Papas82

LHL cheers mate. Thanks for the input. It could be actually that i twitch and jerk way to hard even though i try to be gentle. ( that sounded funny actually, i try to jerk gentle lol). I also start to think that maybe i should add more microballoons in my lure. What's your way there if i can ask? I use 16% by weight from part A but it could be that maybe i should go for the double? Idk, the only problem is that the lure will require more weight to get stabilised and I'll have a challenge to fit it under the belly. I also considered pouring first 1/4 of the lure ( belly section) only resin mixed with some tungsten powder and then pour with microballoons.

You're damn right there. My whole approach from the beginning to the end is wrong. I start first to think how I want my lure to look like and then how I want it to run. Fair enough but I should think the design not as an imitation factor but as a functional factor and how changes in the whole design could possibly affect the action. Well, i have to try with that one and exhaust all possibilities before I redo it but at least now the line tie is moved further up so when I get the chance I'll be heading out to the lake again. I forgot to mention that the lure weights approx 7,5gr without any hardware on added 16% of microballoons on part A. I opened 4 cavities, two in front of the belly hook, one behind and one shallower one further back between the belly hook and the tail hook. I am planning to get it around 14-15gr with hardware and ballast on which will be double the weight from the blank itself. You think it is overkill maybe? A last thing. I understand the principe of moving the centerline further up on the lure to have more space to play with the weight but then how do these guys who make pencil lures and in general very thin profiles weigh their lures without "violating " the centerline of the lure and manage to avoid this bloody spinning of the lure?

Hey Dave, actually i didnt think about that. Yeah, the eye position is actually exactly where the lips in the fish's mouth is. Maybe too low? I'll try to place that higher up where you mentioned. It could be a breakthrough.

Soooooo, today i had the chance to be in the lake and i spent 1,5 hour trying to find ideal weight and balance for this particular lure. I had two copies, one with 12% microballoons from part A and the other 16% microballoons from part A. I got somehow a nice side to side S action when i balanced my lure so it sank slightly tail down BUT twitching the rod tip, no chance. It looks like the curse of the lure rolling around its axis won't leave me. No matter how I weighted the lure and no matter where i put the weight I didn't get rid of this rolling. During stable retrieve it wasn't a problem but immediately when I wanted to give the lure a kick it was rolling regardless what I was doing. The holes didn't exceed the centerline of the lure but still the problem was there. Now i spent the summer trying to get rid of the problem but it won't happen. I'm honestly fed up with the resin and I think I'll give up on that and start working with wood instead. I don't have power tools required to work with wood but I'll do it slowly, one blank at the time. Though I'd prefer to work with resin due to consistency and much easier productivity but it looks like I can't break the code there.

I was with the family a short trip to the beach today so i took that lure and some extra tungsten putty to test it. I drilled two holes in the front between the nose and the belly hook and two holes back behind the belly hook. I placed more weight in the holes in the front an less in the back. The action was ok but not better than that. When i placed slightly more weight behind and a little bit behind the rear holes between the belly hook and the rear hook the action was much better. I am not expecting large S action since the lure is not very big but i got some side to side action and it swan also somehow unregular like an injured fish. Still though i want it better but i didnt have much time to test. At least i'm getting there.

Vodkaman no worries hehe, you give me very good info in every question i asked in here. I am going anyway to try different weight locations and variables to see which action will give me but i was planning anyway to try and get it level.

The back is thin. Yes, the lure is taller than it is widebut that makes sense. More weight maybe would stabilised it more.

Thanks Andy for very good info. I suppose i'll go for weighting across the whole belly section but the problem with rolling is there even when i try my lure with the weight outside the body stack on various places on the belly so it's nowhere close to central axis. My wish is for a nice side to side action when retrieving and a nice glide when stopping or twitching

Ravenlures true, i was maybe overconfident that it is going to work well though this is only the master in the picture. The trying lures are PU so i can mske agdin and again if it doesn't work one or another way. I suppose thst this is what someone could call a universal body shape that should work well. It's just to break the code with balancing.

Azsouth my goal is not to get it swim like a jointed glide would ( even though it could be nice to get it in one piece glide) but to have it run from side to side and under spinstop it will glide as most one piece glide baits do. Nevertheless to manage somehow to stop the rolling during twitching as well.

Vodkaman thanks. Good advice and i have to admit that i have been making multiple changes at once. Then it just didnt work. I'll do that step by step and try to figure out what works and why. The hooks are always on under testing.

Thanks guys, i'll try to give it some more weight in towards the rear part and i'll see what works best. I should keep notes yes, not fun doing the same mistakes again.

Ok dear luremakers. A simple question to you that have been into this field for a while. I carved this guy down there with a length of 10cm ( 4" ) and my first plan was to make it a glider. What i did though was that i made it so all the sides are flat, over and under as well, the edges are sharp as well. I tried several casts with PU resin ( i made 4 different with different ratios of microballoons) and i placed the weight in such way so the glider will sink slowly and level. My problem is that it won't glide as i would like. It does glide a little bit with some adjustments but it tends to show sides a lot, like it is unstable almost. I managed to stabilise it but then it will swim straight and no matter what when i twitch it will roll more or less. In your opinion what is the ideal body shape for an one piece glider? Round, oval or flat? Could it be that because of the flat body i have issues to make it glide? I know about buoyancy, center of gravity, density etc and i tried to do all this as close i could "by the book" but still i don't get it yet. It's so frustrating that i almost want to give up PU resin and start doing that with wood instead but it takes so long time, specially with all the carved details i'd like to have. Help please?

Yes i definitely will do

LHL correct. It is a flatsided jerk approx 4" long. In order to give it the sink rate i want ( very slow almost suspending) i don't need more than 1,70gr of extra ballast. That because of the microballoons i add. I'll do what you mentioned. I will spread the weight along the belly section and behind the belly hook. Btw, lovely jerkbait you made there.

LHL yes, here it is.

Lol, it goes that way

Hillbilly, sorry lol, my head is forgotten somewhere haha. What you say makes sense yes though for now i have my silicon mold feeding hole on the spine of the lure i am planning to cast the lower 1/3 of the lure ( belly section )pure polyurethane without microballoons and the rest 2/3 adding 17-20% MB by volume. It could be that maybe I get a balanced lure already out of the mold since the more dense and heavy part is under. Then hopefully just with minimum ballast I can finetune. I like your idea though having the front 1/3 part of the lure more dense and heavy than the tail. This whole casting resin lurebuilding balancing thing made me lost my sleep lol.

Wow, really nice input vodkaman. That kind of " escaping rush" action when i slack the line is something i wanted to achieve all the time. The question is, which part of the body should i make more buoyant and which more compact? I assume that your point is that i make like half of the body first and then cast the rest of the body with different ratio of density? CNC that is what i figured out. Without buoyancy there is a dead end so i condider microballoons as an essential for casting lures. I measure by weight but if i took it by volume that 17-20% microballoons is actually 50% if not more by resin volume. 50% from one part which means 25% from the total amount of resin combined part A and B.

Hey Hillbilly, thanks for sharing your experience. To be honest that is exactly whst i started doing. Create a drsign i like, make a mold of that and i take the rest after. I make a lure from the mold and i experiment on that. My gosl is not to duplicate a wooden lure but to make my designs work fine and have the action i want. As Vodkaman stated i should have less density in my resin to achieve more buoyancy so today i made the same lure going from 12% MB up to 17% and i have to say i saw enormous improvement on the action. Easier to make a lure that floats to have as starting point and then to fine tune the way you want it. Ftom what i understand microballoons are essential when casting resin lures even if the lure is going to be fast sink. I understood that buoyancy is extremely important in order to achieve a good action. Funny thing is that I had to use one liter of resin and probably one hundred wasted lures in order to understand what is going on lol

Thanks for valuable info. Then I will try with more MB to increase buoyancy and be able to calibrate the ballast easier. Up to 20% it goes fine to mold but it is a big possibility that I get air sockets on the blank. Then it needs to be filled on different spots on the surface but even worse I don't get consistent result because the amount of sir bubbles varies every time. I will have to investigate a little bit on different products regarding density to find some that fits the description you give me. So I need something with heavier density to achieve my goal a suppose. I make my prototypes from wood but I don't have power tools to be able to make a batch from one type of blank and my hobbyroom is like 2×2 square meters so its also a space problem thats why I stick with PU ( for now ) since it's more convenient.

Thanks Vodkaman, the purpose is not being positive/negative but to get some facts on the table so I have have a clue on what is going on. I forgot to mention that 15% was by weight only of part A. With that ratio the blank alone without the hardware will float. Still with the hardware on it will float exposing only the nose out of the water. I tried to put 1,5gr lead in the front and it is a slow sinker. So basically I shouldn't use microballoons at all then? I tried that also without any great success plus that it was sinking quite fast so I suppose that if someone want to achieve slow sink, sudpending or floating the MB are the only way to achieve it with PU?

Hi guys, new here and this is my first post. I have been casting resin lures from PU the last 3 months and even if i casted over maybe 30-40 lures experimenting with resin density, buoyancy, weight placement and amount i still face the same problem. If I retrieve very slow or just slow the lure will run ok but if I try to retrieve faster or jerk then the lure will spin around its axis. The particular lure and the shape of it is a glider and so i want it to run side to side even retrieving fast and be able to give it a push with the rod tip without any problems. I have seen many different videos on you tube and read articles, followed instructions on where the weight should be placed but still I didn't get a breakthrough yet. From what i understand it has to do with the ratio buoyancy-gravity and weight placement. The blank is 10cm long ( approx 4") and weights 18gr just with the screw eyes attached. There i used 15% microballoons only from part A of the resin so 7,5% microballoons from the whole mix. Are there any guidelines on the ideal amount and ideal extra weight added according to the size of the blank? Thanks in advance