eastman03

That sounds amazing Big Epp. I might be able to take the 18" extension off my ice auger soon! lol

Let us know if you try that method and how it goes fern. I’m hopefully going to give it a try sometime too. thanks for the idea @Cami!

I believe the rounded head would be the step one that he mentioned. Tap and screw a cap onto the one end of the pipe. And make sure that the cap is "domed" or concave, to round off the head end. I imagine getting the correct thickness would require some trial and error. It looks pretty good in the pictures though!

Wow, interesting idea! I wish i could see the video. In the original tackle underground post, the materials you mention a rod thin enough not to ruin the tube. What is that for? I'm sure it would make more sense if I would see the video. You just lube up the PVC pipe, pour in some hot plastic and keep it rotating. Then cool it carefully, and remove it. Or does the other rod go inside the PVC to make like a mould? Either way, thanks for the links!

Looks pretty good! I wish I could say if it will work, very hard to tell until it is finally in it's plastic form. I think this would have some good thump to it.

That is a great question! I hope you can get answers from some of the people here! I'm curious as well. I attempted to make myself a 10" tube by making my own "rod" out of wood, and sealed it. I dipped it into a pyrex container, but like you said, that is like 4-5" max. I tried to pour the plastic over it to see if that would flow enough to give it a coat, but it was a hilarious embarrassing mess haha. It was mostly just a little side project that I was working on because I have some extra plastic. I'm curious to know if there is a easy alternative to do this!

I totally agree Hillbilly! Watching people fish for years of guiding at the lodge it doesn't take long to figure out who will catch the most fish out of a group. Even out of some of the really experienced anglers (mostly for bass) that were in my boat, some of them spent more time getting snagged, casting into weeds instead of around, or changing colors or flakes or getting a tube jig with a slightly different hue. Meanwhile, the other guy was hauling them in with the same color the whole time. Standing while fishing. Casting accuracy. Good polarized glasses. Not drinking booze. Paying attention to cadence/rhythm of a successful cast. I was the one who picked the spots, but there was only so much I could help some of the fishermen with, especially the ones that refused to take my advice lol. I don't know why some guests feel the need to do that, I'm not always right by any stretch, but I was on the water for over 100 days in a row lol. After fishing/guiding for that many years, color of lure is very low on my priority list (the Winnipeg river where I'm at isn't super clear, so it may have more of a factor in other places). Action/placement/cadence/contrasting patterns/depth are all probably things I think about before color. Nowwww that being said, as a lure maker, the lures I make for myself are like 2 colors haha. The ones I sell have much more painstaking detail, because lets be honest, it helps catch a fisherman's eye.

Tell ya what @Vodkaman I will get Bass Pro Shops to give me that job, getting footage or lures and catches for every single one in their collection. It would be a tough job, but I'm willing to do it just to help out the fellow angler. lol

I do the same as AZ. I use a west systems epoxy (mostly cured in about 15 min), so I have some working time to do a few lures at once. Polycarbonate does not like to stick to anything (not exactly sure what your lips are made of), so it is wise to at least scuff up the surface that's going to be glued. I usually go one step further and drill two holes and screw the lip in with the epoxy. Probably not necessary, but on a large lipped musky lure that often smashes into rocks, I'll give the lip all the support I can. I will have them all lined up and test fitted with the screws before applying epoxy, so it makes that stage pretty easy. Just apply the epoxy and screw them in, wipe off any epoxy that leaked out. Because it's happened where I think I've aligned the lip with epoxy perfectly without any pins, and by the time it cured, the lip had moved to the side a bit. lol Dang it. I'm no pro either by any stretch. Just letting ya know what I often do on my musky lures.

Then I might stand a chance. For every entry, you have to have 100 comments in the forum. Lol. entries are look cool already! I’ll have to come up with something.

@Vodkaman wellll only about three days in and half the entries didn't read the rules lol why is that so hard? haha

Very painfully lol. Welcome here by the way. I've made a few large poppers and have struggled to do this easily. Easiest way I found is to "hog" out the bulk of the material carefully with a drill bit (don't go too deep, also I've only made giant poppers, so this may not be necessary at all), then i have a few ball burrs for my Dremel tool that I shape the cup with. It is slow, but I've only made a few poppers, so it worked. To get the final sanding and shape, I ended up gluing some sand paper to a golf ball, which I glued a drill bit into, so I could turn the ball with my hand held drill haha. Actually worked pretty good to smooth it out (it was a giant giant popper, so a golf ball was about the right circumference). Solarbaits makes a similar tool at the 6 minute mark in the video here. Same idea to get the cup sanded. Wouldn't be too hard to make yourself a tool Lure making | The popper - YouTube

Makes sense. My tail is quite thick through the shaft. I think I can add a bit to my mould and thin that section out to let it kick. looks good!

I like where your head is at! It seems that the line tie looks a bit high on the bait? Unless this was very nose heavy, it seems like you would be getting alot of lift when reeling it in. But i could be wrong. I made a hybrid (no spinner) paddle tail last year, and I was disappointed with the action in the tail. in hindsight, i should have somehow done more testing on shape to get the action i wanted before making a mold. That being said, I'm not really sure how to test before making a mold and just going for it. The tail i made was large, but there was so much water resistance that it kinda gets bent straight back and doesn't thump at slow speeds. Your tail looks like it should work, it seems to be a fine line. When i made the plastic soft, it would thump, but also bend back and straight at higher speeds. When i made the plastic harder, i had to reel super fast to get it to thump. Honestly that was my first endeavor into soft plastics, so i'm not much help. Just thought I'd share what I went through. Keep us updated how this works for you!

Welcome here first of all! I would suggest stick with one clear coat for a while. Give it a chance. Typically, you will have die hard fans in each camp - epoxy, UV, and KBS (moisture cured urethane i believe). That isn't a bad thing, it's a great thing. That means that a lot of lure makers have had great success with their product. But I've heard bad things about each one too, they ALL have a learning curve. Don't give up on one before getting over that learning curve and then making a decision. You may see someone dipping KBS and think it's brain dead simple, only to have a 100$ jar of KBS get hard on you after the first use (storage issues from what i gather). Anyway, this isn't a rant on any particular clear coat, I don't have experience with Alumilite UV (epoxy guy myself), but i know guys that do. And they love it. So there must be a way to get the desired result through some practice. You will get tons and tons of comments from different platforms saying ditch KBS use epoxy, or ditch epoxy use UV etc... Like i said, learn how to use what you have, and then decide for your self. Check out Engineered angler on youtube, he has videos outlining how to use UV clear coat products. ( Also, from what I've heard Solarez is similar, but much more smelly and generally less liked. lol there I gave an opinion as well )

I’ve made a few mega poppers for edict fishing. I’ve had some nice fish explode on it. Stupid Muskies like to explode on the popper, but often end up hitting it away. Lol. Crazy for me to think a catfish would go for one! Those are cool fish. anyway. They were a pretty standard popper shape, 10” long. About 1.25” diameter popper mouth. I’ll have to see what info I have on them. I added enough ballast roughly in the middle to make it sit slightly nose up in the water. With t he hook hanger just under the water when sitting. it made a pretty good pop when I give it a hard quick jerk. I’ll have to get more info once I go to the shop.

You got that right for sure. Far fewer "positive reinforcement" moments for muskies compared to most other freshwater fish. I'm lucky enough to spend enough time on the Winnipeg river to come across a few patterns of open water and deep current edge muskies in July/august when most guys are ripping blades in the shallows (which obviously works good too). I've learned a lot from John Bondy there, who also fishes a big river system. One thing that probably helps al these anglers is the insane electronics that is available. I've fished with the livescope system now, and seen muskies on spots that no one in 100 years has probably fished, us included. But, you can see fish clear as day when exploring these areas. Areas with almost no discernable structure that fish use to stage, or travel from spot to spot. Now we see a lot of Muskie guys targeting fish way out from traditional areas on LOTW (the massive weed loss of recent years is also to blame for sure). I can only imagine how useful these technologies are to the pros when scouting and pre fishing a lake.

I blows my mind watching these tournaments how intelligent and knowledgeable those anglers are. They know the difference between all the grasses and weeds and movements of the fish and tiny ledges down 20 feet deep (or maybe they are just bs'ing me, but it worked). What is more amazing often is that in the same day on the same tourney, guys fishing with plastics in 1 foot of slop can slay bass at the same time as a guy fishing a 20 foot ledge with a rattle trap slaying bass. I need to take that fact and apply it more to muskies and all other fish. There is often a 'trend' or rut that you get stuck in - in july fish are only shallow (for example). When in reality, on any given day, there are active fish in several different depths and ecosystems.

Old post, but great read! My other hobbies, play volleyball (not quite as good as i used to). I've been hit by a bug, and an appreciation of vintage wood working equipment. Specifically pre-WW2 era. Just a certain quality and "weight" to these amazing old machines. I love the Beaver equipment made in Canada. Hope to have a huge collection someday. Along those lines as well, I've fallen in love with artifact hunting. I have had the opportunity to do so for years, but never cared to much. But these days, I love nothing more than walking the banks of the mighty Winnipeg river and looking for arrowheads, or any such artifact. I've found a few amazing things. As I get older, I seem to have more of a connection with the past.

Why the heck do you think we are on here building baits? lol Long cold winter. Ice fishing, whiskey, making stuff (not all those things go together). Yea, you get used to it. Makes you appreciate those sunsets out on the boat on a nice summer evening that's for sure. I don't take any fishing day for granted. By the time we get back to -10C, it feels like t-shirt weather again. Climbing hydro poles all day at -35C keeps me warm enough, pays the bills too.

Look to the bass lure isle. Most musky lures are upsized versions of these bass lures. There are still quite a few that haven't been commercially upsized and "muskiefied". I've tinkered with a few just for fun. Giant poppers. Large size ned rig? I wonder if a muskie would bite a huge wacky worm? That would be interesting lol. Upsized wake bait. Like a big Mann's one minus would be cool for spring I think.

Wow! Sounds like you are set up alright! Nice work. Jigs make it all the steps easily repeatable, sounds like you are well on your way!

ohhh so close, I've been lucky enough to guide for several years in a smallmouth paradise at Eaglenest Lodge, Manitoba. Nice one!

Oh man I see the confusion. I don't want to slander any bait maker, that wasn't the point at all either. The two pictures were from two different baits. The one with the open eye is from the HL. I've had more than one problem with more than a few baits.

Yea, it crossed my mind as well. And I wouldn't totally rule that out. But the bad areas were the opposite of the tape. Like I tapped the gold glitter area, and the green area and painted black around the tape. So the residue would have been on the spots where the epoxy was good. And I didn't use tape at all on the all black back one in the front of the pic.