Tree_Fish

I'll have to disagree about the decline of the u-tail, there may be a finesse craze going on but I have caught some of my biggest fish on a U-ail. I also like the gator tails. When the fish are feeding these tails just move water and drive the fish crazy. I might throw a straight tailed worm on a dropshot or on a bluebird day but the majority of the time you will find me fishing the big tailed baits. Both styles have a time and place but I can honestly say I have never caught anything over 5 pounds on a finesse worm, while I have caught several 9+ on U-tails. I think a lot of it depends on the fishery and your geographical location. Are you trying to make a bait that catches fish or appeals to fisherman? Both is your best bet if you're trying to sell em. My advice would be to experiment and do some research for your neck of the woods. What is your lakes primary forage? What do you usually fish in your area? Is it a good producer? What do other people fish in that area? See if you cant find tournament results where people talk about what they were throwing to win. (I almost always ignore plugs by pros, they say what they have to in order to keep their contract, and a lot of local guys will lie about what they caught fish on just to try and keep you off their colors/holes. Take any secondhand info with a grain of salt!) When you go fishing strike up as many casual conversations as you can, hang out at local tackle shops and see what you can hear. I don't pay any attention to colors but when I hear talk about structure I start listening. Then I try to match the type of bait to the structure I want to fish. For me there are a lot of determining factors when I am trying to design something new but this is where I start

This might be it? http://www.lurecraft.com/catalog.cfm/materials-~and~-tools/crank-bait-components

That's the one! I tried looking at his posts and for some reason it would only show 4? Maybe I did something wrong Idk, in any case you're the man! Thanks Ed!

I seem to recall an old post where Longhorn showed how he made a lure craft Swimbait mold line through. I believe it was the 894. I searched every string of words I could think of and can't for the life of me seem to find it, anyone have it bookmarked? Or maybe saved an offline version? I kick myself everytime this happens, gotta start saving stuff

Thanks for the updates Amac, as a fellow Texan I can't get a hold of the gst either, hoping the eagle works out. Keep hoping Nathan will pop back in with some updates to

Congrats!! It only gets bette....I mean more expensive lol

You naysayers ought to be ashamed of yourselves! Here we have a young man that is not only interested in fishing but in making his own lures as well. The majority of today's generation won't even pull themselves away from the TV or video games to go outside! Regardless of whether or not he's ready to start a bait business he shouldn't be anything but encouraged! Don't let these guys discourage you, anything you want to do is possible it just takes the drive to do it. @Texasfisherman Where abouts in Texas are you from? I live in odessa, if you are anywhere near me you have an open invitation to come check out my setup and play around a little. If distance won't permit that, just let me know if there's anything you need to get started that these awesome gents haven't provided already and I'll send what I can!

Thanks for the reply and the compliment Mark! The lures are actually all tapered, I don't think quite to your measurements but the piece of angle iron I use on the bandsaw to trim the skin off the azek is slightly angled, producing a taper from shoulder to belly. Believe it or not I do read old posts hehe. I credit the success I did have on my first build to TU! When I went to do the sink test putting weight in the tails was the only way I could get them to sink the way I wanted to. The lures are so thick that I had to use more ballast than I had originally intended in the baits. I think the next bodies I build will be quite a bit thinner. The weight with hooks and all came out to slightly over 5 ounces on my fast sink and around 4.5 in the slow sink. This is way heavier than I intended! I also tried the JR Hopkins method but the body had 4 sections and the body was so big it needed more weight to sink it than I could fit in there lol. So yeah plenty of errors on my part but hey I'm having fun and I've definitely got the swimbait bug Like I said though it wasn't a total failure, I've learned a lot about swimbaits in the last couple of weeks and I'm bound and determined to get it right!

So I finally decided to take the plunge and start building and fishing swimbaits. I built 4 to start with with the idea I was going to make 2 fast sink and 2 slow sink. Well I got them to the point you see in the photo and took them for a swim test. The 2 lighter lures swam much better than the heavier lures, they have a very nice side to side action. Both lures have just a tiny bit of body roll, not enough to actually blow out but just enough to make it noticeable. The heavier lures had body roll pretty bad the first time I tested them. I backed the joint out a little bit and while this improved the action I am still not satisfied. In looking at most of the commercially available swimbaits I see that the majority of them are fairly uniform down the length of the bait and are fairly close to being jointed dead square at half the bait. (I am talking s-waver style) I? believe? that this was my first error on the shad bodies, the tail is much shorter than the body section and it also comes up at a pretty sharp angle, in no way does this promote equal force on both sections. Plus I read on a thread here that you generally use flatter sides to help with body roll and the tails on all 4 baits are fairly rounded at the end of the section, but they are pretty flat on the sides, I think this is why I got as good of action as I did. I also read not to put weight in the middle section. Well I think this is where my second error is, on a few of the weights I placed them vertically to save space when I should have put them horizontally along the bottom of the bait. I've been kind of rambling up to this point but the questions are coming I promise. Since these lures only have 2 should I space the weight out to avoid the middle? Do the tails need to be more squared off as well? Does it matter if the bait is fairly uniform down the length of the body? I like the shape of the shad bait if I could just minimize the roll but at this point it wouldn't bother me to much to make new tail sections for the shad bodies if it would help stabilize the bait. Any suggestions /constructive criticism is highly welcomed. I'm new to building and fishing these so please do correct me if I'm wrong. I will try to get some videos up on YouTube of a swim test so you guys can actually see what I'm talking about

There are a couple of tutorials on photo finishing in the Tutorial section. and +1 on GIMP, bit of a learning curve but once past it you can do a lot with it.

I recently started using pvc on my baits and have a ton of scraps leftover. I really don't want to get rid of it as I feel that there has to be a use for all those scraps. The only thing I have been able to come up with is to use it mixed with epoxy as a filler to fix boo boos, other than that I am at a loss. Most of the pieces aren't even big enough to use for a small crank. So, what do you guys do with your scraps?

I usually add black to yellow to get a nice olive green, more black for darker color or more yellow for lighter. I have also used the wasco polytranspar, they have a bass color in light medium and dark. Which I use depends on the shade of green I'm trying to achieve, I really like layering the wasco paints over each other. Try using the search feature, there is a lot of info on these forums if you are willing to look for it

I buy my PETG from ebay, .015 thickness. It's 15 bucks for a 4'x4' sheet, can make quite a few stencils from it. Get it good and hot and drop it on the bait, it will suck down pretty good depending on the style of bait you are trying to vacuum. It helps to have your stencil material framed out, I used to try and heat the plastic on top of the lure and after melting a few I found out framing your material is the way to go. If you have undercuts that are causing you problems just make a few relief cuts, that will take care of your wrinkles.

+1

The medium Pourasol is all I have been using for a few years now, it floats pretty well without salt depending on the size of your hook. I have been quite pleased with it and the few people I make lures for have never complained about it. I've caught several 9+ with it!

@ Smalljaw - I have seen you post so many times trying to help people I have no delusions about your intentions. It's people like you that make this site what it is. Regulars can look at these posts and see what's going on, so don't sweat it bro. @ Smallmouthaholic - You are obviously knowledgeable making jigs, maybe try starting off your posts with "In my experience" etc. Jumping right in by telling people they are flat out wrong or being derogatory in everything you say isn't going to get you very far. Fishing isn't the same everywhere and someone else's experiences (although they may be different) shouldn't be discounted based on what works for you. Different things work for different people, to each his own With that being said, you both have valid opinions and that's what makes this site great, input from different people and areas. Hopefully the op will take both your options into consideration and find what works for him instead of being turned off by a catfight. Lets not forget that we were all new to this addiction at one time and it's our duty as tackle makers and fishermen to help the new guys out!

Awesomesauce! Nothing compares to catching fish on lures you paint or make, big congrats to ya!

@ Smalljaw: I have only used the solid colors so far, I like them because they seem to give a thicker coat than say protec. I've been thinking about trying the multicolors in jig armor and your info is making me think twice about em, thanks for the heads up!

I like the jig armor better, it seems to give a more consistent solid coat than the protec. Just my 2 cents. Heat gun + fluid bed, same as most powder paints

Thank you sir!!

Cmon TU, I know someone has got to be using this mold without paying a lil over a dollar a hook. Cadman where you at?!

I know the diameter on the 4/0 is .05 smaller on the 5304,my question is will the eye fit w/o modification, and how bad is the flashing? What hooks besides the tk800 are you guys using?

It's all I use, fish like it just fine.

It's all I use to and the fish seem to like it. I have no issues with bubbles using a presto pot, give it a try I don't think you'll regret it.

I like water putty a lot better than pop, just a personal preference. When I first started making my own molds I tried pop. Had a lot of problems with it, tried water putty and never looked back. You can make just about any type of lure you want successfully, it's all about the venting. I was able to pour Berkeley chigger craws in water putty molds with perfect legs and claws every time. Just do a search for water putty and you'll find lots of info.