diemai

@ Bugpac I like the basic design , there truly is something about it ! If you have access to that waterjet cutter , it would come in a breeze to make these "lightening" holes bigger , I'd say at least half of the side plane of each segment ,................. place them as far upward toward s the back as possible . Also due to the high accuracy of your hinge tolerances it should be possible to make such holes , ....the aluminium body would rather act like a kinda "frame" for the floatation device and the hinges You'd need to fill these holes with a highly buoyant material , I'd suggest PVC decking in this case , more durable than balsa or cork , easier to work with and also waterproof . So this way you'd achieve a kinda "compound" swimbait , ...........I am afraid , that without any floatation device to keep the bait upright you can't get anywhere ,........... been there , done that ! And in theory a swimbait works best at a neutral buoancy state , as the first section generates vortices in the water , that flow down its flanks towards the tail , thus get to move the trailing sections , .........the heavier these sections are , the more difficult for those vortices to get them to "snake" . good luck , diemai

@ Bugpac I wonder , whether this thing swims upright and thus "snakes" as it is supposed to do ? It probably would require added keel weights , but then it would sink like a brick . Might be better to fix some ultra-buoyant material on its upper back portion ,...... I have tried such before with swimbaits of metal sheets and balsa wood as floatation devices , but they did not swim well at all and still sank too fast , .........only my very first prototype made of 0,5 mm stainless sheet and wine bottle corks pushed over the upper rim of the single segments swam well . Put these designs aside for long , did not carry out further trials on them , but I would surely be interested in hearing about your results ! good luck , diemai

Hi , folks , Presenty working on my very first PVC swimbaits , also trying out a different hinge system on them again ! These baits are only 95 mm in length , so little less than 4" respectively . Still have to epoxy in all hinge parts , but gonna leave the attachement plate of brass unglued for the start , so I could still access it later to probably drill out some material , in case it should turn out too heavy and let the lures sink too fast . But I don't really think so , ...guess , that I still would have to glue in some lead shot ,.......but I shall see ! The hinge sleeve parts are made out of 0,5 mm stainless steel sheet , the hinge wire forms from 1,2 mm stainless wire . Tail fins are from 3,0 mm lexan sheet . Did not bother about a picture , but the three PVC sections do already have a sideward swing-out of little more than 90° , so it should be OK with that ! Could have secured the hinge wire forms by crosswise wire pins as well(like the hinge sleeves) , but as these lures are small and having only one belly treble , all the tension goes through the attachement plate only , not through the hinges that much , ..........so just epoxying them should provide sufficient stability . greetz , diemai

Hope , that you've had a nice one ! all the best , .....greetz , diemai

Only exchanged a few posts with Bruce so far , .............on the sites we're only familiar to new members to join in , but never used to well known senior members having to leave this way , especially not before their time ! My thoughts are with the loved ones left behind , .............farewell , Bruce ! diemai

@ Geppa At first , .....welcome to TU ! Very nice stickbaits you've made there , ...........this scale thing really sounds interesting ! To me it looks like that you've glued little round pieces of foil onto the lures one by one , .........would be glad to hear more abvout your methods ! greetz , diemai

@ floridanative .................100% agree with you , .........sadly many guys from over there often display sucha kind of disrespectful attitudes against nature and it's creatures , ............I have experienced this myself before . greetz , diemai

Hi , folks , Just came across this , ............hard to believe, that the camera appears to be working all of the time so that these obviously Russian guys could put together their video later , ..........especially the final sequence of the "lure camera"showing the pike's head at close distance can't be a fake , I suppose ! http://www.bigcatchtv.de/video/vu0_hechtangeln-als-k-der-dient-eine-digicam-mp4 Enjoy , ..........greetz , diemai

@ Moon39 Like danderson said , ........there are several ways ! I haven't used probionate yet , but here are some instructions : http://www.tacklemaking.com/default.php?pageID=112 Most likely a wood sealer has to be used to protect the wood from water sepage , if the topcoat should get damaged(hopefully by big toothy fish ) , but particulary with balsa as a very soft wood it is also important to kinda "harden" the wood's structure itself , thus render it more rigid . I remember , that mark poulson had sometimes mentioned a product he called wood hardener , .......put this term into the search function , you will definately find something , ........though I am not quite certain , whether it was suited for balsa as well ! But maybe , he'd even chime in as well soon ? good luck , diemai

@ timturr I have been making my own casting spoons and spinnerblades for about 20 years now , usually I make the blades from 0,5 millimetres stainless steel sheet . Once I made experiements with some smaller 1 1/3 blades shaping them from 1 mm thick copper , brass and aluminium sheet , also out of the usual thinner steel material . I was not satisfied with the thicker blades off copper and brass , as they spun so slow ,........ obviously their weight compared to their cupped surface plane(that actually causes the blade to spin at all) was just to high ? The aluminium ones , though being thick as well , just worked fine like the usual stainless ones , simply because aluminium is light in weight ! So , as a conclusion I might now say , that thicker blades(of same material) would surely spin slower , because a higher weight has to be set into motion , but I think , because of that slower spin and increased weight the circular force of that blade around the spinners shaft is higher , thus the lure would tend to vibrate more . A fast spinning blade simply does not "have the time" to drag the spinner out of its straight course that much , as it chances its position related to the shaft quicker . But maybe this part of my theory is wrong , maybe a thicker blade of approbiate size does not even spin a lot slower , but due to his higher weight it would surely generate a higher circular force around the spinner shaft thus causing the lure to vibrate more . Anyway , just my , .......................good luck , diemai

@ jrhopkins Great idea and execution , John , ...........that bait looks just fabulous ! I 100% agree with the other guys here that the dollar store(1 Euro shop in my case )is just a kinda fairy land for the lure maker , .......I've found disposable brushes for topcoating there (two dozens at 1 €) , also aluminium tape for lurefoiling and some kinds of plastic pads , that I utilized as templates to spray patterns onto lures . greetz , diemai

Hi , folks , A certain German lure carver , that I know from a popular site over here , has signed in here at TU about two weeks ago to learn more about airbrushing and molded hardbaits ,....... also to brush up his knowledge of the English language ,..... that would come in handy for his university studies , as he stated ! Anyway , two days ago he had contacted me on that German site asking , why it it happens , that after he successfully did log in on TU it was not possible for him to reply to any threads nor even open his own topics ! His screen name "Stefano" does apperar in TU's members list , ........I have checked for that ! He said , that anytime he tried , an error #103133 would show up , also displaying the term "you have no permission to reply to this topic !" Just asking now , whether someone could explain , what possibly could have gone wrong , whether that guy has made a mistake or whatsoever could be the reason for this not granted access ? Can it be , that he has only tried to post in classified threads so far ? Or something went wrong with his loggin , that he did not notice ? Would be glad about some hints to give this guy some guidance , ........he really seems to be quite desparate for TU ! Thank you , ..........greetz , diemai

@ jrhopkins A pity , that I can't get a hold on that magazine over here(though I've heard of it before) , some kinda great reward for a brilliant luremaker getting published this way , .........my congratulations ! greetz , Dieter