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diemai

Some Swimbait Construction Pictures

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Thanks a lot for your kid words , guys , ........... happy if I could provide some input with my humble work !

@ CatchemCaro

There are multiple ways to seal off wooden baits , several are described somewhere in here(utilize the search function) .

I just dip my baits into liquid wood sealer twice(the kind one would use to protect wooden parts outdoors like fences , sheds , etc.) ,......... not the best way , but fine for me .

I also utilize a 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine to soak my blanks for a few days , ....a very slow method , has only worked on abachewood so far , takes several weeks to dry , but seals off perfect .

Afterwards the lures have to be painted with a few layers of acrylic clear to prevent the liquid inside of the wood reacting with following paintcoats , thus yellowing them after a longer while .

Guess , the best way to seal off wooden baits is propionate , ....but I haven't yet used it , lots of write ups about it in here , .......a good describtion you can also find at My link , check out the "How-To-Guides" there(left upper window of start page) .

This PVC material , that I utilized last for my lures , does not require any sealing , you can even paint straight on the fine-sanded blanks , also weight them in a water bucket or test them yet unglued without any sealing treatment required .

good luck , diemai :yay:

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Just got done with these small PVC swimbaits yesterday , made a little bath tub video of them and my latest PVC crankbaits , you may watch it here :

Whilst topcoating the swimbaits the joints became clogged up just a bit , but I have managed to scrape all paint remainders off of them , so they obviously move freely now .

Really enjoyed working on these tiny bits , but my next swimbaits are gonna be a bit larger , I guess !

greetz , diemai :yay:

Congratulations! Those look great!

I think you'll find they swim with a great S pattern, like a real fish.

The pike should be very happy, up until they realize they've been fooled!

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@ mark poulson

Thanks a lot , Mark , ........to be honest , I was happily surprised , that they swam that well , because if I moved them in my hand , the joints would sometimes "edge" or clog inside of the hinge sleeves or against the opposing section and not move freely .

But this looks like just a gravity problem ,......... as the bait is in the water some lift is generated to the single sections , also the line pull kinda centers them against one another so they do swim like they should !

Just started out with some bigger PVC baits yesterday , planning on joining them with interconnected wire forms glued into slots cut lengthwise centered into back and belly , .............not through lengthwise bores in their backs this time , like I did to my first wooden batch .

I am hoping to have a little less work this way , still trying out many things ;) !

greetz , Dieter :yay:

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Just proceeded a bit with my latest PVC swimbaits this morning , .....at first I've made the lenghtwise belly and back slots with a "Dremel" cutting disc , .....after furnished the separation cuts inbetween the sections on my hobby routing machine leaving some connecting material in the blank's center to keep it still in one piece for sanding the outer body shape with nice transitions .

A made the cuts a bit wider , not just went through with the round saw blade once , just to achieve the about gap , that the two interconnected wire eyes would create after final assembly , ...........this is also for nice outline transitions , especially with lure blanks , that have a pronounced taper at back and belly .

After those separation cuts I've sanded the rear flank tapers down the tail and finally rounded off back and belly of the lures to achieve the final body shape .

Next to do would be to make the eye sockets(planning on stemmed teddy bear eyes) , after I would decide whether to still carve some details like mouth and gillplates , ....not sure about that yet !

greetz , diemai :yay:

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Those look really good. :yay:

You're really cranking them out now.

Amazing how many steps PVC eliminates, at least for me.

I know, for me, I can make a lure in one day, if I'm inspired, and fish it the next.

It works great for poppers, too. I even made one with holes through the gill areas that makes bubbles as it pops. Nice not to ever have to worry about water intrusion.

I'm thinking about making a lipless crank with holes to generate bubbles as it's retrieved. I would never dream of that with wood.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Edited by mark poulson
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@ mark poulson

It truly is a great material , Mark , ........carves and sands like a dream !

Just did some detail carving to the pike lure this morning , not quite perfect , but I'm OK with it so far ............need to obtain some more teddy bear eyes , as these were my last pair .

Gonna carve some details to the carp bait tomorrow , hopefully I would also find some eyes somewhere , ...the small craft store in my hometown has shut down recently , have to check in Hamburg !

Want them pike eyes(presently only temporary mounted) in orange , .....but I might as well paint the bottom of the socket , these eyes are clear , the color surely would shine through !

greetz , Dieter :yay:

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Dieter, WOW ! I love the rivet idea and the way the bait is jointed reminds me of a puzzle. I can't wait to try this. Do you add belly weights to keep your baits upright? I haven't made any swimbaits or crank baits in awhile because I can't get them to swim right. Thanks again for sharing your work.

-Brett

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Thanks a lot folks :worship: , .........just got back home from my wife's usual shopping trip , but I've managed to find some more teddy bear eyes for the second carp lure as well .

@ VermontPhisher

You're right , Brett ,.......... these swimbaits require some ballast in their bellies ,....... something , that you need to take into consideration BEFORE starting out at all !

If you choose a very buoyant material like this PVC , you would need a lot of space in the bellies of the single sections to place it into .

This also has an effect on the location of hook hangers and especially the hinge placement and construction .

On the other hand , .......choosing a kinda hardwood having a lower buoancy , your entirely assembled lure might already sink or barely float without any added weights(due to hooks and hinge hardware) , but certainly not in the proper upright and horizontal level .

This bait with the pop rivet bearings reminding you of a puzzle does have sufficient space for belly weights , as there is no wire or screw eyes passing through the center of the sections .

On the other throughwired baits jointed by interconnected wire eyes one should not position the lower wire forms too close to the belly but a little more upward , just to gain some more space for belly weights .

I like to taper the flanks of my swimbaits towards the tail at about 2/3 to 1/2 of their entire length , so that they would become less buoyant down the tail , this way I won't have to put any weights into the last sections and maybe only little in the second to the last .

The majority of ALL ballast is located in the first head section , a little less most likely in the second one behind the head .

This is one reason , why the head section should be the biggest and most voluminous one , .......sections reduce one for one in size and volume down the tail .

Second reason to keep the first section bigger and longer is , that there are vortices in the water generated by that section , these do flow down the flanks helping the trailing sections to move sideward thus resluting into the typical snake action (there is a thread about these vortices in here started by Vodkaman , I guess).

To be sure to generate enough of these vortices I like to keep the upper nose portion of the head section rather flat , only round off the edges a bit . The belly and the backs and bellies of the trailing sections I still do round entirely , but it is not neccessary for proper function .

Rather more streamlined head sections don't seem to generate as many vortices , thus such baits are harder to swim properly , ........at least this is my theory now :unsure: .

I also place the tow eye quite low on the first section , I do not make the nose symetrical with the tow eye at the nose tip in center , ..............I believe that this way also some leverage around the tow eye occurs , generated by the oncoming current during retrieve .

This unequal water pressure above and below the tow eye also helps the first head section to break out sideward thus trailing the rear sections , the vortices then do their share to "snake" the bait .

Thanks again all :worship: and good luck , .........greetz , Dieter :yay:

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@ Jio

.........got plans for other lures , Janne :lol::lol::lol: !

But these are very elaborate , but I really enjoy working on them :yes: !

Just furnished all of the connecting wire forms of the carp bait today , also fins and initial lead sheet weights .

Guess , that these double pieces of lead sheet won't be heavy enough to have the PVC sink , but at least they do already provide a good share of ballast , I would do the fine trimming after having all sections connected .

I have started to glue in the wire-forms and weights , but it would take a few days to get done , as I can only glue one section within a day , need the glue to cure thoroughly to be able to clean off excess without having it smear my tools constantly .

Glued in wire and weight into the pike's head as well , but still have to make all the other wire forms , weights and fins for that lure during the coming week's rare leisure time .

greetz , Dieter :yay:

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I've also been messing around with PVC swimbaits lately and I found that it takes a very large amount of weight to sink even a small one; it took a 3/4oz. lead slug in the throat of a 5" swimbait to sink it :eek:. You might have more room for weighting if you don't through-wire your baits, but then twisted-wire hook hangers or screw eyes may not be strong enough if you're fishing for large fish. I've never fished for anything larger than bass and catfish so I don't know how well screw eyes hold up to fish such as pike and muskie.

Just a thought.

Ben

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@ Fishwhittler

I am aware of this , have already noticed about the neccessity of plenty of ballast on PVC lures , when making my first smaller baits .

These baits are wide enough to embed some more weights left and right of the harness slots , I could use lead shot or some small 10 X 5 millimetres cylindrical lead slugs , that I borrowed from curtain weight bands , .......if neccessary , I could also hammer these to any shape required to fit them into the blanks .

Epoxied screw eyes should hold up well for pike in PVC , I guess :unsure: , .....did a test recently trying to pull out an unglued 3/4" eye with pliers(pull direction aligned with shaft and without moving it back and forth) , ........could not move it a single bit with all of my strength , the pliers would rather always loose their grip .

But it's true , I should rather put my trust on a tru-wired PVC lure ,....... the average pike won't do any harm to screw eyes , but what about hooking that 50" pike of a lifetime :unsure: ?

greetz , diemai :yay:

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Hi , folks ,

Managed to proceed a bit with my actual batch of PVC swimbaits , ...........finally have them connected and also glued in all ballast weights .

Had some issues with both of the carp ,- and pike-shaped baits ,..... they would did not swim in their original condition as shown above .

The carp bait did not perform well because of it's bigger tail fin made of epoxy sheet(similar to circuit board) , ......the tail hook would always bind with it on retrieve and hinder proper movements , also the considerably heavy material put its share to this lack of action , I guess ?

Therefore I replaced that tail fin with a smaller one of PVC , and the following blank swim test displayed a much better and improved action of that bait . Off course I had to add some more ballast to the fourth section to balance the now decreased weight of the rear part of the lure .

As I had already expected right from the start , the pike-shaped bait did not perform well at all , .........the slender body shape is simply too difficult to generate those vortices , that get a swimbait to "snake" ,..................only the last one or two section plus the tail fin did move a bit at first .

So I had to add a lip to that bait , dremeld out the accommodating pouches for the lip and testet the lure again , .......it swam OK now with that lip I've made , so I finally glued it in , .........problem solved !

Also made another bigger four-sectioned PVC bait along with these two swimbaits , ...........just wanted to try out this little different design of a simple pullbait !

It is based upon a lure by an unknown builder , that I had received years ago from a friend .

That lure was called "The Jackknife" , .........it had only two sections , that did float up with head and tail down in a kinda "V"-shape .

If you'd jerk it , it would instantly straighten out and dive down , .........pause it , and it would collapse into the kinked condition instantly and rise up to the surface again .

On one picture a piece of wire resembles in about the water line , in about how the "U" shaped collapsed lure sections would hang on the surface .

My own four-sectioned version of approx. 8 1/2" works the same way , tried the blank in the tub ,...... the action is pretty much OK for me , .......on the dive the sections even sport a little wiggle as the lure digs down .

Only issue , that could still come up , is that the trebles might constantly tangle whilst casting , ..........but I guess , that stopping down the cast before impact would cause the lure to hit the water straightened out and not have the hooks bind , .......during it's jerk-and-pause retrieve it would not happen , I guess .

When first priming these multiple sectioned lures , I've encountered the problem of the sections moving too much whilst brushing paint onto them , even the spring-loaded metal clams , that I've fixed onto either end , did not help that much , as they still had done with my previously built smaller swimbaits !

So on a short term I have made these simple frames to fix the lures into in a straightened out condition , the single segments are now rigid enough against one another not to move that much anymore .

Guess , that the pictures say it all , .......one end of the lure is rigged into a wire hook , the other end is fixed with a loop of kite cord , that has been twisted with a kinked nail , so that the lure sections would be pulled apart , thus straightened out rigidly , finally I would somehow clog up and secure the nail against the tension of the cord , a piece of thicker and softer wire would do as well , ....even easier to secure it finally .

Greetz , diemai :yay:

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Edited by diemai
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I agree dieter, a high or low tow eye location and the bulk of the body mass in the first section. These ideas fit the theory. I cannot talk practical as I have only made a few swimbaits just to prove my ideas.

I am still blown away from your last set of vids, you have certainly cracked what is required for success in this difficult field. Can't wait for the vids of your latest creations. You are leading the way.

Dave

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