Stringjam

Woah.....I think you could fry an egg on that lip!

I don't have a weight yet (yeah, I know). As far as available to the public - - as soon as I can find $20K laying around to buy a roto-duplicator...because there's no way I'd ever try to sell these things carving them by hand! ;D

I'm hoping for 16-17'. I'll be testing it this Saturday.

I am pretty curious about them....but I have a set of #2 Gamakatsu EWG's for this one. I need to pick up a set of the Mustads to compare....as they look VERY similar.

Thanks! The topcoat is auto-clear.

Rapala DT-16 or Poe's Comp Cedars 4400 For particularly gnarly stuff - Bagley DB3

It took me long enough, but I finally got my deep crank design done from start to finish.

If you fish your cranks in cover - stay FAR away.

Owner Stingers and Gamakatsu EWG's are the two best trebles I've used. Of the two, I think the Gamakatsu's hold better - I'm a fan of the wide-gap treble design. The Owners are stronger.

Awesome job! Very natural looking pattern....those should be righteous in clear water.

Well......purple is the nectar of the paint gods. I'm really starting to like pink, too. Perhaps I'll combine both into a new scheme called "JEM." (if you were a child of 80's, you'll )

I don't plan on painting these protos......I may not be done hacking and cutting and sanding and gluing on them for awhile.

Great looking job on these, Z! The sunfish pattern is excellent! The scaled lateral line on the second one looks neat as well....don't really recall seeing anything like that before.

I love the pink Spot! Nice stenciling!

What Bob noted is correct. The best auto clears are two-part and contain isocyanates - very nasty buggars that you need to protect yourself from. I spray it and have a good venting system, but I also wear long gloves and a full-face respirator. Other than that, I find that finishing with auto clear is pretty easy. I use Flex-Coat syringes to mix small quantities at a time. The clear I use is 2:1 and doesn't need to be reduced (I spray it through a .5mm Iwata Revolution). I can mix just enough clear to spray 3 or 4 coats on one bait if needed. The flash time between coats is 15-20 min. so it takes about an hour for the entire process. The clear dries perfect and clear (and will stay clear) without any edge thinning, and also doesn't require lure rotation. I don't really recommend it unless specifically asked, because it is some nasty stuff, and invariably somebody (perhaps not here ) will jump down my throat for suggesting it, but I'm just relating my experience with it. Use at your own risk. ;D

Thought I would experiment with some eye socket cutting for 3D eyes. I think this would be a heck of a lot easier with maybe a grinding cylinder or Forstner bit, and a drill press......I have none of the above... ;D Just had to make due with a plain old drill bit and a cordless drill. I think it turned out "ok."

Sorry....looks like the pics disappeared for awhile.....it's almost 2".

I think the picture may make it look like it's more extreme than it is. The angle is the same as a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 (around 40 degrees) - one of my best cranks for cover crawling, so I thought I'd start there. I raised the line-tie so that the action would be tighter than the LC (it is). Based on my comparisons - the action is tighter than both the Lucky Craft and Zoom WEC Sand Flea. Very similar to an 80's model Bagley KB1 round lip - - which is kind of a standard I keep in the back of my mind for certain cranks. The buoyancy is pretty high as well. In my tests, it had the exact same rise rate as the Zoom Sand Flea, which is a balsa crank. This really surprised me, considering my material is twice the specific gravity of hard balsa. I can only guess that the material also requires a lot less ballasting and that's what is evening out the weight. There's only so much I can figure out in a tub, though......I need to get these things in some real lake water!

Hey Bob! Actually, that was being caused by my haste to get it into the tub.. ;D ..I installed the line-tie without super-gluing the shaft and it was rocking in the hole. Here's the corrected video....I also raised the tie just a little to tighten it up a bit: Thanks for the thoughts, too.....I still definitely consider myself a "newbie" so my ears and mind are always open to design principles. I can definitely see what you're saying about the "working" angle, and how the attitude of the body relates to protecting the hooks. I'm also using the minimum amount of ballast I can get away with, any lighter and the bait is kicking out on the side now and then.......I want maximum buoyancy so I'm trying to push that line of stability.

I'm trying to design this bait around fishing heavy cover, but in a very small-bodied (2") "finesse" sized crank. The body is around the same size as a Wiggle Wart. Initial test vid: Action is pretty wide and snappy.

The vote seems to be split on preference for the action. Personally - I like a tight action 90% of the time, on pretty much any style of crank. It seems like there's times when a wide wobbling crank will get SLAMMED, though - especially in the summer.....like Bob said, it's nice to have the option in the boat. I think I'll continue to do the prototypes this way.....both options, a wide version and a tight version.

Very nice looking design, crankster. Love that type of crank!

How true, Bob. The girl loses so much hair every time she takes a shower I'm surprised she isn't bald by now. Doesn't take her long to figure out when I've been playing mad scientist in her tub.

Pick up a Staysee, too. When bass are a little deeper it's murder.

The first lure I really remember spending my own money on was a Heddon Torpedo......think I was about 12 or something. I was fishing a pond out of a little aluminum boat, throwing that little bugger, when an 8+ swallowed it. Pulled my little boat around the pond for awhile and then surfaced and shook the bait in a frothing violent maelstrom. My life was never the same after that. ;D That was the first big bass I'd ever seen (this is Missouri.....8 lbs is huge.....and I was only 12, making it huger, still). The whole experience was so epic for me that I went mental.