JP MYERS

Here is a frog lure I made for my Dad.. It was intended for his birthday earlier this week but I didnt get it done in time.. So Im giving it to him for the upcoming Fathers Day.. I think he will like this one..He been bugging me for weeks to make him one for his display case.. This is 7" or 175mm fully functional.. I did a clay carving, made 5 silcone slip molds,( 1 mold for each part so I could cast all 5 lure parts together ) then casted the mold, solid Featherlite plastic body.. I made the 4 small leg part molds in empty pill bottles & the body from a plastic pop bottle.. removed the silcone molds after curing & turned them into slip molds.. Worked out real good..Found all the info to do it in the TU tutorial section, thank you very much!.. John~

Yeah I have a smaller body that I made thighs extending out from the hip area about 1/2" long.. I bought a bunch of silicone skirts that look like those used on Hula Popper lures to attach to the thighs.. I had thought of your idea on rubber legs but I dont know diddly about pouring soft plastics.. The plan is to set a single barb or double barb into the body during the pour.. The barbs will protrude out the rearend Extending over the back of lure to make it more weedless..And the hook eye will be the line tie as well..The lure body will be about 2" in length..I havent made a mold yet but will get into that soon.. Thanks to All for the positive comments, greatly appreciated.. John JP Myers

Here are 4 wakebaits I finished & swim tested today.. This is the lure I had tried to make lexan jitterbug lips for a few weeks back.. Well, the weight difference between lexan & the original metal jitter lips wasnt enough (1g.) to keep the head above the waterline.. The shaping via hot oil cooking of the lexan worked but the weight of finished lip did not.. So, I went w/a wakebait lip instead.. The action is really nice on a slow retrieve.. Head goes under w/a nice wobble, feet float behind churning up the water & making bubbles.. 7" lengths, 3.2oz weight, painted glass eyes, 3/0 VMC hooks, black splits, marble finishes.. Some of these ya can crank fast & submerge the entire lure 1"-2" making a wake above the lure, but mainly I was weighting for a slow surface retrieve... The heels click together during retrieve so no rattles necessary!.. They also work great as jerkbaits too.. I used a silicone slip mold & solid pour liquid plastic.. I cut the 5 degree lip slot on my table saw w/a jig to keep the lure square.. I might experiment w/some different lip angles later on to see if that helps or ruins the action.. I want to see if straight up & down works any better, possibly 7-10 degrees too.. Anyway, I'm quite pleased w/the action as it is.. John, JP Myers~

Thank you Pete for adding your keen wisdom to the thread,.. I was thinking the cracking was from the oil being too hot or because I had pre-drilled the screw holes...So Im very glad you posted.. I will be trying some here in the next few days.. I have some thinner lexan now too but I hope I can get consistant results w/the thicker 1/8" stock... And I will definitely put some scraps in first,.....Thanks again, much appreciated.. JP~

Hi Gene, Fishwhittler posted the thread link to the Tute for ya.. But all member tute's are on the Forum List start page about midway down.. Several good tute's to read there.. I got the oil up to temp then cooked the lips for about 20-25 seconds.. You can clearly see the form squeeze and bend the lexan to shape just by removing the sandwich from oil and eyeballing the progress.. I was dipping mine for 5 seconds in & 5 sec.'s out just to keep the clamp from melting & lips from cracking...They are 1/8" and Im sure if you're using 1/16" it would be less cooking time, guessing 15 seconds.. Doesnt take long.. As you can see from my pics, I used plastic spring clamps.. The tip of the plastic clamp will melt to your pan if you dont do the In-Out every 5 seconds.. Perhaps metal clamps would be better suited for this as Haz used in his Tute.. I didnt have a thermometer so I just experimented with heat settings on my stovetop range 'till I got the right setting.. On my stove it was setting 5 (mid-range temp) at 25 seconds doing the 5 sec In-Out dipping.. Take Note: Your results may vary, kids dont try this at home, some side effects may occur, consult your doctor if symptoms persist....I love those strange drug commercials with all the possible bizarre side effects listed at the end.! JP~

I read Hazmail's tutorial on bending lexan 2 nights ago.. I gave it a try today.. It worked great.. And I thank you Hazmail..! I used 1/8" lexan but will make the lips from 1/16" as soon as I get a small sheet to do cut-outs on to reduce nose weight.. The 1/8" bent in about 25 seconds using pure veggie oil at a medium stove top setting.. They came out perfect, the flare at the ends even came out nice.. Some of the lips I pre-drilled & they had fine line cracks horizontally from hole to hole.. The undrilled lips did not crack--live & learn.... The weight of the 1/8" lips ( 5g) match exactly to the metal ones I used for the "sandwich" tho, so I'll try 1/16" to cut down the weight.. I need a medium musky size lip about 2.5g- 3g.. Assuming the weight will be cut roughly in half by using a lip at half thickness, they should work for my applications on a frog lure--the metal lip was sinking the head too much.. Then I can do a swim test to see if the lexan will bite into the water similarly to the metal jitter lip.. Dont know if the pics show the bends well enough or not, but they are near exact replications of the master.. If the lips dont work out on my lure, no problem, I learned a new trick, ..!!!!! Anyway, just thought I'd post this, maybe someone out there might have interest.. Again, thanks Haz for the tutorial.. JP~

Wow, the Purple Heart really makes for a beautiful lure, thanks for sharing the pics.. My father uses purple heart all the time in his woodworking.. He makes clocks & uses it sparringly to add detail to the wood toys he makes: Highly detailed backhoes, tractors & whatnot.. I made some plunker surface lures out of Zebra , another fine exotic wood well worth turning...... Lilac bushes are another fine looking wood if you can find a piece old enough to get a turning from the heartwood.. In the center it has a multitude of light to medium purple shades all thru it... JP~

I dont know about any woodies, but Im very familiar with the Bang-o-Lures and Barlows sell clear blanks that swim very much like the Bagley..They come in 5" and I think they just discontinued the 7" version.. I've painted and used several of both sizes & was real pleased w/ the swim action.. I swam 6 of the 5" lures 2 weekends ago, final swim test after painting--- It was 58f outside, water temps in mid-30's, ice just melted off 3 days prior and I caught 6 small size LgM bass 2.25-3.75lbs..One even gave a nice jump, couldnt believe that early in the season.. I have a full unopened case of the Bagley Bang-o-lures in gold w/ black backbone that I purchased in 1978 or '79 for a trip to Quebec but never used.. I always bought 2 cases as the Pike ate 'em up.. Kept the one case & still have it.... Hope ya find your balsa blanks, if not try the plastic ones, they're pretty nice blanks.. JP~

Yeah Vermont, if I ever find any plastic jitterbug bibs I will definitely post the supplier.. Im sure there would be others interested too.. Thanks for the input Diemai.. I owned a few of the old WWII plastic lip Jitterbugs.. as you said, they didnt bite in to the water as well as the metal lips..But I thought lexan would, as it is probably a little heavier.. A splitshot or 2 in the throat might help too.. But at any rate, Im now making 2 more bodies for the frog lure.with 2 different heads.. One will have an open mouth for a surface popper appearance..Hopefully it will spit water out the mouth when jerked.. The other will have a slot in the throat to hold a square wakebait lexan lip.. Im hoping the wobble will get the jointed legs to make some nice action.. i will keep experimenting until I get this thing to work!.. Cant give up now.. I'll see if I can find Haz's tutorial, sounds interesting.. Thanks, JP~

I had read a recent TU thread this evening on jitterbug lips, making your own from metal.. I had purchased stainless lips recently in 2 sizes for a new solid pour plastic frog lure Ive been working on.. The ones I bought are 2"x1.25" and a smaller one at 1.75"x1".. Both make the head sink below the water surface line.. I changed the prototype & added more plastic bulk to the body for balast and an angled area below the mouth to accept the lips at the proper angle, which also added more plastic ballast to the body.. The liquid plastic is of the floating variety ( Smooth-on Featherlight) .. I really needed the larger 2x1.25 lip for the lure but it really droops the head down... I know Moores offers an aluminum version but Im afraid the weight would still be too much.. I was wondering if anyone knew where to buy plastic polycarbonate, lexan or other types of non-metal jitterbug style lips anywhere?.. Musky size preferred.. I know Arbogast is using a plastic lip on the Hocus Locust surface lure and some Japanese lures have a clear plastic jitter lip on them too.. I've ran several searches but haven't come up w/any suppliers of a plastic lip.. I was cosidering putting 4-5 metal lips together to use as a moldmaking prototype to try pouring my own but I wouldnt trust the strength if it were not lexan or a similar strength plastic.. Plus I want clear or even slightly fogged plastic, not white which is what Featerlight cures to..I don't know of any other liquid plastics that both float & cure clear..I do have on stock clear cure plastic but its a sinking variety..I really do not want to increase the belly bulk of the lure any further to make the metal lip work for me.. This started out as a frog body, starting to look like a big rat now!..haha..Attached is a photo of the prototype, jointed legs, will have glass eyes if I ever complete it.. You can see in the pic how I added the angled throat to attach the jitter lip but it still nose dives till the eyes are submerged.. The butt and legs remain afloat.. Any help or info would be much appreciated..!!! JP~