jerkbait

Guys I dont usually post, just read but recently did a deal with pair of roundnose pliers bought at Wally's for 8 bucks. Went through the same process outlined for needlenose, heating and bending top jaw then trimming the lower to just fit up in the crook. The advantage of round over flat jaws became apparent when I had to assemble a bunch of spinnerbaits. I found I could trim the blade arm, form loop, attach sampo to blade and then pop it on the bait with one set of pliers instead of 3. Since I can never keep track of even one set of anything I did a set for the bench one for the boat and one for my spinnerbait box for on the water repeairs or tweaks. One more note since I make a wide variety of stuff. (mostly un-artisitc utility grade stuff) I feel several sizes of pliers are in order. Most cheap split pliers do OK on big stuff but fail miserably on small rings like the ones on ball bearing swivels and such.

A local baitshop makes the best sqweeking baits I have ever used. He uses .031 wire and pins the rivets on a 1/4 oz head. The small wire will cut the blade out quicker but no need to make hole bigger. Copper rivets and steel work great as well. In a pinch a 1/8 in pop rivet sleeve withb the nail removed will do and they come in all flavors. Delta offset blades will sometimes make more noise because they rotate in a larger arc around the wire.

Lunker Lure is the only baits I can find with these babies. I have gone so far as to buy a dozen of them at $4 a pop then just use the blades for my custom creations. Lets keep looking, if we have to buy bulk to get them maybe a split is in order. Jerk!

Joe I have a 50lb spool of 5/16 round pure lead fuse wire. It came from a construction salvage company. I have been pouring weights in a mold for making inline mepp's type spinners for smaller baits. As for wobble, I agree that it adds attraction to the baits but in current conditions it is unpredictable and a lot harder to get just right. I have some with vertical colums of lead tha do the wiggle real well and I use them in lakes but stay with the keel weighted ones in the flows. The fish in the local creeks have just been killing the orange even in clear water. I have done foil, photo print and other colors but they just seem to like the Gold fish. Maybe someone truned some paylake bait out and they saw how delicious they are! Jerk!

I have been making gliders for a while and have a design that has produced 8 leagl fish (30")+ this winter/spring. I recently read a thread that made me rethink my weighting system. Routing a slot along the bottom of the bait keeps the weight down low where it belongs. The system I used since I have no router table is to use a cross-slide vice in the drill press. I can vary the depth and once the vice is set up square it is easy to do several baits. I have the shape I like (roughly like a smaller Divani) and the weight for pine, poplar, and maple so here is a picture of the orange one that the creek fish have been eating.

Having worked with metal most of my career I have fouind that most drill presses will do the job milling aluminum. Find someone who has a cross-slide vice and you can get real precise with the movement under the arbor. High temp RTV will last very well and is similar to the production mold material that a local company(Silver Buddy) casts thousands of baits a month from. If you have a problem with it flaking out, a small hole(about 1/8") drilled in the center of the fixed area perpindicular to the patch will give the extra volume of JB or rtv a place to hold and adhere to. Those of us who have made too many mistakes while modifying a mold are hesitant to make it worse by drilling out more material but it does keep the patch in place way longer. Welding with a TIG torch is the only permanant fix and usually requires further working after. Find a local weld shop or vocational school. If the problem is merely to open a hook or wire slot, pressure from big vice or arbor press will indent the soft Al enough to hold the wire/hook in place and if it flashes a little, you can GENTLY tap the area witht the hook/wire in place with a hammer to set a little tighter. A very sharp wood chisel will also cut a nice neat slot but just use hand pressure, if you get too carried away, you will be patching again!

Marc, The bait pictured is white pine. I have done some recently in maple and poplar which require much less lead but seem to have a more sedate action. I am thinking the less dense woods react more lively even when weighted just to the negative side. I can make the maple baits glide and change ends with rod movement but the lighter ones can be made to swivel and glide just with reel cadence and less physical movement of the rod tip. I have currently made about 15 in the current design configuration and varied every detail I can control. When I get exactly what I want I will measure and blueprint then try to reproduce reliably. We are lucky to still have open water to fish so I will post any results soon. Jerk!

Marc, It does a side to side slow walk and if you use braid and go slow, it glides 10-14 inches either way. It is weighted to sink level very slowly but stays 1-3 feet deep unless you really let it go down before you start up and hold the rod tip under the water. The orange one has produced more fish but the gloomis pattern is cooler to look like. Thanks for the comments Jerk!

Here is what I have been using since I found them. http://www.staminainc.com/plug_hardware/3X_super_split_rings.html The eye needs to be big enough but they are tuff!

Hey guys here with some trepidation is a creation that took more time to paint than to make. It is similar to one that we caught 6 muskies on this year. Thanks for all the help!

I assume you mean uncured epoxy. I use iso alcohol. Making also helps considerably. I use screw eyes and epoxy them in and invariably some gets on the fingers and then on the finish. If the ccoat is set you can actually rub the entire bait down with rubbing alcoholk to get that untouched shine back. Jerk!

Get him to do a few and send me a link. I would love to buy some. I am working up a similar dal but have experienced the smae problem sith the small size. Thanks Jerk

I have had very good luck using a sharp wood chisel. By making 2 small gouges starting with a vertical cut from near the back of the collar and intersecting it with a45 degree cut from the back oif the collar, a v shaped barb can be created. it is easy to control and doesnt need a haer just hand pressure will do i in the soft aluminum. Thanks guys. I am new to the board