BobP

Jon, looks like you did a very good job of keeping it symmetrical. Harder to do than to say, oui? Nice work! I tried PVC and Alumite but I'll always be a "wood guy". Most of the man made materials are consistent but also heavier than stuff I like to use, like balsa and basswood. You develop a knowledge base on how to work a particular material, how to finish it, and especially how to design baits incorporating it. When you switch materials, there's a lot you have to re-learn - in other words, you must take several steps backwards. Most guys build better baits faster if they stick with one or two materials until they master them. If Sintra's your bag - Salut!

I've seen Etex (aka Envirotex Lite) coated baits to die for in terms of clarity and depth of finish and the makers say they stay clear (unyellowed) for a long time. Same deal with Devcon Two Ton epoxy. Most epoxy will yellow at least slightly over time as it accumulates UV light exposure. You can buy epoxy with UV retarder but it costs at least twice as much as 'regular'. There are other significant contributors to yellowing - failure to measure accurately and mix thoroughly, and occasionally buying epoxy that has been 'on the shelf' for too long before use. In my experience, not enough mixing is most often the culprit. Done right, Etex or Devcon will show minimal if any yellowing on a bass bait over the course of several years fishing. How you store your baits can shorten or extend that. Hang any bait on the rear view mirror of your truck over the summer and it will probably be a nice shade of yellow by fall.

Janns Netcraft and Stamina tackle carry lure components. For detailed discussions on "how to", visit tackleunderground.com/ It also has links to some different component suppliers. Janns and Stamina sell unpainted crankbait bodies and their descriptions often recommend the size split rings and treble hooks to use. 90% of crankbaits use #6 or #4 treble hooks. I use #2 split rings most often, #1 on small cranks.

Flutter is OK but job #1 is to get it down there, the sooner the better. I use a 1/2 oz spoon in 25 ft or less, 3/4 oz deeper. Winter spoon jigging is more about finding active feeding fish than enticing neutral fish to bite. My favorites are the BPS Laser Eye and the Cabelas Real Image jigging spoons. Neither is a flutter spoon but both have some action. The Cabelas spoon in glow white is a killer. Janns Netcraft sells some spoons that are close copies of the Real Image. One thing I've come to appreciate is a spoon that has wire hook hangers on both ends. Getting a split ring on a Strata spoon or a Hopkins without bending it is not easy.

X2 on Stringjam's post. I got a 103 way back when Clunn was advertising them and was disappointed in both the durability and the action. Not saying the current product isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but that was my experience a few years ago and I have a long memory.

Don't know what happened. I was responding to a posted query and this is the result! I'm not senile. Really.

A tandem SB has a small Oklahoma blade up front and a willow leaf blade behind.

The fastest way to cut Lexan or G-10 by hand is with tin snips. I draw a lip outline, cut it out leaving about a millimeter of material around the lip, and then take it down to the exact line with a fine grit Dremel sanding drum. You can use a felt polishing cylinder on your Dremel to dress the edges. You can do it with a scroll saw but tin snips are faster, just as exact, and less noisy. Guys who do larger batches of baits often stack the lip material and cut it out on a band saw. McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) sells G-10 garolite (yellow color) and more expensive and harder G-11 Garolite (yellowish green).

Yes, different weight lips make a difference in how the bait balances and how it swims. Lexan is the G.E. brand name of polycarbonate. G.E. invented it during WWII for airplane canopies and guys say "Lexan" to denote all polycarbonate. Like Kleenex! There are many brands and all have similar properties and are suitable for lips. I almost always use 1/16" thick. Like Marty says, the other favored lip material is Garolite G-10, also known as Micarta, circuit board, etc. It's good for shallow baits because it gives a sharper rebound off of cover like rocks and wood, which bass like. It comes in various colors and is opaque and stiffer than Lexan. I also like the 1/32" G-10. It will make a crankbait dive a little deeper than a thicker lip, with more defined action.

Nice technique Jon. You're the Prince of Purple! I'm beginning to like purple too. :-/ Btw - what is that stuff in your Avatar pic?

No no no Wickyman! That's not how it works. You build them. You paint them. You keep the great ones, give the good ones to friends, and the bad ones to guys you don't like so much.

I use a scroll saw because that's what I own. It works OK. But I only build 2-6 baits at a time. Frustration is cutting half a dozen 1" thick blanks from a hardwood like basswood. It's not bad on thin flat baits from hardwood and it will cut a fine line line, with more curve. It will cut balsa as fast as you want. But if you plan to cut hardwood often, most bait builders would say get a small band saw. The bandsaw is a little more unforgiving of fingers but like all power tools, the faster they work, the more careful you need to be.

I don't care how long the spool free spools because I'm gonna clean and lube the entire reel first thing after I buy it. When looking at a reel, I crank it and listen for any noises, vibrations or unevenness in response while cranking. It should crank smoothly and quietly. Does the level wind move freely back and forth? Any reel parts missing? Does anything look bent or out of alignment? Take off the left side and see if all 6 plastic brake blocks are there. Look at the brass brake drum. If it's smooth and not corroded, that's good. Take a rod and a practice lure with you and make a few casts. If there's any misalignment or bent internal parts, it will vibrate - that kind of problem can be hard to diagnose and fix. Pull line off the reel while it's in gear to see how the drag is working. You should be able to vary the drag setting from light to heavy resistance and line should come off smoothly (if it's jerky, you can fix that with drag lube, but if there's no drag, you got a bigger problem).

Use 220 and 400 grit paper and try not to go too heavy on paint layers. If you're clearing with heavy epoxy on a suspending bait, you want to remove all the finish. It will also remove 3D details. Pro refinishers use a blast booth which preserves most of the detail. Epoxy isn't as bad as some think because it has a 1.05 specific gravity, only a bit more than water. You want a bait to suspend in the hottest water it will be fished in. It will have more relative buoyancy in colder water, which you can fix with Suspendots, etc.

Sweet! Remember to save some time for fishing!

Are they worth it? Depends on how much value you see in buying plastic baits with very high build quality. If a LC works well, you can buy another assured that it will work just like the first one. Most other brands have less quality control. To me, spending $15 once is better than wasting time and money (especially time fishing!) on a different brand with hit or miss quality. It might even end up being cheaper. That said, L.C. doesn't build every bait that a crankbait junkie needs. IMO, they tend to have dependable but conservative action compared to some. And they don't make the wood baits that every boy needs, either. My fave LC's are the R.C. baits sold by BPS, the CB200, and the Staysee 90SP.

Those blue squiggles turned out just dandy. IMO many baits end up with too much blue, and yours doesn't. You have a flair for this, Jon.

Largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass have different ideal habitats. Spots do better in warm water, low visibility situations than smallies who need cold clear water. Both spots and smallies favor current and spawn deeper than largemouths who favor shallow, low-current situations. The changes in water conditions over time favor one species over another. If the smallmouth population declines due to warming water and/or less visibility from increased nutrients like lawn fertilizers, spots will increase. I count that as a good thing because instead of dead water, there will still be bass to catch! Spots aren't an invasive exotic species. Most rivers in the SE have healthy populations of them, and most lakes are fed by rivers. Treating them like an invasive exotic species from Mars just ain't rational.

Two suggestions: long casts, fluorocarbon line unless you're punching mats. If you see them, they see you.

X2. U-40 Rod Bond epoxy paste works great, gives you plenty of time to adjust parts (at least an hour!), will fill any gaps without running.

I never lost a fish on Vanish but all the trash talk prompted me to switch to BPS, P-Line, and Seaguar. The latest Vanish boxes say "improved" so maybe it's now better. But I ask myself - why sell Vanish and come out with a new, expensive fluoro like Trilene? Since "low viz" is reason #1 why we buy fluoro, I can't see an advantage of a fluoro color transition line.

Spool bearings and level wind - Yellow Rocket Fuel or Ardent bearing oil. Non spool bearings - slightly heavier Ardent Reel Butter oil. Gears and other non-bearing parts - Superlube PTFE grease. Shimano Ace-2 Drag Grease for internal drag components.

This time of year, if you simply MUST beat the banks, a jig and pig is hard to beat for quality and a small crankbait for numbers. If you know how to use sonar, by all means move off the bank into deep water and spoon jig. It will beat anything when the bass are grouped up on shad schools. There are lots of ways to catch fish but these are the ones I count on this time of year in SE reservoirs.

It's late fall, but any time of year I see a sonar pic like Randall posted, I break out a jigging spoon! Nothing catches active fish grouped in one spot faster.

Those are nice! I think that's marbelizing, like is done on a rod. Not throw it?! If you aren't gonna fish it, it's just brick-a-brack.