Fishwhittler

Those are some of the best looking cranks I have ever seen.

Great job! That top one is real nice.

It looks good. Can't wait to see it finished. Is that PVC? Ben

Those are cool! I really like the bluegill. 8-)

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index is the site for lure making info. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/ should have the parts you want. Hope this helps. Ben

That one is cool! Did you catch anything on it? I didn't think to outline the mouth and teeth with a pencil, I just masked around the edge of the mouth and went at it with a brush. The pencil sounds like it would be easier though. I'll give it a shot on my next one. Ben

I don't care for baby bass patterns very much either (too boring) but that one is cool. 8-)

X2, you are very good! 8-)

Thanks IB. The teeth aren't nearly as even in person. : This one is just a practice bait, I'm not sure I'm actually going to finish it. It doesn't float and is a real pain to cast or reel in. Also it was one of the first baits I made using twisted wire hook hangers and I made them out of rebar wire instead of galvanized or stainless wire. The rebar wire is plenty strong but it will rust very easily so extra care is needed to ensure that they don't. I am going to do some more "shark-mouthed" baits though. Painting the teeth is fun, if time consuming. I think I may do one in camo with air force roundels on it... Ben

I finally got around to putting a shark mouth on a crank. The one below it is by a guy in Sweden. He's much better at painting shark mouths then I am. Hope you like. Ben Edit: Oops, the other photo didn't show up. Here it is: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/media/3586/1_KDefined.JPG

idlov2fish, I'm not looking for the "perfect" topcoat but if E-tex is cheaper than Flex Coat and gives the same results than I may as well use E-tex. Does E-tex turn yellow over time? Flex Coat Ultra V doesn't yellow (or if it does, it takes a very long time) and I don't want to spend money on epoxy only to have it turn yellow in a few days/weeks. Thanks Ben

What do you mean?

Has anyone used all three? If so, what are the respective advantages/disadvantages of each of these? I use Flex Coat but I'm thinking about trying E-tex or maybe Dick Nites (when DN is available again). I noticed that you can get E-tex for cheaper than Flex Coat which is one reason I'd like to try it, but if Flex Coat is better (tougher, more user friendly, etc.) then I'll stick with it. Thanks in advance Ben

I use a scroll saw for my baits because it's what is available to me. Most of my baits are cut out of 3/4" pine and it works fine for that, but if I try to cut thicker (1") stock then it gets much harder unless I'm using a brand new blade. I don't know if you have the same problems with thicker wood when you're using balsa.

Thanks guys. Wickyman, I did test most of these prior to painting. At that point they all worked great, but now I'm having problems getting the wake bait to swim right. Maybe if I bent the lip toward the nose that would help? Something to try. Ben

This project is sidelined for a while. Also, I wasn't planning on a major rebuild. It was just a cheap blank so really the only thing I was going to do to it was redo the wraps and maybe do some marbling. But now I haven't had much time to do anything to it (which may be just as well). This rod was not well thought out on my part. It was the first (and only) rod that I built and I didn't know the first thing about rod building so I chose the toughest guides I could find because I didn't want them to get grooved from the line. The only problem was the blank I got wasn't nearly heavy enough for what I had wanted it to do so I ended up with a rod with tough, heavy guides, medium power and action, and not nearly enough backbone to throw the heavy baits I wanted it to throw: a rod without a purpose. Basically it's an example of what not to do when building a rod. I'll do better next time. Ben

Awesome lure! I like purple too...

Finished some more cranks. The big crank in the top pic is 1 1/4" wide . I made it from two pieces of 3/4" pine glued together. Also I've been trying bending lexan again. I finally figured out how to do it: a little heat and a lot of pressure. Let me know what you think. Ben

Thanks guys. Actually, carving it really wasn't that bad (I think I got a softer piece of oak). It was much harder than pine but by no means impossible. The reason I chose oak for this bait is that it doesn't require much weighting to get it to sink and I wanted a sinking bait. I was surprised with this one though; it floats! I figured it would sink as I built another oak bait before this one and it sinks like a rock, but this one just sits on top. I guess I need to weight it more next time or use a denser piece of oak. ToledoEF, It's heavy for it's size (about 7") but it's lighter than one of my larger 8" pine swimbaits.

Amazing work. I especially like the bottom two. 8-)

Very nice swimmers there.

I resized your pics (look below) using my computer, but you should be able to use the link above to do it. I like the feathers! Ben

Those DT-20's are very cool. Great job!

Thanks! I got the idea for the hump from pics of spawning salmon.

Oak, foiled, purple Krylon X-metals paint, exaggerated hump. Let me know what you think. Ben