question about a cedar bait

cranker · #1 (**permalink**) August 18th, 2005

Thanks to all the help I've gotten here I just about have a handle on painting with better results.Now my addiction has carried over to handcarving a few cedar baits.So far i have finished carving my first and am just about ready to prepare it for painting,and my question is about weighting.The bait is red cedar and 3'' long with flat sides but a good tapered tail,do i need to test the bait before weighting or is it a given for them to need some amount of belly weight?I have pictures of the bait unpainted and will be posting them but i wanted to go ahead and weight it first if i needed to.This may be a stupid question but if i knew the answer i would'nt ask!I have ordered my bills from netcraft and as soon as i get them in i will be finishing the crank up and posting it for some feedback.And again,thanks guys for all the good advice on maintaining this addiction.

Skeeter · #2 (**permalink**) August 18th, 2005

Believe me.... you will need to weight the bait. It is just a trial and error thing. Do a search for weighting. There are some tricks to test the amount of weight that a particular bait will need. They are in the posts. Also, don't forget that the hooks, split rings, and clearcoats will also add weight.
Skeeter

jerkbait · #3 (**permalink**) August 19th, 2005

Skeeter is right on the money. The crankbaits I have been doing lately are about 3 1/4" long without the bill and since they are rounded in the belly, they need about 3.5-3.9 gr of lead. I load them between the lip and front hook as I am looking for a nose down wide wiggle. When I am starting a new design I usually over weight it by drilling a hole up into the bait and sticking a mojo weight in the hole, trimming it little by bit till it sits right. Pull the plu, weigh it and you get a good starting point. Good Lick and lets see some picts.
jerk!
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Everything all the time!

cranker · #4 (**permalink**) August 19th, 2005

Thanks guys for the info. and I will try to get the pics. on over the weekend.My bills still havent came in so I cant do any testing on them til next week it looks like but I think I will go ahead and put some weight between the bill slot and the front hook and be ready to see what it does.I made them to look alot like the poes design with a few changes and tweaks to make them perform a little better.I also done alot of spraying the last couple of nights with the VL and just wanted to let everyone who replied to that post know that youre exactly rite on about it being a good brush.I have been amazed at how much easier it is to learn the tricks of painting a good professional looking crank when you have good equipment to work with.There may be some other brushes out there that are better , but for myself it will be hard to pry the VL out of my hands!

jaime · #5 (**permalink**) August 19th, 2005

i have some cedar wood leftover from when our fence was put up. Could i use it to make a bait? It's been sitting in my garage for well over a year and I believe its dry cuz I can break it apart with minimum effort.

cranker · #6 (**permalink**) August 19th, 2005

jaime, I dont know if i could answer that or not because i dont know what kind of cedar you have.there is several different types of cedar available and after doing a little research on the different types i pretty much found out that the western red cedar is suppost to be the best for carving and shaping without it splitting on you.I buy mine at lowes in 1''x2''x8' sticks for around $3.00 a peice.So far i have gotten good results as far as carving and sanding this stuff and it seems to be plenty strong enough for bait making and i can cut around 30 baits out of a stick.I think balsa or basswood is probably better but i wanted to use cedar for some reason.Hope this helps you out.

Spinner · #7 (**permalink**) August 19th, 2005

Under the "For what it's worth heading", I use the same wood Cranker does from Lowes. I've been using western cedar for the last two years. Its works up nice, smells good (this is important when you screw up as many lures as I do), sands and finishes well. Lures are very bouyant so the action is whatever you want it to be and is determined by the placement and amount of weight. I have seen cedar fencing that is quite dense and those with split grains. I wouldn't be afraid of trying the dense version but would shy away from the cosmetic split grain stuff.

Spinner

Skeeter · #8 (**permalink**) August 20th, 2005

Poes used white cedar to make their baits. Fence stock cedar that I had was pretty coarse. The grain was always harder than the rest of the wood. It was hard to get the bait flat. Also, fence lumber is pressure treated with a solution to keep water out. You could end up with problems down the road as the solution works its way out of the wood. Coley gave me a big piece of cedar and it looks like it will make some great baits. I am going to start cutting on it soon. Just look your wood over closely. Good luck.
Skeeter

Joe · #9 (**permalink**) August 20th, 2005

Cranker, This is a bait carved from Spanish Cedar. I'm not sure how the weight will compare with Red Cedar, but I would think it's close. This bait is also 3" long and 3/8" wide. It is weighted with a 1/8 oz. egg shaped weight above the front hook. I drill the hole and epoxy the weight in place and screw the screw eye through the hole in the weight to secure it in place. Hope this helps. Joe

Tenacfan · #10 (**permalink**) August 20th, 2005

Be sure to wear a good dust mask when sanding or using a Dremmel to shape it. I could be wrong, but I think that cedar dust is pretty bad for you. I'm not for sure so do some research on it. Back to Skeeter's point I was makin some round cedar baits and noticed that when I sanded them, the grain would stay the same and left ridges in the bait. I must have been using the stuff he was talkin about. Anyway good Luck.