Tree_Fish

So I have been playing with swimbaits and I have noticed if you look at soft swimbaits that have the hook molded in that the line tie is almost always on the top of the lure body. I always assumed this is so it would have a horizontal presentation throughout your retrieve? So my question is why does every hard swimbait I have seen has the line tie in the front of the bait? Is it because you just need more surface area from the body? Or because it offsets the center of gravity and retrieve axis? I would think it would tighten up the wobble like a rattle trap. Has anyone tried a hard Swimbait with a line tie up top and if so what were your results?

Lmao you got that right!

Yes Mark there is a little play side to side, as well as up and down. I wouldn't say much, maybe a 1/16th in each direction from the center. It would be pretty easy to make one from pvc. When I first saw em I thought doh why didn't I think of that

The line tie is one piece, looks like it's been punched. There is a slot in the lip larger than the line tie. The lip does not move. On the pic of the side of the bait you can see the pin that holds it in place. I tried to get a better pic for you guys but it's hard to get a picture of the inside of the little slot.

Here ya go. Pretty nifty little idea, can't believe it hasn't been done before it's so simple really. It's centered on a pin horizontally through the bait.

Welcome to the best tackle making forum ever!

The action on that looks pretty darn good to me! If you're catching fish on it that ought to tell you something! Even an S-waver will roll with a faster retrieve, I think you've done an awesome job here.

What kind of mold are you using?

I have been working hard on a couple of swimbaits as well, there's some good advice above and speaking from recent experience there are a number of variables that can cause your bait to roll. I won't hit on the issues already covered but I will add that how you place your ballast in the bait can also influence roll to happen. On a single jointed bait especially, if you look at the weight placement in the S-waver the weight is mostly in the front laid along the edge of the belly. There is a small amount of weight just behind the hook hanger. As Mark said you want to keep the majority of your weight in the head. I take a hammer and beat my lead to a long rectangular shape and place it along the edge of the belly. This helped reduce the amount of roll I was getting. One other thing, it looks as though the back end of your bait is a tad shorter than the front half, in my experience its better to get your joint location as close to halfway as you can. I have been using a 35 degree cut for the front half and a 25 degree cut for the back half of the joint and it seems to be working pretty well for me, I get a nice wide S action. I assume you are going for the S-waver style of action, if you aren't please disregard my advice. That's a very nice looking bait !

The lures held up great! The one I fished the most got thrown into rocks quite a few times and I cranked em through rocks and timber like a madman lol. No chips and scuffed very little if at all. I'm pretty impressed with this topcoat and for 17 bucks with the hobby lobby coupon it just cant be beat IMO. The tourney on the other hand didn't go so well. Big tropical weather system rolling up the coast, half the field zeroed! Very low weights from everyone, I don't feel to bad at least I weighed fish! The guy that owned the place we stayed (has a bait shop there to) zeroed both days, if the locals can't get on em you know there's something wrong! @ Matt M What temperature did you notice difficulty at? It doesn't get to cold here in Texas but cooler weather is just around the corner.

May I ask what changes you do plan to make?

That's awesome to hear Curt, these are the two things I was worried most about! And again I sincerely apologize if I offended you in any way, that was not my intention at all!

As I said above there was no offense intended. The last 3 times I have ordered from LPO I spoke with the representative on the phone about the script errors and was told they were aware of the problem and working to fix it. I don't just get them from one computer, its from every piece of equipment I use be it phone or a computer, I have tried several. In no way am I attempting to throw anyone under the bus. I genuinely hope you will do what you say you will, I work in IT for a living so I know the nature of the beast and backing up is a daily occurrence for me. There is a lot of valuable info here and I have seen some of it go bye bye before. I apologize if my statement offended you but I do stand by it. I'd be lying if I said I was receptive to this change, I like TU the way it is. I hope more than anything that you prove me wrong but in the meantime I remain skeptical.

Sorry to see you go Jerry, I hope LPO takes better care of this website than their own. Everytime I visit its endless long running script errors and I have to call just to order anything. It'd be a shame to see TU reduced to that or worse, I love this site. Start backing up everything fellas I have a feeling this transition is gonna be rough. No offense meant to you Curt, I'm glad that you love fishing and I hope everything works out

I pour my jigs outside on a table under a covered patio. I keep two box fans , 1 on each side of the pot, sucking air away from the pot and 2 ceiling fans about 5 foot out to each side going as well. I don't touch anything but my materials while pouring, immediately after I'm done I clean up any mess I made on the table, go wash my hands, strip down and throw the clothes in the washer and hop in the shower. I wont say this is the safest method but I try and take every precaution that I can. I only pour for myself and a couple of friends so I don't have to worry as much as you guys that are doing quantities. Even though I only deal in small quantities I still plan on getting a respirator in the near future. Regardless of what anyone on the internet says everyone's bodies react differently, there really is no telling what is acceptable for your body until you reach the point that you have gotten sick and then you know have you have had to much exposure. IMO there aren't any measures you could take that would would be going to far or look foolish, and as smallmouthaholic said above you just cant be to safe. I would rather know that I am protected at all times than just thinking I am and end up poisoned. There are parties on both sides arguing the point but what it boils down to for me is I only have one body, I want to make sure I am still able to do the things I enjoy as I get older and taking care of my body is the best way to do it

Thanks Ben! Headed out in the morning, I'll report back next week how the lures held up and how the tourney goes.

Check out the tacklemaking section over at bbcboards, they have a couple of good threads with patterns in them

Well I tried another coat, this time using the mixing cups instead of the syringes I used before. Not a single flaw out of 5 lures. I definitely like this top coat, the ease of use dictates I will be using it from now on! I'm working on trying to fix the ones with flaws from the first batch, and so far they are looking good but they are pretty much on the back burner til next week when I get back from this tourney. Big thanks to you guys for your help! I believe the cups you're referring to are called ramekins, I never thought of using these but will definitely be on the lookout for some, the little graduations on the sides of the regular ones drive me crazy lol. I mix vigorously and it tends to pop out a bit when I hit the graduations

Thanks Ben you're a lifesaver! I've got my rituals for etex and Devcon I'm just new to the ACC. It's thin enough I probably could have just used mixing cups instead of the syringes but being my first go round I wanted to make sure I had a good mix. I'm going to try the touch ups tonight and see if I can't get a couple more painted and coated with the ACC using the revised method, if I can get it to work it's definitely what I'll be using from now on... Or at least til the next new topcoat comes along I'm hoping we'll have some good news on the concrete sealer here pretty soon!

After thinking about it a little more I believe my contamination came from the syringes I used to measure the ACC for mixing. They were originally used to give my dog medicine, I cleaned them out with DA but I'm thinking I should have used acetone instead or went to the store and bought some epoxy syringes. I'll try sanding and recoating the "bubble" lure tonight, what about the others? Will another coat fill the small holes where the topcoat pulled away from the paint? Or should I just fish em til they are hosed and redo them? I tried searching for ways to fix it but the only things I could find were how to avoid it. Thanks for the help guys, this is what makes TU great

Ah I bet that's it Ben, this stuff goes on really thin, I tried to brush as much excess off as I could but it's possible I left a bit to much on that one. I use the Iwata and Paasche filters, they are both inline and connected as close to the airbrush as possible. Would you recommend the HF filters over the ones I am using? I bleed them off before every coat and have never seen water or oil come out of either one. On 4 of the lures there is a small patch of foil on each side of the lure, so these 4 had a devcon coat over the foil and I had to clean the eyes out with a dremel, that was the main reason for the airgun and I figured might as well blow the others off to. So am I wasting my time trying the second coat? Or should I just strip em down and start over?

I do have water traps on both my compressors. It has to be some kind of contamination I just for the life of me just cant figure out what from, I even cleaned my mixing cup with DA and let it dry before mixing the ACC. The thing that really stumps me is the one bait that acts as though it laid on its side all night : /

So after reading a post about ACC I decide to give it a try. Initially I was pretty impressed with it, its easy to mix and goes on very thin. I used syringes to measure equal parts and mixed thoroughly. I wore powder free latex gloves during the paint job and heat set every layer of paint. I took all the normal precautions, even blew them off with an airgun before the topcoat. The lures stayed on the turner over night, a good 8 hours. When I woke up this morning I gave em a look, every one of them had at least one very small spot where the ACC pulled away from the paint, leaving a small circular area with no coverage. A few of them had multiple spots like this. I also learned that if ACC gets under your eyes they will "float" out of the socket, so from now on I will be gluing the eyes in and letting them cure before topcoating. One of the baits had a bad "bubble" on the side, it almost looks like it sat in one position and the topcoat went to one side, though there is no way this could have happened as all the other lures had an even bubble free finish aside from the spots missing coverage. The coat is super clear and bubble free, I'm pretty impressed with it and if I can get it to work without the problems I think I have found my new topcoat. Any of you guys had these problems with ACC? Any recommendations? I'm going to give them a second coat tonight and see if it will cover these spots, I've got a tourney this weekend and sure would like to have these cranks ready, I tried something a little different on a couple of em and have labeled these my secret weapons lol