Hillbilly voodoo

Hey Dave here is one of the baits I am working on. It is biased off a lure that gave me an erratic action with lots of tail movement. Can’t remember the lip shape of the original and the original was metal lip. This one has not seen water yet and better a narrower lip will be better. Lip is removable I use a layers of masking tape to pressure fit till I find what gives the desired action. This way I can bring multiple lips with me and test them all that day

If I get it right and can’t reproduce a lure we may need to talk My A D D has 6 different prototypes going at different stages right now and fighting myself to complete them before I start another But I need to go test my repair on my boat. Only have a few good months of open water fishing in my part of Canada

Welcome to my world and why my focus in the last 3 years has been refining my skills, understanding why, and reproduction of my lures Trying to be sure that once I get things to do as I want I can reproduce it this time

Most of my best actions have been lost, ripped apart trying to figure it out or fished till destroyed. I do have a few still but I need to find them. Was actually looking for that lazy “S” plug but have not found it yet. Some are ugly but they move I need to work on my organization

Agree knowing the species you’re building for is huge It’s Lake trout that seem to like rattles and the plan is to compare without and with a rattle on a few designs

I can’t even remember how I accomplished the lazy “S” and would have to dig through old lures testing each to find it. Could not tell you how I made it even See for 10years I owned a trout farm so I would sit there and make crude wooden lures. Pocket knife, dremel, and sand paper no plans just make it and throw it in the pond. I never made the same lure and built about 10 a day. No thought or paying attention to what I was doing just kept building. My trout seen lots of lures lol acomplished a lot just can’t figure out how I did it. I wish I took the time to understand what I was doing in the past. We have a different way of getting things done but seeing the way you go about things I find help full with my projects

First time I opened this thread and definitely some useful information. You are clearly more technical about things than I am. Really I just come up with an idea build it and throw it in the water to see what it does. Only 3 years ago I started putting more thought into lure building Unfortunately I am now trying to recreate actions of past one offs myself. It’s a different game than past building with the attitude “let’s see if fish will eat this” with no plans of recreation. Being sloppy and creative actually caused me to stumble on some interesting actions By what you are describing in your first post I have made lures in the past that had at least a variation of the action you are looking for. Might still have a lipless that does the lazy “S” as well. We might be trying to accomplish a similar action If my low tech tinkering accomplishes something I will let you know. Odds are you will beat me to it

But do you have lures you can’t even duplicate yourself lol I also don’t worry because I know people maybe able to create lures that look a like easily but it’s going to take someone with brains to re create the action

Lots of people seek the easy way out and this goes on with a lot more than lure painting. I would recommend don’t sell stencils if you don’t want people to replicate them or copy your work. You won’t catch me selling my moulds Clearly you’re frustrated but I don’t know what else to tell you other than continue to do what you enjoy

@clemmy I understand what you are saying about trying to give respect for the original painter of a pattern by using the name the original name. The issue is take a guy like myself who has no clue about fancy pattern names or search them out I just paint my lures. Odds are I have painted “custom patterns” without knowing it It’s no different than fly tying in my opinion. I have seen patterns tied privately for years and then down the road someone names it and claims to be the creator. The possibility is very possible multiple people without the others knowing were tying the pattern before it became well known Those who paint, fly tie, pour baits, build jigs, spoons, spinners, hard bait and any other fishing related craft has to realize odds are someone will build/paint something close or knock off what you do Only way to limit it is if what you do is difficult to figure out or involves a high level of difficulty

No offence but painting is just that painting. I respect the talent with an airbrush but in the end it’s just decorating a lure that someone else made. There is only so many combinations and if you are matching natural feed things are even more limited Maybe I just don’t get it because my focus is on building and action more than painting. In the end if painting is what you base your business on and competition is hurting you it’s time to find something that makes you stand out from the others. It’s just how business goes Good luck

I hate you lol

Most often an epoxy with a longer cure time is also a stronger adhesive as well

Drill pilot hole, feed in eye screw dry, cover threads with a liberal coating of cheap 4hr super strong 2 part epoxy from the hardware store and done. Have not had one fail and I use my lures on pike, salmon, and Lakers mostly (wish I had musky close). I do this for both cedar and resin poured baits. I also don’t recommend super glue on large fish.

KennyP A bit of advice with your pursuit of a life like action. Something I have found when someone is building a lure is they have this vision on how it should move. We often get caught up in trying to make the lure track perfect and keep consistent action. What I have found over time these are not the lures that out produced others. They look good and often do catch fish but they are just OK. The most productive lure I ever created now sits snagged on the bottom in 160ft of water. It out produced anything I trolled for Lakers. It was actually a reject that split well drilling a pilot hole and rather then tossing it I just did a random re shape. It had a random action I cannot duplicate. It seemed to fight it self every which way and randomly take off 4ft to the side then track back to center. It was a complete spaz and far from natural What I am getting at is in your search for a perfect natural action don’t overlook your mistakes a long the way. You maybe trying to fix a lure that will out produce the one in your mind. Always let the fish be the judge

Voodkaman I also have to give you credit for your ability to explain the technical aspect of lure making. It has helped improve my understanding of things as well. Unfortunately it has also sparked new ideas I have to try now lol Good news my present prototype has been moving forward without out a single hiccup because of it. In about a week it will be tested to see if the fish agree

The drive to create and to catch fish with something that I thought up is why I make lures. To create action out of an object not painting is what is my focus. My paint skills are lacking really lol I would say my lure making style is completely redneck stubborn trial and error. I started messing around with building lures 25years ago. Up until I joined this forum I just had an idea and tried it. Simple tools and sand paper to make it happen . I don’t know all the fancy vortex stuff but I focused on hand carved lipless baits for a long time and picked up an understanding how a simple dip, ridge, and angle changes everything I have built a lot of rejects(with the knowledge that can be found here I could probably fix them) and some that worked amazing. My biggest problem was I could not duplicate them. Recently switching to resin pouring is solving my issues. Unfortunately some amazing one off lures I could not duplicate in the past are lost to the fish or snags Unfortunately I find it difficult to explain how to make things move and how to cause multiple points on a lure fight eachother to create different actions and I don’t always understand why it works lol

I like it I get to do some shooting and solve my problem Win Win

So working on a new design for Lakers and pike its turning out really good action wise. Right now it’s just a wooden prototype but will be moulded and future baits will be poured. I am thinking about adding a rattle when I start pouring them. My thought is to throw some BB’s in a plastic or metal tube and plug either end. Then suspend it in the mould First time adding a rattle and can’t decide if a metal or plastic tube is better? Louder or better attractant I can’t be the first to think of this

There we go someone smarter then me has arrived

I pour pure resin layer for the belly and then a second layer balloon/resin mix. I don’t use any lead but instead just increase the size of the pure resin layer vs balloon/resin layer till I get the my bait to sit where I want in the water column. Note you results and you can repeat all future baits

Personally I use the same resin micro balloon ratio(would have to check my notes) I use for my floaters and just increase my ballast pure resin layer till I get what I am looking for way too many factors with hook/hardware and lure shape to give you a ratio that would work without trial and error I don’t doubt the knowledge here and there are those with way more experience then me but you might be stuck experimenting