BobP

Zip, most guys drill a hole in the lip and push a hand-made screw eye (pre-bent to 90 deg) through, then anchor it in a groove in the lip slot under the lip. You can bed the line tie under the lip in epoxy if needed for rigidity. There are variations on the theme, but that's the basic pattern. Some use a heavy wire untwisted, some drill two holes and run the wires separately to the body, etc etc.

I guess it depends on how much you think the color pattern counts in the attraction equation that includes bait depth, size, action, and color pattern. In my fishing experience, the other characteristics count for more than the color pattern. If I fished northern waters for smallmouth more, maybe it would be higher on the list - but I doubt it. I have a few Koppers baits and haven't had them out-perform my Rapalas, Bombers, customs, etc.

Epoxy is actually a little more reliable in terms of aesthetics than moisture cured urethane (MCU), so some guys prefer it for that reason. As far as performance, both, along with automotive clearcoat, are excellent alternatives. Every clearcoat has a learning curve. Many guys who started out as hobby builders started with epoxy because you can buy a double syringe of Devcon Two Ton for a couple of bucks and get excellent results. Many of those guys figure "if it ain't broke don't fix it". They're right but I like to experiment and I regularly use MCU. I especially like it on plastic lures because it is very thin, durable, and clear and most resembles a "factory finish". It will not gloss over any 3D detail on the bait like epoxy will tend to do. Epoxy is almost traditional on balsa wood crankbaits because it levels out well over minor surface irregularities in the wood to create a beautiful finish. Two part catalyzed automotive clears are also a good choice but are poisonous and require safety equipment to use, so are less popular. IMO, there are no bad choices; some just tend to be a little better or worse in aesthetics, application, storage, etc for particular crankbaits.

I have used the Famowood and it works fine, although I prefer Dick Nite S81 clearcoat. Both of them are moisture cured urethanes (MCU). Best practice (and simplest): dip the lure and hang it up over a newspaper for the excess to drip off the tail, then let it cure for at least 4 days before fishing it. You should not put a lure dipped in Famowood on a lure turner. MCU forms a skin very quickly but there is usually liquid urethane underneath the skin. On a turner, the liquid tends to collect in one area of the bait and cause bubbling and delamination of the paint. Just hang it up to dry and all the excess will drip off, avoiding the problem. I like MCU very much for crankbait topcoat; it's very durable, very thin, very clear, and simple to apply. To me, it's the closest thing to a "factory finish" you can put on a crankbait (in fact, it is used by Dick Nite to topcoat the trolling spoons the company produces). If you haven't used a moisture cured urethane before, I suggest you bone up on its storage and application procedures. It works great but is hard to keep from curing solid in a storage container because any atmospheric moisture, aka just plain ole air, will eventually cause it to begin curing. You need to exclude air from the storage container. Rather than write an encyclopedia here, I suggest you cruise over to tackleunderground.com, navigate to the Hard Bait forum there, and conduct a search on Dick Nite - which has been extensively discussed there. BTW, it you access the Dick Nite website from tackleunderground, you can buy the finish at a decent discount.

You hear all sorts of stuff used as crankbait lips - CD's, clear plastic from various sources, etc. If you want a durable lip - don't use them. The best 2 materials for lips are polycarbonate (aka Lexan, a GE brand name) or circuit board. Polycarbonate is clear and very tough. Circuit board (aka Garolite, G-10, FR-4, Micarta) is very thin, very stiff and durable,and comes in various colors (the most popular being an off-white color for crankbaits). You can design and cut out your own lips from Lexan or circuit board or buy ready-made lips from several tackle suppliers like Jann's Netcraft. Jann's and other tackle suppliers carry a few lip types and sizes; whether one of them is the shape and size you want is the question. Both materials are sold in sheets of various thicknesses by McMaster-Carr, who carries the circuit board in its online catalog as "Garolite". Most bass baits use 1/16" thick polycarbonate or 1/32" circuit board. I prefer to cut my own lips, using a pair of tin snips and a Dremel sanding drum to finalize the shape.

The critical part in painting a crankbait is not the paint but the clear topcoat you apply over the paint. Most painters use water based acrylic airbrush paints and cover it with either epoxy or a very durable urethane like an auto clearcoat or a moisture cured urethane. Unless you are getting into painting as a continuing hobby or business, epoxy is the cheapest choice.

If you really want to "match the hatch" you need to turn over a few rocks in your lake. If you search on Google, many state universities have catalogs of craw species pics. Most of the year, in most lakes, most of the craw species will be a shade of brown.

I make most of my own rods and think there's a cost/benefit breakpoint. Below a certain cost, maybe around $100, you will spend as much buying parts for a rod as it would cost to purchase one ready-made with the same parts Above that cost point, building your own rod saves you more and more money. Why? Lower cost rods are usually built cheaply in China, although they may have good quality components. As you get into higher priced rod blanks, you really begin to save more and more money by "rolling your own". Of course, this doesn't address the satisfaction you may get from building your own rod, or the benefit from building a rod to to different specifications than you could find in a factory model. I recommend building an inexpensive rod first time out (in case you screw it up!), then switching to the rod blanks you REALLY want to be fishing after you've learned the ropes. It's not difficult and doesn't have to be expensive to get started.

Sounds to me like your reel is behaving like it's supposed to when the flipping/pitching switch is activated. When you depress the bar, the spool is free to cast. Let it up and the reel is engaged, without having to turn the handle to engage it.

I like DN as well as I like epoxy but I'm not wedded to either and choose depending on the situation. If I was lazy in sanding or undercoating and end up with any rough spots on the painted bait, I'll choose epoxy for a thicker topcoat that will hide the fault. If the bait is as smooth as a boiled egg when painted, I'm likely to dip it in DN instead. Another variable - I can guarantee a faultless topcoat (in terms of the aesthetics) with epoxy. DN is less reliable in that regard. So if in situations where presentation to the fisherman is important (not often for a hobbiest like me), I'm more likely to use epoxy.

I think any of them will do fine but I prefer a 6.2 gear ratio. If you throw lighter plastics/jigs, a light weight perforated spool holding less line, such as on a Chronarch 50MG is also useful. I have one of the CA200 Castaic reels with a flipping switch (rocker arm) from the early 2000's. Used it 2 hrs and it's been sitting in my reel cabinet ever since. Many think it's an advantage to pitch left handed with a right hand reel, or pitch right handed with a left hand reel, so you don't have to switch the rod/reel to your other hand during the presentation. Switching hasn't been a problem for me, but everyone has to judge that for himself.

Thru-wire can't hurt but it's certainly not needed except in some balsa baits. When I use it, it's as much because I want the added rigidity of an epoxy "backbone" throughout the length of a soft balsa bait as it is because I need a better anchor for the hardware and ballast. I also use hand-twisted screw eyes and have never had one pulled out of a balsa bait. Now, would I make a bait out of soft balsa and use 1" store-bought tapered shank screw eyes (glued or not)? Nope. I think you have to consider all the build elements on a crankbait before you decide whether thru-wiring is needed. I've fished non-wired balsa baits that fell apart after 2 hours of fishing. I've fished others for years that are still going strong. In my experience, durability depends more on the type of wire used for the hangers/line tie and the durability of the lure's finish. I favor soft temper stainless wire and epoxy undercoating and topcoating on my balsa baits for that reason.

There have been several iterations of the Abu Pro Max, beginning in the late 1960's. I have several early 1600 and 3600 models, which are small round reels, painted silver, with 8 ball bearings. If that's your model, they can be upgraded with 3x10x4mm ABEC7 spool bearings, same size as used in the old Curado CU200's. Over and above that, you can make them cast a much better with some minor adjustments. First, use a thinner bearing oil like Yellow Rocket Fuel in the 2 spool bearings. The Reel Butter oil is good stuff, but not optimum for high speed spool bearings, IMO. Then, use one white or 2 black brake blocks on the 2 centrifugal brake posts. Polish the centrifugal brake drum with brass polish to a high gloss and wipe a drop of bearing oil around it afterward. After that, it's a matter of setting the cast control knob. Loosen the knob until you can get a slight play in the spool when you push it to one side. The only cast control applied will be the slight pressure provided by the wavy brass washer under the right side spool bearing. Do not overfill or underfill the spool with line; it should be about 1/16" below the spool lip. Once you set up a Pro Max like this, you will be surprised how far it casts, and with little if any thumb control. I'm basically a Shimano guy but the old Pro Max reels cast and retrieve as smoothly, as far, and with fewer backlashes than any Shimano I've ever owned. They were high quality reels in the 60's that retailed for $169 and came with a lifetime warranty. How many other reels do that?

All it takes is one shim or bearing out of place to make a spinning reel nightmare. Shimanos generally don't use many (if any) shim washers on their drive shafts/axles but some other companies do. I took a cheap Daiwa X1A apart one time and was never able to get it working right again because the shim washers were not identified on the schematic. I'd take a hard look at the schematic and see where you went wrong. And next time, take some digital shots of the reel as you disassemble it. I never have problems with baitcasters but spinning reels can be frustrating!

You'll never know if they're genuine unless you buy them. The knockoffs I see are easy to detect once you have them in hand. Obviously, these have been repainted if they are originals. What would kill the deal for me is the minimum bid price, more than $12 for a lure that costs $15 new retail. Look around and you'll eventually find some originals on sale from a trusted retailer at that price, or better.

Qboy, it would be great if we could go to Wally World, pick up a can of cheap spray paint, shoot it on a crankbait and expect it to perform like a factory finish. But that's not gonna happen. If you want a crankbait repaint to look good and last, you have to remove any oxidized or chipped paint, paint the crankbait, then coat it with a very durable topcoat. That doesn't seem to be what you're looking for, so it's hard to recommend a quick fix. The reality is a Baby 1- is cheap enough that the cost of materials to repaint one cost more than a new bait. So unless you want to get into crankbait repainting as a hobby, I say use the lure "as is".

I've tried powder coating tungsten worm weights, painting/clearcoating them, and just marking them up with a Sharpie pen. Powder coating is fine if you know how to do it. I don't and it was a real mess. Spray painting/clearcoating works OK if you have the right coatings, which most guys do not. A trip to the local Walmart won't find you durable clearcoat in my experience. Of the 3 methods, a Sharpie pen is the fastest and works pretty decently - not permanent but will last for a day of fishing. Reality? Next time buy painted tungsten weights with a factory baked-on finish (which you coulda done this time from BassPro!)!

You can get wrapped around the axle pretty quick considering Extra Fast action from various companies. In worm rods, it often means a very stiff tip section. But in a purpose-built dropshot rod, the reverse may be true. When dropshotting first became popular, I looked for advice and the Shimano Crucial CRS-DX68M was highly recommended by several experts. I got one and never regretted it. It has a very fast but very soft tip section for 18", backed up by a substantial M power butt section. That's exactly the kind of taper and action you want in a good dropshot rod. The soft tip helps you finesse the presentation and allows bass to take the bait without feeling resistance, while the M butt can put the muscle to them when it's time to get'em in the boat. It balances well with a 20 size spinning reel and has been a pleasure to fish. At around $150, they aren't cheap but I'd rather get a good $150 rod and a $50 spinning reel than the reverse. There may be other exceptional dropshot rods out there, but I know this one is right up there with the best and the price is not unreasonable.

Builders use different woods for different style cranks. Balsa is great for maximum buoyancy so it's ideal for shallow water cranks. White cedar and basswood are more dense, less buoyant, and are often chosen for deep diving baits where you want neutral buoyancy or a slow float. Yep, balsa is less durable than other woods but there is no substitute for it if you want liveliness and a fast float to negotiate shallow cover. When you get into other hardwoods like cherry, oak, etc, the density is so high that it becomes difficult to build a bait containing hook hangers, treble hooks, and a lip that will not sink.

I fish a clear lake where the bluegill tend to have fairly muted colors ....

When I build baits, I work to a final weight by adding up the components, ballast, body, and finish. On an average bass bait, say 2 1/4", the finish including a D2T undercoat and topcoat adds about .02 oz to the weight of the finished bait. A single coat of D2T would add less, so that's not much. I build some flat sided bass baits from basswood and use .35 oz as my target weight for a slow rising bait. Digital scales are cheap and a good investment.

Clunn is one of the most successful tournament fishermen of all time. I somehow acquired one of his BassPro signature rods a few years ago and was dismayed at its weight and lack of sensitivity. I think my wife uses it as a tomato stake in the backyard nowadays and it does a fine job in that role. So color me skeptical about any other RC signature rod. Fool me once.....etc

You do get what you pay for, most times. Higher cost = better optical clarity and greater degree of polarization. More polarization = less glare

Nice work Marty. I also favor simple patterns not least because that's the only kind of pattern I can paint! And I personally don't think the bass give a tinker's darn.

Dave, I use 1/16" polycarbonate or 1/32" G10 circuit board and the G10 is definitely stiffer than the polycarbonate though it is half as thick. I think the thinner leading edge of the G10 also has an effect. Some deep cranking afficionados file the lips on standard crankbaits to make them sharper, to dive faster/deeper. FW, a thin G10 is also significantly lighter than a thicker polycarbonate lip. That doesn't seem to make a big difference on shallow crankbaits but it's something you have to figure into the equation on ultra-deeps because the overall longitudinal balance of the lure is critical to its action. BTW - those baits look great!