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Loved the video. Good personality, very entertaining with great skills. And, he followed up with water time. knowledge was shown in the conclusions regarding the weight distribution hampering the crank action, this all made perfect sense. Personally I cannot work like this; hacking two pieces of wood together not knowing if they will float or sink. I would have to do numbers first, but that is just me. Your plan is good, including some ballast adjusting options. I am sure you will have success. Dave

I have used the Alumilite silicone and their dust and it worked just fine.

I really like this stuff, shelf life is amazing! With any super glue you can use baking soda as an accelerant.. https://gluemasters.com/collections/2-ounce-bottle-variable-viscosity

Hoff, Your bait looks interesting. I've laminated PVC decking to PVC trimboard in the past, but, for me, it wasn't worth the effort. I hand shape all my baits, and, even though I get close, they all vary by the time I'm ready to add ballast to them. For smaller cranks, it is possible to repeat a shape well enough to be able to use weighted belly hook hangers to get close, but I have trouble getting bigger baits that close. I've found that I have to play around with my ballast too much after my bait is shaped, depending on the shape, to be able to incorporate the ballast before shaping. Please keep us informed as you build them.

I have used some from Harbor Freight.

https://bsi-inc.com/hobby/hobby.html

I haven't tried a hard twitch in my test tank, but a light twitch will make the lure turn 90 degrees. Dave

@Vodkaman Dave, I believe strongly in the principles of change of direction when lure fishing for predators. There is a great bait on the market now from a company called Gunki, which I am sure you are familiar with. The lure is called the Scunner and is a jointed hard bait with a very slow sink rate. A slow retrieve sees the bait behaving like a swim bait with a smooth glide, but give it a hard twitch and the bait flies off to the side as if darting away from impending attack. I have been very successful using these baits and am going to attempt replicating one in the future.

Hey @eastman03 I forgot to mention. I simplified my process by eliminating the need for the wooden block. screws, and glue stick. I basically just built a shallow frame out of Legos, maybe 25cm X 25cm, and poured a thin layer of silicone into it, maybe a half a centimeter thick. Now instead of gluing the eyes to the screws I just lay them out onto the silicone and then drop the epoxy directly onto them. Any epoxy you get onto the silicone just pops right off after its dry. Also, as long as you have the silicone on a flat surface the eyes will always dry flat and not to one side or the other if you screw isn't perfectly straight. Oh, and you can also use the waterslide paper to make little decals with your initials or logo on them which you can then stick to the underside of the bait before the epoxy process:)

Nice man! Those look great brother. Yeah man a sharp leather punch and really dense piece of hard wood will make a huge difference.