diemai

@ rofish Only used the screws , because I chose local pinewood for those lures , it has a quite tough brown grain , so I needed a stronger force to press the halves together for the 1mm dia. wire harness to trace a sufficient indention , that I could extend with my "Dremel" for a snug fit of the two inner planes of wood . On softer woods and with thinner wire off course screws would not be neccessary to achieve such indention , the harness would also be pressed into the wood just by tight wrapping or taping around the outside . Greetz , Dieter

@ Spike-A-Pike When I still was quite a rookie in luremaking many years ago , I also had to learn the hard way about inline spinners being too heavy at the rear and therefore not spinning properly . Here are some of my quite successful pike spinner models of those years . Since I wanted them to run deeper than commercial ones , I made the body heavier , at first I employed .357 Mag. casings , rigged a wire piece through them and poured lead in . The first ones worked quite well for some reason , so I made about two dozens more , only to see them not spinning properly ! I've found , that they'd not swim horizontally but tail-down , so I assumed , that this would be the reason for their failure:? . All the ones , that didn't work , I've cut apart again and used the casing bodies as sinkers for bottom set ups , fishing for carp and tench . Anyway , I now had so many of those homemade blades unused and had to think over another solution . So instead of those ammo casings I used aluminium tubing , 8 mm dia and 6 mm bore . These contain less lead , also they are longer , so that the weight is not concentrated only at the rear . These models worked pretty well and reliable , countless numbers of fish caught on such spinners through the years ! @ muskietom51 Glad , that you seemingly have already solved your problem ! Looking at your pics , I would have rigged one small bead between clevise and the tapered spacer piece , this would furthermore reduce friction and let the blades spin easier ! Good success , diemai

@ ricam Done the same at my work recently , so that I can't check TU anymore from there during my lateshift breaks:( ! Good luck to you getting through everything well:yay: Greetings , diemai

@ DanCampell These tapered fittings have to be clean , corrosion-free and bare of any dust/dirt , otherwise they won't bind , when tapped . The flat stub on the tapered arbor(if it is the thing , what I understand it to be with my poor technical English but good technical knowledge) is worked onto such devices to transmit the torque , meaning the tapered arbor can't slide and turn in it's fitting tapered bore . On drillpresses there is also a slot passing crosswise the main drive spindle , when the tapered chuck arbor is fitted in properly , the flat stub is partly visible through that slot , a flat metal wedge is inserted into the slot , a single hit with a hammer on that wedge causes the tapered chuck arbor to be forced out of its fitting . This flat stub may be useless on such a small machine , I assume , that maybe they only made it this way , because it has to be like that in technical terms to be complete and interchangeable to other designs . Hope , that you can get something out of this:huh: , Good Luck with your new toy , Dieter

@ DSV Still the video provides sufficient information , well done ! Though I am not into swimbaits yet(never even completed my first one , first paint tomorrow) I think that something could be done to improve the action of your bait . But I am sure , more experienced guys would call in and tell you their own opinion:yes: ! OK , as you stated and also to be seen in the video , your bait takes quite a long way to "kick" to wiggle , I assume , that this could be improved , if the lure still comes to float up a little deeper as it does now(or even would be a sinking lure) . In my theory , there is a kind of leverage between tow eye and the head portion of lure , the current generated by the retrieve speed tends to press against the head portion , so it would be forced to swim to one side . The pull direction towards the angler tracks the lure back again , the hole thing results into this snake-like motion:? . So , I think , if your lure would be less buoyant and sit deeper , the force of the oncoming current on the head section would be higher , either letting the lure wiggle stronger or earlier on the retrieve:?. You can try this by taping on some weight addition on the belly externally , I do my crankbait weigthing that way , it does not hinder the action too much ! But obviously there is not much space left for any more weights , but your lure does work without it as well , so no problem:yes: ! Really great for your first one , indeed ! Dieter

Nice idea as well about hot glue ! Yeah , I forgot to mention , that I don't advice you to try these crosswise wooden pins on this actual lure-in-making , but maybe for a later model , would have been to late at this stage , though ! Dieter

@ DSV I would be scared about using "a drop of superglue here and there" ! One might not get the halves apart anymore , this stuff can be devlish ! Double sided tape sounds safer to me ! Last fall I started out making my first baits(one piece) out of two halves(halfround pinewood dowel). For symetrical shaping of back and belly and also to press them together to obtain an indention of the internal wire harness into the joining planes , I connected the two parts flush with thin and long brass woodscrews(2 mm dia. X 20 mm length , roundhead ) . When I had to grind and sand the flanks of the lures tapered , I replaced those screws with ordinary bamboo toothpicks to pin the halves together , since the screw's heads and points were in the way for such work operation , the wood pins potruding I could just grind away . For lateron permanent wood glue bonding with the harness set in(indentions have been previously extended with a very small "Dremel" router bit) , I mounted the screws again to press parts together until glue sets . The two ends of lurebody I additionally taped together tightly with plastic tape(cable insulation tape) , so that they would sit real tight together . So , what I want to say briefly is , that why not drilling crosswise holes throug the body sections to pin them with toothpicks , barbecue sticks or similar . Two or three per section would be OK to achieve a rigid temporary bond , and you could just hammer them out with a filed blunt nail or wire piece , when you want to open up the halves again . For final closure of the screw holes you just set the wood pins in with glue after removing the screws and sand flush on the flanks or , vice versa , fill up remaining holes with wood filler . It only works this way with woodglue , since it doesn't bind the screws . When using epoxy , you would have to set in the wood pins straightaway and press the lurehalves together by other means than screws through them . Sounds a bit complicated:huh: , but it isn't , once you get a hang on it ! Good luck and success , Dieter

@ DSV I like your thread ! You always come up with new things(to me) ! Glueing the two halves together temporary with rubber cement for a test run is something , I haven't heard of before . In fact I am not so familiar with making lures out of two halves of wood , especially not multiple sectioned ones , just started out with a few simpler ones last fall , but here you took the working processes to a perfect and easy way to follow . Thanks you so much for the input ! Good success with the weighting , Dieter

@ Spike-A-Pike As far , as I am concerned , the British are not so much into eating freshwater fish as we continental Europeans , nothing to wonder about , since there is no place in the country much further away from the sea as approx. 120 miles(if I hazard a guess) . At least during my various vacations over there in Oxfordshire in my teenage years I have never had those delicious "Fish and Chips" made of carp:lol:! I fear , that there hardly are any means to get rid of those aliens in your local waters:(. There are many different examples , that elsewhere all efforts to remove alien animals out of a native ecological system have failed so far . With only rod and reel you would not be able to minor the stock of these fish significantly:cry: . I don't know , how things are handled in the USA , but here in Germany the bigger lakes are in the hands of professional fishermen , these have the fishery rights in that waters hired from the owners(most likely state or county)and take care of the fish stocking and catching , also issue licenses for angling . They make their living on these lakes and sell the , off course net-caught , fish to restaurants and on markets , partly also market them in own shops . They surely would not overfish those waters , since they need to keep up their living also in the years to come . What I mean to say is , that only such a professional fishing , employing all possible methods according to the target species , can minor your problem , but not entirely eliminate it . Off course those netting and electric methods must be set up in a way not to affect other species too much , which also would be a problem ! It would propably be very costly to do , since it won't pay off , because you obviously do not have a market big enough for carp and snakehead in America . An export to countries , that do have a market , would probably be too costly as well , therefore economically useless . So maybe , all of you would have to change your habits about consuming fish(surely you could make fish fingers or burgers out of 'em , too) and set up an intensive fishery:oooh:. The Europeans have managed to render the Baltic and North Sea almost fishless , so you'd should manage with your lakes as well ! Another , very drastic , method would be to poison the entire water with a biodegreable poison to render it biologically dead and after a recreation time stock it again with native fish:eek: . But as said before , its too drastic , and surely can't be done against the publics environmental conscience nowadays . And it is also very unsave , since the aliens would always get back in somehow , since not all waters around can't be handled that way at the same time , because they are needed to provide a new stock of native fish . No , only extensive net ,- or electric fishing could result into far less numbers of such alien fish , but if no market for human consumption somehow could be raised , who would pay for it ? Or are there already technologies developped , that could make fuel out of fish ? ? They can do it with corn , wheat and sugarcane................. ! Just a few thoughts from afar , good luck:yay: , diemai

@ DSV Your work is just great , I am so eager about the results ! I assume , that you just located the weight positions by estimation , did you ? Good to hear , that such chains are also available in SST , even better to hear , that they are rigid enough for fishing purposes ! And thank you for having taken the effort about that router bit link , I already have such a bit , even one of tungsten carbide , but with a longer cutting portion . I guess , that it is just that I never have thought of using these bits for sculpturing gills , eyes , fins and stuff ! Seems that I think more in technical issues rather than in a sense for art:huh: ! But still I am going to look for the first one pictured here , I like it's slim conical shape . One more thing : I like those T-shaped twisted eyes , very good input to me , never used such or even thought about such an eye design . One day I might surely get back to it for a new lure ! Good luck and success , Dieter

I love such an organized disorder , for a stranger it just looks messy at first degree , but for the owner everything is in place ! To me , arranging and cleaning up costs precious time , that one can rather spent to carve and/or paint a small bunch of lures . Mine looks worse than that , disorder is alike , but very dirty of sawdust , woodchips and stuff , since I only have a basement of approx. 4 X 4 yards , also have store my tackle in there . Greetz , diemai

The time used for topcoating before first testing really pays off ! Like previously mentioned here , the smallest problem would be having to sand over again , the bigger problems are failures of balancing the lure properly , since it soaked water ! Also I heard , that certain kinds of epoxy should not be exposed to water the first three days , so a paint coat would protect the bonds as well . Also once a friend told me , that he got quite annoyed over one jerkbait , that just did not dry properly , since he was in a hurry about finishing it ! After the testing I'd just sand those topcoats a little rough , so that following primer coats would adhere better ! Good success with your bait , Dieter

Great posts I just read in here , too many to mention:yes: ! Everyone should remember , that those little words "thank you" and "please" enhance the quality of life ! For everyone:yes: ! Greetz , Dieter

@ DSV I have thought about joining a swimbait with a chain as well before , but somehow I can't trust such tiny chains for bigger pike(in case , that I should catch one once more in my lifetime , presently fishing's so slow over here:() . This chain pictured is the kind used to hold the closure plugs in sinks and bath tubes , I assume . If it is , it would be of plated brass , I never came accross this type of chain made of SST(but that doesn't mean , that such might not exist !) . Have you pull-tested that chain before:? ? There are so called chain swivels available(most likely 3 swivels connected) in tackle shops , I have also considered to try these ones , but it is always headache to find what I want in local tackle shops , and I didn't want to drive around Hamburg city just for them ! These would need to be pin-secured into the lure sections , not just epoxied . In fact those tungsten carbide cutters are expensive , over here I'd have to pay 10

@ DSV Nice carving job done.........and almost "live" reported.... great:yay: ! Never came across this particular router bit , have to check the tool shop again , but maybe this one is not in the local "Dremel" line ? I want it , seems to be very useful:wink: ! Keep on carving , Dieter

@ hazmail So finally it seems , that there still is something positive about those carp , if those Murray Cod are feeding on them to increase stock again:) !

@ King Bait Co Yeah , it got out of track a bit , hope Phil won't mind , but there is always something dynamic about different threads:huh: . But this carpfishing in America and Europe(and the UK is the motherland of this way of carpfishing , as it is practised today over here)also might be considered to be one of those differences that Phil started out with ! Anyway , pretty nice fish , that your father-in-law catches ! I assume , that those Asian guys use a readily made so-called "trout dough" , very common stuff in our local trout ponds , biggest manufacturer of it is "Berkley's" . Before the modern carp fishing over here came up from the UK , the old-timers over here used half boiled smaller potatoes , boiled in scented water , with,-or without peeling them . The consistency has to be hard enough to keep the hook inside whilst casting , but yet soft enough to release it when setting the hook .

@ DSV I would have preferred as well to take two thinner halves of wood , rather than separating a thicker piece in its center . And your plywood pieces look quite sturdy to me , so "Good Luck " furtheron ! greetz , diemai

@ King Bait Co You're so right ! I totally agree:yes: !

@ King Bait Co So obviously same problem like in Australia , but at least in Nebraska you'd also have a cold season , when the carp won't taste that "muddy" . But who knows , in these times of constantly rising prices , also for food , wether one day people would be happy about this widely untouched source ? You could prepare the fish in many ways , I prefer it smoked(like most other fish as well) . And , once biggger , these carp don't have natural enemies anymore to eat them , despite the big silure , but that one doesn't make a difference between carp and bass , ducks and small dogs:yes: ! Also inviting European carp cracks won't help , because they'd always release their fish ! And I am sure , that they won't be used to catch carp in numbers , one after another , since here they first have to feed a spot for some days over here , before fishing . The fishing session usually takes not less than 24 hours , most likely the whole weekend or sometimes even days or weeks . They use a quality tent with a camping bed inside , modern cable ,-or even radio strike alarms , that wake them up from even the deepest sleep at night and special rigs , that cause the fish to hook itself , no hauling back neccessary . How big your local carp are and what bait and gear do you use to catch 'em ? Greetz , Dieter