IronBass

250, has no weight in the tail section.

If I can achieve any thing close to this I'm happy.

Deps 250 have a 4' glide and a few others with a turn of the reel and no rod action.

Sorry not into to tail, but as far back as possible. Baits swim very stable, at slow and fast speeds, very happy with travel of the glides.

^^^ 3/4 of an inch from the front of the bait^^^ correction.

I run weight from about 3/4 of an inch all the way to the back, except where any hardware is. As for weighting on two piece glides I want a slight nose down, this helps with the front half controlling the back half.

I recently completed a 10" glide bait and everything went as planned, something I can very rarely say when working on any swimbaits. I used duck decoy weights cut in half width wise. As with any swimbait I make sure the weight is as low in the bait as I can stand. The most important thing with PVC is leaving enough room for the lead and then not interfere with my hardware. On this bait it took 2.5 ounces to get a slight nose down floating bait. The hooks I added made it a super slow sink. I had to go back with the dermal and cut a void to get some more pencil lead above the decoy weights to get the 2.5 oz. of weight. With running the weights running from front to back made for a very stable bait at all speeds and impressive glides.

I agree with you Anglinarcher and TOPFight. Even the guys who buy high end swimbaits want a more durable bait that don't break the bank.

Looks great, nice job!!

Real Prey Swimbaits imo figured this out with the material they use to make his baits. The problem is the material cost about 5 times more than plastisol. The bait are very durable and can be repaired any 100% silicone. The other beauty of his products is the paint is the same material as the swimbait itself so it pretty much stays on the life of the bait. Real Prey looked outside the box but with at a cost of higher price materials. Someday someone will figure out stronger materials at a less expensive price.

The cost is something most anglers will never understand. But if you are really into Storm baits, you will catch fish on them, but you also know the limitations of the baits. Limited sink rates, tail selections, less than par color patterns, if I want a top hook storm the real only option is the Wild Eye Shad, the Wild Eye Shad sinks like a rock and really cannot be fished in shallow water and the boot tail design demands it to be fished it at higher speeds to get any type of kick out of it, the higher speed needed to get tail kick out of the Wild Eye shad also comes from the harder more durable plastic. If I want a boot tail that gets kick at slower speeds I need a bait that has softer plastic. This type of bait comes from a bait maker that understands a softer less durable swimbait with different sink rates are going to catch more fish for his customers. These baits are hand made from harness to hand painted. Something I think many angers forget when looking at something on an online store is the time it took the maker to build it. Most don't care about the craftsman ship, origin of country made, just cost. A $5.00 swimbait that sits at the bottom of my box is not a value to the $25.00 swimbait I pound fish on. The old picture in my aviator was caught on a Storm Wild Eye shad, I quickly learned the bait is one trick pony that is only good for dragging hard bottom areas. I'm not a swimbait snob, but the swimbait better have a a place in my box or I wasted my hard earned money. As many of you see as you look around, higher end swimbaits like MattLures, Hudds, Deps ect. ect. are coming much more common with average week end anglers around the country just looking to put more fish into the boat on the weekend, many of them are seeing the value of hand made hand tweaked made to customers specifications swimbaits or baits makers that have spent the time on R and D that have earned a place in to the anglers box.

Unless something has change, Storm products are made in China not Japan.

Storm Live Kickin Shads get the action from either a lip (like a crank bait) or mutable sections. MattLures and Hudds are tail driven. Adding a mesh the these types of baits will effect action, just changing hardness of plastics will effect the action of the bait and the bait would need to be redesigned to work with the more durable stronger plastic. The limitations of plastisol takes over here. Savage Gear Line Thru and baits like the Castaic have mesh center and imo add nothing to the longevity of the life of the bait other than around the hinge section. These types baits are simply limited to the material they are made out of. Baits like these are easily glued and repaired to work like new, if you have ever fished a Savage Gear or a Catch 22 with mesh you will be glueing them together also if you are truly catching fish on them.The cost of these baits will never make most anglers happy about buying them, but those who find success on higher end swimbaits would never spend less. I justify it like this, if I go fishing and get on an all out Ring Fry bite. I can easily go through 4 bags, 4 bags = $25.00. One good soft bait like a Savage Gear cost about $20. This bait will make the day and I can glue it back together again and again.

What is the name of your company??

Looks very nice, just getting back into some pvc builds after playing with plastic swimbaits for a few years also. Great work!

The godfather of modern structure fishing. Thanks Salty's!

I don't make crankbaits but have been watching this thread. Basstar baits makes the Dredger that is marketed as a 100' crankbait while being casted. http://basstarbaits.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=13&zenid=fcfd0305ca1a5317432425dd43f429dc I thought it might give ya fellas some more ideas.

Very nice as always!

Thanks for the help!

I finally pulled the trigger and carved my first swimbait out of PVC, with help from past post from TU and the John Hopkins tutorial. Every thing went very well. Weight system took some work, but the results are great. I painted the bait and was unhappy with my first paint job, but my wife encourage me that it looked good, so I epoxied the bait with the epoxy I used on the bait. Unhappy with the results I sanded the bait down and decided to try a photo finish the photo finish looked great (thanks to Bert for your tutorial here on TU). I did some digging here on TU and decided to try Devcon High Strength 2 ton Epoxy, all purpose. I put the first coat on useing a brush and thought to myself, I did it. I set out to try someting and was very proud of my accomplishment. I figured a little sanding and another coat I would be vey close to finishing and looking forward to the next one. The problem the exopy never cured? Two days and very sticky to the touch? I pulled the photo fisinsh off and sanded the bait back down to the blank again. I thought I mixed the epoxy according to the directions? Is the Devcon High Strength 2 ton Epoxy all purpose 30 minute the correct Devcon epoxy to use? Getting frustrated and need some advise. Thanks.

You can go to Berts website and translate thru Yahoo. Go to Berts website and right click, go down to yahoo and click translate to English. I do believe you have to have a yahoo toolbar, the tutorial is on his website also.