Hi, I've been making topwater poppers out of balsa wood. The first popper I just used eye screws for the hook holders but then realized, after a smallie bent one of my trebles straight on a regular lure, (killer fish too  ;D ) that the screws would strip out of the balsa wood. So i started through wire construction on the rest of my lures. So far it has been pretty good. One problem I keep having is when i run the wire through... I can only make an eye on one end of the bait, then I seal it off with epoxy then make the other eye for the end hook... But i dont really get my wire flush with the wood, and while it works, I dont really like the way it looks. Any tips?

Also, any tips on how to make a maxrap (rapala) like shape?

You need to go visit some striper forums.   It's called a tail wrap and the striper guys do them on all their baits.   I have never done that so I can't explain it.

If you twist your wire into screw eyes, those do not come out unless the bait comes apart.   I've done my hangers and ties that way for yrs and never had a failure.

Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean but what I do is I take half the bait and use it as a guide for my whole wire since the other half will come back flush with the side I am using. I just bend a wire back through the lure as I go and I don't have to worry about whether I get the bends in the right place because I can see where they are in relation to the lure. When I get to the end of the lure I just make a loop and as many wraps as I have wire left and I'm done. I do make press the two halves together then to make an imprint in the lures and then make a groove following the imprint with the rotary tool. The epoxy I glue it together with will fill any gaps. I hope this makes sense. Maybe I can post pics sometime.

it kind of makes sense.... what kind of lures are you making?

thanks for the help tho

It's not topwater. It's a downsized musky crankbait. Actually, I do it that way on all my through wire baits whether they are bass or musky.  I just make the musky one more.  It could be a large bass bait too though. Most musky fisherman think it's too small and most bass fisherman think it's too big.  You know, one of those.