Woodland

I'm tempted to purchase some unpainted foil suspending jerk bait bodies. I'm assuming the powder paint I use on spinner blades won't work, as you can't heat the plastic bodies without ruining them, nor do I own an airbrush. The bodies I'm looking at appear to have holographic foil integrated into the bodies. I'm guessing that would provide significant flash and subtle color to attract fish without have to resort to painting. Due to the high cost of jerk baits I wouldn't mind setting up a few of my own, wondering if painting them little to not at all could do the trick? https://store.do-itmolds.com/foiled-jerkbait-unfinished-5-pack.html

SOLD

Happened to me just last week. Pink and orange, worked fine. Chartreuse, not so good. Not using a fluid bed, just shaking it regularly. Seller recommended sifting with a tea infuser type thingy.

Hagen's found! All good.

Score! I managed to find a lightly-used Hagen's wire former along with a nice assortment of spinner-making components for a very good price online, musky head included. I should be set for a while.

If you're into making bass popper bodies, flip-flops from the local discount store are a good source of foam. They can be punched out with a home-made cutter or an inexpensive plug cutter set from Harbor Freight ($7). A better value for thick pieces of EVA foam are yoga blocks, which can produce hundreds of bass bodies for pennies each. eBay is a good source for yoga blocks.

I joined the board some time ago and totally forgot about it. Summers I spend tying flies, winter months I've started to enjoy spinner making. Replacing those Vibrax spinners was getting expensive when I started chasing steelhead in those brushy, woody NW Indiana creeks, so I started making my own. As you can tell by the attached photos, they work. I'm getting ready to start another wave of spinner making this winter, for steelhead and walleye. I have a good fly vise with a rotary function, so I've done my best to make due with it. It does indeed work, however I'd like to make faster, tighter bends, even though the fish don't give a crap. Quality wire formers can get quite expensive, currently eyeing up a used Boggs, awaiting info on the sizing. Can't really justify (in my mind anyways) spending several hundred on a top quality former, perhaps I just need to refine my method with my fly vise...

I'm just finishing up a batch home-turned crank baits. Some are going to be airbrushed, some of the fancier flamed maple baits are left coated in clear epoxy. Most I've fitted with Lexan diving bills. I guess one option is to attach an eye-screw to the nose of the bait, another is to attach a split ring to the diving bill. I'm guessing each type of mounting will provide a different action. Suggestions?

Just got back from the Kankakee River, cuz I heard the walleye bite was on. Unfortunately for me it wasn't, but it was a great day to get outside. I moved the diving lips forward on the two cranks that were clumsy and voila, it did the trick, they dive just fine now. They do "float" nose down, so maybe some ballast in the tail end would even them out a bit and make them more of a suspending lure. Thanks everyone for your input, back to the workbench...

Thanks everyone for the input. I looked at the baits again more closely last night. The best swimming lure does indeed have the furthest forward diving bill, I doubt it's a coincidence. I'm going to reset the other two bills and drag them through a bathtub full of water.

Yes, no additional ballast except the hardware. Originally the top lure had a center hook hanger, but I decided to move the hook to the diving lip to see how it would react, it didn't really change anything. All hooks were attached with split rings, and the diving lips had split rings mounted for tying on the line. It appears the size of wood body was the determining factor. I'm going to experiment with ballast and different wood bodies this week, including ash.

Here's the actual lures I field (river) tested today: They all behaved somewhat differently. From top to bottom (largest to smallest), the top lure had a wide, clumsy wobble and wouldn't dive worth a crap. The second was a little better, still not much of a diver. The bottom lure was tightest and dove fine, just like a shallow diving Rapala. I'm convinced its the size to metal hardware ratio. Not to say the top lure was bad per se, it was more of a topwater pike lure, just not what I usually fish with. Bending the metal diving bill didn't seem to change much of anything. And no, no fish today, but that's okay, I learned some good lessons about lure action. Next, cedar and basswood lures...