[longhorn]

I’ll admit to getting caught up in this paddle tail craze. I got some of the “real thing” from ebay with the intent to try to make some just to see if I could. I also ordered some imitations. As you can see from the photo below the top bait is the real thing, 6” and the other two are the imitations. The top one is hand dipped and hollow and the other two are solid hand pours with a hook slot. I took them all to a little pond with clear water to check out how they worked in the water. I rigged them all with the 5/0 1/16 oz. weighted hook that’s shown.

What I envisioned is a bait that when moved slowly through the water the little tail would enticingly wiggle back and forth like a bluegill’s does. The performance of these baits was far from that. The top bait’s tail wiggled some but the whole body did too and it didn’t look very appealing. The middle one had almost no action whatsoever and the bottom one had no action whatsoever, it came through the water like a stick. I was extremely disappointed in all these baits in this test.

The other bait I tested is the latest iteration of my hand-dipped paddle tail. Again a big thanks to Del for showing us how these baits are made. Mine had the best action of all but the tail’s too thin and I had to retrieve super slow or the tail would just fold up. I’ll keep trying and will report if I ever get a bait that works like I think it should. I'd be interested in reports of how other folks are coming with their hand-dipped paddletails.....I know a lot of you are out there making them.

[nova]

Nothing wrong with what you've done. It looks good.

www.novalures.com

[ghostbaits]

Seems the angle of the Silly rabbit baits doesn't give it enough resistance to the water. If you slow down, they just push water. If the tails were at a 90 degree angle, they might work better.

The basstrix are supposed to wiggle back and forth and resemble the swimming action of a bait fish. They really do catch fish when other baits do not.

I like the looks of your bait. aslightly wider tail and you are in business and saving $10-$20/bait!!!!

Jim

[Tubeman]

You guys are bang on about the tail thickness/angle. My first ones were also too thin in the tail and it folded back on the retrieve as well. Another thing that might improve the side to side action is the plastic formula. I'm going to try the first dip with super soft and the rest with tube, thus making the tail shaft softer, but the paddle tail harder. Also the amount of weight will have a bearing on how fast you will need to retrieve it to get it swimming. Not enough and it will swim on its side

So the mathermatical formula would be

plastisol durometer divided by number of dipped layers is directly perportional to the hook weight times the retrieve speed coeffeicent

...man this is more fun than a barrel of monkeys (only old guys probably know that saying lol)

[ghostbaits]

Originally Posted by Tubeman

...man this is more fun than a barrel of monkeys (only old guys probably know that saying lol)

Who you calling old man??!!! I still play with those monkeys with my kids sometimes!!

You are correct on the plastic hardness as well. some of the silly rabbits were very tough and hard. Those didn't swim at all. I took the eyes off and boiled one and it swam better as it got softer but the tail angle still requires a quick retrieve.

Jim

[Mattlures]

try a 1/8 or 1/4 and swim it justa tad faster.

[iceman35]

You guiys might want to try what 3:16 lures does with there mission fish swimbaits... instead of a one piece deal, they glue the paddle tail on separate... this is on there sunfish lure, which is awesome...

[dsmblack]

What plastic are you guys using to make the paddletails?