A season for giving…

[Flaswimbaiter]

Being it’s the holiday season, I thought in the spirit of giving, we all could share our knowledge with one important piece of advice or something you would have told your younger self that would have saved you a lot of time and trouble. 

For me, I would have told myself to focus on function, not form, looks and being anatomically correct doesn’t matter, just get it to work.  
 

Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you for all of your help this year, it’s been invaluable. 
 

 

 

[mark poulson]

2 minutes ago, Flaswimbaiter said:

Being it’s the holiday season, I thought in the spirit of giving, we all could share our knowledge with one important piece of advice or something you would have told your younger self that would have saved you a lot of time and trouble. 

For me, I would have told myself to focus on function, not form, looks and being anatomically correct doesn’t matter, just get it to work.  
 

Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you for all of your help this year, it’s been invaluable. 
 

 

 

Agreed!  A good swimming bait will get bitten, no matter what color or finish.

[Vodkaman]

Yes agreed. Function not form I am sure would have been my advice, especially in the early stages of a project.

Dave

[Hillbilly voodoo]

Action has been my priority from day one

My number one piece of advice is experiment and try things don’t just do what everyone else does 

I have learned lots from making crude lures and test swimming them. Another is building test baits I could swap out weigh amount/placement. I have learned things from others but 95% or more of what I know action wise was trial and error 

 

[Vodkaman]

A mistake that I made in the early days of lure building, was testing without hooks fitted. The addition of hooks in weight and fluid effects changes the action of the lure, sometimes sending the lure outside the design idea, or at least disappointing after the initial hookless trials.

So my contribution is; Always fit the hooks for testing.

Dave

[azsouth]

50 minutes ago, Hillbilly voodoo said:

Action has been my priority from day one

My number one piece of advice is experiment and try things don’t just do what everyone else does 

I have learned lots from making crude lures and test swimming them. Another is building test baits I could swap out weigh amount/placement. I have learned things from others but 95% or more of what I know action wise was trial and error 

 

This is a great explanation!!! get off your A$$ and do it in real life, just don't sit read and watch videos.

[Big Epp]

1) Don't be afraid to try new things.

2) Slow down and work on a quality finish.

3) Don't be in a hurry to sell, build and improve quality first!

4) Test lures before painting them.

Merry Christmas and thanks to everyone for all the insight you have shared!!!!!

[mark poulson]

Building your prototype out of waterproof material like PVC decking speeds up the testing process, because you don't have to worry about water intrusion every time you make a change.  Once you have a lure that works, you can duplicate it in whatever building material you like, so only have to fine tune it before you paint and finish it.