diemai

@ quickdraw In my opinion PVC decking is a far more better suited material for swimbaits compared to ANY kind of timber , .....simply because it cannot soak up water . Otherwise I don't have enough experience regarding basswood and red cedar , .....not native timbers over here . Cheers , diemai

I don't sell , simply because I don't think , that anybody would be willing to pay a fair price for the effort I'm putting into my humble creations . Otherwise I'd fully second Ben's statement made above(post #5) . ............but I also say "never say never" , ....if I was forced to add to a living some day , who knows ..... ??? Cheers , diemai

@ nova .........I had that pleasure once before as well , ....but it was only my upper leg . On a sunday evening I did not want to wait at the emergency room of a hospital so I took care of it by myself , .......some icepacks on the leg for anesthesia , some vodka for disinfaction(and to enhance bravery ) , sidecutters and two pairs of pliers , .....one to push the hookbend through and the other to pull it out by the point , ........saved me a lot of time to spend at the hospital , I guess , .......and no drinks there , either ! Around here at the Baltic coast there is a little harbor town named Heiligenhafen , from which the boat angling tours out on the Baltic Sea depart , .....always lots of anglers aboard of smaller former professional fishing trawlers , standing lined up at starboard and portside letting down or casting heavy jigging spoons for cod , once they'd made it to the fishing grounds . Years ago , prior to the Schengen Treaty there still was duty-free shopping possible on board after having left the 12mile zone , so any booze was cheap on board . In Heiligenhafen near the marina there used to be a surgeon , that took care of all of those returning angling heroes that had been pierced , either by themselves or most likely by their fishing neighbors aboard , ......he had a big showcase hanging on the wall of his office displaying all kinds of different hooks and jigging spoons , that through the years he had extracted from those that did not have such a lucky return from their day trip out to sea . I know , why I've never participated in such trip , ......no duty-free shopping nowadys anymore , ...so I guess , that it's not that bad anymore ! greetz , diemai

............................yeah , .......had a discussion on a local site about the danger of accelerated sinkers and lures coming back at the angler , ...someone there said , that he knew a guy , that had lost an eye due to such incident . Anyway , .......welcome to the tackleunderground , hopefully you'd enjoy yourself in here ! Cheers , diemai

Mark , ....I have already checked them out , .......the internet is a great thing , .......click your way through to access action display videos in here : http://www.rapala.com/ greetz , Dieter

...........alright , taken the time to take a few snapshots from a book compilation of the work of Finnish hobby lures carvers , .....sorry for the bad quality . These are typical Finnish baits , most likely carved from balsa and equippped with those typical saddle lips , ......sizes range from 50mm(2") to 145mm (5 3/4") , often stated at the bottom of the text on pages . Note the longer , protruding tow eyes providing many options for tuning these lures(but also works with screw eyes) . Cheers , Dieter

Not familiar to US coins , Mark , ...but I'm sure , that these are not cupped somehow , LOL . If you want , I could shoot some photos of book pictures showing some handcrafted Finnish lures equipped with such lips , ...sorry , but I do not have a scanner , .......just to give you an idea of their looks . I own a few of such baits as well , ...but looking for them down the shop would take ages ! greetz , Dieter

......just checked my own videos attached to some of my gallery pictures , ......it's true , the initial video pictures are gone , indicated is a text like "video cannot be shown in this frame"(translated from German) , ........a little below is a blue text to click on saying "open up video in another frame" , ...after clicking the video would appear full screen and can be played . At least it worked out with one of mine in the gallery , .....this particular one here did not start but left the screen black , ..maybe I just did not wait long enough , dunno ? cheers , diemai PS : Welcome to the tackleunderground , mate , ...hope , you'd enjoy yourself in here !

Mark , I've just checked the sizes of the saddle lips available on that Finnish site(Google translator did work out , ....at least to a certain extend ) , ........these are 16mm to 25mm diameter . These lips are designed for slender minnow-style lures , ......so I'd say that 2 1/2" to a max. of 6" body length is possible , depending on the lip size one uses , ........provided , that the bait is slender and narrow bodied . Off course one can make a smaller , say 2 1/2" to 3" fatter bodied lure using the largest 25mm dia lip . Cheers , Dieter

Great tip , ........gotta try this out , thanks a lot , ......cheers , diemai

..........basically I do mine as shown in this video put out by my friend Hubert , ....I just would not use a rasp to round off the edges , but utilize my "Dremel" with a coarse sanding drum , ........also I do not have a belt sander , but using a 5" sanding disc 40 grit for basic shaping work . Material shown is not timber , but some PVC hardfoam stuff originally used for refridgerateor insulation purposes . Cheers , diemai

Great idea this is , ..thanks for sharing ! @ Solarfall Also a great idea about that bottleneck . It's a pity , that this Finnish shop , that I've linked , does not have an Englisch version , about two years I've shot them a mail in Englisch and German , whether they'd ship outside of Finland and asking about payment/shipping terms , ...but have not received a reply ! Cheers , Dieter

No , they don't , ........these lips are traditional in Finland , one can obtain them in component shops over there , I was given a few by a Finnish friend years ago . http://samfishing.fi/kauppa/index.php?cPath=74_73_190 I believe , that their advantage is to kinda pull the lure on a straight track(tow eye tuning provided) , due to their cupped saddle shape they just "shoulder" into the water better , providing a better guidance in the water. At least this was my impression with the few lures that I've made with such lips , never had a tough time tuning them , they'd always swim well . Looking forward to your results , Mark , good luck , ...always great to learn more . Cheers , Dieter

I'd put a screweye line tie in front of the lip's base , somewhere underneath the chin . Made similar lures a while ago , ......also note the two line tie positions on the "Hawg Wobbler" providing different swimming actions : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?/gallery/image/11283-some-new-lures-of-mine/ And here quite similar crankbaits , action shown in the end of the video : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?/gallery/image/11370-latest-bunch-lip-comparison/ If you want to attach your lure to the lip , ...I'd chose the Lexan lip not thinner than 3mm , ...and not only glue it in , but also secure it with at least one , better two crosswise screws or pins . Off course sucha linetie/lip configuration would only work for deep diving lures , ...recently I've made a few utilizing a typical Australian way of attachement , named the "omega clip" , ........I've made them into a self-centering , lose fit ,...... but yet one should work accurately to let the lure track true in the end , ..........note the blue and orange deep diver in the attached video : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?/gallery/image/11324-lates-abache-lures/ There are also ways to furnish an attachement eye to a lip with the help of duolock snaps(unsave , if tag ends not bent close) , ....also special connector clips available for the purpose , ......but I find the omega clip to be the easiest way to achieve such . Cheers , diemai