bluetickhound

I always chuckle when i recall that someone back in the 1800's stated that the patent office should be closed because everything that could be invented had already BEEN invented.... There is always, ALWAYS something new and amazing on the horizon....

How does the process work? I tried a search but didn't turn anything up. Are you able to apply a photo finish to a soft plastic? If so I bet you could make some amazing swimbaits that way....

As a private pilot (or should I say former private pilot.... It costs too dang much to make lures AND fly!!) I started thinking about things like CoG, the difference between taildraggers and nosewheel aircraft, weight and balance stuff and it certainly applies to my current thinking concerning producing a repeatable hunter.... Playing around with a stick, balancing it on my palm and letting it hang between my thumb and forefinger have given me some ideas about weight placement. Like so many have said here... There's a fine line between just enough and too much.... Anybody who has ever ground looped a taildragger knows that all too well!

Tell me more about the foil.... Sounds very interesting!!

If that's so then I may as well give up now.... I cannot make two baits EXACTLY alike in shape, bill angle, ballast placement, etc... The one thing I CAN duplicate over and over is getting my thru wire perfectly centered laterally.. I can get close with the other elements but as far as being able to "crank" 'em out one exactly like the next.... Nope. That being said... On a bait to bait basis, I have been able to produce hunters that vary widely in basic design. Being honest with myself, I can only credit that to serendipity right now but as I said earlier, I believe I have hit upon something that I hadn't preciously considered, and if I'm correct, I feel that I can join the ranks of lurebuilders who can purposely produce a hunting crankbait whenever they so choose to do so. I don't want ALL my baits to hunt but to have that ability to make a hunter when needed cannot be a bad thing! I'll keep y'all posted as to the results of my tinkerings....

Will do, Mark. All of my cranks are shallow runners (down to about 4-5 feet) and are balsa thru wire jobs.... I have been using more G10 bills than lexan lately (although I don't think it matters from a hunting perspective...) but I have been looking at it from a viewpoint that "everything totally depends on everything else being just so" and I think that is a little short sighted.... I think it's true to a point but it's not the be all - end all... To paraphrase Dave (assuming I'm right on this.... Which is not a given....) When you figure it out you'll kick yourself for not figuring it out sooner...

Dave, your weighted stick explanation was a key piece of the puzzle in what I think I may be onto....

Been spending some quality time digging into the search function archives for some nuggets to ponder and boy howdy did I find some!! The grooveyard of forgotten threads is packed with info for guys like me who aren't terribly savvy about physics and hydrodynamics and such, but a little common sense and quite honestly, hardheadedness ( maybe dogged determination would be a friendlier way to say it??) will get you where you want to be... That and a little help from your TU buds! All this to say I think I may have stumbled onto a method that will yield a reliable way to build hunters... I have made a few in the past but only had the fuzziest notion of what I did to bring it about... Now I think I know. We'll see by this weekend.

I haven't even gotten a sniff yet on mine.... However, my Rodent has netted me several 5+ lb bass!!

Is it ballast placement?

Still no takers for my Buzz Plug... I'll let y'all know as soon as I connect with a fish!

This post needs to be stickied, put in the front page, PM'd to everyone on TU.... Whatever it takes. I'm not at the point yet where I have a marketable product but when I get there I plan to follow this advice to the letter. I am already incorporated from a previous business I owned a few years ago but I would probabky need to talk to my accountant/lawyer ( he's actually the same guy.... Very convenient!) about reclassifying and such but the actual incorporation is already in effect. I wish you great success in your endeavor and hope to follow in the next year or so....

And slapping a bait on the water to clear weeds is dumb. No matter what the bait is made of, whenever I see someone doing that I immediately judge them (rightly or wrongly...) as lazy....

If I have learned one thing in the (almost..) year and a half I've been doing this it's that balsa and deep diving don't go together.... Balsa shines best at depths of 4 feet or less... Like Bob says... If you want a deep diver, go with a heavier wood....

Dipping the end in plastisol sounds like the ticket for me! It would beef up the head just a bit also... Thanks for the advice!

I tried that but my mold produces a fairly thick sprue and it leaves a ragged edge when I do that... I'd like for the heads of the worms to be as nicely rounded as the tails....

Did a search and didn't get any hits... I just started pouring last night for the first time and when I cut the sprue off of my worms it is kinda ugly... How do you get the ends rounded to make it look like you know what you're doing? Would a torch of some sort (like a brazing torch that uses MAPP gas) work?

Oh Lord... I done went and DONE it now!!! Got my first worm mold in yesterday and have been up most of the night now... So far what I've learned as a day 1 noob is that you gotta be sure your plastic is completely up to temp (nit just barely to temp and then pour.... it's gotta stay there a minute or two!) before starting to pour and when you do pour (my mold is an 8 cavity top pour) do it slowly and allow air to be able to escape or you'll get hollow pockets.... Speaking if temperature... I learned that getting up to temp gradually wirks better that setting it on high and waiting.... Got way better results stepping up the heat than going full blast right off the bat....

And yes... I am already scheming on how I'm going to make one out if balsa!! I have too many other projects on the olate right now.... I just got my first worm mold in yesterday and am playing with plastisol!!

I have one. It will cast a mile and yes, it can be made to walk or even run subsurface. I think it will really shine in sutuations where a frog has been unsucessful...I haven't caught anything on it yet but it's only a matter of getting up early and getting on the daybreak topwater bite on one of my local lakes.... It is very versatile and one of my lakes grows over with hydrilla late in the summer. I can't wait to see how this buzz plug will do on that stuff!!

You'll never know til you try... I imagine if you make a setup and it doesn't work right you'll learn enough to get it right sooner rather than later.

I always wondered why my Microwave blew up (not literally but it was a sight to behold....) when the inside of almost every microwave I have ever seen is made of metal... Heck, some of 'em even have wire racks inside nowadays.... I'm not going to fool around with aluminum though.... If tin has been working for Nova then I plan to follow suit. It isn't expensive and i bet if I looked around my garage or attic I'd find some for free anyway!

You'd get a better thread purchase with the plastic, but I build all my baits (which are balsa) using thru wire constuction.... If the rear hanger pulls outta one of my cranks I'd be thrilled because it would be a fish of a lifetime!!

I was wondering if you couldn't heat the plastic in a pan on a hot plate (i have a two burner and the appropriate pans) and just fill the cup from there... I'm just really leery of nuking metal, having had a near disaster (non luremaking related...) with that years ago... If you google the subject you'll find plenty of folks that seem to do it with no ill effect but it appears that a little luck always seems to be involved... The trick seems to be not having sharp edges to touch off an arc...

B is exactly right... I just looked at my LPO catalog and there they were... Solid plastic inserts to be epoxied in place...