Whats The Best Wood To Use And Why?

[CatchemCaro]

What's the best wood to use when making baits? I'm using Poplar and so far it's working well. I'm not hand carving, but the Poplar seems soft enough to carve. I hear a lot about Yellow Cedar. I even have a book on old Salmon plugs made in Washington. They used Yellow Cedar way back then. I also read that one of the manufactures would put the wood blanks into a pot and of sealer and presurize it to 300PSI. And as far as you guys making Muskie and Pike baits, what wood are you using, Black Walnut, oak?

[VermontPhisher]

I think cedar is a safe choice , it is light,very buoyant and it is naturally water resistant . I have heard a lot about people using red cedar too. I am glad to hear Poplar works well . I can get end cuts of Polar free from the shop where I work.Hmmmm. Good luck!

[woodieb8]

cost effective, cedar. it holds paints well. . it truly depends upon your applications.some woods hold screw eyes well. some are to soft. then that requires wire thru.. over building is the best approach for toothy fish.

[flink]

in your opinion, how about mahogany and balsa wood?

thx

[CheapTrix]

So does red cedar hold screw eyes well? I have the opportunity to get some and was curious.

Thanks,

CheapTrix

[woodieb8]

So does red cedar hold screw eyes well? I have the opportunity to get some and was curious.

red cedar does hold screws well. remeber to predrill halfway on the body. mahogany is very sweet but expensive. honduras is the best for floating. balsa is far to soft and needs to be wired thru.

[mark poulson]

One way to reinforce the wood so it will hold a screw eye is to predrill, run the screw eye in and then back out, put a drop of runny crazy glue into the hole, and run the screw eye back in. I do that even with my PVC lures, but I use brush on crazy glue on the screw eye threads before I run them back in. I my case, it's more to lock the screw eyes into position, but it also insures that the threads cut into the lure are strong.

[danderson]

As far as balsa goes, a lot of guys use screw eyes or homemade hanger in it also. Some say they won't hold but if you do it right it should be fine. I try to make it so that it's a little bit hollowed out so that it has to pull against the wood in order to come out. Some of mine are gonna get a good workout in a few days in canada on pike and smallmouth so I'll let you know. Nothing really pulls harder in fresh water on the size baits I'm talking about.