tinman

While traveling down life's proverbial highway, who are you going to help? The guy on his way to work with his hood up & steam coming out his radiator, or the guy standing along side of the road with a nap sack & his thumb out. They're both trying to get somewhere! I know Loco, you weren't looking for a free ride. You're obviously a good contributor to this site. But on the cyber hi-way you see all types. It's kind of hard to tell the difference, sometimes. In the information age we're in you can pretty much hit the key board & find out anything you want. Maybe it's a generational thing, but some of us old guys look at things a little differently. JMHO and sorry to get off subject. Good luck on your project.

Here's another good read. It actually shows how different color water filters color and affects it's visibility. http://www.mepps.com/fishing_articles/article.php?id=77

Exactly, it's kind of hard to exactly categorize a lure. But maybe more by action & how it's worked. For example: It gets kind of fuzzy when somebody says jerk bait. To a Musky guy it might be a Suick or a Burt. But to a bass or walleye guy it's a Husky Jerk. Which might also be categorized as a crank bait or a twitch bait. Same with a TripleD. They're kind of the crescent wrenches of lures I guess. There's so many variables & subtleties I almost hate to get started. But to me a hybrid has qualities of different types of lures. I've got some lures (old Cobbs) that float, with the eyelet on top of the head making it dive when pulled. It's tail weighted like a glider so I can hold the rod tip up & work it slow on the surface with a WTD action. Or hold the tip low & work it fast & get a WTD action underwater. Or just fish it in long pulls like a Suick. And a lot of lures use these differences in weighting, shape etc.. in design. Another example is cranks. Some are center weighted, like a Super Shad Rap. Some are weighted both just ahead & just behind center. Some are tail weighted. Mostly to make them better for a certain way of using them. Twitching, cranking, jerking, trolling, casting..... whatever.

There's kind of the sticker there. To a Musky guy, a glider doesn't float. A WTD (walk the dog) surface lure does, but maybe to bass guys thats a glider. Or maybe it's just me, dunno. :)I've made some that are kind of hybrids that float but dive under when pulled & have a walk the dog action when worked rapidly. But to some that's technically a jerk bait (like a burt). But also it's an example of the little differences in baits & weighting & what you can do to make them work the way you want. The sinkers can have a walk the dog action underwater, too. And some great hang time, too depending on weight. And some are erratic & glide up & down & left & right. Recently I made 6 gliders (& jerks?)with exactly the same body shape. 2 floaters, 2 neutrals & 2 slow sinkers. Different weighting, different eye location gives each a different action & application. Now if I can just catch a fish on one!?

The lure building index (Dirks) has some great stuff. But there are many, many ways to weight-a-bait. What I like to do is build & seal a prototype or two with out any intention of finishing it. Drill extra holes in it or get some adjustable weight system going and have fun. To me it's time better spent, rather than ending up with a finished lure that looks great, but doesn't have the action you wanted. Doesn't take long to see why certain lures are weighted the way they are and what to do to make a lure do what you want it to do. After all, everybody knows it's the action of a lure that's most important (right?).

I've got a combination disc/belt sander. I set my disc table at 45 deg. & knock off the edges equally, then round off with a dremel or rasp. Really saves alot of time.

Personally, I just hold an appropriate sized piece of stainless steel wire in my vice grips & heat it up with a lighter. Rotate it a little & push it carefully through.

Great repaint. The old wooden ones were the best. I've still got one I retired many years ago that had most of the paint ripped off by pike. Forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder & link, too.

I just posted some pics of some lipless cranks I've been working on this summer in the Hardbait gallery if you're interested. They're not exactly Traps, but same principal. They're larger Pike & Musky size, 4 - 8 inches approx. Lipless cranks are one of my favorites (obviously) because they're so versatile. Can crank, twitch, rip, troll & jig them. I kinda tried to design each one a little different for different applications. Some are floaters for shallow presentations, some sinkers for deep fishing & jigging. A couple have the eyelets near the nose like a Musky jerk bait. Some about 1/3 of the way back like a traditional trap. Some with more than one eyelet at different locations for different depth, actions etc... Maybe it'll give you some ideas to try. I'm still learning myself, but I can tell you what little I know. The first ones I made I got the pattern from: http://www.lurebuilding.nl/indexeng.html

http://www.mcmaster.com/

I had some of the old Reef Runners with the outbarbs. They were OK for walleye & smaller fish, but just didn't hold up to salmon, so I changed them all out. Didn't really see any advantage to the design change anyway.