aulrich

Now I was going to try the kitchen foil method on my next batch of lipless I am doing. The appeal being I could embed the foil in the second water proofing layer of epoxy. I have done foil tape and it's easy I am hoping to get finer texturing with the kitchen foil.

Is there any bonding issues with epoxy

I played with putting expoie on a lure and basically "breading" it in medium large holographic glitter, it was a a pain, but flashy. it did get me thinking about the heat transfer film though.

So I got myself a profile gauge and really the body shape is not that complicated. I will do a lexan lip vs an aluminum one, though one bit of construction has me wondering. As clos as I can tell the part of the lip that is in the bait must have a slot cut in it to accommodate the through wire and the wire runs through the middle of the lip. Since I will only make a couple of these baits I will do the heat gun and bend by eye method. Currently I am thinking of this way to build the lip. 1. cut out general shape 3/16 or 1/4 stock which ever I have on hand 2. drill 3/16 hole just under but touching the first fold line. 3. Cut an 1/8 slot down the centerline to the hole. 4. Using a dremel tool grind a dish into the middle segment. Sand and polish tool marks 5. make the bends 6. Grind a relief on the trailing edge of lower bed sand and polish tool marks

The first method I will try is metal probably aluminum , there are plenty of examples of similar shapes in metal pikies come to mind. Next would be to heat Lexan and bend it over a form. Last would be to rip one out of an existing bait and make a mold.

Another option I considered is to make a silicon mold and cast copies , but there are complications down that road too.

The closest I have found is here but the bill mounting seems a bit odd and I would feel better with a through wire myself but it's a starting point. http://wobblerbaujw.jimdo.com/schablonen/wobbler/#Wobbler I know some guys just take pictures to define top and side profiles. but another option to reverse engineer is to use a profile gauge. you can use it to copy top and site profiles along with a couple of cross sections. http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32522&cat=1,42936,42958 I have not made a bait like this yet but it's on the list. At first I was going to do a saw cut through wire I would cut the blank out of a balsa 2x4 that I found. But recently I have been playing with a lipless bait that is a laminated construction and I am thinking type of construction could by one improvement on the bait an easy to implement rattle.

Don't forget to take notes of what you do. Just this weekend I was surprised by a set of "duds". who knew a "floater/diver" lipless shad bait would work so well for shallow early season pike. Now I have to remember where I had bought the split shot I had used for ballast.

Another though struck me, what about ballast in the bill.

Two things I wonder about are , is the difference between the lip size and the body size too big, those shoulders look like they would be very stable moving through the water, and the lips seem very shallow.

I suspected that properly scaled pikie or darter would work for pike, it's nice to have it confirmed, I actually expect that I will add a lathe to my work shop at some point.

The saltwater lure builders seem to use them a lot, google stripers online.

+1 for scupty , for 2 reasons a more since it's hard it will handle nicer while making a 2 part mold no last minute fingerprints or dents getting molded in. And you can clear coat it with high gloss that will transfer nicely to the mold. And if your clay has sulfur in it, the silicone will not cure correctly and that stuff is too expensive to waste

Thanks, I think I get what you mean, 18 days until the season opens. all the winter procrastination is catching up with me

As a side question, would there be any reason this lure shape would not work as a glider/stick bait. given proper ballast. About the only other difference would be the tow point I would think it would have to move to the front or above the nose.

So is there an actual difference between a minnow bait and a jerk bait or is it really just how you are presenting the lure.

Lipless like a flatfish or a rattling rap

I started with a transparent color kit and that got me started though I added transparent black and pearl white quickly I did mix an olive green variant for my pike/perch/walleye reproductions so add on little bottles for common mixes I use lots of pearl white, silver and gold And let’s not forget the various fluorescents

It's pretty straight forward to paint a fishable bait especially if you are painting premade blanks(carving your own baits adds some complexity to the learning curve). The basic stuff does not take a lot artistry, though the sky is the limit and if you are prepared to take the time who knows. In general people are way more creative than they think they are. The University of YouTube is your friend there are a number of good tutorials out there.

You know I would like to use the "it's a different language" excuse for missing that, thanks for pointing it out.

So I am using this Grandma lure pattern http://wobblerbaujw.jimdo.com/schablonen/wobbler/ and it seems I need to make a couple of assumptions. 1 the lure width = the corresponding lip width 2 the lure has a straight top view so dead flat sides Thanks

Actually you could be onto something there, it's probably a bad habit I picked up painting pre-mades, I tended to put extra around tow points and hook hangers to ensure a seal. I also tend to put a fully loaded brush on the eye and brush it out from there.

So the winter of learning how to build baits is progressing, but I think I am doing something wrong with the installation of my bills. At what point of the build is normal to install the diving lip. At this point I have don a number of slotted through wire baits and I have been installing the diving lip at the same time as the through wire and ballast. this means the bill is in place for 4 applications of epoxy. so after I have everything built it goes like this thinned e-tex sanded regular e-tex sanded paint job 2 e-tex finish coats I am masking the bill but till now I don't remove between applications of epoxy. Now I am thinking I should leave the diving lip off till at least after the paint job , maybe after the first post paint clear coat. recommendations?

Let the reaction start, mix it up and leave it be for a min or 2 that is what I mean by cooked

I was able to find denatured alcohol (supposedly not available in Canada) at my plastic supply shop and it waters down etex very nice I have been using the watered down version as the first sealing coat on my lures. it does not take much (like drops) and do make sure the resin is well mixed and has cooked for a while or the cure time goes through the roof. But that could lighten up the coverage for you