Big Epp

I really appreciate all the information on this thread! I've been having the same problem Mark mentioned, and it's been really frustrating, so this is really helpful!

Dude, that does look sick! I could see that profile being a great muskie bait or big bass swimbait! I'm going to try my hand with resin soon. How are you doing on finding the balance with micro baloons and resin? I saw the engineered angler uses 10% micro baloons.

Nice bunch of lures! I've used an MCU with very good success as well. By the look of it, you are after striper?

That's a clever idea! I'm not sure of an answer for you, but at the outset it seems doable. I wonder if they have a customer service department that could provide a solid answer.

1) Don't be afraid to try new things. 2) Slow down and work on a quality finish. 3) Don't be in a hurry to sell, build and improve quality first! 4) Test lures before painting them. Merry Christmas and thanks to everyone for all the insight you have shared!!!!!

Your bait looks good! Glad to hear the lake test was more promising. I've been wondering lately a lot about the differences between one and two piece glides in terms of action and effectiveness, so this thread has been fun! I'm pretty sure this is the picture I used for the profile. It's an arowana, which, while not local to Illinois, look awesome! I made the first one as a wake'n'crank earlier this year.

The lead in this bait is all in a single hole just behind the belly hook hanger.

I just recently made a 6-in glide bait and instead of distributing the weight across the length of the bait I used a single lead hole at the point of balance on the lure. I've also made several much smaller glide baits and used two lead holes equidistant from the balance point. I found that both of those approaches produced a very nice glide, but none of those had plastic tails. Are you talking more about a hard plastic thin like on a hellhound or some of the other musky glides? As for getting it subsurface, what kind of wood are you using? A lot of the musky glide baits are made with a more dense wood like maple. The one that I just made I actually made of oak. With the one lead hole for balance and weight it slow sinks very nicely. I would imagine something like a hard Pine might also work, but for a Glide bait I probably wouldn't use a more buoyant wood like cedar, redwood, basswood, etc...

I used airbrush paint on some sunglasses and didn't seal it with anything. It wore off very quickly(granted, I gave them to my two year old...)!

Funny you should mention glide baits... I just weighted a 6" arowana glide bait and swam it today. This one is made of oak and has a single lead hole at the point of balance. The hole does (I think) go up past the centerline. It has a good side to side glide and a very nice shimmy as it falls. Could flat sides have anything to do with the shimmy? And yes, I believe the centerline goes nose to tail down the middle of the side. @mark poulson i have never even seen a 7lb largemouth, so nice work!

Yes, and yes! It is a nice way to make nice looking, unique spinner bodies. I do something similar to @Kasilofchrisn. After dipping them I take them off the wire I use to dip them and cure them in a row on a different wire, spaced to avoid the wire racks in my oven.

thanks for all the feedback! I ended up using some ¾" aluminum angle and a silicon baking mat to make a jig baking rack. It was a really simple process, and im very happy with the results so far!

Good observation! I hadn't noticed that.

Those look really cool! It's a bit of a stretch, but you could make something like this with the Motts applesauce pouch lids. https://www.amazon.com/GoGo-squeeZ-Fruit-Apple-Pouches/dp/B001VJ70UC/ref=asc_df_B001VJ70UC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312198206296&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14235360717593858131&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021688&hvtargid=pla-570843406953&psc=1

Yes! That would be really cool.

Yup, that was the first thing I noticed after the fact...

The challenge I've found with single hooks is the size of the eye. Many of the smaller hooks I've tried have eyes so small they won't take a split ring. If you attach the hook directly to the spinner you probably have a ton of options.

I use the poison tail mold and really like it. I made several to use as swim jigs with no modifications and they worked great.

I've only done this once, but I have some gold powder paint that I mixed into epoxy. I had some in a cup for coating some jig heads, and when I poured the cup back into the main container there was some left in it. I added epoxy and coated a couple lures. It looks good so far!