[DSV]

thanks for the comments guys. i do think outside of the box a lot, mainly because i have limited resources, and i dont like to go to the store and buy every last little thing i need. so i stay at home and imporvise with what i have.

i came up with a great idea last night while trying to fall asleep, but i cant think what it was now! hopefully it will come back to me. i remember it was real cool and hadn't beed done before.

anyway, the epoxy goes on in a few minutes . im pretty scared. i hate doing epoxy. i am FULLY capable of RUINING a bait with epoxy

i am gonna take my time and do this one segment by segment, hopefully i will get a nice even finish.

wish me luck!

[DSV]

i remember what my "great idea" was last night, and i guess i forgot it because i remember dismissing it last night as "not that great".

my idea was inorder to create a slow sinking bait without adding a ton of weights, just hollow out the inside of the bait and leave a hole that goes out the top of the lure and seal the inside very well. then when you assemble the bait, be sure not to clog the hole at the top, then when you fish, the bait fills up with water and sinks. probably wouldnt work so great...im not trying it.

first coat of epoxy is on the tailsection...no fatalities....yet .

in a few hours i will put the first coat on the midsection.

this [epoxy drying] is going to be a long, drawn out time period; i think im gonna go ahead and get started on my next bait!

[diemai]

@ DSV

The principle of that idea is correct , but I guess , putting it to practise might be finacky , since you have some hardware inside of your lure , that might be in the way for such bores or hollow chambers .

Also you need a certain amount of weight to let the lure swim upright or to balance its action .

Smaller baits(up to 3") made of less buoyant hardwood might sink , having added all hardware , you won't even need such bores , but it is very hard to predict , rather more a gamble !

But I read something similar in the German edition of a Swedish book about crankbait making :

The author described there , how to add buoancy to a lure , either to render a sinker to be floating up or to decrease the sink rate .

He'd drill one or more holes in the back portion of the crankbait , fill a little epoxy inside and close the hole with some transparent ,- or plastic tape and then turn the lure to rest back down , until the glue has cured totally .

After he'd just peel off the tape and paint it over according to the paint pattern that the crank has .

I haven't done this before , I might think , that a pike would probably pierce a hole inside these airchambers , when the epoxy layer should have turned out too thin , so I would try to put some very buoyant material like balsa , foam packing material or similar inside before epoxying .

good success furthermore , Dieter

[DSV]

the main reason i wanted to do that water chamber idea is because i wanted a light swimbait (i dont have an actual swimbait rod, im using a rod taht is only rated for 1.5oz) that would sink. i would make it light by hollowing out the chamber which would also make it sink.

BUT...in order for it to still be light, i'd have to pour all the water out of the bait before each cast. im not about to waste my time doing that.

i put the first coat of epoxy on the midsection. unfortunatley it didnt go as well as the tail section.

i started running out of time and epoxy so i got kinda sloppy inside the joints. i also accidentally touched my knuckle to it once or twice when it was drying but that leveled out.

but it is still totally covered, just a few small pits in it which will get filled in with the second coat.

[diemai]

@ DSV

Sorry , seems , that I did not quite understand about your idea , now I did !

You'd have to furnish TWO water release holes , not only one !
They should probably not be smaller in diameter than 1/10" , rather more a bit larger .
One would be for water to flow out , the other for air to go in , this way the water would come out rather fast .

I guess , it would be best to possibly place them in about paralell to the length axis of the lure , because when you take out the lure to cast again , it would hang tail-down on the line .
Then you swing the rod backward , it would still be tail-down during that motion , allowing water to flow out all this time , so that your lure has lost a lot of weight already to be able to cast it with your light rod .

The whole affair stands and falls with the size of the hollow chamber(amount of water to release)and the diameter of the TWO holes(speed of release) .

Well , these are my theories about this matter , good luck , Dieter

[DSV]

your theroies make perfect sense. maybe this isnt such a far-fetched idea after all. still dont know if i am going to try it...

maybe i'll just try it on a test piece of wood first and then if it works out, i'll incorperate the idea into a lure.

[DSV]

i epoxied the head. it went well. no problems at all with the head!

tomorrow i will put the second coats of epoxy on everything and then after 24hrs it will be ready to fish!

[mark poulson]

I hope you can post some pictures of the lure before you feed it to some monster fish!

[DSV]

here are some pics of the finished product (sorry for all the fingerprints on the bait, should have wiped it off first )

[fishface]

Wow, looks great! Can't wait to hear about your first catch with it.