Hillbilly voodoo

I still pour into the spine it is just on angle. I have actually propped one of my mold to change the angle to test things. With the bait I mentioned the body shape plays a big roll in things too Don’t worry about the loss of sleep. At some point you will loose your mind and sleep won’t matter anymore

@Papas82 as much as I enjoy Vodka and cranberry with some ice on a hot day I am not Vodkaman lol I achieved this with a deep diving crankbait with a banana style body. The back end of the bait is slightly larger then the front. The mold was built so the head was poured on a downward angle. When pouring baits with resin/micro balloons the consistency is not the same throughout your lure. The low points will have a higher % of resin because it settles a little before hardening. So basically when combined a large lexan lip and the low point of the head in the mold the front 1/3 is noticeably heavy and the the bait becomes much more buoyant as you hard to the rear. The weight of the hook in the rear shifts the most buoyant section about slightly away from the back end hope this makes sense but basically the bait has a head that heavier and the body becomes more buoyant as you get to the rear. Because the back end of the bait is actually slightly thicker the the rest of the body minus a small taper at the very end it is extremely buoyant. The curve of the body helps level the bait Unfortunately because I don’t use any technical formulas or proper plans it’s harder to explain how I achieve things. For the most part I just keep a note book of recipes to repeat my work. I basically just come up with an idea think about it non stop till I get around to building it and see how it goes lol I will be converting this into a jerk bait design in the future where it would be more beneficial once I complete 2 other new designs Either way what my main point is there is a lot of different was to adapt resin pouring baits that are unconventional when you start playing around with the different properties of the material. hope some of my ramblings make sense

Looks good now go find a fish to eat them

1) I have found that shape wise North American builders use fairly similar body shapes and seems Europe does as well. These are based to be similar to forage. Now if you look at Australian lure builders you will find some more interesting body shapes that step away from the norm. I am a believer in the theory you can enhance or modify the action with different body shapes because of this I will step out of the standard North American shapes 2) there is no standard thickness my lures range from 1/4 inch to 2inch wide 3) lots of people use multiple pieces myself included 4) no standard here either but instead build according to your target species. Personally I use stainless eye screws and my main targets are lake trout and pike. I have also taken some big salmon with no issues with how I presently build 5) no magic weight 6)headed to work so no time for big write up but basically think about how the body catches water pressure or cuts through the water or uses the water to generate lift is a good starting point. Lots of lures have action without a lip and it’s to do with the body

I could have saved you the hassle of wasting 100 lures lol without getting into it too much yes it is easier to get movement out of a lighter more buoyant lure but what section of the lure is more buoyant makes a difference too. You can achieve some interesting things for example you can combined the correct body shape, make one part of the body far more buoyant, and a heavier section. Do this correct and when you slack line your lure on the retrieve instead of floating up it will shoot back on a 45 deegree angle instead

To myself custom means built to according to the specs someone gave you. this is a simple answer because I am too tiered to get all technical lol

My thoughts fall into the same category as others and personally see no real benefit for fishing or marketing unless it’s a small run sold as a gimmick

There is no magic mix in my opinion and actually work up different recipes for each model of lure I make. I vary my mix to reach different actions, sink, and rise rate. I have also combined different layers in some messing around with how it effects the action solid resin/micro balloons baits will usually be heavier then wood baits for the most part. This will effect the action if you are trying to duplicate a wooden original. To get close to wood you have to create a thick mix. I would need to break my top water recipe into ratios when I am more awake When I first started working with resin/micro balloons I was trying to duplicate my wooden baits and honestly the best thing I did was stop thinking this way. I now create a mold to get the shape I want and build up a recipe of resin/micro balloons to achieve the results I want. This has given me way better results and opened up more options Best advice I can give is start designing baits to work with the principles of resin/micro balloons and stop trying to duplicate wood. I am on day 2 of a 6 day work set and I will be more helpful on my days off. Long work days fry my brain lol

They will work as is honestly There is definitely different variation you can tie but each style will have conditions they put shine the other. One of my favorites for crappie and trout is a marabou tail with a few strand of flash, large crystal UV chenille for the body, and a hackle collar between the jig head and body That said I have also made many just like the pics you posted and sometimes they out produce the recipe I just posted

Well learned something new today about my own tooI lol I just bought it because it looked cool and I needed something more efficient. Never knew who made it. Works great though and does everything I need

A lot of builders don’t pour hot lead into their baits. You have more control using piece of lead or powdered lead and sealing the hole in the bait between safety, added time, expense of melting pot, harder to get an exact weight, limiting the way you can weight your lure and possible damage to your blank is why pouring hot lead into your lure is not the greatest option in my opinion just something to consider

I bought mine from luremaking.com and I believe they make them because the only name in graved into it is theirs. It works great in my opinion ignore my messy lure making room lol

Yes you can get a commercial tackle makers that bench mount and work for all wire bending needs. I have one and I think it cost me around $200 CAD if for just making a few for yourself and you don’t care about pretty a pair of pliers works and you can easily make bending jigs with a chunk of wood and a few nails it all depends how far you want to take it and spend check out the lure making parts suppliers online and you will see all kinds of options

You are bang on in my opinion A builder needs to go with what works for them be it a chainsaw or a file

I use a router and template to make my lexan lips. It is really handy for making them the same and symmetrical every time. But I like scary dangerous things only other power tools I use is a bandsaw, belt sander, drum sander and sometimes a dremel. A lot of my shaping is done with a rasp, and files as for paint you don’t need to be fancy but recommend adding some simple pure white to your list of colours.

Wish I knew how to post videos to give an example of what this lure does. There is lots of noise from the prop rattling and the way it throws water. Think jitter bug or crawler on steroids

There is a fine line between cost effective, time and quality. In my honest opinion in most cases you are better off to find a good product and shop around to find a good price on quantity Personally I found when making baits to sell time management and figuring out how to produce numbers trumps cheap material Just something to think about I have used both options Wayne mentioned and both are viable. I have personally switched to straight KBS

You measure that sounds technical to me I think 90% of my lures I rough scetch a shape on a chunk of wood and trace a scrap piece of lexan for the lip slot then giver. I usually don’t measure or check the angles until I am finished. I would probably make Dave’s head explode if he watched me create a new design

I have not noticed any issues with the larger pike so it could vary well be the size of fish vs the size of lure I have a request to make a smaller version just for the fact bass are showing interest in the size I have made. So a smaller version is in the works

No doubt it maybe fishermen error lol I will try to pay attention to delaying the hook set because honestly I have just been reacting and don’t know if I am striking do to feel or sight

I know that has not been the problem when I have fished it personally but thanks for the input

I have also seen some top waters use what looks like shrink wrap to hold the rear hook straight back. Do you have any experience with this? definitely plan to try the dressed hook being the easiest adjustment .I may just have to build a bunch of variants to see how it goes

The rear prop gives off a rattling sound I can hear from about 10feet but an internal rattle would be a different tone It throws water like crazy and makes a great wake. Personally my opinion is it might need to be toned down rather than ramped up. My tester out east is thinking a dressed hook to give the fish a target to help. He figures for musky it’s probably good as is but his group has had a horrible season with the conditions and have been skunked so far I might need to find a new musky fishermen to do some testing lol. He has been hammering every other species though I definitely see some real promise in the design but needs some tweaking to get it just right

It has only had a few days of testing and it seems pike 30inch plus are not having an issue. Sounds like maybe some further testing and some colour/size/retrieve variations. Thanks for the replies not a big top water guy so the advice is helpful