mark poulson

Glenn, I can't imagine fishing in 100 degree humid air. I don't blame you for not fishing. Maybe you could make the lure hollow by drilling it lengthwise with several smaller holes that you could leave open, so the lure will sink, and still leave enough PVC for strength. Or maybe crosswise. I have no idea how the original works, so I'm flying blind here. What kind of glue are you using to attach your wedges?

Those are just for added buoyancy! Hahaha

Glenn, One of the TU site sponsors, Dick Nite, sells a moisture cured urethane that lots of people here use for lure top coats. He developed it for his spoons, which he sells commercially, and it took off from there. It is a known product that was developed specifically for fishing lures. I don't use it myself, so I can't comment on it from experience, but, if you do a site search for it I'm sure you'll find enough to read to keep you off the lake for the rest of the summer. Hahaha

I guess that old saying about "You can lead a horse to water..." is true. Especially when they're facing the wrong way.

Ben, Did you see how the pros on the Elite series strolled their cranks until they had emptied their spools, and then began the retrieve? I know some local sticks here in SoCal who do a smaller version of that, but I've never heard of letting out the whole spool! Ten minutes for one cast/retrieve. I'd have to be pretty dang sure there are fish down there first!

I fish EWG hooks a lot, and don't have any problems. Maybe it's the way I rig them, or the plastics I use with them. For the single hook crank I had limited options for hook I had to use, since I needed one with the eye running vertical, or however you describe a hook eye that I could pass a short piece of spinnerbait wire through from side to side, to act as the "axle" for my pivoting hook. I needed a hook to drop down so the point was protected by the tail of the lure during the retrieve so it was weedless, but that could be swung up and engage on a strike. One of the hooks was an EWG jig hook, and the other was a round bend jig hook. Neither one managed a hookup. They both were weedless. Unfortunately, they were both fishless, even after repeated hits. I'm keeping a couple of the deep divers with the single hook to fish over rocky points. I still think fish eating them off the bottom will get stuck. But I've converted a couple back to double trebles, and will fish them side by side to see if one sticks more fish.

Thanks Brent. Now my computer is running slow for everything, so maybe it's a problem on my end.

I can't get any of the videos to load and run. My youngest assures me I did everything right. I don't know what I actually did, other than click on them and wait. SmokeyJ, Hunting just means the lure kicks out randomly during the retrieve, changing direction unexpectedly. I think it is right on the edge of instability, like it wants to roll in a barrel roll, but, when the bill moves a little toward rolling, it dumps enough water to begin swimming upright again. I have several cranks that swim at slower speeds, roll at higher speeds, and hunt if I can maintain the magic cadence between the two. Having a weight that throws the center of gravity off randomly would probably do something similar, and I think that's what the Zappu thingy is all about. I have made shallow running (3-5') cranks with a smaller bill that I can get to hunt when I burn them. I'm guessing the retrieve speed is overwhelming the bill's ability to shed water evenly. But that's just my guess, hardly scientific.

littleriver, That's an interesting video, but it was hard for me to tell how the lures actually swam. My eyes must not be up to par anymore. I was thinking that the interaction between the wobble of the rear treble and the pendulum of the wire on a weight, causing alternating harmonic wave action and wave interference would be what caused an erratic hunting action.

Ben, I'm open to ideas, but I don't think hook position is the issue. If a fish eats it from behind I'm sure it'll get hooked, although I may have the hook too far below the lure's tail in the swimming position. I'm sure there's a fine line between having the hook's point protected by the lure's tail, to keep it weedless, and having it so far down that it hits the fish's mouth on the strike. I used as wide a gap a hook as I had so there would be enough gap to let the hook get into the fish once it's eaten, but I haven't had them eat it.....yet. At least not from the rear, which is how they have to eat it to get hooked. That's the real limiting factor to me. The lure really has to be eaten from the back. Side swipes and reaction hits from the side won't get the hook into their mouth. So, like you said in an earlier post, these lures will probably work for grinding across the bottom, where the tail is up and the angle of attack is from above and behind, but I don't think they will work for open water as well, or for deflecting off cover and rocks. Woodieb8, Since I started T'ing my swimbait and crank trebles my hook rash has virtually disappeared, too. How do you attach the belly hooks?

Here's the link to the gallery page they are posted on. There are four pictures down toward the bottom; http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/album/8-hard-baits/page__sortby__idate__sortorder__DESC__st__50

The video wasn't that clear, but I thought the weight/spring deal were loose enough to move independently of the treble to some degree. I was picturing more of a bell clapper-type deal, where the weight could swing at a different "frequency" than the treble, and either cancel out it's vibration, or enhance it, randomly. I think wiring the weight tightly to the treble just acts like ballast in the rear of the crank, and would surely kill some of it's action.

I am thinking the independent wire attachment helps create a random swing to the weight, so it throws the bait's balance off momentarily and causes it to hunt by changing it's direction slightly. I don't think pinching a split shot onto the rear treble's shank will achieve the same eccentric effect.

I use leather work gloves, the smaller ones that are general use gloves. I heat my plastics in silicone cups, which are flexible, so I always have a glove on my left hand which I use to remove the plastic from the microwave, and hold it while I add stuff and stir, or suck up plastic with my injector. Any leather glove that's thick enough to protect your hand from the initial heat of the plastic, but thin enough to let you feel what you're doing, will work. Plastic will cool pretty quickly, and you can always pull the glove off if it's too hot. The main thing is be aware of the dangers all the time. Kind of like driving. So far, so good.

Hahaha!!!! Payback is a b!tch!

ReelAppeal, I don't think your setup will help me, but I appreciate your input. I started this single hook crank project to see if I could duplicate, or at least come close, to the Sebile single hook crank. My thinking was that the design would be much less snag and weed prone while fishing for bass in heavier cover, and that was what I wanted to achieve. I was able to make the lures, and get them to swim just fine. My problem was I was feeling what felt like bumps on the retrieve, but no hookups. When I threw a more shallow model onto fish busting bait, I got hit multiple times, but no hookups. It was as though I had no hook on my crank. I think the bass were slapping the lure, trying to stun it, instead of eating it, so they never got the hook into their mouth. That's why we've been discussing what is the best way to revert to a more conventional crank bait treble hook setup and still remain relatively weed and snag free. I've never fished in New Zealand, so I don't really know anything about your fishery, but I have fished the salt here in SoCal for most of my life. The hardware we put on freshwater cranks here wouldn't last too long in the salt. Ocean fish are stronger, have harder mouths, and stronger jaws. A barricuda or bonita here would bite one of my bass cranks in half, I'm afraid. The lure in you picture would work for the ocean fish here, or for freshwater fish in open water, but I'm afraid it would foul and snag if fished in the kind of brush and weeds I fish my cranks in, looking for largemouth bass.

You can always use strands from silicone skirts.