diemai

@ mark poulson Thanks for that link , Mark , .....might come in handy , if I can't find something suitable over here . But I had a look at a big local tackle catalog yesterday at lateshift ,..... saw some wide gap wormhooks in there , that might work as well , .....only one has to snip off the worm attachement spur or wire coil connected to the hookeye . Good luck with your lure testing coming weekend , .........greetz , Dieter

@ mark poulson Thanks a lot for further explanations , Mark , ........I hope things would turn out all well for you in the end ! Greetz , Dieter

Now this is a very cool design , Mark , ..........I'm on fire , ............looking forward to hear about further test results in terms of hook-up performance , .......might give it a go as well sometime next winter . Thanks for sharing your work , ...........tight lines , Dieter

..............now that's pretty reasonable , ........but what about other taxes apart from import duties ? I've heard , that in the US there is 10% federal excise tax on almost every fishing items , .........or does this only count for goods purchased inside of the country ? Anyway , .....good luck , ....cheers , Dieter

@ Musky Glenn I reckon that these pouches on the back would generate some kinda vortices in the water slowing down the gliding performance of the bait , .....but we shall see , .....you'd surely report ! good luck , ...Dieter

Looks to me like over there in the US things are even MORE complicated than here in Germany , as we only have a few of monetary duty free limits to take care of , no matter of which kinda goods or country of origin , ............ at least for private imports , .......and certainly all of the common import restrictions on f. e. firearms , foodstuff , life animals , etc. , etc . Evident to me is that obviously very helpful site that bobv had linked , also the 2000 page book listing mentioned by garyo1954 , ....looks like it ain't that easy for you guys over there , .......as for my side , ...I should stop complaining about local customs over here ,....... probably . And........ Mark , .......I know , that customer service is a lot better in the US than it is over here in Germany , .......maybe this is why it seems to me that some people are expecting such from an internet vendor in terms of determining about import taxes , .......but as I said , any webshops usually do not provide such service , ...in this case one's gotta refer to international freight companies , ......but this would be about entire container loads and not just a stuffed envelope full of lure blanks ! Greetz , Dieter

I would try to make the body cross section somewhat more narrow to reduce the volume of the body , ...but leave the outer silhouette , ...your bait would become lighter and require less ballast . Should not be a big problem in terms of a glide action , but would maybe reduce casting performance , as the bait gets to flutter easier on flight . If a nose plane or similar should be neccessary to generate a particular swimming action , you could leave this particualr location wider that the rest of the body cross secton . As Dave said , you can also use a denser material , which would not reduce the general weight but the amount of lead ballast neccessary . I have always been into the opinion , that one should match the material to the size of the lure ! Useless to make a 6"+ bait out of balsa , 'cause it requires a big load of lead to perform well , whereas making a smaller 3" bait out of beechwood or maple would cause the lure to sink like a brick after having placed a trim weight or also lead into an improper relation between keel ballast at belly side and buoancy of body material at upper side of the lure(a crankbait made like this is much more likely to blow out rather than one made from more buoyant timber , ....just because it would lack buoancy at the upper part to force the lure back after canting sideward) . Just my , .....good luck , Dieter

I don't think , any international vendor could or is even able to tell you about your local import taxes , VAT or other custom fees , nor about possible restrictions on import of particular items within single countries of destination , ......this is not their duty nor intention , ........any import is on the local customers responsibilty alone ! They would not bother too much , ...as their only interest is to sell and make money , ...it does not matter , whether their goods reach the client or end up seized in a store room at any customs offices worldwide , ....the merchandise would have been already paid for , anyway ! What is their duty is attaching a properly filled customs tag onto the package and enclosing an invoice on the shipped merchandise as well . I'd also advise to keep and file all Emails and notifications on webshop orders , especially invoices and purchase confirmations , .....in case an invoice would be missing in the package , these can be evidence for the national custom offices to prove the monetary value of package contents , thus enable them to determine about fees and taxes(or determine "taxfree" as well), ........especially important when dealing with private Ebay vendors , as these hardly provide any invoices . But by all means , ....as said before , .......I'd strongly advise to gather detailed informations about import , restrictions , taxes and fees when planning on ordering any mechandise overseas ,........ best would be straight from local custom services , not just from some kinda "heard befores" in the neighborhood or on website forums . Just thinking about an example , which was in local German newspapers quite a while ago : Someone in Europe was smart enough to mailorder a semi-automatic AK47 assault rifle from the US , surely no problem in certain states of the USA , but strictly restricted in most European countries . Did the vendor care about the harsh European firearms restrictions ........? No ,..........he had received his payment already , ..........the customer had to face a trial and conviction , off course , .......no matter whether he violated local laws on intention or out of complete stupidity . Greetz , Dieter

I know , mate , .......and I don't think , that they are that cheap to buy , even not in Japan . Over here in Germany the big Japanese brands cost about 30% to 100% more than comparably sized Rapalas . Cheers , Dieter

Chinese stuff would surely be cheaper(but what about quality ?) , ........not so sure about Japanese lures , ...thinking to have read somewhere , that they were quite expensive ? We'll be told , anyway , .........cheers , Dieter

I'm in Germany , ...local anglers quite often mailorder lures and tackle from the US , as it's still worthwile , even when having to pay 19% VAT plus 4,3% Euro-Import tax . I only wonder , from where you , being located in the USA , want to get your stuff cheaper , ......Asia , Eastern Europe ? You've gotta contact US customs for import restrictrictions and monetary tax free limits , also tax rates , off course , .......over here the tax free limit for merchandise value is at only 22 Euros , ....for gifts 40 Euros , .........for a package contents value above these sums we've gotta pay , ........and almost every package gets examined by local customs at Frankfurt International Airport and forwarded to local offices depending on destinations around the land . I sometimes swap lures with American and Australian carvers , also buy off US Ebay occassionally , ...nobody overseas ever told me about hazzles with local customs receiving my return packages , ......over here I most likely have these troubles everytime ! Just my , ..........greetz , Dieter

Thinking to have read somewhere to put the bait into a freezer for a while just to chill it down , after submerge it into warm water , this way the cold air inside of the bait heats up and expands again and extracting air bubbles would become visible . greetz , diemai

I had already received some answers on "LureAndMore , .....the bait was is sold in the US by a company named "Z-Man" , ....could not find it on their site anymore , but I was given this link of a webshop "overstock.com" , ...so I guess , that the lure must be discontinued . http://www.overstock..._p/cb-cstk7.htm I have compared my pictures to the pictures on the websites , ......as it seems , the lip and connector on my bait are rigged like hey are supposed to . Would not fish that bait before October , as towards the cold season bigger baits are in order over here , .......so I've put up my questions on the sites . Thanks for your reply , .........greetz , diemai