mark poulson

I think it's either the height of the line tie, or the ballast only in front, but I'm not sure. That's why I asked here.

That is great to know. Thanks X2

Rob, I am intrigued with the pliers. Even if regular vice grips will do the same thing (that's what I use right now) I still want a pair! Sick, I know.

Double D, This is a great place to learn. I use the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule when it comes to making lures. For topwaters, I put a similar sized lure that I know works in my flotation water bucket and ballast my lure until it sits in the water like the original. I do the same thing with making cranks. I find that commercial lure makers have figured out what works, and I use their hard earned knowledge to flatten my learning curve. I also copy ideas from the Hard Baits gallery. That's how I learned to make and mount line ties through the bill for deeper diving cranks (thanks Ben Siegel). Good luck, and I look forward to seeing some of your lures.

Last week I made three PVC cranks, the same as the 1/2oz. Bomber Switchback that dives to 12'+-. I used 1/8" lexan for the bills, and I bent sst wires for the line tie/tow points and passed them through a drilled hole in the bills, and then back into the lure bodies. I use the same template for all three bills and, although I hand shaped each lure, they are very close in shape and weight before ballasting. I took them out for a swim yesterday. While the all swam and dove really well (dumb luck), I noticed one had a much tighter wiggle than the other two. Upon closer examination, I realized the wire bend that held the line tie split ring was taller, farther about the surface of the bill, on the tighter wiggling lure. That particular lure body was a gram heavier than the other two, so it has only two grams of ballast added between the front hook hanger and the bill. The other two have ballast both in front of, and behind, the front hook hanger. Normally, I would expect having the additional ballast behind the hook hanger would damp down the lure's wiggle, but the one with the ballast only in front, but the taller line tie, had the tightest wiggle. It was so tight that I had trouble feeling it through the line, and had to run it beside the boat to be sure it was wiggling at all. That's when I noticed how tight the wiggle was. The other two had a much wider wiggle when I ran them nest to the boat. Sooo.....have any of you guys played around with varying the height of the line tie/tow point, and seen any effects on lure action?

Just remember...dust in suspension is explosive, too. Even water based paint dust, so do be sure to clean your filters, and have plenty of airflow.

Well done!!!

I agree totally. This isn't about politics, it's economics. Rich corporations maximizing their profits at the expense of people. If they think it's okay to manufacture in other countries, with cheap labor and no environmental protections, I think they should move there, right next to the factories they're using. Drink that water, and breathe that air. Instead, they all live here, in the country that gave them their start, and which, thanks to the people who built it, is still the safest, best place to live in the world.

The black crappie in our SoCal lakes have a green/gold sheen. I use a sparkle white base coat, a light green (peridot) over the back and shoulders, add the black markings with a sharpie, and then mist with a metallic gold. It gets bit.

Great minds think alike!!! Hahaha

Man, I never thought about parafin! I have a case of parafin blocks in my garage that a friend brought me. It fell off a delivery truck and was on the side of the road. And I have some beeswax, too. Thanks.

Cherry is a medium density hardwood, in my experience. You should be able to duplicate it, no problem. Not all artificial decking PVC material is the same. Check if the type you can get is buoyant before you buy. TREX, for example, sinks like a rock. AZEK decking, first recommended to me by JR Hopkins, is the most buoyant material I've found that is still strong. I don't know what's available in your area. But give whatever manuf. you find a call and talk to a technical rep. about whether the material is buoyant enough to use to make baits. Typically, it needs to be no more dense than poplar to be able to float the hinges, hangers and hooks you need.

To me, the bait design says bluegill, crappie, or tilapia. Pick the one that's in your local lakes, and have at it!

Man, you're hooked now! Nice job! Here's a couple of key things I've found for getting good action from jointed swimbaits. I've found that keeping the ballast out of the last section helps to insure maximum swimming action, and helps to keep the bait level on the retrieve. Start at the head, and only add toward the rear if you run out of room in the first section. Keeping the head section twice as long as the other sections helps to keep it more stable, and gives you more room for ballast. Also, if you taper the bait from the top to the bottom, so it has a V profile, since there is less buoyant material on the belly, the bait won't roll on a fast retrieve. I usually start about 1/4 of the way down from the shoulder on a 7/8" thick bait, and taper to 5/8" at the belly. I don't have an exact formula, I just do it by eye. You'll be happy if you give AZEK PVC a try. The decking, which is as buoyant as poplar, works really well for swimbaits. The trim board, which is more buoyant, is better for cranks. You'll never have to worry about sealing your baits again, and water intrusion is never an issue.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Melting the pellets with a heat gun shouldn't be hard to do, to make the size block I need for carving.

Josh, I'm sure the guys here are right about it being on the inside of the clear bait before it's painted. The closest I've come is using Sally Hansen "In The Spotlight" nail polish, which is a clear with 1/8" mylar pieces suspended. If I brush it on in one direction, I get the pieces kind of aligned. But it's nowhere near as clean and neat as the bait you just posted. It works great on silver willow leaf blades to increase the flash dramatically....just don't tell anyone!

I think it has silcone, which messes with airbrush paints.

The way I figure it in my squirrely little mind, if I make one master, and one hard mold, I can pour enough soft plastic duplicates to make more cavities. I am thinking of using Pour Rock for my molds, since it's cheap, fine grained, hard, strong, and doesn't shrink. Once it's cured out, it should work fine. I'll probably seal it with something before I pour, but I'm not going to spend all that money for RTV if I can avoid it.

Thanks for the info, and the link. I'll check it out. What type of wax did you buy?

ING, That was a great video! How have I lived 65 years and never seen these pliers?

These are the ones I bought: http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-safety-wire-twister-45340.html

Has anyone here run across the sculpting wax that jewelers use in their lost wax casting process? It seems to me it would let me skip a step when making a mold, and let me cast my master in hard mold material without having to worry about undercuts and details. As it is now, the only way I can get a rigid mold, which I like, is to either use someone else's soft plastic as a master, or make my own with Sculpey clay, make an RTV silicone mold, and then pour enough soft plastics to make a multiple cavity mold.

TU should erect a statue of JR Hopkins for turning us all onto PVC as a building material.