mark poulson

Hahaha. You're too kind!

I checked out the square bill at TW. Very nice, but very pricey. I'm thinking you can get the same muffled thud by using a lead split shot as a moving ballast ball. I had thought of using a sst setscrew to add ballast in small amounts in very specific locations, or even installed vertically, so I could move the center of gravity of a lure up or down to adjust it slightly, but I never followed through with the idea. Too lazy. Maybe fish mark their territory like bears and deer. Don't dissect it, just buy a clear one that you can see through, like the sexy ghost minnow.

ninjalake, You said what a lot of us were thinking. I didn't think you were rude, just abrupt. And it sounds like you handled the whole thing very well in the end. So it's no harm, no foul. I guess finesse comes with age. Or maybe it's just that we lose our punch as we get older. Hahaha I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make a crank bait hunt. I just found one, by buying a clear KDV 1.5 and seeing how Strike King does it on mass produced lures. The overall idea of building a lure that is right on the edge of instability always struck me as a really iffy proposition, with too many variables. I'm not a crank bait designer, by any means, but I am a problem solver, and I am thrilled to have found a way to make a crank bait hunt that can be duplicated, and isn't too complicated. And I think I owe it to the members of TU to share with them, since they have shared so much with me over the years. To me, this site is all about sharing and learning. I'm glad you found us.

If you're just getting into pouring lead, and you're young, be SURE to use proper breathing protection and ventilation. Do your pouriing in a dedicated place away from living areas, and wash well afterwards. Lead fumes, especially with young people, can affect your reproductive system. I recently had to take a lead "awareness" class because I am a licensed general contractor in Calif., and I was shocked to learn how lead affects people. It is a bad actor! Lead in paint was outlawed in this country in 1976. It was outlawed in Germany in 1922, when they realized lead miners were getting sick. So it was no secret that lead was dangerous for the 54 years it took for our country to ban it. Makes me angry when I think of how many kids in those years, and the years since, have been sickened from eating lead paint, and breathing lead paint dust.

Well, I have never met anyone who has succeeded in life who didn't get help from someone else. I don't mind sharing what I've learned, especially since most of what I know about lure making I learned here at TU from others who chose to share. So....the moving ballast behind the belly hanger works. Once you think about it, it produces a controlled instability, since the amount of movement of the ballast is limited by the length of the crosswise shaft, and how many BBs are used. I made a test lure, threw it in gin clear water yesterday, and it hunted. It swung from one direction to the other in 2' swings. It actually swam for bit, switched direction and swam the other way for a bit, and then switched back and forth that way all the way back to the boat. It moved approx. 2' on the direction change. At first I thought it was doing a slow roll, but I had several other boaters check it out, and it was not rolling, just changing direction. The side to side bore hole I used was 1/4", and the two BBs I used were 5/32", so they both went past the centerline of the lure on the switch. I'm thinking a 3/16" bore would keep the BBs single file, and maybe make the side to side quicker and less of a swing and more of a darting action. That's my next prototype! I use PVC trimboard for my cranks. If you use wood, try to find a plastic drinking straw to like you bore holes so the BBs move freely.

Hahaha!!! Been there, done that!

I looked, but not to see if it was surfboard resin. I'll check it again today.

For those of us who are foil-challenged, Predator Baits now carries transparent and translucent 1.5 and 2.5 blanks. They swim great. I took several up to a local pond to see how they swim, and caught a bass by accident. Hahaha Here's the link: http://www.predatorbassbaits.com/id69.html

bass100, What UV light did you need to cure your lures? Did you build it yourself? Will those UV bulbs work in regular fluorescent light fixtures? So many questions, so little time...Hahaha

That Solarez stuff sounds so good, I'm guessing it is different than the polyester resin we used to use for surfboards. Maybe it is the modification for UV curing. I'm no chemist, so I'm just guessing. I'm hoping bass100 will be our onsite tester, and report back how it holds up over time.

Thanks. I use the same stuff.

The right size pilot hole is critical. Harder woods need larger holes. Running them in dry, and then back out again before you coat them with glue, like Ben says, helps. Also, use a brush-on or gap filling super glue, so you have some time. And sst screw eyes are the way to go, like Nathan said.

Denatured alcohol takes it right off.

bobv, Is the polyester resin in the comparisons the same type as the Solarez material?

I tried it with sanding dust from my PVC baits, and it worked, but the drop of glue disturbed the surface of the dust, and I had to add more dust and glue to fill the voids. Does baking soda pack well enough to not be moved by a drop of glue falling on it, or should I just use a wire to run the glue down to the dust so it doesn't splash up?

Some people are allergic to the adhesive in duct tape, so be careful!

I taper all of my jointed swimbaits, wider on top and narrower on the bottom. I started tapering them to try and stop the baits from rolling on fast retrieves. Tapering keeps them from rolling even when you burn them back to the boat. For me, tapering from 7/8" at the top to 5/8" at the bottom removes enough buoyancy from the bottom to help require less ballast, and keep my bait lively. I do this for floaters, too. But I like my floaters to have just their backs exposed, so they "tail" on a slow retrieve, or on a pause. Wake baits typically have more of the back out of the water at rest, so it shouldn't be quite as critical. If you want it to swim sub-surface on a pull or faster retrieve, then you'll need to play with the shape of your lure to see what works. The Slammer is a great wake bait, and it's basically a cylinder, so that should give you a starting point. If you want to walk your bait, too, it needs to be slightly tail heavy, so the tail has more inertia and keeps moving after the head has been stopped on the pause. Small walking baits, like spooks and sammies, hang almost vertical at rest. The larger you bait, the higher the tail should float at rest, so you don't have to work as hard to get it up and walking. Think of big walking baits as surface gliders. I've never tried to make a walking wake bait, but if I did, I'd probably cup the face of the lure, rather than add a bill, to get the surface commotion. Think of how a Gunfish is shaped. I think that would work.

I burnish the foil (thank you Ben), and then do my paint and urethane top coat. I can see the joints, but I doubt that the fish can, or care.

I bought one of the KVD square bills that hunts, and it looks like they achieve it by having the ballast ball behind the belly hanger float in a crosswise chamber, so it moves erratically from one side to the other, while the same size ballast ball in front of the hook hanger is locked in position. I'm guessing that would achieve the moving center of gravity, without throwing the bait too far out of tune. I think that also might make it easier to vary the weight of the paint scheme and top coat without affecting the hunting action. I haven't tried that method yet, but it's rattling around in my head, on my "to do" list.

That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

X2 It is really easy to use, lays down well, and takes paint well, too. I typically dip it once in my urethane top coat, and then paint right over that.

I use Sculpey Clay, and have the same problem. It was suggested here to put it in the frig every once in a while to cool it and make it stiffer again, but I haven't tried that yet. I thought about using one of the blue ice packs next to my work area to do the same thing, but I haven't sculpted anything since I thought of doing that, so I don't know how it would work.

I gave up trying to seal wooden baits, except for small balsa baits. I'm not smart enough to keep the water out.

Yeah, it does cost more to make stuff here at home. But the reasons for the higher costs, like pollution controls, decent wages, and worker protection, are all things that most of us support. I just wish our govt. would require other countries to provide the same protections for the environment and for their workers, or pay a tariff to make our domestic products more competitive, before we no longer have enough buying power as a nation to influence anyone, if it's not too late already. A level playing field is all we need to out compete everyone else. "Globalization" is just a license for companies to outsource industries and jobs to places with cheap, unprotected labor, and no regard for polluting the environment, so they can make huge profits with the industries that American workers built.