Silas was gracious enough to send me the 3 KDS baits he had. If you read the other thread he threw the 1.5 for a while and it leaked water. He offered it, a 2.5 size, and a 110 jerkbait to anyone who wanted them. Well, they came my way. I got them earlier today and immediately noticed the packing on the 1.5 was soaked, it looked like a rainforest in there. Silas said the package was dry when he sent it 3 days ago. 

I took all three baits out and inspected them, I couldnt visually see any holes. 

I took them down to my test tank and tossed them in. The 1.5 suspended.... The jerkbait acted very similar to an xrap in terms of floating back up nose down. The 2.5 floated like a 3" red/white bobber, 3/4 of the body was above the water line. 

I attached weights to each bait to keep them under water for testing. The 1.5 sank like a rock with 1/8oz (probably only needed a BB splitshot), the jerkbait took 1/8 to drop to the bottom, and the 2.5 took 3/4oz to stay down. I left them submerged for 1 hour. 

I went back down 10 minutes ago and took the weights off. 1.5 sank to the bottom, the rest acted normally. So I put the jerkbait and 2.5 back in the tank and will leave them overnight.

I took the 1.5 and shook it, didn't hear any water but its there. I took all the hardware off and tossed it in a vacuum jar with water. It bubbled at the front hook hanger. Obviously a QC issue that would have been taken care of with any name brand bait before painting. So I took a small drill bit and popped a hole in her to drain the water. Out came rusty brown water. I will plug and expoxy the drill hole, plus around the hook hanger and see what happens. 

The hooks are sticky sharp, not rusted at all, and were left wet and put into a sealed container in a window that gets sunlight. We will see if they rust. The split rings look to be standard quality rings, not the best and by far not the worst. For the time being, I don't see a reason to change out hooks on them. I will update after the rust test. 

For the paint jobs. They look good. Better details than most lower end factory baits (sk, bomber, bandit). Not sure they beat a true LC in terms of details. The two square bills are not perfect, smalll flaws in the paint job and drips/runs in the finish. A "bulk" hand paint job for sure. These are not $15 custom paint jobs. The one Silas fished doesn't appear to have any scratches in the finish, not sure how hard he put it to the test though. 

The jerkbait. Well it looks darn good to be honest. Its the same mold as a vision 110 from what I can tell. It suspended like an xrap. After it sits tonight, if it doesn't leak I will go ahead and see how hard it is to get it to be "perfect", it floats up pretty quick right now. It has the "correct" size hooks. 

The 2.5. Its a bobber. I've never seen a bait float that high in the water right out of the box. It has #6 hooks on it which are too small. I went ahead and tossed a pair of #4 2x heavy on there to see what happens and it sits 50/50 in the water. It will be a fast riser even with the #4 hooks if it doesn't take on any water tonight. With the stock #6 I'm not sure if you could get it down a foot in the water, being so buoyant. 

Looks like a "take a chance" type deal. There is surely a possibility of getting a bad bait (1:3 in this case). Does the chance of a bad bait and the "not perfect" paint jobs, along with modifications needed before fishing, outweigh the price of a "brand name" bait? That is the question...

Looking forward to reading more on this. Thanks for sharing what you did so far.

http://www.fulkscustomcranks.com/  His paint jobs are good and if you're going for a KO you will be impressed. 

2.5 and jerk seem to be fine. They act just as they did out of the package after 23 hours submerged. 

The 110 jerk took one extra split ring on the center treble to suspend the way I like it for cold water. 

Wow! Great research, Kevin!  I'm glad that 2 of the 3 seem pretty good. At the price I paid ( $2.99 each) they certainly fulfilled THAT expectation, which I admit was very low. 

  My bait buying these days are focused only on those that I actually CATCH fish with.  I don't have time to mess with unproductive lures. 

 Today I caught bass on a Gold/black back 300 Chubby AC Shiner that I just got from the makers. Also on a Black/Blue Baby Rage Craw on a 1/8 Shaky hook. ( plus one 3 pound Choupique that swallowed the Rage Craw) 

  My next tryout will be the Zoner 55S crank ( Wiggle Wart Look alike)I just received from Russia!  Looks good! Looks better than the original.  But will it catch fish for me? Stay tuned!

Thanks for the write up!  Well worth the sending of the baits!