Finally got it figured out!

[exx1976]

For the second Sunday in a row, I spent the evening at the indoor pool at a local hotel, testing baits.  Last week I tested 4, and 1 showed a bit of promise - but I accidentally built a suspending bait instead of a floating bait.

This week, I took 4 more, identical in every way save for weight placement.  Finally nailed it!

Give this a watch and let me know what you guys think.

 

Edited December 28, 2020 by exx1976

[Vodkaman]

Rubbish, the dolphin showed no interest in the lure what so ever!

Just kidding, great work, looks amazing

Dave

[Big Epp]

These look good!  I just did the same thing in my bathtub... Not quite as helpful, but things are freezing up around here and I don't have access to a pool.

[exx1976]

2 hours ago, Big Epp said:

These look good!  I just did the same thing in my bathtub... Not quite as helpful, but things are freezing up around here and I don't have access to a pool.

Yeah, I'm a solid 4-5 hours north of you yet, so everything here has been frozen for over a month already.  Luckily, a friend of mine owns a restaurant/bar in a hotel, and his brother owns the hotel, so they let me use the pool late Sunday evenings if I need.  I always be sure to patronize the bar for dinner & a beer to say thanks. 

[RPM]

Very cool, and nicely done on finding a winter  testing / tuning pond. LOL All kidding aside, your lures look good in and out of the water, Great JOB! Thanks for sharing your video. My only problem would be Id have to get a room or take up residence as I'm a testing junkie, and with access like that it could become habit forming. It's probably a good thing we dont live close together because I'm not sure how your buddy would react to both of us showing with with hundreds of lures for a test session.

Rich 

[exx1976]

10 hours ago, RPM said:

Very cool, and nicely done on finding a winter  testing / tuning pond. LOL All kidding aside, your lures look good in and out of the water, Great JOB! Thanks for sharing your video. My only problem would be Id have to get a room or take up residence as I'm a testing junkie, and with access like that it could become habit forming. It's probably a good thing we dont live close together because I'm not sure how your buddy would react to both of us showing with with hundreds of lures for a test session.

Rich 

It's definitely been a challenge to try to keep it pared down to only a handful of lures to test, and only once per week at that.  I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, so I try to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.  The pool lights are on a timer so as to not keep guests awake (it's an odd layout - the pool is in the middle of the hotel, and the rooms - multiple stories - all look into the pool area, so I can only be there while the pool is open to the guests, because then the lights turn off).  Sunday nights are typically their lowest occupancy, and they are also when football games are on, so it has worked out well so far.  But I try to be in and out in under 30 minutes.  I also don't want to make multiple trips to the truck with lots of gear since they are still doing covid sanitations, so nothing that I can't fit onto only one table in the pool area (don't want to have the staff cleaning half the pool area because of me).  With two cameras and associated gear, 1 box of lures, a rod, jacket, hat, the space gets consumed rather quickly.

 

Last week I did have a buddy go with and actually get in the pool.  Had some underwater footage of lures then, but to be honest, it was pretty dark, and I had to work it quite a bit in Premiere.  I'll just wait until the ice is gone and get some solid underwater footage by trolling them along the side of my boat.

 

I now have 11 blanks that are almost ready to be sealed, with the same weight placement as the lure in the video.  Hoping to get some shipped out to the guys that have agreed to test for me by early next week.