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RayburnGuy

Couple Questions For The Glide Bait Masters

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I recently built a bait that is similar in shape to the DT series of lures by Rapala and it is 3 1/2" in length. It swims about 4 to 5 inches in each direction past centerline of travel. (it may swim farther to each side in more open water.........this was as wide as I could get it to swim in the confines of the bathtub) It is weighted to sink at a rate of about 7 1/2 seconds per foot.

When I was shaping the bait I drew a line 2/3 of the way from the front of the bait towards the rear. This point is where the front and rear were tapered to. It was left 3/4" thick at this point and tapered down to 3/8" at both the nose and tail of the bait. The sides and top are fully rounded with the sides being sort of a shallow curve as the bait is much taller than it is thick. This is the first bait that has been shaped with the front taper being so far back and it swims better than anything I've made so far. And therein lies my question. Is this true of most gliders or is it different because this bait is so much shorter than the longer gliders built for pike and musky? Can the amount of side to side movement be increased or decreased by where the center of the taper is?

The attached picture only shows a side view. If a straight on view down the length of the bait is needed I can take another pic.

thanks guys,

Ben

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

Parrot Glider 3-19-2012 001.jpg

post-21848-0-36439600-1332212414_thumb.jpg

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if your bait is only 3 1/2 inchs long and it glides to 5 inchs past centerline of the bait thats a good glide due to the size and weight of the bait musky glide bait being heaver and longer tend to glide longer 1 to 2 feet on some but the baits are 9 to 14 inchs long so your bait fits them its just a smaller swing due to being a smaller bait as for the taper of the bait a 3rd of the way back sounds like the sweet spot on that bait you might try back a little bit more and see if it still has the same swing / better or if its starting to lose it,if thats the case go back to where you were and go from there by maybe adding or removing weight and see if its better or worse?? hope i helped you out

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I am not an expert on building glide baits. What I have found so far that when you taper the front of the bait and tail end versus a bait that just has front and back rounded off. The tapered bait will definetely will swing from the center line more than the rounded bait. I test mine in my pond and the test that I really like is by retriveing the lure in a straight line without any action from the rod, the tapered baits will swing from right to left on his own. Hopefully this helps

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I am not an expert on building glide baits. What I have found so far that when you taper the front of the bait and tail end versus a bait that just has front and back rounded off. The tapered bait will definetely will swing from the center line more than the rounded bait. I test mine in my pond and the test that I really like is by retriveing the lure in a straight line without any action from the rod, the tapered baits will swing from right to left on his own. Hopefully this helps

The baits are tapered from the front and rear to a point in the middle of the bait. Approximately 2/3 of the distance from the front to the rear. The sides, top and bottom are all rounded over instead of being left square.

I'm really wanting to know if the distance the lure swings from left to right can be somewhat controlled by where that mid point is located.

Maybe the diagram below will help explain what I'm talking about. Both the nose and tail are 3/8" wide. The lure is tapered from the front to a point 2/3 of the distance from nose to tail. Or 2/3 the length of the bait. These tapers are then rounded over so there are no square corners or flat sides.

The diagram below is not to scale so you may have to use your imagination just a little.

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

Lure Layout.jpg

post-21848-0-42689800-1332275841_thumb.jpg

Edited by RayburnGuy
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Nice bait! I was just noticing on one of my favorite commercial glide baits, that when viewed from the top, the widest point is off center towards the tail. Just like what you have done. I was thinking it was to allow more weight to be added to the tail, while still maintaining a nice fish shape on the side. I think your shape allows you to place your weight more towards the rear, have enough surface area at the front of the bait to make it want to turn( the steep drop of the belly), but tapered enough to get some distance to the glide. As far as the wide part being a pivot point or determining distance I'm not sure. When you pull it while its turned away from you, the side profile is what initially interacts with the water. Yours probably wants to tip over briefly because of the line tie being high, which is good because it needs to shed the water to turn, so maybe at this point the top profile comes into play. I haven't had very good luck with gliders. I've made a few, one of which was awesome, but can't seem to replicate them with consistent results. All I know is, that things going to get inhaled.

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I am in the process of finishing some shad baits almost a replica of RayburnGuy two of them are six inches one with the same tapered body as RayburnGuy 1/3 tapered to the front remaining 2/3 of the bait to the back 7/8 inches thickest part of bait end are about 1/2 inches. The other bait only rounded edges no taper body, identical side profile. I feel that the pivot point is concentrated around the concentration center point of the two bellie weight. For my baits the tail weight is used more for leveling the bait. To give you an idea the two major weghts are 3/4 inch from the center of the bellie hook, located at center bottom of the radius of the bellie. I figured that by building two baits of similar shape and size but with slight angular shape to one bait than compare how they react in the water is a good learning curve for future baits. I will also post my finding once this baits are completed and tested

Gino

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