to raise the money without a source but I think it would be alot easier (and exciting) if we could identify exactly where the dollars were going before asking guys to "cough of the goods". So at this point please continue to give the concept some thought and come forward with any suggestions you might have. Thanks! Jed

Hey that's awesome!! What a toad! Congratulations on a great bait and a great fish. Jed

Nice looking bait Marc.

I have spoken with builders that set their gliders up to sink with the nose slightly up to compensate for the wire leader. I don't do this with my baits, they fall totally horizontal. I have tested perhaps 10 common commercial baits and only a couple of them that I can recall fall nose up. You may find that Corey's method of weighting works fine for you, particularly if you are using mahogany which sinks quite easily becaue of its high density. Other woods such as poplar, pine, cedar, and basswood will require several holes to get the balast you are looking for. You will have to experiment with weighting to see what it is you like. I tried one hole in the center and found the bait to be way too sensitive (wanting to go left and right too easily) for the action I like. Others such as Corey obviously like this type of action, you will have to decide for yourself. I am pretty sure that the Amma Bama baits are weighted in this same way as well. I like a bait to swim left and right with a gentle tap of the rod but I don't like the bait to turn too far off of straight ahead....like about 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock unless the bait is really being worked hard. I also don't like alot of roll but many guys design this into their baits, the slammer dropbelly is a good example and from what I have been told the "roll" is what causes alot of musky to "take". Jed

Johnny, You won't ever get a flat sided bait shaped like the one you are working with to glide anywhere near like a manta, I can promise you that. If you want a very wide gliding bait you will need to switch to something with a cigar shape, flat sided baits don't glide very well. Many european builders will tell you that hardwoods (maple, mahogany, etc.) glide better than soft woods, I haven't found this to be true. The most lively of all woods that I have personally tested is western red cedar. As far as weighting is concerned I would begin your experiment with the weight approximately 1" from each end. You can come closer to the center if the body shape requires it. After weighting attach all of your components and drop the bait into a water filled vessel. The bait should maintain a totally horizontal posture while slowly sinking. The weighting portion of gliders is the most challenging, it can take literally dozens of tests to find something that really works as you would like it to. Don't get hung up on a wide glide tho. Most commercial baits on the market have a very narrow glide path to them and still catch a ton of fish. Also a wide glide although fun to watch doesn't really look that realistic. To me, a darting swimming action provides a more natural presentation. Here is a video link for one of my baits if you are interested in watching it swim. www.eoni.com/~volkman (click on beerbelly.avi to begin download) Good luck. jed www.bikinibaitcompany.com

I think it would be fun to have an online auction here at TU if at all possible. We could simply put up items in this forum with a closing date and let the bidding begin. This would be a whole lot of fun and perhaps bring some folks to this site that haven't been here before. This of course would depend upon an "ok" from Jerry. After that perhaps we could have another through Ebay. Depending on how much money we have been able to raise we can then decide what to do next. Glaucus, I haven't heard of this group, looks to be a great idea! Gotta go. Jed

Lapala brings up a good point, maybe we should just go forward and worry about the charity recipient later? BassKat, Joe, others, The St. Jude concept sounds fine to me and is in-line with the interests of folks here to "help children". My only comment would be that it looks like they (St. Jude) receive some very large amounts (10 million from ESA in 2004 alone, http://www.esaintl.com/news/dynamic.cfm?id=227) of contributions through charities and fund-raisers already and dollars coming from TU would be a relatively "small" addition. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a very "worthy" cause but at the same time I personally feel it would be nice to see our relatively "small pot" of contributions result in something tangible....something we can see rather than tossed into a large pile of existing charity dollars. For example helping one bass club take some less fortunate kids fishing. Maybe help a public park build an access site for handicapped kids..something like this. The St. Jude process would certainly be an easy thing for us to participate in though, we would simply have to make sure the donated items from TU Members arrived in time for the auction and it's a done deal. How do others feel about this idea? Jed

Great lead Weighin, I will follow up with a phone call tomorrow and see if I can track anything down for us, thank you! I have had dismal success thus far finding sources for us to donate to guys. I have written several sources over the past week and have yet to have even one return email me! Over the wknd I followed up on several with phone messages, again no reply, sigh. I never would have guessed it would be so difficult to give something away! Anyway, I'm working on it still so please don't think I have dropped the ball. Until that time keep the ideas coming. jed www.bikinibaitcompany.com

I use a router table to round the edges on my baits and then I go to a flat file. The router is one "mean critter" though and I make sure I am concentrating 100% on what I am doing while operating the beast. For a long time tho I used nothing other than a flat file. I have a belt sander and do use it on occassion but find the easiest way to get a good "shape" to things is with a flat wood file...they work wonders, learn to use one. Jed www.bikinibaitcompany.com "Only when the last plant has died, the last river poisoned, and the last fish caught will we realize we cannot eat money (19th Century Cree Saying)"

Pikestalker, The downside of the method I am using is it doesn't allow you to have one of the screw eyes in place while clear coating. Here is another option for you that would allow all of the screw eyes to be in place while turning. This is a how a friend of mine that dries hundreds of baits does it. Note that there is simply a wire bent around the tow point and rear hook eye. The small frame could be quickly attached to the wooden slats with a wing-nut. Notice how the hole in the bottom of the frame is a slot so you could just slide it onto the screw and tighten the screw eye. If you choose to use this method make sure you make the frames large enough to accomodate all sizes of baits you might be making. Just something else for you to consider. Good luck to you and best regards. Jed www.bikinibaitcompany.com

I used 8 inch pieces of 1/2" round dowel to serve a handles to hold the musky lures. To the end of each dowel I attached a wood screw. I bought wood screws that are about 3" long and cut off the end that normally accepts the screwdriver. I pre-drilled all the dowels on one end and twisted in the wood screws leaving the pointed end on the outside to go into the each lure. My dryer wheel is shaped like the one Funny Farm has in the tutorial section. I drilled holes on each of the wheel slats to fit the dowel ends. This method works perfectly and allows me to dry 40 baits at once if I chose to do so. I attached a pic for you to see how I screw the dowel in. The dowel is screwed into one of the hook hanger holes. The other dowel in the pic I included so that you could see the wood screw. Jed www.bikinibaitcompany.com

Corey, Thanks for the list of ideas, you came up with some very good suggestions. I feel just as you do about helping kids catch us a fish...kids rule! And whether we realize it or not, by taking a kid fishing we are not only bringing joy into that child's life but also investing in the future of the sport we all so much enjoy. Kids grow up, well except for me, and may eventually find themselves in a position where they will be asked to protect habitat for fish and wildlife on their own property. They will also be asked at some point to make decisions that may impact fish and wildlife. Kids that catch fish are going to realize that fish need habitat and fisherman need places to fish...this is a good thing! BassKat and others, I have mixed feelings about putting together a poll this soon soon as we really don't have anthing to vote on yet..do we? It seems we agree on wanting to do something for kids but beyond that we lack confirmed donor recipients. I am open to all suggestions though guys, who we give the money to and exactly how we generate these dollars will be decided in this forum. I have written several potential sources and have yet to get any responses. I will follow up on these in the next couple days and report back ASAP. Til then if anyone has a suggestions please speak up. Jed

I would suggest you PM Artbrush...he's is very skilled in this regard. Jed

I like Shawn's (ArtBrush) idea about setting a date for an auction otherwise the months will come and go and we will be no closer than we were before. Nothing is "off base" Als, if the group here feels comfortable with the special olympic folks that's fine by me. Since we are tackle-builders though I do think it would be nice to focus our efforts on something a bit closer to our hearts...fishing gear, docks, etc. Lets continue to sit on this a bit longer and see what we can come up with. I have some feelers out and hope to present some options to you guys soon. Was on the water for 12 hours today chasing salmon....sitting here I can still feel the waves rolling underneath me, lol, strange. No hook-ups for me but my buddy got one that was 19.5pds, and we missed one monster slam. I have no idea how a salmon can slam a K-16 KwiKfish with two 3/0 trebles on it and never get touched, amazing. Jed

Hey Wes, Not sure where Maple Falls is at but I am in Eastern Oregon, Pendleton. I would be interested in seeing some of your spoons as I spend my entire winter fishing small rivers near my home for steelies. Welcome back. jed

Jerry and others, I would be happy to organize the entire thing. I kind of wish we could have the auction here tho as I think the "bids for kids" would be higher. Guys on Ebay, me included, are looking for a steal. Unless Ebay forbids it, however, I could preface the items with the fact that the dollars would be used for charity which might help some. To be honest I would rather not handle the money tho but will it there is no other way around it. I will not post anything about the auction without first receiving your permission Jerry. ___________________________________________________________- Alsworms, Do you know of any charity/organization that we could work with? ___________________________________________________________ BassKat, Hey maybe that would work for us, will see if I can find a contact person. ___________________________________________________________ Gone chinook fishing at 5am tomorrow boys, gonna be awesome! Cold beers and pure chrome! Jed

Jerry, I thought about your suggestion, it certainly would simplify things. I'm wondering tho if it may be difficult to match the wide variety of tackle from builders on this site to the needs of a particular recipient. For example, I build musky lures and others here tie flies, make rubber worms, cranbaits, etc. How would a kid on a pond with bluegill be able to use this tackle? A monetary gift on our part, however, would provide the recipient with the flexibility to buy the necessary tackle, provide transportation, photos, whatever to make the trip the best possible. Cash would also leave the group at TU with a wide variety of sponsor options, we could help build a handicap accessible dock for example or send several kids to a fishing camp or help some less fortunate kids buy a winter coat. Just my thoughts and I am entirely open to any suggestions others might have. I'm not sure exactly how we will handle the auction tho, here or elsewhere and it would probably be best for TU to handle the money and official transfer to the recipient. It might bring a good number of people to this site for the auction tho Jerry if we were to post it at various other fishing newsgroups, etc. I wrote several potential recipients last night and have yet to receive a response from any of them. Come on guys, Any ideas? Jed

I haven't tried the type of glitter you are referring to cullin8, sounds promising tho. I have included a holo-glitter to my final coats in some cases tho, gives the bait a very nice look to it and it really flashes as you turn the bait. For some reason the glitter doesn't show up very well in photos but you can kind of see it in this bait: jed

You guys rule! Ok, once we have a source that we would like to help, we can then talk about who will be donating what and how we will sell the items. Sounds like many of you are interested in helping kids, I agree. I particularly like the idea of raising money for physically challenged kids to go fishing. My wife was telling me she read about projects to build special docks for kids to use....one that is more crutch and wheelchair freindly, perhaps we could help with something like this. I'm thinking it would be nice to donate our efforts to one child, a few children, one family, one club, or perhaps one project. I say this because I think we could make a much bigger impact in someone's life if we focus on helping a few rather than many. If we choose to send our efforts to a large organization we will likely never see how our efforts helped someone. Did that make sense? Anyway, I am open to all suggestions for a source to donate to. Anyone involved in a fishing club that already does something like this? Anyone have a family member or friend that may be challenged and participates in fishing events? I will do some surfing tonight and see what I can come up with. Jed

Hey Great, So how about some suggestions on where our efforts shall be directed? Perhaps someone makes donations to a worthy cause already that could use additional assistance? Any ideas? Jed

A musky site I frequent recently announced that they are going to raise money in honor of a recently deceased young man to plant musky fry into a several lakes. They were asking for tackle donations from tacklebuilders and others which they intend to auction off. What a great idea! What if we at TU did something similar? I'm wondering if guys on this site (TU MEMBERS) would be interested in donating some tackle (custom made or otherwise) to raise money for a donation of some type at or near the holiday season. Exactly "who" we would donate the money to is up for discussion. Perhaps we could give the money to a fishing club that takes kids fishing, or to a family that is in desperate need of financial assistance, or maybe to a critically ill child. The money would be donated from the "tacklebuilders at TU". We could agree upon a time to have an "online auction here at TU" or elsewhere, it would be great fun and likely lead to something very worthwhile for all involved. Anyone else interested in this? I will toss in some of my tackle (custom and otherwise) to get things rolling and would be more than happy to donate my time as necessary to organize the process. Additional details can be worked out with Jerry (TU Owner) as necessary. Jed

Hey Lunge, I have had this happen before too. From my experience.........yes you can reheat the Etex and allow it to move if it hasn't set up very far. Once it begins to set up tho the epoxy will start to burn before it will move. If this is the case allow the saggy coat to completely dry. Then file, yes I said file, the extra epoxy off, then lightly sand to get things back to the shape you want, recoat, and it will look as good as new. I use a file to save time, takes too long to reshape things with sandpaper alone. Jed

LaPala, I think anything we can do to make our lures "better" is a good thing and the fact that you are including science in the process is wonderful..."don't do it because I say so, do it because I can prove it's better". Your process for measuring balance is interesting by the way. From my experience though one must be careful to not take this process too far as it only leads to more "misery", lol. There are so many variables in lure-building that we cannot control or accurately measure. Wood type, wood density, moisture content, lead placement, paint thickness, epoxy thickness, hardware attachment, the list goes on and on, and all will affect the way a lure will operate. I'm guessing there are some balancing/measuring processes that some builders go through to insure consistency but "tight tolerances" are likely left for the plastic mold injectors.....and even these have their variance as Soupy suggested. This discussion reminds of a coworker of mine that loves to hunt ducks. He spends literally hundreds of hours reworking his decoys, hand painting them to perfection, tons of invested time. He told me one time he was showing his dad through his shed of literally "dozens of decoys" and which point his dad stopped and said "you're thinking too hard, just flip the deeks out there and start hunting". Jed

Hey Coley, great idea! I have had the best luck by squeezing out much of the epoxy with a paper-towel before placing it in the acetone...otherwise it seems as if the acetone has difficulty removing all the stuff. Thanks again Coley. Jed