Jerbait prototypes...

[fatfingers]

Here is what is on my bench this evening. I'm working on a few changes to the jerkbaits I recently built and I've built a new one.

This is similar to the green/gold scaled jerkbait I previously posted. It shows the placement of two muzzleloader roundballs in the belly of the bait. I primered the bait first so that it would be all white. That way when I'm trying to judge where the exact center of the bait is, my eyes are not confused by the wavy lines of the wood grain. When you get to be an older fart, things like that happen. I'll prime it again before I paint it. I glued the roundballs into the wood using Rhino glue, which is available at Walmart. I then sealed the holes, (which I drilled with a 1/2 inch forstner bit), with "plumbers putty." The plumbers putty is available at any hardward store. It is like a Tootsie Roll only bigger. The stuff is blue on the outside and white on the inside. You cut off a piece and knead it in your fingers till it is all one uniform color, sort of a gray actually. Works great, dries fast, sands easy, won't shrink.

Here's a larger version of the Shovelhead which helped me land a musky at West Branch last week. Its carved from cherry with one roundball. I'll re-prime it also before I paint it, but you can see where I placed the weight. Actually the bait ran well during testing and although it appeared to need no weight added, I decided to add one roundball to offset the extra bouyancy created by the 5 coats of envirotec clearcoat that I'll be adding after I paint it.

Note that the hole under the Shovelhead appears to be larger. I flattened the lead roundball with a hammer since the bait is a bit thin through the middle section and I didn't want to risk drilling out too much of the bait.

Lastly, here's my first attempt to build a version of the "Bert," which is a commercially sold bait that has produced dozens of muskies for me over the years. I love throwing the Bert and want to see if I can build something similar. I chopped it out of pine on the lathe, cut a slant on the forehead to make it dive, and then hollowed out the slant cut with the edge of the benchtop beltsander. I'll post pics of how I did that if anyone wants to see how it was done.

I built two of these to start with. I'm pretty confident they will run well, but I'm just guessing, based on past experience, as to how much weight will be needed. On the longer one I used two roundballs, on the shorter version, I used just one. I'll post the results of my testing, which I hope to do tomorrow, if my schedule permits.

In the photos above you can see how I simply glue in the lead roundballs prior to sealing them with plumber's putty.

[Husky]

I really ike the different models you're putting together. Using shot is a great way of getting precise size and weight pieces for ballast. I've been a big fan of the Plumbers Epoxy, for years. It makes hole filling a snap.

How does that round head run?

[fatfingers]

Husky the top bait with the round head runs great if you place the line tie on the forehead of the bait instead of the nose.

I tried building the first one with the line tine at the very front and it would not dive. Once I moved the line tie back further on the top of the bait about 3/4 of an inch it ran great.

[smirkplug]

That Bert Plug Has The Look Of Some Old Wood Salmon Plugs From The West Coast, We Used To Repaint Em Like A Trout And Toss Em For Big Stripers And Largemouth After Trout Plants In Socal Before A/c/ Plugs. And Smirkplugs, I Once Had A Scuba Diver Film One Underwater And Couldn't Beleve How Good The Action Was At About 10 - 20 Feet Deep. I Also Wish I Had The Time To Detail The Lead Like You Do. I Use Splitshot Then Drill Then Stuff Then Hammer Flat To Plug Surface Then Grind Or File Then Putty Then Power Sand Then Paint, Then Flexcoat, Then Fish Then Cuss, Then Burn !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fatfingers]

Smirkplug, you're right, it does look like that. Its longer and more slender.

It's a great musky bait. The one shown in the bottom of the pic is a Bert:

[smirkplug]

I Made A Mistake On A Spitter/ Popper/walker One Time And Painted It Upside Down, I Finished It And When I Jerked It Underwater A Few Times Quickly It Seemed To Want To Walk The Dog A Little Underwater. I Should Continued To Research More But I Got Sidetracked On Other Designs... It Was A Case Of Too Many Lure Designs, Not Enough Time To Fish Em All Properly. They Wont Stock Trout In Castiac Lake Socal, Till Oct. But Thanks For The Photos And Im Going To Fool Around With A Similar Design. You Just Inspired Me !! I Wish We Had Big Musky Plugs Available Out West 20 Years Ago, We Would Have Better Trout Pattern Plugs Today. Thanks Again, And If I Could Learn To Download Photos I Would Send You Some Pics Of My Monstrosities That Nobody Has Bothered To Try To Copy !!!!

[StoneCoal Tackle]

FF, cool baits and great photos, love seeing the in progress pics.

[jerkbait]

Hey FF

I make a bunch of stuff that takes big shots of lead and used to pour right into the body of the bait. To keep it more uniform I now melt lead in my pot or just use a spoon and a torch. Then I pour it in molds made in hardwood by drilling various depths with forstners. The are perfect size when you put then in and have a very low center of gravity. They also require less fill. That way I am not worried about drilling too deep. Once you get the weight of a prototype it is easy to replicate. The burt baits want to roll too much if the lead is very high in the bait.