Don-Art

I have a old book on collecting fishing lures. I use it for ideas on design and paint schemes. I noticed a few other lures that used the spinner concept to different degrees. I would encourage you to go forward with your concept. I am almost certain that the Wig-L-Twin was a plastic bait. I would believe that a wooden lure could be made to out perform a plastic lure. Don

Google: Jamison Wig-L-Twin. Its a Crankbait from the late 1930's to early 1940's. It employs many of the features that you have been discussing.

Just a thought. But you could probably find a lure in your tackle box and add your spinner Assembly's to it and test out some of the ideas. This might not have as much of the fun factor in it. But it could lead to a faster path to a working design. Don

My first thought is that they might act like outriggers on a canoe.By not extending too far out from the body it may work fine,also I agree that smaller blades should not hinder the action as much.It can't hurt to give it a try. Don

I did a little reading on the reels and I am interested in hearing about its performance. I also wonder if it will require a special rod, in order to get it to balance out correctly? They sound like a excellent reel, with quite a following. Don

I have never used one. I have seen similar reels,referred to as mooching reels. Along with making lures,I collect vintage fishing reels. I have tried to limit my collection to reels made in the USA. Although I have crossed the line on occasion for a nice ABU. Don

I would also suggest that both the resin and the hardener should be thoroughly mixed prior to thinning the epoxy. Don

My gut feeling is that this may be a business that is run on the sideline of someone's regular job. Possibly even out of a residence. I have never ordered from them. Or even knew that they existed. So I can't speak first hand of their service. I have ordered various things from different suppliers in the past and from my experience, one week is a fairly average shipping time. If I get a order in less than a week, I consider that excellent. I also have learned that before I even will consider placing a order, I look at the shipping charges. If I consider them out of line, I won't purchase from them. I have also encountered the hybrid shipping procedure, and I believe that it added a extra day or two to the shipping time. I was a bit confused and upset about how it was handed off from one service to another. So I understand your frustration. Don

Now, I think that you may be on to something. LOL

Ben, I like the one handed operation of your marking guage. I like my coffee in the morning. One of my friends would actually get the shakes and would have a hard time positioning things until he had his coffee. I think that he consumed a large amount of coffee just to stay awake. He was finally diagnosed with sleep apnea and is much better. Your tool would have been the only way that he could have performed the task of marking a straight line. Don

Ben, Good to see that you got it to work.I bet that it works really good in the morning. Before you had your second cup of Coffee. Don

Another one is the Rhodes mechanical frog. A quick Google search and you can view the patent drawings.It dates back to the early 1900's Don

Most likely a rotational molded lure. The center would be hollow air space.

Are you making your own lips or buying commercially manufactured ones? If I am picturing this correctly? Your lip is actually narrower than your bait in the area of the slot?

I picked mine up at Rocker. I believe that it was $20.00 or less. Don

I have both. They each have there places. I favor the wheeled version for building Crank baits. Its smaller and follows contours better.

I think that a person has to be a little hard headed in order to be successful at scratch building Crank baits. There are also times when it is better to learn something by doing. If it helps raise your confidence level for future builds,its a positive thing. I think that it is great that everyone shares their information on this site. I know from experience that we tend to over complicate things at times,and that a similar approach is the answer. The main thing is that regardless of the approach,we enjoy what we are doing. Don

I agree, much better to be able to add a little ballast to adjust to the temperature. Not to mention you still have to figure out just where in water column the fish are at a given time.

The depth and density,can vary with the seasons. For example prior to a lake freezing over. We experience a period,when the cold water is forced to the surface and the warmer water towards the bottom. It is referred to as lake turnover. It is turned over again when the ice melts in the spring, only deference is that now the cold water goes to the bottom and the warmer water is on top. I believe that I read somewhere that fresh water is at it most dense at around 39-40 degrees F.

I often wondered if there was a temperature that could be considered a good balance that a person could target in their designs. We should also remember that once water changes to its solid state of ice, it is once again less dense and will float.

One thing that I started to use, is a contour gauge. I press it against one side to pickup the shape and then flip or rotate it, in order to check the opposing sides profile. You still need to maintain reference marks, to insure that you are taking the reading in the same spot on both sides. But it does give you added confidence in its symmetry. If I was making several of the same lures. I would consider making a base plate with a piece of lip material extending up from it at a angle consistent to that of my lip slot. I would then slip my lure on to the lip material and use height blocks to lay my gauge on, to insure that the contour was being taken from the same spot on both sides of the lure and that lip slot was square to the profile. The same could be done with a simple template if a contour gauge was not available.

I also use a band saw and cut the slot when the blank is in the square form. All of the items mentioned above are very important. If you are using a narrow blade you might encounter more blade drift especially if your blade is dull or your blade tension is off. Also make sure your guide blocks and bearing wheels are adjusted correctly. I have been using a wide re-sawing blade that has a kerf that works out well for making a straight cut and accommodating the lip thickness. Hope this helps.

I don't have an answer. But as far Crank baits go. I often wonder how many of them actually catch fish on a regular basis. I could probably consider that 25% had Quality issues from the day that they left the factory. Another 50% worked ok with some tuning. And 25% were fish catchers right out of the box. It's a lot like the shoes. If they look cute or fashionable they buy them. When they find out that they really are not comfortable they end up collecting dust in the closet. Much the same as our unproductive lures. May be the question should be. How many lures can we buy for the cost of one pair of shoes?

Yes, It a pretty darn nice perk. I have 30 years with the same company. But to be honest I get more satisfaction from using my hands. I like to try a lot of different designs and I am always tweaking things. I am quite often thinking about my next modification or design before I complete the one in hand. So for the most part it is hard to justify doing a large run of anything. I recently proto typed a multi layer Sintra crank bait that Utilized the laser to cut out each of the 5 layers profile. Well enough for now I believe that I have veered off topic far enough for now.

Bass I would have to agree with you.I believe that an epoxy with a bit more flexibility may be the ticket.I also like to use a wider saw kerf than my lip thickness. It also allows for any expansion or contraction. Knowing that both materials the lip and the lure body will expand and contract at different rates,it only makes sense. So a flexible low shrinkage product like the Rod Bond that Bob had mentioned sounds like a good fit for the application.