RiverMan

This lure is huge, about 9 inches long..the rapala minnow in the pic is about 3 inches which should give you an idea of the size of this beast. He is weighted to just barely float and made of cedar, two coats of Devcon. All portions of the construction of this bait went very smoothly except for where the two joints meet, could have done a better job here, will improve this on the next one. He does swim well tho. Should scare em to death if nothing else, lol. jed

Wow, they sound spendy, that must include the bill too. I hear ya on the saving time thing..I would personally rather pay an extra 40 cents and not have to deal with the details of bending the wire to fit the bill. Oh and shaping the bill after cutting it out is boring! The joy comes in making body of the bait, painting, finishing and finally CASTING! jed : D

Very nice Chip, curious as to how you made the tow point eye on the crank, looks to be a better deal than the wire. Jed

Fish'n, Very ingenious method you have come up with for figuring out each sized lead. Why not just drip the lead directly into the hold in the bait tho? jed

I think Lunge is exactly right in suggesting that you try to put the hook in a place other than where the weight goes. What I typically do is once I have the lure blank I lay it out on the table in front of me and then lay the hooks down next to the lure as if they were attached. By doing this you can see where the hooks balance the bait best and also where they will give you the best chance for a solid hookup. Once you decide where the hooks go make a small mark in the wood, I use a nail to do this. Now you can figure your weight configuration around the hook placement locations. All of that being said, I have put hook hangers straight into the lead without any problem whatsoever. I test each lure for proper weighting by placing the weight on the belly with a rubber band and floating it in the sink. Once I know exactly how much lead I need, I drill my holes being careful to watch out for the hook placement marks I mentioned above. Next melt the lead with a small propane torch, and pour the lead in. Finish off everything with the wood putty and seal the wood. Now you should be able to just drill right into the lead...if not, make sure the bit you are using is sharp and that the drill is turning the right direction, lol. Lead is quite soft and should give you no problems at all in drilling. Once the pilot hole is drilled the screw-eyes should go in like they do in the wood but a bit tighter. Jed

Now, now, don't be backin out on me Skeeter, I want to see if you can build one of these things! lol. jed

Great looking lures Cody! What are the lures made from? Jed

I like that idea lunge, will give that a try too, thx.

Thanks Jim, Guess I will have to continue experimenting and buy a couple of the forstner bits you have mentioned. The bits I generally use have a tendency to rip the wood some which I can correct with the wood putty but I would rather not have to do this. I just hate putting all those holes into such a beautiful blank, hurts, lol. Thanks again. jed

I want to weight a really big cedar bait...about 9 inches long. I am guessing the bait will take about 3 ounces of lead to properly weight. Do you just drill the holes like always and then melt in the lead? Seems like I will be drilling an awful lot of holes. Thx. Jed

Is using two screw eyes still the preferred way to create a jointed tail? Has anyone tried stainless cable to join the two parts? I have never created a jointed bait and want to give it a try. Thx. Jed

Thanks guys, gave the lure to my dad a couple hours ago. I can tell he very much liked it. jed

I posted a response to this thread once but it didn't work for some reason.......oh well. Great job on the lures, they look very good! jed

That's interesting you troll for them. I have never fished for Musky but all the videos I see guys are always throwing topwater lures, guess it makes for the best entertainment. They must be a spectacular fish as there should is alot of guys that like to fish for them. I hope to catch a few someday. Jed

Wow, that is a BIG lure....sweet, have you had a chance to swim him yet?

Flexcoat has their own site web site, do a search on the stuff. If you are interested I have a gallon of it in my garage that I will sell to you for half what it will cost new. I didn't like the stuff and so only used maybe a Dixie Cup full from the entire gallon. Jed

Hi Musky, Did you not get my PM back to you? Send the photos to me and I will resize them for you. My email is: tossmealine@yahoo.com jed

I think the baits look great! Regardless of the paint you are using you will find that each bait you build things turn out a better. Those are some fine looking lures! jed

Great job as always Chip and thx much! jed

My dad turns 74 this week and asked me several weeks ago to "make him a lure sometime". He doesn't fish anymore as he has much trouble getting around but when he did rainbows were one of his favorites. Thought you guys might like to see the lure before I gave it to him. This lure is made of cedar and weighted so that it will sink very slowly. The bait would be fished with long sweeping pulls or short jerks. jed

Thank you!

If you sand devcon and then recoat over it will it be clear? I have never had to do this before but got lazy on a bait and have a small sag area I want to correct. Thx!! jed

Jim, If you have win98 go to: start, programs, microsoft photoeditor and you can resize the photo here. Otherwise, if you have any camera software on your machine like adobe photodeluxe it will work better for you. Once you open the picture into either of these software packages, choose the "size" tab or "image size" tab. Then once you get into this you will note that you can adjust the size by pixels or inches. Choose the "pixels" tab and resize to the 640 by 480 or slightly smaller. Save the file then come back into this site and try again. If you don't have the software you can either try to pirate some off the net or send the photo to me and I will resize it and mail it back to you. jed tossmealine@yahoo.com

I think it's a great looking bait and the solid black should throw a very good silhouette. jed

You did a perfect job on those baits, they're awesome! jed