What The Best Material To Use When Making A Swimbait

[bassbandit25]

I was looking at all the cool 3 piece baits i'd really like to fiddle with them what all do i need and what material is the easiest to work with yet it wont break too easily. Any help would be great!

[diemai]

@ bassbandit25

There are three options , that I can think of , ..........either wood , PVC decking or resin !

Wood is THE tradional lure material , easy accessible and easy to work with , but has the disadvantage to be vulnerable to water sepage , especially on lures like swimbaits with its multiple joints and/or hinges .

There are many types of wood to choose from , many different grades of buoyancy and densities(could be important for the action of a lure and the trimming with ballast) .

PVC decking seems to have become the latest hype for swimbaits ,..... it is extremely buoyant , cuts , carves and sands very easy and has the great advantage of not soaking up any water(its just a plastic material) .

But on bigger baits it would require PLENTY of ballast weight to render it to sink/suspend or even float up upright , could provide issues about sufficient space for all of those weights .

Some guys in here also do cast their baits from resin , .......I do not know much about that except that to me it seems to me to be the premier league in lure making , ............you'd need to make a master lure and make a casting mold from this master , after you could cast quite a few clones with that mold , ........but as said before , I do not know much about it .

If you look around in here thoroughly , utilizing the search function , you could spend hours and hours with reading tons of info and threads about swimbaits and their construction , ..........there even is at least one tutorial in here .

Just go ahead and have a look , .......if you'd have further specific questions , .......I am sure , those would gladly be answered !

good luck , diemai

[mark poulson]

If you're just starting out, I'd recommend PVC decking. It is easy to carve/shape, buoyant (at least the AZEK decking I use is as buoyant as poplar), and totally waterproof. It holds screw eyes and hardware very well, plus it's strong and hard.

After you've learned all the ins and outs of building (check the Hardbait Forum) you can experiment with other materials, but, especially for a beginner, PVC is the easiest and most foolproof material to use.

Edited May 5, 2010 by mark poulson