blackjack

Cordells' Blue Striper is a fine bait at certain times of the year, Bill Capwell(Angler's Paradise and Marine) keyed me into this bait about 5 years ago kinda like a gliding topwater, Smallies will come up from 30 feet to smack the crap outta that thing, you are right about it being a regional phenom. Not many know of how well it performs outside of PA. You can get them from time to time on ebay, I have also seen them at local fisherman's flea market. I have never tinkered with them other than to change out the hooks and bend the line tie up towards the top of the bait

I can't say for sure what the percentage is for hunting baits but I would guess that it is low for the volume of baits that I make. I don't get to test run alot of the baits that I make as most of my business occurs during the winter season. I have alot of repeat customers so I fathom that there is something that they keep coming back for. I will say that it is nice to make up a bunch of baits for myself to fish with and get a couple of baits that are unique. As far as the bait, the bait is a shallow runner that is 1/2" thick and 2 inches long, it is not a through wire bait and it has a circuit board lip, Not much different than any of the other baits that i sell. I am making a fresh batch of 16 in the shop right now and hopefully there will be some kickers in there. V-Man the bait is made the same exact way as the D-Bait schematic that I posted a few years ago here. All of my baits are made in a similar fashion. On the graph each square box represents 1' foot.

Only one bait was tested it had the same number of movements to the left but the difference was when the oscillations occured, it either occured at the begining of the retrieve or the end of the retrieve maybe current created by the wind not really sure but the same results were observed approximately 30 times.

Gotta remember that this was done in the field by use of 4 old trusty eyeballs, could have been off by a couple of inches:)

Well this past weekend got onto the water and the fish were not biting so I perforned a little experiment with the help of a friend. The experiment was conducted as scientifically as possible without being in a lab. I found an ideal location which was at a beach club where they had just anchored the swimming area buoys and robes. I anchored up next to the outside of the ropes and buoys and used one of the sides as the right side limit and set up 3 of my marker buoys. Basically I set up a casting course/lane approximately 4' wide by 60 feet long. Let me tell ya it was a pain to cast the the bait in the lane(water temp.64 degrees, wind 10mph, air temp 68 degrees ,water clarity crystal clear). My partner ended up on the shore line and I would cast the bait close to him then he would manually place it in the lane for casting. Our observations were as follows,the shallow running bait would cycle through 3 distinct major oscillations or movements for this particular bait, 2 were always to the left side of the lane, some times the left movements were at the begining of the retrieve and sometimes it would be towards the end of the retrieve. We did observe several mini-movements at the begining of a major movement and at the end. It was as the bait was building some sort of momentum at the begining of the movement and then winding down at the end of the movement. Each major oscillation would move the bait off the center of the lane approximately 16" to 18". The minor oscillations before and after a major were approximately 6" to 10". We did not observe any herky/jerky movements such as the deep divers that I make that have a nervous twitch. It seems that right before the bait reaches its maximum depth it begins a series of smaller oscillations the one large oscillation again followed by several smaller ones before the bait would track back to the center of the lane. I will be following this up with another test when I get a free weekend. I hope you all can understand all of this jibberish as I am not a scientist. Here is the chart to physically reference the baits movements that we observed

I hear lots of rabble rousing,saber clanging,and theories on this and that but the proof is in the pudding. Lets see some pics and diagrams, or even better, actual bait that have been fished and are confirmed hunters, maybe someone may be able to pick up on something that would benefit all of us. I have made tons of fish catching baits and a bunch of hunters, best I had was a batch 14 baits that I made 3 years ago,5 were hunters, 4 others caught fish and the rest ran straight and true, but the bait that caught the most fish day in and out was one that had a nervous twitch and did not hunt.All of these baits came from the same plank of balsa. That bait was one of those special ones. I have weighed it measured it, studied it for hours on end and I can get close to the original baits action but it is still not exactly the same. Way to many variables in the materials that I use to make baits. When I make a bait there are exactly 34 different steps that are taken to get a finished product. Maybe one of those steps is the key. Until then trial and error is the way to go for me Tight lines boys and keep your nose to the grindstone and your fingers out of the sawblade!!

I only use as a sealer, sorry for the confusion

None of the above for me I use M.E.K. exclusively, after 1 day the epoxy is as hard as if I never used it. Although MEK is very toxic and volatile it has worked better than Acetone or Denatured alcohol

This drawing was done utilizing a cad program then copying it to the computer's clipboard then pasting it in a photo program

Here is the revised one I ended up using for the second batch

Well put a picture of that puppy up!!

between 13/16" and 1' thick

It is a bait made in Asia not sure of the particulars but it is available from a select few Japanese Tackle stores. The few that I have purchased have a nice paint job but the lips were installed ####-eyed(shallow runners) It is a balsa bait though, diameter of thewire for theline tie and hook hangers is rather thin.

Clemmy, It is a nice product that will suit you fine. It is less brittle than Devcon and harder the etex. I used it for a couple of years until I got the money up to have a chemist make up my own formula

As long as the body is clear plastic you will be alright. If the body is scuffed up from stripping it smooth it out with acetone and a rag and paint away

sure do, paint a pattern on a transparent plastic bait without basecoating the lure body white, then clearcoat as usual. Some perty camera work helps as well

Terry, What I was trying to get at with my post was to keep your chin up and your nose to the grindstone. persistence goes along way!

Here is my take on the subject, It is all about reputation and longevity, When I started out doing repaint work back in 1993, there were very few guys doing it, Dale Sellers, Tim Hughes, and a few others. Think about all of the people that fish and only a handful of guys doing repaint work. Now look at the market today, every Tom, Dick, and Harry with an airbrush is doing repaint work. Some are good, others are not ,how many will still be in business by 2010, not many. Same thing goes with making crankbaits. There were many guys making hardbaits, but most were very regionalized. Before the advent of the internet the only way you found out about these baits was by word of mouth or when you got spanked in a tournament. Now the influx of baitmakers from around the country with internet access. Everyone reads or hears about guys that are making baits for this pro and that pro. Well it is pretty easy to get you baits in a pro's hands if you are willing to give them away for free. the key is getting them to buy your baits. Not to toot my own horn, I have plenty of BASS and FLW pros throwing my baits. How did they get them?? They paid for them. Do they tell anyone they are throwing my baits? NOPE!! Could I use the Public Relations, Sure, but then I would have to give up my day job. It is the nature of the beast. I am approached every fall and winter for pros wanting handouts and I tell them the same thing "nobody rides for free". I am not saying that when they do buy baits that I don't throw in something extra cause I do, maybe an experimental bait that I am looking for feedback on. I pride myself as making a quality product if guys are willing to buy $5.00 crankbaits at Wally world, so be it, I have carved out my little niche and don't plan on giving it up to anyone. As far as the "big guys" copying stuff I would not worry about it, there are not too many patterns found in the BPS catalog that I have not seen elsewhere or vice-versa. I am here for the longhaul!! Am I gonna get rich? Doubtful but I sleep well every night knowing that I am making the best baits I possibly can.