barrybait

Showed it to a friend this morning. He thinks he has a new in box one at home. Should find out tomorrow and will let you know. It's not Lucky Craft and there are no markings on it to help me identify it. My friend thinks it's a Japanese made Rick Clunn bait. I was thinking Striker or WaterStriker type baits but that's not it. Someone will recognize it. Barry

Can someone help me identify this 3" lipless crankbait? I can find pictures of it on the internet but no one named it. My friend wants it but can't find it and if he can't find it I am making him something as close as possible to use in the meantime. Features are the angled molded gill plate, red eye, rear hook hangar 1/4" forward of the tip of tail, heavy rattle sound at lower than normal pitch, and round indent on top immediately behind the tip of nose. I'm sure somebody will recognize it. Do they still make it? Is it still available? Thanks in advance, Barry

I recall airbrushing over a bunch of bristles for that effect. Spread out some paint brush bristles and secure with tape and paint across the tips, keep layering. Coarser patterns with whisk broom bristles.

I think you can duplicate that pattern with Createx Transparent paints without too much trouble. I would start by painting the bait white with Createx Opaque or Transparent. Then paint the entire bait with transparent yellow. Now you are going to start warming up the colors progressively with (all transparents) orange, then red. Start with the orange. Maybe even thin it out with transparent base to make this easier. Now keep your gun back and start the orange very lightly and evenly over the yellow on the belly until you get the shade you want. Apply a little more on the sides working towards the back (top) of the bait. Keep your "demon" bait handy for comparison. Next, use red (thinned) and just keep making the bait more red as you get to the back. Then it looks as though there is some purple on the back so shoot some purple up the back to match your sample. If the red and purple on the back are not dark enough, you may have to add some black either with your airbrush or mix a slight amount into your paint cup. That should get your bait painted. Now you will have to add the black. You can use a black sharpie marker, or hand paint the stripes, or cut some stencils and use your airbrush. Of course you can practice with a piece of wood dowel. Good luck and have fun, Barry

It's easier to back flush the regular cone type tip but I started out with a Badger 150 that had a vee cut to the tip cover and I just used a hard sponge (actually a soft sanding block in the bucket of water so I could press the cone into it under water and backflush the brush. I can't tell a difference between the two tip shapes in performance.

Congrats! Looks to me like it will catch'em. Good looking bait. I had forgotten about a couple JRHopkins style baits I made with Azek. I had a Wake Jr. type lexan tail pinned between the two lobes or ears extending at the tail section. When I was testing the bait in a friends pool. I clipped the far edge of the pool tile and the pressure on the lexan tail broke off one of the ears. I repaired the bait by epoxying the tail ear back in place. Then I drilled two holes lengthwise thru each tail ear, one hole high and one low. Then I epoxied round toothpicks into the holes to make them a little more durable. ( I hope)

Hey Mark, I've been out a couple days and didn't see this thread before I commented on your posted pic of the lure but my comment should be here instead. Do you or have you had any problem with using Azek on a bait that narrow. My concern is that Azek does not have any grain like wood does and the grain gives directional strength. Of course with wood you must orient the wood grain lengthwise or the lure would break easily. So far all my Azek baits have been larger and this is only a concern for longer narrower profiles.

Mark, The Solarez fogs more when you take it outside because it is over-reacting. Too much UV. I am having very good cures with Solarez (near gloss) but I only take them outside and roll them around so the sunlight hits all areas and back inside in 5 seconds! Indoors for 1/2 to 1 minute, outside for 5 seconds. Doing that several times and you can see it starting to haze over. Do it a few more times for gradually longer times until you leave it outside. Jaw, About the yellowing with D2T. I haven't seen it so much and I'm sure we all get some inconsistencies in the 50/50. Only thing I wanted to add is that I talked to customer support a year or two ago about the product and the guy cautioned me to make sure to get it mixed very well. He said that causes some problems because it is clear people think it is mixed well but it is not. The 2 part epoxies that have more color variance between the two parts are easier to see when they are mixed properly.

Nice work. Thankyou for your service.

I feel your pain Ichthus. I have been thinking on this also so that I can make my own "Mother" or "suicide glide". I think the magic combination is about the ratio of front to back and in any event the front must be longer than most our other swimbaits. Also I think it is important to have close fitting joint between the two sections limiting the swing to 30 degrees or less. Good luck with it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all here and their families. We have a lot to be thankful for with our ability to experiment with baits and fishing and to be able to share our results with everyone else on here that have similar interest all over the world. That's fantastic and only possible in recent history. Enjoy!

I had real good results by taking a short straight piece of tubing that the screw eye doesn't quite fit into the end. Put the end of the tubing in a vise and squeeze it until it until the screw eye fits nicely. Then put it in the vise again so that the oval part is clear of the jaws and squeeze it again at a 90 degree angle to the first squeeze. Done. The screw eye fits nicely in the end and the second squeeze stops it from going in any further.

I have been making a few of these silent spook type baits lately. Turning them out of basswood was pretty easy. When I made my first one out of balsa it was a struggle. I probably had 4 repairs before I had a finished bait. They will all walk but they walk better and easier with more weight in the back. With more weight in the back, you can walk them tight and quick or you can walk them slower and wider to find out what they want. Also, with the balsa bait, you should check out these guru's advise about sealing and top coating. I got all fowled up and asked for advise not long ago and it was a big help. I would recommend the super glue/solarez/paint/solarez method. The balsa needs some strength in the protective shell particularly with the lighter density balsa's. Good luck and have fun. Don't give up, it's worth the trouble. There are times when they don't want the knocker in the bait and these silent baits are just what you need.

I am having good luck with Do-it molds lipless. It is white and has very loud rattles but is not as stable as Rat-L- traps but it catches em. Go too fast thou and it rolls on its side. Bustin bass baits #37 I love but haven'y caught em as well on them. It is a great blank, very good quality. stable but quiter thank rat-l-traps I am still finding that I like rat-l-trap originals the best and you might find the same with red-eye shad so I'm saying that BobP is pretty accurate. Use what works. You can't always get a good knock off.

When it's cold I wear some underarmour camo gloves. They're spendy, 35 bucks I think. Pretty thin but get me by keeping hands warm. Found that I can cast and feather a spool well with them too. A cheaper version are the white thinsulite glove pairs usually sold in a bundle of 10 pairs works out to be about 23 bucks a pair. Or... you could take me fishing and I will thumb both of our fish. Have fun!

Very nice. Thanks for sharing with us. Well done and your English is very good.