Fishsticks

No formula for me, i just put what looks right where it looks right. I've made a few so I definitely know what not to do. Don't mean I can tell you what will work for you. If I were you I'd add weight where you think it may be needed and throw it in the water and see how it swims. If something needs to change then I have something to go by.

I've used "super glue" for a few things on lures before, but never sealed a lure with that name brand. I have used CA glue from a wood working shop which seems to me to be the same thing. It works well to seal the wood for my pin-eye joints in wood bodies. The one I use is labeled "Thin" so I get better penetration in the wood then I would have with the "Thick".

When I make a new lure such as a catfish, bream, shad or what not I'm always browsing online for new pictures. Showing as much detail as I can about the fish I'm trying to recreate. This is great for getting colors or a pattern down, but I'm finding it difficult to get the shape of the fish itself to be as precise as I'd like. I was wondering if anyone knows a place you can buy molds, or models of different fish. I go into the sportsmans wearhouse and see plenty of stuffed fish on the walls, but of course none of those are on sale. I'm looking for something that would make a better reference for carving shape, not so much colors or patterns. I can catch fish I'm trying to recreate but I only take pictures, would be nice if I could get that little fish to pose for me for a few hours at my workshop but it doesn't quite work like that. Anyone know a good place to go I would appreciate it.

I paint all my lexan fins same time that I paint the lure. I figured while I got all my paint out and airbrush hooked up that is the best time. I carve on my fins and clean the dust off before paint. I paint my bait on my lure turner and set a small space heater next to hit while it turns until it is dry. When clearing my baits I clear everything with etex, since that is what I have right now. I think if you want your paint to stay on the tail then slap some clear or epoxy on it too. A nice clear coat always brings out some nice colors in the paint.

I'm wondering why you really want to make it lighter? To make it noticeably less in weight I think would require like vodkaman said change the body material to something more buoyant. But then I would think you may not get the same action. I personally would love to have a 10oz lure. I could cast it way out there. You may not even need hooks on it, just a net to pick up the fish after it knocks itself out on the strike.

Use it all the time. It does spray smoother, but I still use regular createx among other brands quite a bit.

Kinda has that catfish look with the flat head. If you were really going for that look you could throw in some stainless leader wire for wiskers. Pretty cool bait.

Thanks for the feedback. Broad River is where I usually go around here. Rivers are way high right now after all the rain. I was out yesterday and saw some small bait fish jumping out the water so I sent a few casts that way. Caught a really small striper with one of my baits. If i could imagine it had some sort of emotion, I'd say it looked somewhat embarrassed watching it swim off. More rain to come so it will probably be next week before I get to do more fishing. You are right, sometimes there are days when striper seem to hit almost non stop. But there also quite a few of them running together. I heard there were musky but I sure have never caught one. The one fish we have all over is the chain pickerel. I call it the mini pike, is kinda what it is. They are small but they can bring a decent fight for there size. Most consider them a nuisance fish in ponds and lakes b/c they say they eat many of the other fish people try to catch. I personally go out trying to catch them, to me they are one of the sharpest looking fish around.

Hello to all who read this. I was looking for input on my lure designs. I've been making my own lures for personal use for several years. I fish for the usual bass, panfish, or what ever is in my area. The past few years I've been more involved in stiper fishing. That is one of the larger game fish around the Columbia SC area. I've had decent luck, no records or anything to brag about but I still enjoy it. I've posted a small handful of my lures on this site. Last year my lures caught the attention of more serious fishermen in my area who strictly target the large stiper. Since then I've read and studied the fish more carefully. Fishermen have told me many of the baits and lures they've had hits on. Shad, trout, minnows, and an assortment of artificial baits. I've based my lure designs after what I've heard. I've read many posts on this site and have seen what others make and what they are made for. I love making the swim baits. Right now my main thing is the shad and trout. Those are the two lures I have that people ask me for. I put a lot of time into each one, all being made by hand. So i have to charge for them to cover the cost. Well to cut to the chase I love making them and there is a chance I may end up doing it for a living. I was looking for some advice on how well my current lures may hold up and attract other big game fish. So far I've never had a failure on stiper. Hopefully this summer I was going to do a bit of travel and hit some larger waters. I've never caught a musky but after reading so much about it I've got to give it a go. Last year I went on a fishing trip with a friend, I didn't know the waters but after a couple days I had a small pike hooked on one of my lures. Sadly I never got a picture because it got off right as I had it next to the boat. Since then I've been reading and asking questions. Trying to make better and stronger lures. My goal is to make a swim bait that is big musky ready. My lures now may be but I can't say because I've nenver caught one. Any advice or opinions are welcome. Do you think my lures are good to go for the big fish?

I use to play with a few lures after work, sometimes on the weekends. Lately I've been really enjoying making different swim baits. Since I got hooked on those I've been in the shop working on them almost every night. Here's a few of the new ones.

In response to ,the Canadians post, my second design worked well. No pictures of it, it's in the hands of another fisherman now. It had a strong side to side motion and dove fairly deep. I had a solid lexan tail on it like my past few swim baits. I haven't made any more like it. That kind of bait did work but was more of an experiment. Seemed to be a lot more work then I'd like to put in a bait that small. There is no doubt that design would be stronger then using stainless eyes and a pin. The wood has almost no stress on it if you were to hook a fish, the stainless leader runs throught the entire lure. My larger baits I'm not so much concerned, the two stainless eyes are holding on to a minimum of 1.5" of hard wood each. That smaller bait would have had about .5" at the minimum of wood to hold onto. In a swim bait I would have been afraid that small section would crack after not too long.

I think if you just hit the spot you will still see it. Best to just recoat the lure, can try to thin the epoxy if you don't want it to be too thick.

After I sand and shape my wood I'll use a pencil to mark where I want the eyes to be centered. I'll move the lure up, down, and all over just kinda eye balling my marks to make sure they are even. Then I'll use a paddle bit in a hand drill to make the holes. I'll use whatever paddle bit is closes to the diameter of the eyes I'll use. After that I'll use a high speed cutter to smooth out and blend the holes into the body well. It looks like the one on the site little river posted. It's a 1/8 bit, looks like the 194 bit on the site.

The sections were just glued together and I put a few stainless pins running through them. My hook hangars were soldered to the wire so there isn't much stress on the wood sections themselves.

I've heard of co2 tanks being used. If I were to use a compressed tank I would have it filled with nitrogen. I wouldn't be the one to tell you no it's a bad idea. If it works for you then great, use it. The well known airbrush artist, Steve Nunez, used a car tire for air when he was a kid. Every time it ran out of air he rolled it back to the gas station to have it refilled. Not the best thing of course but that's just what he had access to. The cons are whatever you fill the tank with it will cost you every time. I think going with some sort of compressor will be cheaper in the long run. The pros, you don't need electricity to run your airbrush and it will be the quietest thing you can use.

Galvanizing is there to help regular steel hold up better to the elements. I've never seen it used in swimbaits before. Over time the galvanized coating will break down if exposed. The metal under will eventually rust especially if you use the metal for joints or hook hangars. I think the benefits of using stainless out weigh anything that galvanizing has to offer. Higher grade stainless will not rust and it is stronger.

I've seen a tighter wiggle in the same lure I've made before. I thought it was because I probably had the ballast closer to the line tie. Just a theory, but by changing where the line tie is could change the center of gravity, even if you just bend the toe eye up or down. I would think the closer your weights are placed to the pivot point the tighter wobble you can get. Probably not the case in most since there are so many things that make the lure wiggle but just a thought.

Well I guess I may have to make the plunge into resin or PVC. I'll probably try the pvc first since it's just a different material to carve. I had a few people ask me to make them some trout like my last one, and I'd like it to hold up as long as it can. Even the way I seal my wood I know over time water will eventually get in somehow. I'll head to the hardware store this evening to get some new material and do some testing. I'd like to make some more swim baits like my trout, and even some with 5 sections as well. I feel in the end my best option may be resin, but man that just seems like a whole other ball game right there.

I just finished a bait and after some thought I decided to go with oak. The plan was for it to be a slow sinking bait. Oak seemed to be a good choice since I wouldn't need to add as much weight to make it sink. The main reason I chose oak was because it was a 4 section bait made for catching larger fish such as striper. My thought was that oak would be a stronger wood and a large fish would have less of a chance to break a section off. For any other swim bait builder out there I was wondering if you had a preference on a specific type of wood you use for something with multiple sections. My lure came out way better then I could have ever predicted. Very smooth lifelike action, I couldn't have been happier. I was just curious to see if anyone had a better suggestion for the core material that may be even stronger. I'm sure resin would be but I really don't know anything about that. Wood is all I've ever worked with before. Here are a few pics of the oak I used, and what it looks like now to give an idea of what I'm talking about.