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shane - how about if you do it on Polycarbonate or Perspex, it is clear under water, and is much lighter then Al or Brass and you can print/paint on it- NOTE, the square and rectangle would probably have to be the same surface area (to balance resistance/drag) . You could also maybe put a slight diagonal twist in each plate, instead of having them flat???????? [/img] OR this [/img] Pete

shane - As George is saying, a rough drawing would be real handy. Because of their asymmetrical shape, trying to spin a square, and rectangular blade sounds near impossible to me (blades are usually not uniform across both centre lines), but I think there may be a trick you could try. Besides George, the guy with a lot of the hydo/aerodynamic know how, would be 'Vodkaman' (Dave).pete

We call them Yabbies here (crawdads), welcome to the forum Ellie Mae, great first up lures, and how about some finished pictures.pete

Jim- looks nice and solid, and would hold bulk lures, great work.pete

Thanks guys for your input (been away fishing), those pictures say it all, and as we are all saying, 'it's all up to interpretation' and this is where I need to put the time in. I am off chacing trout on Sunday for 4 days, so I will try and get a few screen pics, if I can get the tarnsducer to show anything ledgeable, that is. Thanks again.pete

JSC- I did, but he's cheating. pete

I used to make them in batches of about 40-50, usually in a batch I would only do 2 - 3 different colour schemes. From start to completion would take about 4 days, I would complete a step and go and do something else, then come back and carry on to the next. I used to love seeing them all painted, lined up ready to topcoat, they looked like lollies (candy??), all exactly the same, just different colours. I worked out that I made about 4.5-5 an hour, for which I got $4.80 ea, take out the cost of hooks (VMC) rings, lips and the brass hook hanger, which I paid $1200 to have the die made, including 3000 hangers, the guys at the tackle shops were laughing at me, they were making $4.80 on each one, for standing behind a counter. This was all about 25 years ago, now (when I get back to it) I would be lucky to finish 2 a day. I am doing colours, that usually work and are what I want, I can play with foil, and different weights, lose them all and not care, just go home and make some more - biggest problem I have is getting the wood. I don't think I could bear to count the steps, it would put me off again, I like it where you can please yourself what you paint and when you paint, never a slave again.pete

Sonny - when migratory striper fishing, do you motor around the channel until you get the right temperature and then start fishing?? I don't think we get 'stripers' here, looks like a real speed machine. I googled it and all I could get on google Australia, was 'strippers'!!. There is a fish here that looks similar (without the stripes) called 'Mulloway' or 'Dew' fish, which grows to similar proportions (50lb or more) great fighting fish and usually caught at night and is an excellent table fish, need a big table though. By the look of the eyes on stripers, it looks like they would be partial to a bit of night hunting too??pete

I am not that old but I think fished something like this. Is it a 'Bellbrook' something?? O.K, 'Bellbrook Minstrel' ???? Sounds too easy too. pete

Bob - "Throw to the gnarliest part of a laydown and twitch it out, hitting every branch you can! Nobody said a crank bait was supposed to last forever!" This is the best part about not paying for them, fishing with gay abandon - not quite sure what a "laydown" is, but presume it is a fallen tree, or a 'snag' here.pete

borderbasse - I am not up with all these bits you guys are adding to a lure, BUT, maybe you could dip the hinge pin in hot wax, let it set, and then glue it in , when glue is set, you should be able to move the pin , the wax would give you the 'free-play'.pete

Thanks Dave- some would say we must be bored, but at least we are happy and bored pete

Kajun - thank you for your reply, yours is the only one in 2 days, maybe they all want to keep their knowledge a secret!! Any information is good information. I think you are on the money using your yours for only depth. I know if you don't have one on the boat I feel lost, not knowing what depth I'm fishing over. Thanks again.pete

I think you will find PhilB is a pike man (European), although he does not brag much, I have seen some nice pics - check out his album.pete

diemai/Dave- as I said I made quite a few at the time, but could not get enough action, but seeing now how productive some of the Rapalas etc are, with virtually no action, I am tempted to revisit these. As you would imagine with these 2 lips, the lure is more a 'hydroplane' with a very slight wobble - because of the hydroplane effect it also tended to get a slight zig-zag (hunting) action, which at the time I thought was undesirable, but now something, we are all looking for. I did vary the size and angle of the rear lip, which altered things a bit, as you can see the rear lip pictured is about 1/2 the diameter of the front lip. All in all it probably behaved a bit like a lipless crank bait/glider, BUT with some depth (can't remember how deep), I did not weight them, which may also, have been interesting. pete

Back to "Alternative Lipless Crankbait Designs?". I made quite a few of these about 25 years ago - They swam like a lipless lure, with just a bit of action and a bit of a 'hunt' and the lip gave them some depth. The lure pictured is 2" balsa @ about 6 gms, excuse the condition, but it's the only one I could find. Any thoughts, or experience with anything like this? pete [/img]

Kelly- like it, and it would give your worm/jig a bit of depth as well - I'm assuming you are casting it with lead. Keep us posted on your results.pete

I bought a new sounder (Lowrance colour X515c DF), and as always it's a steep learning curve. I don't think this Lawrance is as good as my old Furuno black/white, which has much better resolution, without the pretty colours?? I found this thread on another site (Australian) and found it quite helpful, and thought maybe it would be a good idea, to start a thread on the same topic here, as most of us are freshwater fishermen, where most of the posts on Sounder Reading - Ausfish Australian Fishing Forums discuss and show pics of salt-water situations. Knowing the vast areas of fresh water lakes/rivers there (US), coupled with the huge numbers of guys (and goils) who participate in freshwater fishing, I am thinking there should be a vast amount of knowledge stored up in some heads on here, some of which you might like to post. I am not wanting to get into a debate on which brand is better, as we all know, basically they all work the same, just different levels of information - I am more interested in analysing what we see on the screen, weather it is Bass, Muskies, or GT's. pete

Sorry guys, but it's SPRING here, and I have nearly finished the boat!! So besides trying to make a few lures after a 6 month break, I will be out there fishing, South Coast next weekend, Snowy Mountains the week after, then going up to Bribie Island (Queensland) the week after that. I have been listening to you guys all winter, now it's our turn. Hang in there-pete

Hey Dave, Sorry I missed it, hope you behaved. Happy Birthday. Just in case you are interested, mine is on the 22nd, good month this.pete

I try to forget mine, but I'm happy to remember yours, happy birthday to you both. pete