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Posts: 405
| This winter Im going to try to make my own glide baits. I was wondering what some of you guys do to weight the baits and how you go about testing them. Please get back to me with any information im really interested in learning thanks
Brandon |
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Posts: 405
| and also where I could buy these components? |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | Buy egg sinkers in a variety of sizes, a roll of masking tape, a cordless drill, a few drill bits, and a tube of 5 minute epoxy from Fleet Farm. Fill your kitchen sink with water and HAVE AT IT.
Before drilling any holes.... tape the egg sinkers at desired locations onto the lure and "test float/sink" the bait in your sink. Once happy with the result.... drill, tap, and seal the egg sinkers in place.
Good Luck!!!!! |
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Posts: 6
Location: Grove City, PA 16127 | Brandon;
Go to a sporting store where you can get reloading bullets. Get 45 wad cutter bullets which are flat on the ends. Drill a 3/8" hole to depth or deeper and epoxy the bullet into the lure. Drill more holes if more weight is needed. Worked good for me.
Muskie Bound |
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Posts: 680
Location: Muskoka Ontario,Canada | Be aware of how close to the center line of the bait your lead is inserted as it will affect how much belly roll it will have. My personal method is to drill only as deep as that center line and melt lead in with a blow torch. After doing so many baits I have a good feel for how many holes to drill out and where to locate them etc.
I use a Forstner bit in a drill press as that type of drill bit lets you drill connecting holes without the bit jumping into the previous one.
Once the bait has been drilled and filled with lead I put it into my water filled tub and test for balance. If it sinks level with hooks on it's now ready for testing in the local river for action. If it needs to be tweaked I'll add or remove lead depending on if the bait is head or tail heavy and how fast it sinks already.
With time you will get a good feel for it and will become faster at balancing baits. In a glide bait correct balancing is almost as important as shape. Have fun!!!
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Posts: 480
| On often overlooked step is to balance the lure in the water it will be primariy fished in. For example, I know a guy who has over two dozen 6 gallon buckets of water from various trophy lakes across the upper midwest. He balnces each custom lure in the water of the buyers' choice. He even goes as far to blend water for lakes he doesn't have a sample from. Is this what drives the price of custom baits? It might seem overkill to go about such a refined extreme but he convinced me it has its merits. Some waters contain more iron, phosphates, oxygen compositions, alkiline/acidic balance and even pollution levels. Rumor has it he also dials in the temperture of the water for optimum performance. Truely, customized baits for the discriminating angler. One maker's maddess is another's blindness. That's what I like about this forum, striving to push the creativity as far as possible. |
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Posts: 921
Location: Apollo, PA | Captain,
You now will be AKA Professor Bigfish!!
That was a very intellectual post, my peabrain is aching....... Ouch!!!
Happy New Year Buddy!! / and also to your trusty sidekick JP |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | Capt. Big Fish,
Can you elaborate on how water chemistry can impact lure balance? I'm skeptical to say the least. I understand how DENSITY can impact the bouyancy/sink rate of a lure... but how does it impact balance? My experience has been that once a lure is balanced properly, the bait keeps its balance and only the sink-rate may change ever so slightly between major water temps (36F vs. 76F for example).
Musky Snax raises a good point regarding weight placement. His perspective is more geared towards mass producing lures, whereas my experience is more for small tinkering projects. You want to have fun playing games with the "balance point", try putting weigth on the TOP of a twitchbait. Awesome.... and if you are really into "belly roll" then I'd suggest converting some of your crankbaits into "glide baits" rather than trying to tweak an existing glider.
Just some random thoughts from a long-time tinkerer.....
Now... back to the Capital One Bowl.... Go Badgers!!! |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | Hi Captain,
Hey it's interesting that you mention the guy testing the drop of his lure in different water temps. Understanding that cold water is more dense than warm I ran a small test yesterday. Keep in mind my work area is not heated and the ambient temperature is currently in the 20s!!!So, testing baits and getting your hands wet is not all that fun.
I had two buckets, one with water at probably 80F and the other in the 30 degree range....so cold it hurt to put your hand in it for a second! Anyway, the buckets are about 20 inches deep. I would first drop a weighted glide bait into the warm water and then into the cold. I was moderately surprised to see that I couldn't visibly see any difference in drop rate from one bucket to the next. Needless to say, all of my testing from that point forward was done in the bucket with warm water!! lol.
jed v. |
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| I worked at a water plant for many years.
We have huge tanks in the building. One observation that I've made in years of weighting baits is that lures will float in water with chlorine and flouride, but will sink in "raw water" pumped directly out of Lake Michigan.
I don't know why, because I'm not a chemist, but I noticed a difference doing tests in the high school swimming pool. Lures that were near neutrally buoyant in Lake Michigan rose slowly to the surface when I threw them in the pool.
Beav |
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