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Posts: 54
| So, a little while back my daughter renewed a life lesson for me in that I wasn't being a very good "sharer". At the time it was one of those funny, joking around situations but the more I thought of it, the more I realized she was right and that it had implication in multiple areas of my life. As such, going into 2019, I'm trying to be a better "sharer". I've visited here every once in a while to shop for used gear or browse the basement bait section but never posted much because I either didn't want to take the time or didn't think I had much to contribute or didn't want it to seem like I was tooting my own horn so to speak. I've been making baits a long time, started with surf plugs for stripers in the late 80's, been tying flies & building rods even longer; then came the musky addiction in the mid 90's...Through the years I've gotten some good bait ideas from this board and feel the need to repay that.
With that, I'd like to share a bait that has been very good to me for the last couple of years.
My buddies and I call it "Thumper". It started when I was having rigging and missed fish problems with the hollow body swimbaits when they first came out so I made a 6"hybrid version to solve the issue. A couple of years ago, I made the 8" version because I couldn't get as much of the same action or thump out of a Waterwolf or the like swimbait and then last year went to 10" (though I still like the 8" version best). The bait has a lot of belly roll while also pivoting on a central horizontal axis and the tail thumps hard. Hook-up percentage is excellent compared to all rubber baits. I use saltwater plastic for the tail section but also put fabric in there to improve strength and longevity without imparing action, it also adds a neat internal scale pattern - I'm certainly not the first to do this, I think I saw this in Storm baits first. The originals were carved out of wood, then I made separate molds for the body and tail sections so I could reproduce them easily. The pics should show the construction pretty well.
Hope this helps someone out somehow or generates an idea for you.
VW
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IMG_0159 (768x1024) (360x480).jpg (114KB - 383 downloads)
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Posts: 102
| That is so awesome! Thanks for sharing. I've actually been working on making myself a very similar lure. I got sick of the big shadzilla lures getting destroyed or foul casting. So I've made myself a wooden version, but I haven't had the time or nerve yet to get into pouring soft plastics. Your carving is outstanding. |
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Posts: 1100
| Those looks great, been pouring soft plastics my self quite some time, and looking at a lot of different sites, and i think that is the hybrid bait with the cleanest transaction from soft to hard body i have seen, and nice touch with the web molded in. |
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Posts: 653
Location: Moses Lake, WA | Beautiful piece of work. Thanks for sharing. |
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Posts: 54
| Thank you very much guys.
Zinox- special attention was paid to the transition, since the tail section was part of the original carving and then sliced off the front section it lined up pretty close but then I used a wood repair epoxy on the rear of the front section to replace material removed by the saw kerf in order to make the profile exactly as it was before the tail was sawn off. |
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Posts: 79
| Amazing and inspiring work. The black orange lure is just plain rad. |
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Posts: 455
| Those look so sweet, you should share one with me.
I'm a woodworker myself, is all of that hand carved? Looks very nice |
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Posts: 264
| Exceptional
You have some high end skills
Talmooner |
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Posts: 444
| Wow.
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Posts: 140
| To put it mildly, those are fantastic! Thanks for taking your daughters advice. Seeing that level of refined craftsmanship is very inspiring. Well done sir! |
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Posts: 54
| Geez, Thank you guys, you're making my head big!
Chasintails - After I cut the rough profiles out on the bandsaw, the originals were all handcarved using a homemade straight knife and exacto and some sandpaper. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | How do I buy them??? |
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