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muskietom51

MUSKIE BAITS

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Well back at it since the cold weather is finally here, I want to work on some stick baits and glider baits and am looking for some info on how much weight I need to add to them, any good ideas on how to judge how much weight to add. A guy I was talking to said he added weight by pouring it into drilled holes than put the bait in a tank of water an watched how the bait floated, seems like it would take alot of weight to make a wooden muskie bait sink. Any ideas out there?

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You'd be surprised!

You need to think about the wood's buoyancy (and therefore wood selection) placement of lead in the body, size of the body and so on. I made some Cobb's gliders out of maple and I think I used 15 g (1/2+ oz.)of lead in total. That made for a nice suspending 6" bait.

You will need to experiment. Find a friend with an indoor pool.

Cheers,

o2l

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MuskieTom,

o2l is dead on. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you are using a heavy wood like Maple, thebait will not take nearly the amount of lead as if you were using Cedar. Where are you in Ohio.? I fish Salt Fork and Leesville sometimes. Also are yo0u trying to make wire through baits or are you using screw eyes? This also has a big efffect on wieght placement. Mark

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Here's a couple ideas that might reduce the number of prototypes you'll have to make:

1. Do this will all of your hardware on the lure, including hooks. Buy some various sizes of those little bass sinkers that are teardrop shaped and have a brass wire loop. Tie one to a rubber band. Slip as many weights/rubberbands onto your lure body as you think you'll need. Put a couple extras in your pocket. Add/subtract weights until you achieve the bouancy that you're after. Next, slide the weights around until you get the balance. Mark the lure. Go home and make duplicates.

2. If you have a pretty good idea where you want the weight to be placed, drill a fair-size hole in the bottom of the lure body. Use lead shotgun shot to fill the hole and put a little piece of tape (duct or electrical) to hold the shot in. When fieldtesting, let a little lead out until you get what you're after. When you get home, carefully empty the lead shot out and weight it. Then you can fill the hole with with either the same amount of melted lead or a mixture of lead shot and epoxy glue. Since you'll know the weight, you can make consistant copies.

Hope this helps.

BTW: No offense intended, but this board is here so we can help each other. I would like to read the suggestions that the previous poster was going to email.

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Hi All.I would also like to read what Boatnik13 was going to say about wood balance.

I see someone has mentioned the cobbs glider I made some up recently out of beech 6" in length and they requirered 21 grams of lead to make them slow sink at a rate of 2 seconds per foot.

As One poster has said make sure all the hardware is attached.

The way I add lead for ballast is to drill holes in the bait where i want the lead and pour in melted lead,I then check the sink rate and weather it sinks level in a bath full of water.I adjust buy drilling out excess lead until I get the lure doing what I want.

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Joe the way you do the testing is what the guy told me before I posted this question, I think that is a good way to do it I think, mainly because I don't have access to a indoor pool boy wouldn't that be great though. Before you do the weight testing do you use any sealer on the bait? As soon as I get a e-mail from boatnic I'll let everyone know what he says. Thanks for all the help, all the help makes me want to get started.

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Hi Muskietom,Before I test the lures I seal them,What I do is drill my holes then seal the whole lure with thinned down varnish then fill the holes with lead and test.if useing beech it is very important to seal the lure as it sucks up water like a sponge.

Thank for offering to send me the e-mail I would be interested to see what he has to say.

Good luck

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