jamie

I like your hinge idea on this bait. Ive never picked up one of these hinges so I dont really know there stengths. I have picked up other nylon hinges ( used them for other projects) and water, sun and heat made them brittle over time.I would worry about the torque on these baits from big fishafter a long period of time of weather and the abuse from fishing. Like I said ive never picked up this style of hinge before and it may hold a tank, it looks tougher than the hinge that I used. The hinge I used was a lighter colored hinge. This was just a worry that I had.

To me me through wire is the only way for muskys. Ive had many balsa baits blow apart while fishing with them. My friends and I had one perticular bait that we used to call the one fish bait. This bait was a fish catching machine but wouldnt hold up. They would bust down the grain and big chunks of balsa would be missing. Even the bagley monster shad only has a few fish in them before they crack( used to use them alot on cave run).I just wouldnt trust anything but through wire for musky just from the numerous baits that ive had crack or blow up. I remember on perticular fish I caught that half the bait was missing and caught him on the wire itself and this bait was a well known bait makers bait(I wont metion his bait or his name).very rare anymore do I even throw these bait because of this. The only time I use thes is when Im creek fishing for smaller fish and not on big water were one might slame into a 50 incher. Im not saying that it wont hold a 50 but my luck this would be the day it would bust apart. These baits bust when musky fishing right down the grain and I wont trust twisted wire for this. You can do all the pull test you want and say it will hold but pull test dont acount for pressure and torque on the bait. So in may opinion you will never see me throw anything made of balsa without through wire.

Ilike it I will have to make it for a few of my musky baits.

You should repost this in the wire bait forum, Im sure those guys can help. Im like you I always ended up drilling mine.

One thing you can do to help with making a bait glide left to right a little better is alter your tow eye. What I mean is if you hold your bait and look at it from the side view you should see through the eyelet. What im suggesting ( what I do ) is when holding your bait and looking down from the top of the bait, you should be looking through the eyelet. Its like looking at a clock standard tow eye is is 12 and 6 oclock my way is 3 and 9 oclock. What this does is when you work your bait on the standard eyelet your leaderwill swing left and right and pivot in one spot, but if you place the eyelet the other way ,instead of the leader pivoting in one spot the leader will slide in the whole circle of the eyefrom left to fight. In turn what this does the leader will almost lay right beside of the bait on each pull and when you pull the bait again it will pivot sharper.This will help make a bait that wont glide left to right work. Its not the cure but it does help and also makes baits that do glide turn sharper.

On a glider bait the longer the bait the wider the bait needs to be. A 12 inch glider would be harder to tune or glide with a thin blank ( you will end up just making a pull bait out of it) and walk the dog action is killed. So in me experience longer the bait the wider the bait for gliders anyway. there will be someone here who will say different but thats my

On average my baits run 8 to 10 inches and downsized would be 6 inches or under. Oversized for me would be 12 to 14 inches and overkill is 16 inches or better on a wood bait. I do throw the mag bulldog alot I mean alot and that baby is half as long as your arm when its stretched out in the water, and it catches fish. What someone calls big maybe average sized on big water but fishing the creeks and small rivers alot here I dont tend to throw in the overkill size in wood baits very much. I do like to break a few of the big boys out when lake fishing and the bass fishermans jaw drops when they see you throw something they wished they had in there livewells for the big weigh in.

Give tigger a PM Im sure he will help out with the specs of his bait.

hey mark went back and researched a few post back in aug,08 and snax was talking about a new non dripping formula that was comming out. Once again sorry, it just too many facts for a poor boy from WV to try to remember. Or maybe it was just too many beers after work. Im leaning torwards the beers.

Thanks mark for the correction. I thought I remebered Snax saying when this stuff was first comming out that the positive to this stuff was no rotation. It goes to show that after awhile all this info blends together to me and I was probably thinking of something else.

As Vman said post some pics and im sure you will find that everyone here is willing to help out.A few pics of your lure and a brief desciption of weight placements is really all you need to get started.

Diemai I like your bait as well, please write about its first swim and I would like to know if the 3 hooks effected the swim. I would also like to have multiple hooks as well if I should build one for myself.

I go with riverman Etex is hard to beat. Ive tried all different types and always came back to etex. I havent tried the clear that mark poulsin and Snax use but Ive been thinking of trying it due to you dont have to rotate like you would with etex.

Rookie what do we need to do for they guys on this site who cant hear Jimmy,I can hear him can you.

Only You Rookie

some type of baits I dont care what type of clear will rash. Rattle trap style baits will hook rash easy and t-hooking helps but its not a cure all, Ive tried.

Are you planning to do repaints or are you building the baits yourself, it has alot to do with how much stuff you will need to start.

Made some interesting progress i will get back when I have some more info.

Dont even try, you will only dissapoint yourself because there not enough time.

How long did you wait between coating and painting , did you heat set your paint?

Dave you never thought about the poor maid with two 20 year olds in the house. I know what I would try to do if I was that young again.:teef:It seems anymore all I want in life is a cold beer and the couch, Im too tired for anything else.

If you look at option #2 the back two vent holes ( one on each side) are in the same place as option # 3 but has 4 extra vents infront of them. This size vents on #2 are the size I was thinking about For option#4.

Lapala I was thinking the same thats why I decided on two different option for this one giving room for error while clearing. Its going to factor in how much problem with the clear will cause with the vent holes if I go big or small on the vents due to clogging of the vents.I know that I can drill out if the bait if it gets alittle clear in the holes but I wanted to avoid as much as possiable because it gives your bait a poor quality finish at the end.

To keep your lip straight you need to make the cut while the wood is still flat and square before you cut the lure body out. Cut your wood in blocks just big enough for your baits profile to be drawn in. This will give you a flat square surface to make your cut. The scroll saw could be the other problem depending on the wood you are useing. Hard woods and thickness of the bait will make the scroll saw harder to use. I like the band saw but try cutting just on the other side of the line of your baits profile and use the belt sander ,and sand,to trim the rest of the wood to the line if control of the saw is a problem