mark poulson

+1 I agree.

Jamie, Go to Newest Uploads, and go to page 8 or 9. There should be some pics. there. Also look at pages 16/17. More joint pictures there.

Pete, I admire you for making such a small four piece lure. My eyes, and my patience, aren't up for that. I found that, in order for a swimbait to swim well, the joints must allow the lure to bend in a U shape, and that the tail section must be especially loose. If the first two joints have a 3/16" gap, the tail will have a full 1/4", for example. Those aren't the true dimensions, but they give a sense, I hope, of how the joint spacing compares. One of the pictures I posted on page 8 of the gallery show this somewhat. I want most of my swimming to be the tail going crazy, and the head to be relatively stable, like a real fish, so I add my ballast to the head, because the PVC is heavy enough to keep the rest of the lure body from rolling. As for not adding ballast weight to the rear sections so the sinking lures swim level, I still like that action, so I'll probably continue to do that on the next batch. But I'll keep trying to get the best of both worlds, level swimming and 180 degree turnback on the pause. From my personal experience, I've caught most of my swimbait fish on a steady retrieve, or starting slowly, and the speeding up as I approach the cover or structure where I think the fish is hiding. Bill Siemental came up with the concept of the Big Bass Zone, and the tactic, and it works. The bass hears/sees/feels the lure approach his ambush spot, and then is triggered by the speeding up of the lure, as though it's trying to escape. But I've had a few hit a swimbait as I jerked it like a struggling trout, so I guess there's no hard, fast rule. And, especially with the 4" BBZ shad, a rip/pause/rip retrieve, or a jerking retrieve, works really well. So I'm going to do my lures both ways, just to cover all the bases.

BobP, I tried an aluminum can and it worked great. Of course, I had to do some extensive testing, but I finally determined that empty Bud Lite cans work best. I used an old hole punch that one of my kids had for school, and it cut the aluminum just fine. The punched disc press fits nicely into a 5/16" countersink hole. I just put a drop of crazy glue over it, because I'm compulsive, and then fill with bondo and sand. I guess one could make a double walled cap, so the bondo doesn't deaden the blow as the ball hits the aluminum disc, but this one is too lazy.

Dave, I agree with you that votices are involved in the swimming action, but I really think it's the inertia of the rear section, like a big ship trying to turn quickly, that makes the lure turn. That big rear end just keeps on coming. I used glide baits as an example because they have no joints, but the ballast weight placement, with the the center of gravity just past the mid point toward the rear, is key to the lure's ability to walk, or glide. And they are one piece lures, so I don't think there are vortices at work. Of course, they may be. You know how sneaky those dang vortices can be!

Jordan, I use the screw eye and hinge pin type of hinging system. I can make the joints as loose or tight as I want. The reason the joints are looser, is to enhance the swimming action. I make my joints with 20 degree angles, more or less. Some use 45 degree. I don't want that sharp an edge on my joints. To me, they are too thin and fragile, and they are very hard to epoxy. I don't think the gap matters on a swimming lure, since the joints are constantly opening and closing, but I do like an angled joint better than a square faced joint for my lures. Just a personal preference. People like Snax and Nate have developed cast hinges which have no gap. I'm not up to that skill level yet.

I think BobP's right. If you can make the lure work with the material you choose, it's the right material. As you go through the lure making process, you'll probably learn your own set of lessons, and figure out what works best for you. There is no wrong, except not trying.

JBlaze, I have a roll of that aluminum flashing, so I'll try that. Also, at the risk of offending the environmentalist/recycling world, I'm going to try aluminum cans. I think they may be easier to cut with my hole punch.

In the never ending quest for truth, justice, and the American way.....no, that was Superman. Anyway, I played with where to put the ballast weighting in my floating and sinking PVC baits, to try and get the best action. I had found that, if I put the ballast in both the first and third sections of my lures, they would turn back and face backward on the pause, but the tail section hung a little little. On the sinking lures, the tail dragged down a little on the retrieve, so they looked like a trout struggling to swim back up to the surface. I tried to eliminate that problem by putting all the ballast in the first section. In a happy accident, that made the floaters "tail" while at rest, like a sunning trout or a bonefish, and the action on even a slow retrieve was phenomenal. On the sinking lures, it resulted in the lures swimming level, which is what I wanted, and they dive head first on the pause. Not a bad thing. But they don't do the about face on the pause, because there isn't enough weight in the rear sections to give them the inertia to keep going past the head on the pause. So now I have two different sinking lure types, and they both work. Just another brick in the lure making asylum I'm building.

I bought 100 7/32" sst ball bearings for $20+- online. I just googled ball bearings, and found a company that sells them separate instead of in races. Boca Bearings is the company. I drill a 1/4" hole crosswise in my lure body, drop on one bearing, and seal it. I countersink the two ends with a 5/16" bit, glue in punched out pieces of margarine tops (semi stiff plastic) as caps, and bondo over that. Hard plastic might make more noise, but I can't cut it well enough to use. I use PVC for the lure bodies, so I don't have to line the hole, and it is very loud. And I found that one bearing is louder than two. I think it's because it travels farther from side to side when it's alone.

Sinyo, I hope you're safe, living in the same country with the mad genius, Vodkaman. On the subject of floaters vs. divers, many more fish are caught on sub-surface lures. The plastic worm is, by far, the most productive lure in the world, apart from live bait, and it's fished primarily on the bottom. Fish eat on the surface only at very specific times, and under very specific conditions, and, even then, most fish don't eat at the surface at all. Before you try to make a sinking lure, try making a floater with a bill, so it dives on the retrieve. The buoyancy of a floater makes it possible to fish these lures through underwater obstacles, like brush and trees, if you use a slow retrieve, and pause when you feel the lure hit something, so it can float back up over the obstacle. Then you can resume your retrieve. It takes a little while to learn the feel for it, but, once you do, you'll find the better fish hang out in the gnarliest brush piles and trees, and you'll be able to dig the out. Dave can surely help you to learn how to build lures with diving bills.

Dieter, Do your pike ever come up and eat topwater baits? I bet that would be a thrill!

On the subject of pull testing, have you guys ever used a piece of the actual fishing line to hang the lure while you test it? I bet the line/knot will fail before the glue/epoxy. My test is a pair of vise grips and my hands. If I can't pull it out, neither can the fish. Dave, I agree with the barrel roll vs. haywire twist. I had the tail section, which had only one haywire twist hinge, actually unscrew on one of my early jointed baits. Of course, that was back when I was using 5 minute epoxy, and that's how I learned it was only water resistant. I never had a failure with a two hinge joint using the haywire twist, because there is no rotational strain with two hinges. But I went to sst screw eyes, for the added ability to adjust my joint spacing after I've initially assembled my lures. And I, too, find that the runny crazy glue, especially with blasa and pine, penetrates soft wood so well it reinforces the thread area to the point that the wood over the entire length of the screw eye would come out if I tried to rip it out. But remember the fumes from crazy glue don't like your sinuses! It smells bad for a reason, so use ventilation.

Tim, When you figure out the Featherlite deal, let me know. My sinuses are telling me my sanding days, even with a dust mask and collector system, are numbered.

Dave, It looks like you have a lure making neighbor. Two nuts in Indonesia, who'da thunk it? I thought we were mostly in the U.s. or Europe.

I used vinyl clear on some jig heads, because l like the way it blends the sharpie colors that I used to color them. Afterward, I remembered about the soft plastic thing, so I went on the plastics forum here and asked for help. Someone suggested epoxy over it, so I tried that. I also sprayed one with cheap clear acrylic. Both method worked, but the spray acrylic is by far the easiest. I bet that would work for you spinnerbaits.