CarverGLX

Good example of a template. You can make whatever you want though. Should give you a general idea of how things go. Like it's been said if you look around at other baits you will see that they are all pretty much the same. Differ in length curve weight.... But all have a bill, hook hanger, profile.... General rules: Curved banana baits wobble wider Flatter bill angle dives deeper Shallower bill angle is harder to blow out. Line tie farther out on bill is harder to blow out... Basically amount of water creating pressure on x amount of surface from the point of pull creates the diving and wobbling force balancing of a crankbait. (<------mouthful. Lol) This distance varies by shape of bill and surface area water presses on the bait. Weight of bait and placement determines innate stability and presentation angle of the bill. (Pull point plays a bigger role) Example: you won't see a dd22 with a line tie on the nose.... Too much area, loss of stability, blowout. Shallow diver with tie very close to tip of bill.... Dead as well. More stable. Rc1.5 wiggles more than bomber shallow a and so on...

Assemble bait in halves. Use paintbrush bristles to create fins. Cut to shape. Look at bull shad as example. Sand edges of fins on belt sander for some contrast if wanted.

Lots covered above but..... As others have said: what was the other angler using? How was he using it? How fast a retrieve? Jerking? Slow winding? Rattles? Color? Add this in as you decide what to do... Consider known walleye baits. Especially those out of production. Rapala husky 13 as an example. Not everyone has one. Think outside the box: "walleyes don't bite topwaters".... Caught a limit in 2 hours before on a jointed thunderstick and redfins. Worked great until secret got out. Not that great now

Thanks mark. Yeah I'm kind of leaning toward black too just because I don't see a lot of spooks that color. Trying to brainstorm and get an idea of things I'm not thinking of. Bass is a good one too. Hadn't considered that one but they make one that color. Maybe a hot color too, but I'm in a clear water area...idk. Getting ideas though.

Nobody uses topwaters I guess.

Trying to decide what color to paint a dog walker. It's a vixen. Currently it is golden shiner which has a silver plate in the core. Currently have flitter shad, bone, lime ice.... What other colors for topwaters do you guys like? Maybe something like a megabass deadly black? That would be a challenge. Give me some ideas. Thx in advance.

That's great. Thank you so much.

Results: Can get bait 15 feet or so off-line. Very slow. Indiana helps when slowed. High speed- Indiana flops around (best I can tell from disturbance). Bait tracks straighter at low speed, farther off at high speed.

Update: Applied hammer to what I currently use.

Personal preference. Depends on where you live and what kind of fall rate and profile you want. I live in an area with clear deep lakes. I generally use 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 pads of rubber. I like thinner jigs than most though. I'd say 2 pads is about standard (~42 strands). Finesse jigs are the same here just get two skirts instead of one. I cut the collar into two collars; 1/3 is used as a rear spreading hub after the skirt is on, 2/3 acts as a standard collar. Flipping I use the same as above 1.5-1.66 pads so I know the fall rate. Some will say thicker. Spinnerbaits I like a little thicker but still not quite 2 pads.

There are smaller bits that work off a # system but are not related to inches... More like gauges. However it may prove much easier to split the bait or assemble it in halves as many do on here and glue it back together. Bits, especially small ones, tend to "walk" out of center. The longer the bit is the greater the walk is and the harder it is to stay on center. When you get to the length of a whole bait it is nearly impossible to drill a whole completely through and on center. Some have tried drilling from both ends but this rarely works out either. IMHO splitting and recombining is the way to go.

Thank you.

Thanks Clemmy,That's cooler than expected.

Repaints of pre-rapala warts. Some are stock. Some are painted.

Thank you very much Royce. They aren't hard... Just take a minute. Use a curve cut from plastic using the overspray for width of the pattern... Dry bait... Do another curve... Repeat using smaller curves until the tail.

Thanks for the reply but it's not that kind of bandit. This is a homemade bait.

Like George said the opaque colors and pearls are needed. I also recommend some transparents to tint the pearls with. Gives you a lot more options. I use createx paints. I really like their wicked colors but they are higher. Also already thinned and if you aren't used to doing that might give you a better idea of what to expect. Starter kit: Opaque white (lots) O black O red O yellow (base on chart and mix with red for orange...) O blue (all primaries...) Createx wicked colors: (just some favorites, smoke black is the only almost must) Smoke black Canary yellow Paynes grey Burnt umber Fluorescents: orange. Yellow. Red. Pearls: white, silver. Can do a whole lot with these. Maybe some transparent blues, browns, and greens too. Allows a lot of tinting effects and different colors over base cotes. It's all in what you think you'll be painting. Look at some pictures of baitfish to get an idea too and try to figure out how to deconstruct them layer by layer. It's a fun process. Good luck.

Hey guys, I make crankbaits like the rest of you and know the work that goes into them. I ran across a couple of baits on that auction website that I just couldn't live without. They were listed as "bandit" crankbaits from North Carolina. Never seen anything quite like them with a reinforcing bar under the lip so I thought I'd give them a try. Has anyone heard of these or know what they are? One of us probably made them....

I get sheets of plastic used for stencils from hobby lobby. I believe I found them in the acrylic brush paints section. Take an exacto knife and start cutting curves. Make all sizes and shapes. Use these as a guide to freehand onto the bait. I use the outside of the curve but the inside is more artistically correct for shading (outside curve is easier for me). This produces a hard crisp edge and a overspray soft edge giving a 3-d effect. Then short bursts at low pressure for dots and whatnot. Not as fast but looks better to me.

Also found something similar on bassboattalk.com's watering hole forum on a thread titled #1 buzzbait. A guy talked about something similar to what I'm looking for in a snagless Sally inline configuration. Said it was very slow but it has a plastic blade too...

Gami 111. Longer. O'shaughnessy bend. Sharpest ever. Eye is taller from the bend but can be made to fit. May even move it slightly back in mold. Drill press with bit then flattened bit. Or probably even hammer. I use a hammer all the time to put in spinnerbait wires on jig molds. May be pushing it on that but at least have a place to drill. Good luck.

Great advice guys. The only other possibility is that there is some foreign substance in the mold, on the hook, or most likely on the base pin creating a gas bubble when burned by the lead. I've had problems from this in the past from pouring jigs with vinyl coated cable guards. In your case if there happened to be powder paint on a base pin that was in turn put in a larger mold the next time the plastic would burn... Gas released... Bubble formed. From your pictures however it looks like your pins are pretty clean so the comments listed above will likely fix your problem. Just a thought and something else that wasn't mentioned before.

Does anyone have a do-it SWM jig mold? It's the one that has a very elongated head and special hook. I was wondering about the general dimensions of the cavities: length, height, width.

Reaction innovations Squeaky dolphin

Thanks mark. Thats a great idea. I could at least get an idea of the surface area and angle needed to get the proper resistance. Probably try that using circuit board or lexan. There have been baits before that used this concept. The "ski-buzz" (closest mold is the wobble head jig) is one that comes to mind (can't think of maker). Reaction innovations used an elongated head (like swm jig) in the "squeaky dolphin" but it didn't have a planing angle but did ride higher due to length and a unique blade setup. I've thought about modifying whatever I end up with to include a brass bead half molded into the head on the wire to use as a "ticker" like the RI. Lots of possibilities. Just want it right the first time.