diemai

Glad you like it , ..........greetz , Dieter

@ RayburnGuy You're darn right , Ben , ...to me ordinary steel sheets are no option at all , no matter whether previously galvanized or not , ........my materials are stainless steel , copper and brass sheet , ........once polished , stainless steel remains shiny forever . @ mark poulson ..................on the other hand I also like tarnished spoon , -and spinnerblades , ...........I believe that they are more attractive in clear water or bright sunshine conditions , ..........but most commercial blades hold their nickel, -or chrome plating very well in my opinion , anyway . If I want my homemade copper and brass spoons to remain shiny , I'd apply so-called hologram scale foil or aluminium tape onto the freshly polished and clean surface , .....put over a few layers of epoxy topcoat , ....done ! I most likely do this on the outer side of the blade only , leaving the inner side untreated , ...this way I achieve some kinda "blinking" or flashing effect , as the spoon wobbles along with one side shiny polished and the reverse side dull tarnished . Tarnished blades can easily be polished again with a metal polish detergent used for table silver , copper cooking pots and brass flower pots , .....etc, ....etc..., .......but naturally this only lasts for a while . @ Griffond I put up some vids on blade making in the tutorial section recently , .........dunno whether you've already come across ? greetz , Dieter

Thanks a lot , ......wish I had more time for more vids ! cheers , Dieter

Thanks for your interest in my humble videos , glad that you like those banana lures . I've been building these kinda lures for a few years now , .......took me quite a while to get behind their secrets , .......wrote about them in this thread almost four years ago : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/13043-new-banana-lure/page__hl__%20banana%20%20lures Guess , that you'd find some further info in there , .......the biggest banana lures of mine were 132 mm in length , so about 5 1/4" , but one could go bigger as well , I guess . For smaller and medium sized lures I'm using abachewood(hard to obtain in the US) , .........but as you can see in that thread , also different timbers are optional , ...one should only match the material's buoancy to the lure size , ....the smaller the lure , the more buoyant the timber . During recent times I've also made a few "Bananas" out of PVC hardfoam , ...smallest possible is about 2 1/4 " , .....anything smaller gets too finacky or is not too reliable due to very short-shanked eyescrews . To cut out the blanks you can use an electric scroll saw or even a narrow bladed padsaw , ......though this involves some elbow grease , ..........a jigsaw might even get worse . Good luck , diemai

Hi , folks , I was bored last night , as the missus won't let me watch the TV on Saturday night due to that certain weekly crappy talent show , that I hate too much , ...........so I've thought to put the following video together ,......... through the years I have so many pictures gathered in my computer files Most lures are commercial ones , but also some homemades of mine and a few from small Australian manufacturers , ....a few vintage DAM's as well , ........all these lures are or were in my possession , ....just a few I've sold or swapped away . I have to apologize for the breaks inbetween the soundtrack , ......somehow my video editor does not correspondent well with the realtime of an upload , dunno ? Any possible questions about the displayed lures will be answered ! cheers , diemai

............I'd surely second to this ! greetz , Dieter

Exactly , ...same thing with me , Ben , .......but I've got pretty much used to it as it works down so easy . Been carving some abachiwood blanks as well these days , .....had to get used again to carve this softer wood , .....no cares about woodgrain with PVC , ....if I lead the knife the wrong direction on this timber , larger than intended chips might break away and woodfiller would be in order ! And PVC blanks are faster to accomplish compared to even the softest timber . Only thing is that PVC is not suited for very large and voluminous crankbaits or sinking glidebaits , .......swimbaits are still OK , as the hinge construction still adds weight to the lure . For swimbaits PVC is even better suited compared to timber due to the sealing problem on wood . Bigger PVC crankbaits and gliders one most likely has to overload with ballast to achieve a proper balance and action of the lure , ...could spoil the action or makes proper balancing finacky , as some share of the ballast might require to be placed in the back of the lure , not the belly alone . But I guess , that I've found a way to still make PVC baits sufficiently large and still not requiring too much ballast , ........I'd just make the lurebodies narrower in cross-section and sand down the belly somewhat "V"-shaped , ......like some baits in this video of mine : I would just glue in some lead sheet together with the internal wire form into a belly slot , .......most likely this is enough of ballast to keep these narrow-sided lure swimming well . This way these lures still cast a good silhouette in the water and yet are not too heavy . greetz , diemai

@ RayburnGuy ...............Ben , great story , ........but this is the bad thing about it , that we'd never get to know what kinda fish was the cause , ........but maybe better this way as if having already seen it and still loosing in the very last moment ! greetz , Dieter

Great , .......looking forward to see it , ........good luck , Sonny ! @ Firechief Around here in Europe such glidebaits were first introduced as pike lures , ....big logs at first , ......coming from the American muskie fishery . Some tackle dealers imported them and at the start there weren't even suitable rods available nor anybody knew how to fish these lures , ......that was around the early to mid 1990's , I suppose . Those sinking gliders , but also floating divers , began to receive a lot of promotion in the local European fishing magazines and soon local manufacturers came up with own models , .......which became somewhat smaller than the previously imported American lure models , ......guess , because these were pretty inconvinient to be worked all day long ? But these baits , in Europe we call them "jerkbaits" , had soon stuck amongst the local pike anglers fraternity , just because they proved to be so darn successful on local pike . Sooner or later anglers found out , that not only pike would strike these lures , but also zander(European walleye)and trophy perch would gladly take a bite on occassion(I've once hooked a 20"+ perch on a homemade 4 1/2" glidebait , but lost it a boatside) , .....so manufacturers began to offer a few even more downscaled models to especially be able to target above mentioned species , ..........nowadays a few glidebaits are available in only 2" length , ....here is quite a famous model , the "Salmo Slider" : http://www.angel-ussat.de/shop/index.htm?jerk-baits_salmo.htm Such glidebaits must be fished in a few different manners , depending on the individual models , .......some work best with very hard rips of the rod , others require only little twitches from the wrist , ........one can experiment with downward or sideward movemnts of the rod as well . Some baits even have a catching appeal when just reeled in constantly , ............when fishing a new glider for the first time , the angler should do some practice casts nearby to be able to see , what his lures does with certain ways of rod tip manipulations , ........some lure models are more versatile than others this way , .......the angler should always combine all possible actions through each retrieve for best success . Some more words of explanation from the web : http://www.muskyal.com/Features/Glide.htm Here a very well explained text , sadly in German language only , maybe one can scan it into a translation program , dunno ? http://www.jerkbait.com/lexikon/ All in all I strongly believe , that such baits are well worth a try on your local American bass , .....I absolutely don't see any reason , why different species of predatory fish should not take these lures , as long as the baits can be offered in their prefered hunting,- or strike zone . greetz , Dieter

G'day , mate , ............I must say , that I really hate these so-called "economic" blades of plated steel ! It may be just a phobia of mine , ....but shortly after the "Iron Curtain" fell in Europe , by 1990 , I've bought some Russian made spoons from Polish fleamarket vendors , .....was only little experienced back than . After having fished these a few times and put them back into my stowaway box , I only found a brown and rusty mess next time that I've opened that box , .........all other lures in the vicinity were stained brown as well ! I haven't figured out before , that someone could even think of making spoons out of a rust affected material ! Maybe , there are better qualities of plating around than on these old Russian lures , ......I can't tell .......but I guess , that constantly fishing waters having rocky or mussel-covered bottoms would sooner or later pierce and damage any chrome or nickel finish on a steel spoon and then cause the above mentioned mess in your tacklebox . Spoon ,-or spinnerblades must be made out of brass or stainless steel , period , .......at least for me ! Just my , .........greetz , diemai

@ seeking54 ..............thanks for your color suggestions ,...... local pike might like these , too , ..........I really have too few lure in such of your described(or similar) color combinations , ........nowadays I often go for more darker color designs , as our local waters have become more clearer through past years ! But if I won't try , I won't find out , .....always working on different kinda lures (not neccessarely gliders though) , ....that I might paint that way , thanks for pointing out ! @ Sonny.Barile Good luck , Sonny , .........things should turn out alright , ......the "Heiddy " is quite a foolproof lure model , .......eager to see and hear about your results . BTW , .......did you figure out that the lure's name "Heiddy" is put together from parts of the surnames of the two designers named Hein and Eddy ? As far as I'm concerned , this lure was never commercialized , put out on the internet for home tinkerers exclusively . Good luck , Dieter

Northern Germany 1,68 Euros per liter , ....so about 6,80 Euros per gallon , makes up for about 9,10 Dollars US per gallon after actual currency exchange rate , .......still any complaints , guys ? And still a few countries in Europe are still a bit more expensive than that ! Guess that thru the Easter holidays we're surely gonna break the 1,70 Euro limit , ...always some extra ripping off around such public holidays going on ! greetz , diemai

@ seeking 54 It works nicely , .............casting it every season , but never caught on it for some reason , ...maybe the color ? But it's casting performance is unmatched , ......due to the heavy rear it shoots out like a missile , particular important for fishing from the bank , ....gotta do more in different colors , I guess . My "Zig-Zag" gliders have proven to be more successful , yet cast pretty well , too , ........the lower lure on the picture is one of thes , though with a bit fatter front portion and a rather blunt nose : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/4329-4-sinking-gliders/ But these do employ the principle of the "pulling" ballast , as the majority of lead sits in the thicker front portion , the pointed nose causes the lure to dart into all directions unpredicably . To gain sufficient space(or depth) for the weightholes fore and aft , I've installed the line tie and rear eyescrew pointing upward as much as possible , ....not straight on the center axis with their shafts , .......this also provides more strength against getting pulled out . @ Sonny.Barile It is rather a 9 cms version , I guess , made from teakwood ,.........you can build any size between 2 1/2" and 6" , anyway , .....you'd only have to match your material to the size of the glider . Another option to vary the buoancy of your blanks is making them a tad thicker or thinner as described , ...talkin' bout max. 10% to 15% of given thickness , ........if to much difference , it surely would take too much influence on the action of your bait . Smallest versions should be made of a very buoyant material and biggest ones of a less buoyant material , .......this is assure a proper function of the bait , ........f.e. a small bait less buoyant might not take enough ballast for proper function without sinking like a brick , .......on the other hand a big bait of very buoyant material might require a big load of lead to even get it to slowly sink at all , .......probably not enough space to glue in all of this ballast at proper location , also sucha bait might become too sluggish in it's action . As far as for determining the required balast weight and it's proper location on the lure's belly I'd apply a temporay clearcoat onto the lureblank or prime it in white(to prevent water sepage during testing) , rig hooks and use an approbiate paperclip on the linetie to substitute the weight of a rigid single-strand wire leader essential to work these baits . Now I'd tape a leadchunk under the belly(with electric insulation tape) , put the blank in a water bucket and see , what it does . I can now alter the size/weight of the lead weight until I'm satisfied with the sink rate and also alter the location on the belly until the lure sinks at a horizontal level(or as desired) . Now I'd mark that spot , ........after disassembling hooks and leader I'd drill a hole or furnish an accomodating pouch with my "Dremel" and glue in the lead chunk , using glue or some kinda putty to close the hole entirely , sanding back to body outline after curing . One has to consider that the finished lure would still sink a little faster than determined before , as one would have drilled away some buoyant material , ....also later paint,-and topcoats would add some weight to the lure . So if you want a glider with a very slow sinkrate , it's back portion still has to slighly break through the bucket's water surface with ballast temporary taped on . I this case I also would not rig the most thick wired hooks for testing , .......if you would estimate wrong and your finished lure would still rise up slowly or suspend , assembling thicker wired hooks would finally get you to your desired slow sink rate . I take the building describtion sketches only as a guideline on where to put the ballast , ......I always trim my gliders individually , lure for lure as described above . I remember one occasion that I was lazy to do this , ...had three lures made after the same template and cut from teakwood kitchen boards looking quite alike , .....only tested one of them in the above mentioned manner and placed the same amount of determined weight into each one , ...only to find , that only the lure being tested worked to my satisfaction later , the other two did still float up ! One bait I could fix with thicker wired hooks to finally get to sink slowly (I prefer faster sink rates approx. 1 foot/sec for deeper waters , anyway), ........but on the other one I really had to tinker again to get it to proper function . Any kind of wood is a natural material and may vary in it's density and weight , ......even when cut from one board , ........this is why I always take the effort of trimming each and every glidebait individually . Hope this helps a bit , .......good luck with your efforts , .........I remember my very first "Heiddy" pike of about 27" quite a few years ago , ........it attacked that 4 1/2" lure that viciously , so that the tail hook came to entirely stick out of the fish's gillplate ! greetz , Dieter

Yes , Mark , ...that is about what I was trying to say ! Surface walkers do hang more or less tail down , ......but if you want to achieve same action on a glidebait still sinking in a horizontal level , you need to keep it's rear more voluminous to be able to carry more ballast there . This was my target of design with the above mentioned "FatButt" glider , .........years ago I had also made a pike shaped sinking glider , .......the slender fish's looks really does not lend itself for a fatter and more voluminous rear portion ! To overcome the problem I've still kept about the side view shape of a pike but viewed from the top I had drastically tapered the front portion as from halfway down the length leading into a pointed nose , .........this way the rear part became more voluminous and I was able to place more ballast into the rear than the front , .......which generates the desired zig-zag action ! And as far as for the school , ....I was quite a dumbass in natural science topics , ........did much better in language lessons(English , German and French) , .......in fact I did not like nor enjoy my schooltime that much ! Cheers , Dieter

@ RayburnGuy Very nice fishing story , Ben , ........I could never imagine , that it was possible to get a lure through such thick vegetation(and still pull fish out) , .....googled the name of the plants , saw pictures , .......we have lots of these over here as well , they've grown increasingly due to the past years , as many waters have become clearer . Yeah , .........fishing surely does provide some lifetime memories , .........especially about the ones , that got away ! I remember the almost 50" pike hooked on a homemade small "squidtail" spinner , .....cast for perch on just about 6pounds test mono , .........I had battled her for a long while and finally started to get her tired , .......once she had already come to the surface at boatside just to see , who was troubling her ! I had upped anchor of my small boat before to be able to play her in more open water , when suddenly a bunch of motorboats and yachts were coming up the river , .......had to throw anchor again not to drift into their course with that big fish on the line . Well , ......she finally took a chance on the anchor's rope , ....gone she was , ...would have surely been my personal best ! ................or the at least 20" monster perch , .......hooked on a 5" sinking glider meant for pike , .........it threw the lure just 10 feet from the boat , ...I had seen her , .........my wife had to stop me from throwing my rod after that fish in endless anger ! Or , .....last summer in a small river , .......my wife hat put three feeder rods on their rod rests close to the bank being located about 3 feet above water level , ......, all rod tips pointing into the skies to avoid the faster current catching up more submerged line than neccessary . She had rigged small chumming baskets and used maggots and small earthworm as bait , hoping to catch a smaller carp or a good bream , roach or chub . I just took a break from casting lures and sat next to her and we were talking , when I suddenly saw one of her rods being violently ripped forward to swing to a horizontal level pivoting on the longer front rod rest ! Before she could turn around to grab the rod in one fluid movement it got rapidly propelled towards the water in an arc course and hit the surface well about 15 feet from the bank , .......still pulled downstream for a few feet to finally submerge never to be seen again ! I instanly grabbed my lure rod trying to catch the line with a spoon , but I did not stand a chance , ...rod , reel and fish gone . Now we are wondering , ........was it a huge carp , ...a silure(European catfish) , a seatrout or even one of the rare salmon ? Still got some appointments at that little river , ......next summer ! Greetz , Dieter

OK , ......I see what you mean now , ......never saw any glide bait balanced this way on any forums before , only made a similar prototype once : http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/5344-curved-glider/ http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/5345-curved-glider/ But I guess , that the curved body of my experimental lure plays it's part as well , at least the ballast is about located in center , fore and aft . One certainly can achieve a desired sink rate this way , but I'm assuming , that a bait can't be made to glide nicely , also not a straight-bodied one . The ballast would about sit on the lenghtwise center axis , a bit lower or higher , ...depending on the cross-section profile of the bait . In every case the ballast would not generate the possible best "keel" function , as it does not sit close to the deepest point of belly , ...thus the lure would be more likely to capsize rather that dart forward powered by the initial jerk of the rod , .........so a good share of the jerk's "drive" to force the lure to dart forward is wasted this way . I'm not saying , that such lure would not have an attractive appeal at all , .......I guess it surely would come up with some kind of action , ......but it's sideward glide path would be very narrow , ......I rather think , that it can be worked with very subtle tabs from the wrist to perform some kinda "dying minnow" action , just darting a very short distance unpredictably into any directions , probably even almost "on the spot" , .......and when paused , it would also fall back into the given swimming level . Just my , ..........greetz , diemai

@ Sonny.Barile ................good luck , ....so obviously my describtions were understandable ! @ Firechief , @ bassguy Such gliders became very popular in Europe through the past 20 years or so , .......at first they came over from the north of the US being typical muskie baits , ........sooner or later European anglers and manufacturers began to scale down these massive American 8" or even 10" heavy logs of a lure to more convinient sizes like 4" to 7" . Nowadays some manufacturers also even offer them in sizes of 2" to 3" , .....thus they can also target other predatory species than pike , ...in particular perch and zander(european walleye) , ......we do not have any bass around here central and northern Europe , only some small stocks in Spain and Italy . Here a rather seldom catch on a glidebait(jerkbait) , ...at least in that particular water : That "Heiddy" jerkbait mentioned in the two of my videos is the same model named "The Roach" in the describtions on that Dutch site linked below . Gliders(in Europe we call them "jerkbaits")have become very popular amongst pike anglers since , also amongst European lure tinkerers , as they do not require as much work compared to crankbaits or even swimbaits . Special rods are required to cast and work such baits , at least for the bigger and heavier ones , ......the poles need to be short to be able to be pointed downward to jerk or twitch those baits back in , .......needless to say , that the rods also need to be very stiff . But my smaller , homemade baits I'm also working with my 9 foot spinning rod , not the ideal , but I can go more versatile with this rod , handles any kind of smaller and medium sized lures . These kinda baits often require individual retrieve patterns , ....some need strong jerks with the rodtips , others work best with just small taps from the wrist , ......others can also be reeled in straight or even trolled , ...each model requires some practise of the angler to get the most appeal out of it, ........sounds difficult , but isn't , ...just some trials in in front of the boat , ....done ! @ seeking 54 Sorry , but I do not quite figure out about your question , ....do you mean the way how to put ballast to achieve a horizontal sinking position of the bait ? Learn more about such baits , also access building plans on this Dutch site , ....version in english(look for "jerkbaits") : http://www.lurebuild...l/indexeng.html good luck , .........greetz , diemai

@ Gino Testone I've read , that a horizontal level looks like the most natural , .......but I guess , that just sligly head , -or tail down won't matter as well , as long as the lure performs well in it's gliding action . But the gliding performance is not alone caused by the way the lure levels , rather more by it's body shape and location of ballast , all influenced by one another , naturally ! Lead ballast is the "engine" of a glidebait , ..........it is accelerated by the initial jerk with the rod and due to its much higher and concentrated mass compared to the surrounding lurebody material , it pushes or pulls the lure forward , depending whether it is located in the front or in the rear of the lure body , ....or both . A weight in the rear pushes the glider forward(like a surface stickbait) , ........to still allow such a lure to level horizontally , naturally the rear portion of the body must be more voluminous to be able to carry more ballast . On a jerk the accelerated weight pushes the lurebody forward , the lighter front body portion lacks guidance and stability in the water , thus sooner or later the bait darts sideward , ............ on the next jerk the lure tends to track back again towards the line pull direction , ...thus the glide bait performs a zig-zag glide path retrieved with rythmic jerks of the rod . A weight in the front portion of a glide bait works a bit different , though results are the same , ........on a jerk it pulls the lure straigt forward ,...... the sideward glide in this case is generated by a flat and deep lurebody working like a rudder , .........catching up with the water surrounding it and leading the bait to dart to one side , ....again the second jerk would force the lure back towards line pull direction , thus the lure swims a zig-zag course . The higher front portion is off course more voluminous compared the slender rear , thus can carry the major ballast still keeping the lure at a horizontal level . Many gliders also have weights front AND rear , .......these are mixtures of the two options decribed above , ...........I've seen glide baits with ballast glued in almost down the entire length of the belly , .......I don't think , that these would perform too well(even made my own trials of such) , ...the ballast requires to be concentrated at not more than two locations for best results , .....my deepest belief , period! Here a video of my trials on non-concentrated ballast , ......the lures do not perform , because above described features are not given , .......no suitable trimming possible this way : Here is another video displaying two lures(amongst many others) that do undermine my above statements . Look out for the lathe-turned "FattButt" glider , ......it has most ballast in it's rear PUSHING the bait forward , .......just a little lead in front for horizontal levelling , the angled nose also enhances the sideward and also downward outbreaks , the lure maintains depth quite well . The flat-bodied " Heiddy" has it's only ballast at about the deepest part of it's belly , which virtually PULLS the lure along , the high front part of the body acts as the "rudder" forcing the "Heiddy" to dart sideward : Sorry for bad quality of this vid , ...hope that I've explained things in a way for people to understand , ...........greetz , diemai

@ RayburnGuy ..........Ben , during hot summers over here night fishing would be your only option as well , at least in stillwater or moderate current , ........the warmth and the bright sunlight simply locks up their jaws through the time of day . But the time around sunrise would also be OK , but I can never make it that early to hit the waters , LOL . And as you've stated , not that convinient to sit in the burning sun all day long , cooks your brains ! But I haven't had much luck with lures during darkness , though I frequently used to cast some through my years of night fishing , ........in fact I can only remember one zander that took one of my homemade jigspinners . greetz , Dieter

@ YoungForge Can't tell about wood hardener , .......to be honest , I can't just figure out exactly what it is , ...maybe a product that I can't obtain over here , .........but I remember , that mark poulson used to write a lot about it in here . greetz , diemai