Hillbilly voodoo

Yup too much thinking not enough sawdust

I still build stuff and most originals are wood. I also build some personal wooden one off’s Between re thinking my direction with lure making and hunting season I slowed down a bit. I have been more of a lurker the last while

My first were around the same and no Internet, books, or mentors just plan old stubborn winging it carving along with rattle can paint jobs they were ugly as sin but some of them caught fish

My painting skills are ok but it is not my strong point so I don’t offer a lot of advice in this area The only advice I can really offer is check out YouTube and practice when it comes to painting. Personally I have found the best thing for me has been play with the air bush and try things out till it works.

I make one off wooden lures for myself and all my resin lures are molds of a wooden master i would say a large portion of those making their own hard baits carve them out of wood

Yes this design has caught pike, musky, and large mouth. Personally I have only caught pike but that is the target species in my area I have made about 40 of them that have found there way to a few provinces in Canada

Not much of a computer guy but if you search surface paddler on the forum it should show

take a look at the surface paddles made for Murray cod in Australia. They have a variety of interesting designs. There is a thread on the forum about the one I made. The design I made has caught pike, musky, and bass. I did add larger hooks and a dressed hook to my newer ones. if you have questions about it just ask. I know there is a few Australian’s hiding here too that could likely be helpful

Yup I am a newbie too Oh well just means people will expect less of me

Paint colors is preference based in my opinion my self I use a lot of pearls, opaque white and black for base coats and fluorescents the most. But I use lots of others and mix my own too pick the colors you personally fish with for starters

I have a good idea what you are thinking and if it’s what I am thinking you would need a relatively thick lip compared to lexan/metal I bet most of my lipped pike lures would be comparable to what you use for Murray cod. I actually built a surface paddle based off the ones you Aussies use and have had decent results for pike here in Canada Check out the believer made by drifter tackle company or the platypus made by westin lures. These will give you an idea on an alternative option to bibs that could easily be done with resin. Maybe a modified version of what you are thinking could be possible by adapting the principles of these lures

I may get bored and test it for you guys since I have a mold or two kicking around I could likely test it on I am just trying to remember if I have a mold that is not 7 inch plus crankbait so it won’t cost so much in materials to test

If you are thinking as a substitute for lexan or metal and trying to keep it thin I can see there being durability issues. If you poured the bib out of pure resin and the poured your mix for the body it would be a little better You can definitely make resin wrigglers/plugs/lipless crankbaits though. It may just be a good excuse to try something new personally I built nothing but lipless baits for years and I am considering going back in that direction just because I enjoy building lipless baits more

Are you thinking of making the bib out of resin or just casting an aluminum bib into the resin body? If casting an aluminum lip into a resin body it yes it is possible. I have done this with lexan just drill holes in the lip so the resin goes through the lip making a resin lip would be possible but depending on the micro balloon/resin mix it might be delicate to hitting the bottom. I have successfully made lures similar to flatfish and believers out of resin hope that helps

They are deadly for Lakers and it’s erratic action at low speeds is why they are a popular laker lure. Personally I find a static action is the worst thing for Lakers do to their following habits. This was fishing in Northern BC have not tried them for walleye I have caught a ton of fish on wooden plugs using a number of different style of faces and angles. My recommendation is build some and try them out you can achieve a variety of different actions

You can still create some great wooden salmon/trout plugs but I could not get the same fast erratic action as a J plug. In my opinion it’s the weight difference that is the biggest factor. I used western red cedar, spruce, pine, and a few other random woods I don’t remember. I also tried cutting them in half and creating a hollow chamber In all honesty I didn’t push too hard to create and exact duplicate because the plugs I was making caught fish. I drifted into making my own plugs biased on the principles of a large variety of salmon plugs instead. it been a long time since I have built this style of lure and they were the first style of hard baits I built

Very familiar with J plugs and have made many wooden plugs but could not duplicate the action of a plastic J plug with wood. Made many good plugs for salmon/trout but they were different sorry I don’t know where to get plastic J plug blanks but I can tell you wood is not a good substitute I don’t buy blanks so have not looked for them either

I have the same unit that Cadman provided a link to mounted to the table in my lure room. It is fast, simple, and easy to use

Using a swivel is the only answer I know

O.051 is what I use most for pike, Lakers, and salmon

Well I tipped one with a 1/4oz jig head with a twin tail grub. Two casts and I caught a small pike. He beat up the wire pretty good. Unfortunately I lost it to the rocks shortly after It does work and will try one of the others in an are with more walleye and less pike or maybe a perch lake presently how it is constructed I see it as more of a panfish lure and see potential for crappie. How I chose to use it I would say it fishes similar to a beetle spin. Unfortunately my area is not a panfish area here is proof little pike will eat it though

Well your package has arrived I have a plan for them already but will up grade the hook/jig size I hope you don’t mind. I will be testing them on walleye with both soft plastics and minnows as a trailer as different options I see this as the most promising application for my location/fishing style.

In my opinion you are overthinking it I can understand if you want to reference other lures for ideas but for the most part you just need to keep things symmetrical. After that float test and balance your lures. If you start researching past and present lure shapes you will find just about and shape you can think of has been used There is nothing wrong with building a little firewood as you learn.