SmokeyJ

The soft skin on the Deps is not actually a topcoat, its like a silicone rubber sleeve that fits over the lure portions and you can actually remove it. Deps actually sells a weight kit that you install by removing the soft body cover and gluing in place on the bottom of the resin lure, then slide the skin back on. This image is of an unfinished lure and gives a better idea of what's going on with the lure. I think to replicate it you would need to make an open top mold of the finished dimensions, possibly in a solo cup, then pour some sort of clear, flexible silicone into the mold, the insert the main lure body (or a replica) covered in mold release into the mold to squish the silicone around and up the sides. I don't know if that makes any sense, and I have no idea where you would get clear/translucent, flexible casting silicone rubber.

I'll definitely give these a try and let you know how they perform. I do have a couple questions; what wood do you usually use for these types of lures, and do they have any ballast? My thought was to use some red cedar as it is readily available to me.

Fantastic, Diemai. I love old topwaters, and it was a new technique to me that you can keep a bass oreno in place working it with flicks. I'll have to try my hand at that.

Well, Imakatsu does it on their Waddle Bats cranks with a rear hook hanger mounted under the tail of the bait with a blade attached between the hook hanger and body of the bait: I've never fished a "real" hunting lure, so don't know if this is what people mean by that action, but you can see in the video that it pretty dramatically kicks out.

Breakaway Tackle makes a snapless connector operating on a similar principal but that looks to be a tad bit more weedless based on not having a wire-end sticking out to snag. They call them Fast Links (or Spin Links for the smaller size): There are a bunch of knockoffs as well. Not sure if this would be easy to bend up yourself, though.

That's part of the problem, though, is that the way that it is phrased is vague. It says 2 single or multi-barb hooks OR two artificial lures OR two live bait rigs. If you read it literally, it is saying you cannot have more than two hooks (single or treble) tied directly to your line, OR more than two artificial lures, not specifying how many hooks are allowed per artificial, so according to the letter of the law, the three hook rapalas are legal because they are one artificial lure. Also, a trailer hook on a spinnerbait would still be one lure, or at most two if the trailer hook has a soft plastic threaded on it (this is conjecture, I don't know how Indiana DNR interprets a trailer hook). The AL rig issue is that even if you used attractor lures with no hooks, you would still be using more than two "artificial lures", so you would be in violation of the regulation.

Pretty much useless in Indiana: "Each line may have no more than two single or multi-barbed hooks, two artificial baits or two harnesses for live bait." Regs only allow two artificial lures per pole and I guarantee DNR would consider each attached bait an individual lure probably even if the other lures didn't have hooks and were just used as attractors like the striper guys do with their umbrella rigs.

Found his blog and it is a treasure trove of information, although the Google Translate doesn't really do it justice: http://ginei-handmade-lure.blogspot.com/ From poking around on there it appears there are a couple different types of wood that he uses. I think I did nail one that he uses down to quarter-sawn Alaskan Yellow Cedar, which I know is popular with saltwater builders. If anyone knows Japanese they might be able to figure out what other woods he uses from this post: http://ginei-handmade-lure.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post_15.html

That is what I meant. I see what you're saying about the spring going length-wise, but honestly the other way has worked well enough that I haven't thought about changing it. I'll see if I can get some pictures up tonight.

I'm not sure how well it works with the o-ring molded in the bait, but I have used a small spring for wacky rigging. You screw the spring in the center and trim it flush, then you rig your hook down through the center of the spring and then out between the coils at a 90° angle. I don't know if that description makes sense, but I do know that it dramatically increases the durability of the middle of the worm and it probably would be no more difficult to mold a spring in than an o-ring.

I've never tried a photofinish of any kind, but is it possible that he used a photo printed on waterslide transfer and applied over a silver base? Whatever it is, its impressive.

Well, that aircraft cable isn't two strand, its seven, but I don't think what they are using is two strand. It's hard to tell from the pictures on the website. I don't know if anyone makes two strand cable. I could be completely wrong, though, so take my suggestion with a grain of salt.

It looks like aircraft cable. They sell it at McMaster Carr in stainless: Aircraft Cable

I have no idea if the piano hinge is why it swims without the roll (or if this is even what you mean by piano hinge), but this baby swims beautifully.

The Createx application guide on their website says the following: Heat Gun: apply heat at a low to mid-temperature setting no more than 300°F. Keep air moving to avoid blistering. Apply heat until paint is warm to the touch. I think a hairdryer could probably get to a similar temp if guys are hitting them for long enough, but that is pure speculation on my part.

IMA is going to start offering clear lures (although they have a little black paint up on the head). Maybe it will be the start of a trend? I doubt it, but it would be cool for all the custom lure painters.

Well, apparently there is a "cheater" way to accomplish it; Imakatsu has achieved it with a lure they are calling the Waddle Bat (I don't think it is released yet). It looks like they are getting the erratic action with something installed near the tail of the lure, but they are trying to keep it under wraps until its on sale, I guess. All the pictures they have on the website have the tail of the lure blurred out: Whatever it is, it does achieve a pretty erratic action, although I have never fished a hunting balsa bait, so maybe the hunting on the balsa bait is more subtle (this hunting action seems a bit over the top)

Wouldn't know, I have never used DN. I've just been around long enough to know the method. Jcheetam said he's been using the same can for 2 years using that method, though, and hasn't had the issue. I imagine there is a thin layer of cured DN at the top of the can that protects the rest of the finish in the can.

Don't open the top of the can; use a self tapping sheet metal screw through the side of the can near the bottom to make a hole to decant the DN into a smaller container to dip lures in. Use same screw to plug the hole.

Snap swivels? No, don't really use them at all, particularly if you are referring to those junky brass safety-pin style snaps with the barrel swivels. Snaps? I definitely use them. I fish braided line and hate the waste from cutting off lures, especially since I can get a couple years out of a spool of braid if I'm not cutting off constantly. I use crosslock and mcmahon style snaps because I like their strength. I don't bother with them when using mono/copoly because I need to retie more often with, anyways. But when I'm fishing braid I'll almost always have a snap tied on.

As a general rule, the more tail-weighted the tighter the WTD action of the lure. As you move the ballast closer to the center of the lure and the lure sits closer to flat on the water the wider the action gets. How easily the lure walks, to me, is more a product of the shape than the ballast, although it really is a combination of the two. For any given shape of WTD lure try making three initial prototypes: one tail weighted, one with ballast right behind middle hook hanger and one in between. Then you can tweak exact position based on which of the three you like best.

I noticed the other day that the View New Content button does not bring up all topics with unread content like I assumed it did. Some threads that are ones I have looked at before that have new posts don't show up. On another forum I frequent (granted, different forum software) they have two different links, View New Content and View Unread Content. The View New Content will only show topics that were created since you're last visit while the View Unread Content will show older threads with new posts that you have not read. Is it possible to get the Unread Posts function here?