[MuskyGary]

Has anyone made a bait like the Storm Wildeye Shiner? The front half could be made from wood and the back half cast from a plastic mold. I've been thinking about that bait because it doesn't have great movement and I don't like their color selection. Making the front end out of wood should give it a good wiggle and the back half out of soft plastic would also help movement. What do you guys think?

[Spike-A-Pike]

Gary,
BruceKY had a similar idea when he developed a bait calls the Troublemaker. The body is solid with a hitch-hiker type coil to hold a Kalin’s Big’n grub There are several good shots of it in the gallery.

[KcDano]

Gary Yamamoto made a bait similar in construction as what you mentioned. The front half was hard plastic shaped similiar to a rattle trap. Approximately at the mid section it was keyed to accepted soft plastic tails. Which could be changed quickly, by sliding the old out and sliding a new one in place.

[MuskyGary]

Thanks, I found the pictures in the Gallery. The bait I want to make is walleye size, but that gives me some ideas.

[Spike-A-Pike]

I wasn't sure if that would help or not, But with MuskyGary as a handle, I thought musky might be the targeted fish... Bruce had a smart idea for adding the plastic to the wooden part of the bait. I think someone else adds a plastic tail in what looks like a dove tail cutout in the rear of the bait and end of the plastic that attaches to the bait is shaped like a dove tailed finger. I would want to add a glue or a pin to help keep it in place.

[egreen cobra]

I've made something more similar to the Castaic trouts, with hard floating plastic heads and soft plastic body/tails. Its pretty easy and the results aren't bad, although I made mine to model large Golden Shiners here in FL, downside is that Castaic Soft Baits has a patent on hard head/soft tailed lures so you wouldn't be able to sell it (which of course means you'd slay them on it!) I imagine it'd be fairly easy to make any combination of hard and soft parts...