.dsaavedra.

hate to tell you, but almost everyone knows the okuma guide series rods are great swimbait rods for a low price i just wasnt sure how well swimbaits were gonna produce in my area, so i got a cheapie. i casted with this rod in my yard with a 2.5oz weight, and this thing handled it like a champ. i was casting my full spool of line all the way to the bare spool. almost hit a couple cars driving down the road

mark, you are right about that. the tissue paper turns very transparent when epoxied, and the reflectivness of the foil underneath shines through. i have made a folder of good photos that i use for lures. i got a lot of them from this website: http://www.wiscfish.org/fishid/wFrmFishList.aspx

hmm full size mailing labels might work! i will pick some up next time im out and give em a go. im sure you would be able to print wth higher definition when printing on these rather than printing on tissue paper (you lose a lot of detail when printing on tissue paper).

haha i am very well aware of tacklewarehouse. i have placed many orders from them. but i wasnt out to spend over a hundred dollars on a swimbait rod, specially because i wasnt sure if swimbaits would really produce in my area, so i bought a cheap swimbait rod from bass pro.

haha you guys are great i ordered a swimbait rod and a pack of 2/0 hooks from bass pro shops the other day, the rod came in today but the hooks did not i am going to put 2nd coat of epoxy on the head today and this lure should be ready by the weekend!

that bait looks VERY nice! i was suprised at the range of movement you were able to get by using that style of joint. i will be using that style on my next bait for sure! be sure to let us know how that bad boy swims!

hmmmm never seen that done before if it works for you, thats great, but i think im gonna stick to using foil so that way i can get it seamless.

here is a picture of the bait with the first coat of epoxy on and the tail in place.

its too late to move the weights now. im beginning my final coat of clear coat. i guess if it is a problem, i will try adding some weight to the bottom edge of the foam, and if that doesnt work i'll just take it out like i said before.

those look very nice and neat. did you use foil under the tissue paper? hard to tell from the pic.

i just made a tail for my swimbait out of 2mm closed cell craft foam. i used it beceause its cheap, flexible, pretty durable, i have a lot of it, it fits perfectly in the slot, and it can be easily replaced if the fish tear it up too bad. my only question is, do you think having such a large piece of foam on the end of the small tail section will affect the action of the bait. im afraid that the foam will want to lay flat on the waters surface instead of being vertical like the tail should be. i guess if it does affect the action too much, i will just rip the tail out and either go tail-less or find a new material.

SAME HERE!!!

yes i do use a cylindrical object (battery) to smooth it out. but due to the way the corners are rounded off, the foil got a little wrinkled. i tried to smash down the wrinkes the best i could but they are still a little noticable. carpholeo, i have tried gluing printer paper right onto the bait before, but i have found printer paper doesnt really want to conform to the shape of the lure. the foil tape will bend and stay bent making it much easier to work with. it is VERY adhesive though, so make sure you put it where you want it the first time.

HOLY MACKEREL thats a nice bait nice hinges too, i might have to steal that idea next swimbait i make

yes its a photofinish, just like Husky's tutorial. i taped tissue paper to a piece of regular paper and ran it thru the printer, and then spray glued it to a piece of foil tape and stuck the foil tape on the lure. here is the bait with the back and belly painted to match the picture to the best of my abilities. once again, it looks sloppy close up, but looks good as a whole (IMO). it will look much better when the epoxy goes on, it will be reflective and it will bring out the colors more.

here is a pic of the bait with the foil on: this is my messiest foil job ever i am not pleased. there are a lot of tiny wrinkles around the edges due to the contours of the lure. it doesnt look bad from a distance and i KNOW the fish wont mind, but its just the little things that bug me when i am inspecting the lure, you know?

you nailed the body shape! x2 about making the head bigger and the tail smaller. it also helps if you weight the head the most, the mid section in the middle, and the tail the least. ps. how good is that strike king king shad? i've heard pretty bad reviews about them but thought about buying one.

yeah i dont like the spacing in between them either. its not adjustable because these arent screw eyes, theyre thru-wires. i'd have to crack open the epoxy and then re-epoxy the lure, and im not gonna do that, i'll live with wide gaps. next time i dont wanna do joints like this, it was such a pain in the but to make them this way and keep all the joints straight and not to far apart (although that didnt seem to work).

here is one that im working on. i was originally gonna do it in baby bass color (i traced a bass picture to get the shape) but now i think im gonna do it in a shad color, because there are some large gizzard shad in on of my favorite lakes. anyway, heres the lure with weights and hardware installed and epoxied together. next step is to test it out (i need hooks before i can do this) and then paint it. the bait: wide range of motion:

that paint job looks awesome!!! cant wait to see when its done!

the paint looks great! looks more like a carp than your spray job!

well it swims much better in a pond. i found the lower the angle of pull is, the better it swims. the tail section really wiggles, the mid section has a light sway side-to-side, and the head remains forward. didnt fish it much, just tested its action. no fish on it.

here are some pics of the finished product (sorry for all the fingerprints on the bait, should have wiped it off first )

thanks for the post mark. that really helped. i think next time i am gonna use the egg sinker/hook hanger weighting system.

ok thanks. i thought of using wet paint to get a mirror image on the other side. i wont be using balsa, im using basswood, so i think i will be alright squeezing it with a vise.