Swimbait I Am Working On

[Bugpac]

I just did the preliminary swim test today, I have to work with it a bit more... Its a bit heavier than i am looking for as well, weighs 2.2 oz right now, gonna try to get it to around 1.5.. It is 6" long.. The eyes were just for fun, they are not in it, It will get 3d eyes later..

Edited March 5, 2010 by Bugpac

[Geppa®]

I can't understand if it is a painted wooden swimbait or if it is made from steel, but I can see that is very nice.

Good work, I'm looking forward to see it finished and to know how it swims.

[Bugpac]

It is aluminum.

[RiverMan]

Cool..............probably only need one of them! lol

[Bugpac]

I designed it to be indestructible..

[diemai]

@ Bugpac

I wonder , whether this thing swims upright and thus "snakes" as it is supposed to do ?

It probably would require added keel weights , but then it would sink like a brick .

Might be better to fix some ultra-buoyant material on its upper back portion ,...... I have tried such before with swimbaits of metal sheets and balsa wood as floatation devices , but they did not swim well at all and still sank too fast , .........only my very first prototype made of 0,5 mm stainless sheet and wine bottle corks pushed over the upper rim of the single segments swam well .

Put these designs aside for long , did not carry out further trials on them , but I would surely be interested in hearing about your results !

good luck , diemai

Edited March 5, 2010 by diemai

[Bugpac]

@ Bugpac

I wonder , whether this thing swims upright and thus "snakes" as it is supposed to do ?

It probably would require added keel weights , but then it would sink like a brick .

Might be better to fix some ultra-buoyant material on its upper back portion ,...... I have tried such before with swimbaits of metal sheets and balsa wood as floatation devices , but they did not swim well at all and still sank too fast , .........only my very first prototype made of 0,5 mm stainless sheet and wine bottle corks pushed over the upper rim of the single segments swam well .

Put these designs aside for long , did not carry out further trials on them , but I would surely be interested in hearing about your results !

good luck , diemai

It has a tight wobble, It does lay over tho, I was hoping that the lightening holes up top would ballast it, but they didnt, I presume i need a 1/2 oz of lead in the head at the bottom.. I'm gonna play more with it this week... It does sink fast, at a moderate retrieve speed it stays about 5" under the surface... You cant stop reeling it will be on the bottom for sure.. Biggest reason i decided on alum was for durability. and the use of the waterjet machine to cut it out, The hinges are probbaly within a .002 tolerance of being centered etc... It could be reproduced with very tight tolerances.. I have a few changes to make, If it doesnt work no sweat. I can at least say i tried

[diemai]

@ Bugpac

I like the basic design , there truly is something about it !

If you have access to that waterjet cutter , it would come in a breeze to make these "lightening" holes bigger , I'd say at least half of the side plane of each segment ,................. place them as far upward toward s the back as possible .

Also due to the high accuracy of your hinge tolerances it should be possible to make such holes , ....the aluminium body would rather act like a kinda "frame" for the floatation device and the hinges

You'd need to fill these holes with a highly buoyant material , I'd suggest PVC decking in this case , more durable than balsa or cork , easier to work with and also waterproof .

So this way you'd achieve a kinda "compound" swimbait , ...........I am afraid , that without any floatation device to keep the bait upright you can't get anywhere ,........... been there , done that !

And in theory a swimbait works best at a neutral buoancy state , as the first section generates vortices in the water , that flow down its flanks towards the tail , thus get to move the trailing sections , .........the heavier these sections are , the more difficult for those vortices to get them to "snake" .

good luck , diemai

[hazmail]

Great design Bugpac, love the shape - like Diemai and others are saying , you won't get anywhere without some top buoyancy to right it. Instead of metal, have you thought of machining it out of something lighter like Nylon, Kevlar or Polycarbonate or maybe even casting it in resin with glass beads for buoyancy.

Good luck with it, a great learning project.Pete

[Bugpac]

Great design Bugpac, love the shape - like Diemai and others are saying , you won't get anywhere without some top buoyancy to right it. Instead of metal, have you thought of machining it out of something lighter like Nylon, Kevlar or Polycarbonate or maybe even casting it in resin with glass beads for buoyancy.

Good luck with it, a great learning project.Pete

Ya, I have thought of numerous materials, this bait you see is my first shot at it.. I have thought about putting a buoyant material in the top. I fish a few other swimbaits, and we always burn them on the surface, thats what the design was intended for.. I dont want to be like everyone else, Mike Bucca and the "Bull Shad" is a good friend of mine, I dont want to be the copycat, If i am gonna do it, i am gonna do it outside the box and make it work... The shape of the bait is indeed very very similar to the Bullshad, That had to be similar because thats what works.. I am also working on a few crank baits as well.. Thanks for the input, and i may very well use a lot of it...

[Sonny.Barile]

IF you make it indestructable...you will never get better at making it......

Your logic may be flawed. As you already know, that level of durability is taking quite an effort. Your weak link would be the line. If it breaks, you lose all of your work.

[Bugpac]

IF you make it indestructable...you will never get better at making it......

Your logic may be flawed. As you already know, that level of durability is taking quite an effort. Your weak link would be the line. If it breaks, you lose all of your work.

I agree, the weak link is the line. Sometimes you just have to gamble tho. I have it all in cad, that is the hardest part.. You'd be surprised the effort that is in this compared to a molded plastic one.. The body was cut out in about 35 seconds, with about a hour of machine work on top of that to get were it is. The fun of building anything to me is just that, building it to work..

[mark poulson]

Very interesting and clever lure, and construction method.

You might try making the "ballast" holes in the top half bigger, and then fillng them with spray foam, the kind that expands 3X as it sets, and is totally waterproof.

You could also drill holes in the lower half, to remove metal and lighten the overall weight, but don't fill them with foam, so the top half is still more buoyant.

In particular, lighten the tail section as much as possible, so the lure will swim horizontal at all speeds.

Since the material you're using is aluminum, loss of strength shouldn't be an issue, so you could almost cut out a lure profile with 1/4" of metal left, and a 1/4" strip down the middle, and fill the top half with foam, and the entire tail section.

I don't know how a skeletal lure like that would swim, since the water coming off the lure sides is what creates the swimming action, but it's an interesting idea to play around with, none the less.

Congratulations on a very original idea.

Edited March 7, 2010 by mark poulson

[rofish]

Bugpac, there might be another solution to make the top part of the lure more buoyant. Foam, PVC, balsa, etc. is good, but using them will contradict your idea of making an indestructible lure, and I think you'll need to replace the floating material quite often. Besides, it might affect the action of the swimbait, as Mark Poulson said.

What if you use air as floating material? Maybe the best floating material there is?

To do that, you need to make larger holes in the upper part of the lure, then cover them with metal sheet. I think aluminium sheet will do, especially if you would put some small bars across the holes, which will connect the 2 side metal sheets, to make the construction more durable. You could design the metal sheets to fit in a frame, so that the lateral surfaces would be smooth. Maybe attach the metal sheets with small screws and epoxy, or just epoxy.

Also, you could design the upper part to be thicker than the lower part, so that you could trap more air in it.

Just an idea to think about.

But I cannot disagree with what Sonny Barile said. The weak link will still be the line.

[Bugpac]

Bugpac, there might be another solution to make the top part of the lure more buoyant. Foam, PVC, balsa, etc. is good, but using them will contradict your idea of making an indestructible lure, and I think you'll need to replace the floating material quite often. Besides, it might affect the action of the swimbait, as Mark Poulson said.

What if you use air as floating material? Maybe the best floating material there is?

To do that, you need to make larger holes in the upper part of the lure, then cover them with metal sheet. I think aluminium sheet will do, especially if you would put some small bars across the holes, which will connect the 2 side metal sheets, to make the construction more durable. You could design the metal sheets to fit in a frame, so that the lateral surfaces would be smooth. Maybe attach the metal sheets with small screws and epoxy, or just epoxy.

Also, you could design the upper part to be thicker than the lower part, so that you could trap more air in it.

Just an idea to think about.

But I cannot disagree with what Sonny Barile said. The weak link will still be the line.

Interesting.. I haven't played with it to much.. I definitely agree the line is the week link, all tho a plastic swim bait may as well just break all the way off at the line if the back half comes undone anyways.. Probably what i will end up doing is shaping the aluminum one, and mold it in plastic, so all the hinge holes etc are molded in, no after work, just assemble and done.. There will definitely be a water jet skeleton in the head that will hook the line loop to the front swivel, and become the ballast for a plastic one.. First i am gonna pack the holes with foam and try it tho..

[.dsaavedra.]

Bugpac, there might be another solution to make the top part of the lure more buoyant. Foam, PVC, balsa, etc. is good, but using them will contradict your idea of making an indestructible lure, and I think you'll need to replace the floating material quite often. Besides, it might affect the action of the swimbait, as Mark Poulson said.

What if you use air as floating material? Maybe the best floating material there is?

To do that, you need to make larger holes in the upper part of the lure, then cover them with metal sheet. I think aluminium sheet will do, especially if you would put some small bars across the holes, which will connect the 2 side metal sheets, to make the construction more durable. You could design the metal sheets to fit in a frame, so that the lateral surfaces would be smooth. Maybe attach the metal sheets with small screws and epoxy, or just epoxy.

Also, you could design the upper part to be thicker than the lower part, so that you could trap more air in it.

Just an idea to think about.

But I cannot disagree with what Sonny Barile said. The weak link will still be the line.

this is exactly what i was thinking of suggesting as i read mark poulson's suggestion. seems like it would work well to hold the bait upright! i don't know how the bait would swim though, regardless of how you keep it upright.

[crankpaint]

cool bait i think your in the right area with adding foam to the top of the bait but what if you added lead to the bottom?its heaver then the alum. and should do the same thing as it will in a plastic/pvc swim bait it might need a little more then a plastic/pvc swim bait but it still should work