Theflyingplatypus

I would try 1/4 oz. Other than that they are looking great, stick to it and you will be as good as the pros here. Oh and investing in a good airbrush is a very good idea.

Wow, nice catch. I bet you were proud:wink:.

Very well done. My only recommendation would be to move the front hook hangers back a little on the next batch because it looks like the hook would be able to catch the line.

What kind of hooks do you use?

Same here (internet explorer).

Yeah, what are the hours. I'll try to make it but I have a concert that I want to go to.

What blank did you use? That looks like carbon fiber peeking out right before the reel seat.

If you want to do any supertuning in reels I would recommend checking out the TT forum Fishing Forum and just ask all the questions you feel like. Just make sure to use the search feature if it is a basic question as most forum members don't like it when the same topic is brought up more times than it needs to be. I don't do much supertuning or upgrading myself as of now, so I can't really say anything else than what the ones before me.

How long did you wait before painting/finishing? You might have not given the air time to escape before you finished them. I don't think that heat treating them would be such a good idea if you did'nt heat cure them. One thing that you could do to find out if you have air trying to escape is to take a recently poured and cured bait and submerging it in water and see how many bubbles come to the surface and then compare it to another raw bait that is a week old or so and see if there is a differance. Thats all I can think of but i'm sure someone that is more knowlegable than me on this subject will chim in.

Rofish, could you go in depth about this x location? Is it the bottom hook hanger and the tow eye, rear hook hanger that makes up this x? Please explain. The cone shaped belly weight sounds like a really good idea.

Oh and how deep do you guys think a 6in fast sinking trout swimbait will get on a steady retrieve? That is one thing that I am going to be experimenting with this year.

Thanks guys for all the very usefull information. It sounds like 25 ft is the deepest I will get a barely floating crank down. Now I have been thinking... Does a flat sided crank run deeper than a wide bodied crank because of its action? Oh and did I mention that this lake that I fish is very big. I don't know about you but trying to locate fish in a lake that is 7,346 acres is easy with a jig? Lol I'm not ripping on you guys is just when water clarity is 20+ feet a peice of metal swiming through the water does'nt look to reel to the fish. So.... I guess what I'll do is make alot of prototypes and test them when the ice thaws.

That was one of my options yes, but the sworming hornet is something I never thought of, thanks! Anyone else?

Has anyone made a crank that can dive to say 25-30ft? I fish a very deep clear water lake(deepest point 236ft) and most of the big fish hold in the 25-35ft zone in the summer and I want a crank that can get to them. Jigs are to unrealistic for the water clarity which is 20-30ft sometimes. Oh and I am talking about bass here.

I'm diggin the cat eyes:). Those would look sweet on a frog wake bait.

Weight closest to the hinge area in each part of the body that is its pivot point. That is what I have heard that is, have yet to try my first swimbait water is hard lol.

I recommend going to the gallery of this forum and look at the swimbaits that the guys have made. Just start getting ideas of what kind, size, type of swimbaits you want to build. Then get some graph (i'm sure you have some already form what I read) and start drawing out body shaps, styles of joints, cross sections, top profiles, ect.. Now i'm not saying that you have to have the entire bait planed out i'm just saying that you need some designs on paper before you start carving away at some wood. This is so that when you carve a swimbait that runs like a dream and has the perfect action you have always wanted but you don't have even the side profile on paper so you can duplicate it. Oh and you also want to record how much ballast,weight you put in it and where. This will be invaluable information down the road. But it kinda sounds like you already have most of this down already so that is good:wink:. Basically just take one of your drawed out designs and put it to some wood. As far as the woodworking teacher goes well... Maybe try to find a woodcraft store near you and look at the corses that they offer. I know the woodcraft near me has lots of carving and turning classes that you can take for very reasonable prices. Here are some links that have given me inspiration and I hope will be usefull to you. Oh and I forgot to mention, all the advice the other guys gave you is awsome the guys on this forum are great guys and will go out of there way to help a guy out. I just wish I had more to contribute to this forum;). http://http://www.tackletour.com/ http://http://www.lure-fly.com/vagabond/lure/lure.html http://http://www.calfishing.com/reviews/index.html http://http://www.ichibantackle.com/index.asp?pagename=bymf.html