Vodkaman

Dan, where the hell are you going to get your hands on molasses? Maybe the sell it on-line.

Pete, I'm pretty sure that they have worked that fact out already. Probably the only reason that it does not happen is that a lot of politicians would lose their jobs. Personally, I don't drive, I taxi everywhere, about $250 per month.

UK petrol is currently $2.27/litre, Sweden $2.16/litre, so don't complain too much. News in Malaysia is that the government are raising petrol prices by 41%, to US$0.84/litre.

Great job on the design drawing. You should get a CAD system, you would enjoy it.

If you use CAD, many systems can convert the CAD model directly into a form that can be used by standard CNC machines. I haven't used it on a job, but have had a play with the feature. It will even replay the cutter path and create a model with the cutter marks, so you can see what you are getting. Typing in G code is do-able, but an unrealistic proposition with thousands of entries to be made. I am on the edge of what I know on this subject, so jump in if I am misleading people.

Maybe it was Pie-thagoras you were thinking of, he does the squares.

Small table top CNC mills, as far as I know, only come in 3 axis machines. Even if they did make a 5 axis machine, it would be cost prohibitive. As mentioned above in a couple of places, you are limited to cutting two halves and gluing together. Also, speed is an issue, these machines are not as fast as you might expect, they are not going to spit out 30 bodies per hour. The best application for such a machine, again as stated above, is for machining master bodies, used for creating RTV molds. In between new projects, the machine could be put to work cutting lip profiles. I looked into CNC quite closely and these are the conclusions that I arrived at and decided to place the idea on the back burner, for future re-consideration.

Rossrods did a project using CNC. Try a search, the subject has been aired a few times over the last year. Here's a link to Rossrods thread: http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/11431-positive-negative-mold-project.html

I too have never read about the vertical spread of ballast on TU. Yet most must know about it, remembering about the rapala Xray articles, that clearly showed some strange and precise ballast arrangements. The point of those articles was to see how they were built, but no one asked why! I feel that I want to explain something, but Jamie, you have covered the subject pefectly in just a few lines. I feel that this is an important thread for lure designers.

A lot of work has gone into this project. Can't wait for Mk7!!!

This is a pic of the second profile clamp idea.

I made a quick CAD model to explain the profile clamp. It is self explanatory. The whole could be placed in a regular vice or bolted together. Another idea based on the same method: Next time you jig-saw your lure body, start and finish from the top. Keep the scrap, this is your profile plate. The eyes can be clamped to this plate using sprung clamps or similar.

Sorry Smokey, I missed your post somehow. Profiled clamp jaws to clamp the eyes. This would keep them traight.

Thankyou all for the generous comments and ancouragement, I'm sure that anyone who has tried experimenting will understand the downers, when nothing seems to work. But these are more than made up for, with the occasional eureka moments. Pete, the water noises are the pool overflow. I never noticed it before, as I never have the sound switched on. I'm just glad I didn't mutter something as I was recording!

All the above are good solutions. If I were making large numbers to sell, I would be making a drill jig for the job. Of course, you still have the problem of drilling the holes in the jig square! But once made, the drilling operation would take just a few seconds and no tedious guessing.

A true lure junky, not satisfied with just one addiction. Great job.

Diemai. A very generous post, sharing your hard earned information. I have often contemplated making a Helin type lure, they have a very strong aesthetic attraction (they look very sexy, in a masculine fisherman way). But just by looking at the style, I can see the difficulties of setting it up. The relatively high ballast position compared to a more traditional lure, I see as a problem, which you solved with the parallel lip, which keeps the roll under control. The buoyant rear end combined with the curvature, pulls the rear upwards, presenting more lip to collect the vortex action. I bet that little gem really shakes its tail feathers and teases the fish. I would love to see a video of the action.

John. Yes, the bait wiggles and rolls as well as zig-zagging. Unfortunately, the body material is quite dense, consequently, a lot of the wiggle action is dampened out. If the bait was balsa, you would see a lot more wiggle action. Rofish. What is hunting action? As far as I know, there is no official definition, but it seems to be the general opinion that, the bait steps out of line slightly, one way then the other, usually a subtle movement, but no further explanation of what causes the movement was available. The Skeeter post was the reason I started this project. Something considered desirable and difficult to attain. I formed a theory that explained exactly how hunting works. To back up the theory, I built prototypes to explore the movement further. Now, there is nothing subtle about the movement in the video, so I can understand why you would not like to call it hunting. In fact I agree with you, it is more than hunting. There is an entire range of movement that has not yet been tapped by the lure designer, of which ‘hunting’ is the outside edge. I explored your solution of the offset lip. Although it kind of worked, I figured that there must be more to it than this. Your average angler would probably be wanting his money back. The work is not finished yet, there are many variables that take part in the hunt equation and all have to be explored and explained. The main variables are lip shape and ballast distribution. If you want to find some hunting action yourself, experiment with wide, flat bottomed lips. Hunting is not as difficult to find as some people would have you believe, if you know where to look. The lips do not need to be huge, in fact the lure lip that made the last two passes in the video was less than half an inch long on a 3 inch long body. I was retrieving at a rate of 4 cranks per second (roughly 2 meters per sec), to test its stability, as you can see, it did not roll over. The rest of the passes were at 2 cranks per second. I am confident that I can make a trawling lure that will keep the zig-zag movement at high speeds. What sort of speeds do you require? The problem is that I will not be able to test such a lure, but it is a project that I fancy taking on. Will it catch more fish? Don’t ask me, you are the guys who said you wanted hunting, I’m just the designer. Anyone who wants to make a lure hunt and would like some help, just PM me, I would be very happy to help.

Cuttem Jack, nice to hear that you are out fishing and the leg's healing.

Pikester. Yes, it has been done before, but it is still a goo idea. Here is a link to the discussion. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/10022-how-make-hollow-body-lure-bead-inside.html There are quite a few discussions on rattles, all worth reading. Check out Cheeseheads glass rattle tutorial. As BobP stated, glass is good because of its resilience, it will give a good 'ping'. You really need to ask the fish which they prefer. When I experimented with rattles, I mounted mine across rather than lengthways, as this is the direction of the movement. This has been mentioned earlier in this thread, also making a kill spot to disguise the construction (I though it was my idea, but someone got there way before me).

Post some pics if you get a chance. Enjoy the trip.

Over the last year, I have concentrated my efforts investigating the hunting phenomenom. This is a vid of progress I have made since my last video post, a few months ago. I cannot show any details yet, as more work still has to be done. I believe that there is a lot more action available than shown here.

I guess you get to put your feet up and relax today. Happy birthday Jerry.

I saw a guy in a bar, knock a glass of some flaming shot over his lap. The sight of him beating the flames out with such gusto, scarred me for life.

My choice is the square one. The length looks good, but depends on where you place the tow eye.