Seeking 56

Nah, just saw the pics without a story. As for walleyes, I caught a 30'' trolling close to 5 mph for musky with a homemade 8'' crank, it was like WTH?? Huge fish for those waters. If you're referring to stream trout perhaps but I remember watching a fishing show way back, they were filming in Great Bear or Great Slave lake can never remember which one, but one holds monster pike and the other monster lakers. Anyways, they caught a huge laker that coughed up what must've been a 3lb smallie. Hopefully, you'll get another chance at muskies! More pics courtesy of the internet. Sorry to highjack this thread. gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp gthb.bmp

JRammit, In response to your last post, I don't know if studies for bass feeding habits exist but when it comes to muskies, they eat 20% of their weight. So, if a 50lb muskie can eat 10lbs of fish or other critters and if he consumes it all in one day it would explain why fish holding spots don't produce day in and day out. And if you're fishing during those off days well, you'll tend to think it's the lure's fault. Just my opinion, but I don't think lure matters, but more being at the right place at the right time. Here are some esox pics, courtesy of the internet. fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp fdf.bmp

Fill the hole with Styrofoam, then top off with 5 minute epoxy or wood epoxy, that's what I do and I never have any issues.

I'm thinking, rounding off the edges of that rattletrap would solve your problems. For me, that's what I would do and I would also hang the lure instead of putting on a lure turner.

What's the best way to rig this rubber bait? It would be used for trolling. Tx

I'd figure a way to hang it by the tail and coat the front half and when the epoxy hardens hang it by the line tie and coat the other half.

Are you saying that your lure doesn't track? It hunts instead? I'm not sure what you mean by it not being stable. With a lip angle you have on your lure or if you were to go with one more parallel to the body, I would suggest going with a longer bill with a line tie directly attached to it instead of at the nose. Or, angle the lip at 45 degrees and not have the length of the lip extend past the line tie. I add ballast more towards the tail when I put on stainless steel bills on my lures to somewhat counter balance the weight of the lip but again, the line tie is on the bill. Hopes this helps. BTW, nice looking bait! s56

Yes, you should be able to cut it out and put a new one in. I would tack it in though, less of a pain to remove should you not like the action.

I would notch the lip as well.

I bought it for muskie a few years back, it's a 6'' Bagley with an aluminium lip.

This one has a pretty wicked wake.

If you're going to be using a coffin lip, troll faster or add more weight.

I posted this method of stripping paint here on TU back in 2008. It works. It's messy though. You need to completely sature the lure by bathing it in brake fluid, or perhaps even hanging it and keep applying the fluid. Not the fastest method to strip lures. I would only do this now for lures that have embossed scales. I wiped the flaking paint off with an acid brush. Once you've manually removed all the paint, spray it with an aerosol brake rotor cleaner and then wash it with mild detergent soap and water. Also, make sure the fluid can't get into the body cavity via the hook hangers or line tie. I don't know what the lure you're talking about looks like but if it had a plastic lip, tape it as the fluid will discolor it as it was pointed out to me. s56

Dave, Ben, Would using colder or warmer water change the Archimedes dunk test results? Tx s56

What about hardwoods John? Have you experimented with maple, birch or oak? I'm partial to mahoganey but the others I named are very good for suspending baits. I say this because I've used them. You can use screw eyes and you would need little weight if any at all to balance the bait Factor the weight of the hooks as well. My 2 cents. s56

I've never experienced contraction or expansion with any wood I've used and my lures are subjected to some pretty extreme warm / cold conditions. I've been experimenting with Titebond 3 waterproof glue the last few years and I'm going to stick with it because it's gets really hard when it cures after 3-4 days. Prior to this glue I was using a high quality water based exterior latex primer. The trick is to leave the wood coarse prior to sealing. The sealer, whether primer, glue or epoxies have more bite than if you sanded the blank smooth. Rattlecan several coats over your sealer let cure for a couple of days, wet sand to a smooth finish, then you're ready for the paint scheme. These are ready to be sealed. One blank is mahoganey and the other with the hole is select cedar. This select cedar is more expensive than cedar lumber but the grain is tighter and I don't have to contend with knots and wide irregular grain. Woodie I meant to tell you, the reason I don't use Honduran mahoganey is that it's not always available. s56

21 lbs bass? Ya gotta start making musky lures Mark, out of cedar of course!

Mark, To each their own but be carefull, you don't want to pigeonhole yourself with pvc. s56

You know it's funny, we try to educate ourselves about everything else when it comes to lure building, everything except the most important of all, wood selection. What kind of woods were you using Mark that caused you so much frustration? I bought a 1x6 pvc board, cut out a glide bait but I can't seem to want to finish it...... s56

Much appreciated guys!

I don't have anything negative to say yet about E-tex in colder 35 degree water. Overall I'm really satisfied with the product. I've had it chip of on rocks in warmer months but that's to be expected. I want to try this out anyways. Can anybody recommend a good polyurathane available in quart size? I'll be applying it under e-tex as the initial topcoat and over it as the final topcoat on 2 seperate identical lures. Thanks s56

These guys suggest to use both. http://allgaragefloors.com/polyurethane-versus-epoxy-coatings/ Thoughts?

Love the bicycle chain idea Dave! Diemai, if I was to replicate something similar to this lure, I would make a hybrid bait by using pvc and wood. Bond some pvc to the wood body, make the joint into the pvc to seperate both halves and cut the slots in the pvc to accomodate the swinging mechanism. No need for sealing that way. It may be more than you bargained for but IMO it would be worth the extra effort. Just a thought. s56

Be careful what you wish for guys...You may soon discover that lure making may just be a creative release of energy. Don't ask me how I know. s56

Well then it's good to know that you hunt musky Rowhunter! It will certainly put things into perspective in future. The only bait I welcome water intrusion are Reef Hawgs which I believe are made out of maple. They perform a lot better when water logged. If you ever decide to use experiment with Jatoba a.k.a Brazilian Cherry for your gliders let me know.