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Thanks!

Can you use fabric mesh under foil for scales on 8 in baits without topcoat failure?

I have made several 3 and 4 piece swimbaits, and each of them took around 15-20 hours each if you count tank testing and weight tweaking. Not to mention the freaking joints:eek:

If you are trying to imitate the golden shiner, then a silver scale with a green/brown back and pearl white belly is a better choice, imo. Lots of bait makers overdo the gold/black combo. In the wild, most shiners are more silver with a greenish back with a little gold on the gill plate with orange transluscent fins. Nice bait btw, i see that you got the 90 degree bend in the body. I am working on a 4 piece 6 in shiner bait that I should finish this week I'll post a pic when it is done. Out of curiosity, what do you use to cut the sections, mine never turn out that well with a coping saw.

I have made a couple of lipless baits, floater and sinkers, and they swim great, I think that the amount of bend in each hinge is one of the keys to making lipless baits work. I try to make it so that the tail ends up being a little past 90 degrees to the head when it is fully curled. Maybe that makes sense and will help you out.

jrhopkins, is that just an aluminum piece that is bent around the ss wire? It is hard to tell from the pictures. Btw, your baits look great, can you show a video of how they swim?

Very nice baits. Have you tried making any sinking baits without a lip? They are not very difficult and have better action imo.

I know that a one piece mold will be easier, but there is no way to get the tail that I am looking for, is there? If I do go with the two part mold, which way should the bait be orientated, horizontally or vertically? As you can probably tell, I have never tried this before.

I have done alot research on this site and others, but I have not seen anything about this subject. I have made a swimbait master out of clay and want to do a 2 piece mold. The bait is pretty much the shape of a baitfish with a tail that is kind of a cross b/w the huddleston and the stanley wedgetail. I am just doing baits for personal use so no patent infringements to worry about. Will it be possible for me to pour the bottom in pearl, the middle in silver or gold, and the back in green or black with a 2 piece mold? Any help would be greatly appreciated before I get too deep in this. The bait is around 7 inches long and 2.5 inches high and .5 inches deep if this make any diff. Thanks

Are those paint brush bristle fins? I thought that I was the only one that had tried that! They are a pain to assemble but do a pretty good job of imitating a fin. How do those compare to the ziplock bag fin??

using a woodburner to make the scale pattern before painting or foiling? I have not been happy with my attempts to make scales on any bait that i have tried, and have been looking at getting a cheap burner and maybe making some scale patterns for it. The only thing that I have done that came close to being realistic was foiling then individually drawing each scale with a dull piece of wire, but it was way too time consuming and not very consistent. It did make a nice raised pattern though.

Thanks, thats a good looking bait!

Hey BobP, do you have any pictures of the baits that you painted. And thanks to everyone else who replied.

I need some help from youse guys. I have a really neat four piece swimbait that I initially photo-finished with a shad picture. I pretty much wore the devcon out on the joints, so I stripped it and tried to paint a shad on the bait. Well, I just cannot find the right color combo. Is there a paint that is white metallic shiny like? If not, could someone please help point me in the right direction? Many thanks for all of the knowlege on this board and the willingness to help folks out.