eastman03

Then I might stand a chance. For every entry, you have to have 100 comments in the forum. Lol. entries are look cool already! I’ll have to come up with something.

@Vodkaman wellll only about three days in and half the entries didn't read the rules lol why is that so hard? haha

Very painfully lol. Welcome here by the way. I've made a few large poppers and have struggled to do this easily. Easiest way I found is to "hog" out the bulk of the material carefully with a drill bit (don't go too deep, also I've only made giant poppers, so this may not be necessary at all), then i have a few ball burrs for my Dremel tool that I shape the cup with. It is slow, but I've only made a few poppers, so it worked. To get the final sanding and shape, I ended up gluing some sand paper to a golf ball, which I glued a drill bit into, so I could turn the ball with my hand held drill haha. Actually worked pretty good to smooth it out (it was a giant giant popper, so a golf ball was about the right circumference). Solarbaits makes a similar tool at the 6 minute mark in the video here. Same idea to get the cup sanded. Wouldn't be too hard to make yourself a tool Lure making | The popper - YouTube

Makes sense. My tail is quite thick through the shaft. I think I can add a bit to my mould and thin that section out to let it kick. looks good!

I like where your head is at! It seems that the line tie looks a bit high on the bait? Unless this was very nose heavy, it seems like you would be getting alot of lift when reeling it in. But i could be wrong. I made a hybrid (no spinner) paddle tail last year, and I was disappointed with the action in the tail. in hindsight, i should have somehow done more testing on shape to get the action i wanted before making a mold. That being said, I'm not really sure how to test before making a mold and just going for it. The tail i made was large, but there was so much water resistance that it kinda gets bent straight back and doesn't thump at slow speeds. Your tail looks like it should work, it seems to be a fine line. When i made the plastic soft, it would thump, but also bend back and straight at higher speeds. When i made the plastic harder, i had to reel super fast to get it to thump. Honestly that was my first endeavor into soft plastics, so i'm not much help. Just thought I'd share what I went through. Keep us updated how this works for you!

Welcome here first of all! I would suggest stick with one clear coat for a while. Give it a chance. Typically, you will have die hard fans in each camp - epoxy, UV, and KBS (moisture cured urethane i believe). That isn't a bad thing, it's a great thing. That means that a lot of lure makers have had great success with their product. But I've heard bad things about each one too, they ALL have a learning curve. Don't give up on one before getting over that learning curve and then making a decision. You may see someone dipping KBS and think it's brain dead simple, only to have a 100$ jar of KBS get hard on you after the first use (storage issues from what i gather). Anyway, this isn't a rant on any particular clear coat, I don't have experience with Alumilite UV (epoxy guy myself), but i know guys that do. And they love it. So there must be a way to get the desired result through some practice. You will get tons and tons of comments from different platforms saying ditch KBS use epoxy, or ditch epoxy use UV etc... Like i said, learn how to use what you have, and then decide for your self. Check out Engineered angler on youtube, he has videos outlining how to use UV clear coat products. ( Also, from what I've heard Solarez is similar, but much more smelly and generally less liked. lol there I gave an opinion as well )

I’ve made a few mega poppers for edict fishing. I’ve had some nice fish explode on it. Stupid Muskies like to explode on the popper, but often end up hitting it away. Lol. Crazy for me to think a catfish would go for one! Those are cool fish. anyway. They were a pretty standard popper shape, 10” long. About 1.25” diameter popper mouth. I’ll have to see what info I have on them. I added enough ballast roughly in the middle to make it sit slightly nose up in the water. With t he hook hanger just under the water when sitting. it made a pretty good pop when I give it a hard quick jerk. I’ll have to get more info once I go to the shop.

You got that right for sure. Far fewer "positive reinforcement" moments for muskies compared to most other freshwater fish. I'm lucky enough to spend enough time on the Winnipeg river to come across a few patterns of open water and deep current edge muskies in July/august when most guys are ripping blades in the shallows (which obviously works good too). I've learned a lot from John Bondy there, who also fishes a big river system. One thing that probably helps al these anglers is the insane electronics that is available. I've fished with the livescope system now, and seen muskies on spots that no one in 100 years has probably fished, us included. But, you can see fish clear as day when exploring these areas. Areas with almost no discernable structure that fish use to stage, or travel from spot to spot. Now we see a lot of Muskie guys targeting fish way out from traditional areas on LOTW (the massive weed loss of recent years is also to blame for sure). I can only imagine how useful these technologies are to the pros when scouting and pre fishing a lake.

I blows my mind watching these tournaments how intelligent and knowledgeable those anglers are. They know the difference between all the grasses and weeds and movements of the fish and tiny ledges down 20 feet deep (or maybe they are just bs'ing me, but it worked). What is more amazing often is that in the same day on the same tourney, guys fishing with plastics in 1 foot of slop can slay bass at the same time as a guy fishing a 20 foot ledge with a rattle trap slaying bass. I need to take that fact and apply it more to muskies and all other fish. There is often a 'trend' or rut that you get stuck in - in july fish are only shallow (for example). When in reality, on any given day, there are active fish in several different depths and ecosystems.

Old post, but great read! My other hobbies, play volleyball (not quite as good as i used to). I've been hit by a bug, and an appreciation of vintage wood working equipment. Specifically pre-WW2 era. Just a certain quality and "weight" to these amazing old machines. I love the Beaver equipment made in Canada. Hope to have a huge collection someday. Along those lines as well, I've fallen in love with artifact hunting. I have had the opportunity to do so for years, but never cared to much. But these days, I love nothing more than walking the banks of the mighty Winnipeg river and looking for arrowheads, or any such artifact. I've found a few amazing things. As I get older, I seem to have more of a connection with the past.

Why the heck do you think we are on here building baits? lol Long cold winter. Ice fishing, whiskey, making stuff (not all those things go together). Yea, you get used to it. Makes you appreciate those sunsets out on the boat on a nice summer evening that's for sure. I don't take any fishing day for granted. By the time we get back to -10C, it feels like t-shirt weather again. Climbing hydro poles all day at -35C keeps me warm enough, pays the bills too.

Look to the bass lure isle. Most musky lures are upsized versions of these bass lures. There are still quite a few that haven't been commercially upsized and "muskiefied". I've tinkered with a few just for fun. Giant poppers. Large size ned rig? I wonder if a muskie would bite a huge wacky worm? That would be interesting lol. Upsized wake bait. Like a big Mann's one minus would be cool for spring I think.

Wow! Sounds like you are set up alright! Nice work. Jigs make it all the steps easily repeatable, sounds like you are well on your way!

ohhh so close, I've been lucky enough to guide for several years in a smallmouth paradise at Eaglenest Lodge, Manitoba. Nice one!

Oh man I see the confusion. I don't want to slander any bait maker, that wasn't the point at all either. The two pictures were from two different baits. The one with the open eye is from the HL. I've had more than one problem with more than a few baits.

Yea, it crossed my mind as well. And I wouldn't totally rule that out. But the bad areas were the opposite of the tape. Like I tapped the gold glitter area, and the green area and painted black around the tape. So the residue would have been on the spots where the epoxy was good. And I didn't use tape at all on the all black back one in the front of the pic.

One thing that I was happy about so far with these lures is that this was the first run I tried with the slot on the top method, just for kicks. And I was worried about there being a noticeable line down the top. But without any of the hook hangers in the way, plus some epoxy as a base coat, it easy to sand, and is as smooth as can be (minus the black paint/epoxy issues). The hook hangers on the bottom came out pretty clean as well. It's a bit of a pain, but overall, not tooo much more of a pain than a regular slot method. I think of all the methods, the drill through/fig 8 hook hangers, is still probably my overall favorite. But they all work, and have their merits.

Yea I hear ya. I only get to tinker a few evenings here and there between kids and work. I don't have a problem waiting in between steps. Thanks I'm glad I have wood heat in my shop as its -35 C here right now. lol

I've used spar urethane cut with thinner before. It seemed to do the job. I can't remember why I changed away from it. Stinky? lol That wood hardener is crazy, how it makes the wood like a rock. It is hard to even sand afterwards.

I think it’ll work. Probably pretty shallow, like 6-7 feet? with a big slow wobble. I’ve made one similar looking with a 12” body as well, my lip was slightly smaller and it basically didn’t do anything. I think you have enough lip to give it some action. Let us know how it goes.

I totally remember you saying now that you remind me. Yea I’m pretty sure a quick clear with something solves this problem. I’ve never used the rustoleum stuff. Might have to try it too. Thanks. how fast does that stuff dry? Like how soon after would you clear coat roughly?

So this is a new one for me. Honestly not a big deal as the lures (not the rainbow trout bottle opener) are just for me to beat up and made with different weights and lips to test. So even the paint schemes were done pretty minimal. I checked on the final epoxy this morning and thought oh boy, I must have contaminated the lure because the epoxy was very blotchy. Especially the second black and green one. I wasn’t particularly careful at all. I also thought maybe I torched them a bit to much? Although I didn’t think I over did it. the paint was dry as it had been at least a day since any of them had been painted and heat set. As I inspected the two bottle openers and five lures I epoxied it was pretty evident that some of them finished very well. Like the two bottle openers (phew, I had spent more time on those for sure). And the two orange lures were pretty much flawless. On inspection, it was clearly only the black areas on the other three lures where the epoxy had been blotchy. It was jacquard airbrush acrylic paint, which I’ve used before. Even the green stripes on the worst lure (second from bottom) was pretty smooth compared to the horrible black stripes where the epoxy pulled away and globbed. Anyway, like I said, I’ll throw another coat on and they will be ready to fish for myself. It really pays off on my quality lures to go the extra step for getting a good finish. Like on the rainbow trout bottle opener, I prepped for epoxy by spraying the surface with polycrylic. And ensuring that once the wood work was done, the surface was kept clean. anyone ever seen this happen?

I like the look of a tapered bait like the one on the left. As far as action on a crankbait, I don't *think* it would change much. Lots of flat sided cranks out there. Way way way easier to router and build the flat sided one. Which is why that is the choice for lots of lure builders I would imagine. As far as a glider, I have much less experience. Hellhounds are pretty much flat sided, as well as phantoms, so I could see it that shape working for either one.

haha on no! I've been there. I can bandsaw thin shims pretty easy, and use my belt sander to get them down to the right size real quick. And yea I've done it frantically after i've mixed my epoxy lol. Baits look good! As far as the RAS, I have heard that it is a finger destroyer. But it is about as safe as it gets for simple cross cutting. With this jig clamped down, I don't have to even have my hands on anything except the handle of the saw. That is what I really wanted overall. Those guards came with the saw. Pretty neat, but I don't think they would help at all for a quick climb cut into your hand if it were in the wrong spot. I love watching "Frank Makes" on youtube, and have learned how to use a RAS from him. Never have your hand in the cut line, no matter what. Just good practice.

@Big Epp this was that jig I made for my radial arm saw.