Help On How I Can Make A Wood Lure Sink?

[StrykerLures]

Does anyone know how I can Weight a lure (Jerkbait/Glide Bait)? I was using Balsa wood but I'm using more Basswood now and Its a pretty heavy piece but its still floating. on a few I took some Weights, Drilled holes and glued them in a filled it over. How would everyone Weight a Lure enough that it sinks? Thanks Guys

Heres a Picture of the Lure I need help with. Its Made of Basswood. Its about 13" long, 2" or 2 1/2" High. How much weight would you put in it and how would you do it?

[BobP]

Drill holes in the belly and epoxy in lead weight(s). Before you do that, do a float test. Fit the trebles on the lure. Hang lead weight (solder, lead wire, bullet weights - whatever you want to use for the ballast) on the front treble until you get the float attitude you want and the lure begins to sink. That's the amount of lead you need in the body for the lure to sink in that temperature water. A lure that's just heavy enough to sink in warm water will suspend in cold, more dense, water. So you want to tailor the temp of the test water to the water in which the lure will be fished. Alternatively, many guys ballast them to suspend or sink in the warmest water they will fish. In colder water, they add adhesive lead tape to the belly to get the same action, or install heavier treble hooks. You can always make a jerkbait heavier the day you fish it, but it's not easy to make it lighter!

Edited March 28, 2010 by BobP

[GDille]

There is a tutorial on a mold for ballast weights on here some where, basically take two pieces of oak and clamp them together, then drill a hole directly on the seam. Pour lead in the holes and you have ballast weights. Use the same size bit on your lure. That's how I do it, and it works pretty good. I cut the wights with some wire cutters to be the proper weight.

Hope this helps,

George

[StrykerLures]

hmmm. those sound like good ideas, I'm going to try them out on the next 2 I make. I guess I should ask this also, What kind of wood do most of you use? I head Hard white ceder or Pine. So far I only have 1 lure from basswood but many from balsa wood that is very soft n floats very well unfortunately. though it does work well for topwaters. Thanks a lot guys. Keep the Help and Hints coming, I still need a lot of them

[diemai]

@ StrykerLures

After having my sinking gliders readily shaped , I'd apply a temporary clearcoat of acrylic clear to prevent them from soaking up water whilst testing for correct ballast in a water bucket(I'd buff that clear coat later for painting) .

After I'd rig matching trebles and put a bigger paper clip into the line tie to substitute the wire leader used when fishing it later .

Like BobP said , I'd now determine about the amount of weight needed to achieve the desired sink rate by hanging it onto the belly treble , ..........I like using 1 millimetre thick roofing lead sheet , that I cut to strips of about 1/2" X 6" , .......also a bit bigger for larger lures .

I'd cut material from that lead strip , until I'm happy with the sink rate of my lure .

After I would flatten it out and utilize it as a template to cut out a second strip of same size , ......put that one aside at first .

Most likely such baits require two weight holes , one in the rear and one in the front belly , ...........I must now estimate , how to divide my lead strip into two parts to match either end of the lure .

I'd roll them up tightly to a drum shape , most likely also comprime these lead drums with pliers and/or hammering whilst constantly rolling them on a steel plate/anvil .

Now I'd take cable insulation tape and stick the weights to the lures belly to check for the bait's sink level , which should most likely be in a horizotal position .

I can move the weights up an down the belly to a certain extend to achieve that ,...... but if my first estimation about dividing the lead strip should turn out wrong , I'd can take a second chance on the second strip laid aside before .

But after having gained some experience after a few lures failures become seldom .

After I'm OK with the positions of the weights on the lure belly , I'd mark these positions , disassemble the lure and drill approbiate holes to epoxy in the lead drums , .........off course the lure needs to be dry again .

One must take into consideration , that the lure would sink faster later , as one would drill out buoyant material , also the paint and topcoats added later would cause the lure to sink a little faster .

Also I like to match my wood material to the intended size of a jerkbait , .......would be useless making a 6"+ bait from balsa , would require too much ballast , that could either minor the action or not even fit into the lure blank , as it would be plenty of lead ,....better go with a bit less buoyant kinda wood .

Same thing vice versa ,........... a 3" or 4" bait of hardwood(maple , oak , beechwood) might turn out in a way , that it is impossible to place enough weight to have the bait even swim upright , when working it , .............unless having it sink like a brick .

You can find some sinking glider building sketches and info in here :My link , it is a Dutch site , but an English version is available .

good luck , diemai