Fishwhittler

Pete, I brush two coats of Envirotex Lite on my lures. The bait in the first pic is one of my my handmade baits, so you won't be able to find it at a local tackle shop. If you're looking for an ultralight crank, I've heard some good things about the Strike King Bitsy Minnow.

Thanks guys! loodkop, the ultralight crank is a floater. I generally build sinking crankbaits only when I add too much ballast by mistake.

Here's a bunch of repaints I just finished, along with a couple PVC baits:

Here's a pic that shows some bills with built-in line ties. The hardware is 19 gauge stainless steel wire, and the lip is lexan sheet. Thanks to Big M and BobP for showing me this technique. When installing a bill with an integrated line tie, you'll need to use a rotary tool to grind a groove in the top and bottom of the bill slot for the wire. You can shape bills using a file, rotary tool, bench grinder, etc. Any of those will get the job done; my personal preference is a rotary tool.

Are you looking for pre-fabricated bills, or are you considering making your own from scratch? jannsnetcraft.com has a bunch of pre-made bill styles, and you might be able to find something that works there. Or you can make your own bills using lexan sheet and stainless steel wire, which is more time consuming, but it allows you to exactly match the profile of the original bill.

Here's a foiled bluegill I did a while back.

A couple jerkbaits, a new version of my perch pattern on an older swimbait design, and a bluegill swimbait. All are PVC, and the swimbait tails are cut from rubber overshoes.

I'm partial to the first jig, but both are very cool. Here's a new bluegill I recently did, inspired by Whittler's bluegill patterns.

Very nice! I like the third and last baits.

jr1945, I should point out that posting pics of live bluegills doesn't count... Kidding aside, those are absolutely stunning. Your new molded fins look very, very good.

Pinnacle Producer X Review

This thread will contain my review of the Pinnacle Producer X baitcasting reel. For the record, I am in no way affiliated with Pinnacle Fishing®. Pinnacle Producer X Review: Initial impression of the Producer X is very good. It's light, looks good, and feels solid overall. The main things I've noticed so far: Plusses: The clicking drag is a nice touch. This is my first baitcaster with a clicking drag, and while not strictly necessary, it does make adjusting the drag a bit simpler. The reel has very few plastic parts; the insides are almost completely metal, and none of the critical parts are plastic. The magnetic brake is easy to adjust and has a wide range of settings. My casting ability (or lack of same ) limits me to using the highest or second highest brake setting, but I'll be able to use lighter brakes as I get used to the reel. The drag is powerful. First I tested the drag with a scale (admittedly not the optimum tool for this, but it gives a rough estimate), and it locked down at just under 10 pounds of drag pressure. But then I had the bright idea of staging a "reel pull" between the Producer X and my Ambassadeur C3. For reference, the C3 is rated at 15 pounds of drag. For the test, I locked down the drags on both reels, and then connected the line from each reel to an old lure that I use as a casting weight. I had my brother hold the Producer X while I took the C3, and then pulled to see which drag would slip first. The Producer X was unable to slip the drag on my C3, but it still has a very powerful drag, more than enough for most bass fishing applications. Minuses: The gear shaft showed some signs of wear after I did my lock-down tests. The metal drag washer caused some very slight gouges in the gear shaft due to the high-pressure it was subjected to. The gouges are not serious enough to affect how the reel functions, but they do make it more difficult to remove the drive gear from the gear shaft. The problem is the somewhat loose tolerance between the metal drag washer and the gear shaft; if the metal drag washer fit more closely with the gear shaft, the gouging would never have happened. Other Notes: I did some fishing the other day, and while I didn't catch any fish I did get to put the Producer X through its paces. I'm very satisfied with how it performed; casting distance is good, the reel palms easily, and the retrieve is smooth. Only time will show if the Producer X holds up over the long haul, but so far it doesn't appear to have any issues other than the above-mentioned drag lock-down problem. That probably won't be too much of in concern since I typically use no more than 1/2 of any reel's full drag power, but the Producer X disappoints me in that regard. As I said, that's the only problem I've found with this reel, and currently I'd rate the Producer X 8.5 out of 10 overall. That's all for now. I'll post updates when I can, but I probably won't be able to see how the reel handles fish until next fishing season. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Ben

I don't know enough about hydrodynamics to give you a short answer that really explains the physics of swimbaits, but here's an article on how fish swim: Fish Swimming. That article is about fish, not swimbaits, but the same basic principles apply to swimbaits and cause them to swim in a similar fashion to real fish. The tail on my swimbait is mounted in a straight line with the lure body. I doubt if an angled tail would help the swimming motion; it would be much more likely to destroy the action instead. I hope this helps. Ben

Here's the one I use: Master G22. I've been using that kit for quite a while, and it works very well. The airbrush is simple to use and easy to clean, and the compressor is quiet and powerful for its size. The compressor maintains 40 PSI easily, which is plenty of pressure for painting lures.

Here's my latest. With two of the colors below, it might look like there are two pics of the same bait, but each pic shows a different bait. Yellow Splatterback Bleeding Blue Shad Yellow Perch

Figured I'd post my latest bunch of baits. I tried yet another version of American Shad, this time using a foil base instead of silver paint. I think the new pattern is my best version yet. I did two versions; I got the basic pattern down with the first version, and then fixed the things I didn't like about it on the second bait. Version 1 Version 2 I also got some other baits finished up: Copper Green Shad Foiled Red Craw Tennessee Shad HS Crack

You can get pre-fabricated bills from jann's netcraft, but there is a limited variety of sizes and shapes available. Most guys that make there own bills use lexan or garolite sheet. You start with a template of the bill, trace the pattern on the bill material, rough-cut the bill using tin snips, and then file or sand to final shape (I like to use a dremel tool for this). I get my lexan from US Plastics. A 12" x 12" sheet will make a bunch of bills, so you probably won't need anything bigger than that. You might be able to find lexan sheet at Menards or Lowe's, but I've found it cheaper to get it from US Plastics, even with shipping.

Very nice! The Female Bluegill and Natural Shad baits are amazing.

Very nice! I can't pick a favorite.

Very nice! I like the second, third and last baits.

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely want to give that a try sometime. I didn't through-wire the propbaits, as I really don't like through-wiring unless I have to. However, normal twisted-wire screw eyes would have been too thick to use, so I used a variation of them that leaves a single wire strand to use for the propellor shaft. The pic below shows what I did: I start with a 3" piece of wire, and bend over about 5/8" to form the loop on one end. It's basically a normal twisted-wire screw eye with one extra-long tag end, and the loop is smashed flat. The propellors and washers go on the shaft, and then the tail loop is finished the same as a through-wire harness.

Thanks guys! Big M, I used 1" and 1 1/2" props on these baits, and the biggest dumbbell props I could find were only 1". That would have worked for the smaller bait, but for the bigger bait I'd still have to use the style I'm currently using. I decided to just get the same style for each size, and as the props I'm using work fine, I don't see any reason to switch at this point. On the other hand, I'd probably want propellors that spin more freely if I was building bang-o-lure style baits; I did some experimentation with that style a while back, and it appeared the long, thin body was more prone to spinning than the short, deep body on the lures I've been building. In that case, I'd want a propellor that spins easily in order to generate as little torque as possible on the lure. Ben

Here's what I've been building lately. This first bait is a new, larger propbait I came up with. The old one didn't work very well (the prop was too small), so I built a bigger version with a larger propellor. Fat tight-action shallow diver (2-4') On this bait, I decided to try doing something similar to the Dep's Buzzjet. Mine is a shallow diver instead of a wake-bait, but it can be waked by holding the rod tip high. The body is about the same size as a KVD 2.5; I've tried doing the same thing with a smaller bait, but it couldn't handle the propellor and didn't run straight. Firetiger. I started this bait sometime last year, but I never got around to finishing it. I built it out of cedar instead of PVC, and it has a medium-wide action. Foil Bluegill. I used basswood instead of PVC for this bait. More basswood, on a propbait this time. This bait has the same profile as the propbait above, but it has a 1" instead of 3/4" cross-section, and I used an even bigger propellor on this one. It kicks up a huge ruckus when jerked; I'm thinking of calling it the "Turboprop". Wounded Gold Copperhead Shad Blue foiled swimbait: 6" long, 1 1/2 ounces, PVC, slow sinker. This last one is another old bait that I finally got around to finishing. This one is a monster: 8 3/8" long including the tail, weight just under 3 1/2 ounces (I know it's not very big when compared to other swimbaits, but it's the biggest, heaviest bait I've ever built). The bait is carved out of cedar, and I used a 20 gauge shotgun slug in the throat for ballast. Let me know what you think! Ben

Very nice!

Those look very good, especially the one with the fin.