danthefisherman Posted January 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Here's an update for those of you not on Instagram. This contains more of my baitmaker ramblings, so if you don't care to read them just scroll down to the pictures I whipped up two more blanks sometime in December in order to compare glide variations side by side...one with 75% microballoon composition and one with 100% microballoon composition. I also replaced the hard tail with a soft tail which improved the balance significantly. One thing I did notice however was that the soft tail glide didn't cut as far to the side as the hard tail, but this was something I was willing to bear with if it meant a better-balanced bait. The higher microballoon composition did help with balance as well. They were both much better than the 50, but I didn't notice any significant difference between the 75 and 100.I really wanted to make another multi-joint out of one of the prototypes, so I converted the 75 into a slow sink, 5-pc, soft tail Keeper Trout in a dark kokanee pattern. Looking back I wish I made it to sink faster so I could reach winter fish holding deep, but with the slower sink I'm able to get the bait to wake the surface which will be ideal when the water warms up a bit. I'm really excited about the 5-pc Keeper Trouts and am working on a (hopefully) final master mold for it. The 100 blank I kept as a "glide" for comparison purposes. I had a little fun with the paint scheme and modeled it after some trout Christmas lights that I had. The bait still isn't as balanced as I want it to be, but at least it doesn't flip over all the time haha. On a hard rip of the rod the bait still likes to mosey down and dive deeper. With a nonaggressive retrieve relying more on the reel than the rod however, it has a nice smooth swim that I imagine is approaching what a glide is supposed to look like. In other words, it's not very user friendly for those who don't know how to work it. It's hard not really having a true glide to base the action off of, but it also makes it more exciting and rewarding to work and progress towards such a goal. My next plan of action is to see if adding more weight towards the tail helps to minimize the nose down behavior on a rip retrieve. Hats off to the baitmakers out there who pump glides out like it's a piece of cake. azsouth, Low&Slow, R8R and 7 others 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewmoniz Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Those look awesome dude! Good stuff! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted January 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Those look awesome dude! Good stuff! Thanks Andrew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wdh Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 look good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 look good! Thank you sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBaitThirty Posted February 6, 2018 Report Share Posted February 6, 2018 Hey bud, Im stoked on your progress and applaud your motivation to endure through... Just a heads up from something I've noticed you mentioned a few times... I think you may have already achieved a successful glide for the most part and please know that most glides baits out if not all don't fair well with abrupt rod jerks.The jerk forces the bait to jackknife in one direction or another and "blowout". "Swimmers" are better suited for this range of movement and stability and can not only withstand manual input from the rod but fair well when fished with the directional changes inherent to such input. A glide only has the one joint to withstand the vortex of water & energy abruptly forced upon it with "rod jerks". They are much better suited to nuanced input imparted to them by the reel themselves with various combinations of slow half or quarter turns. And if tuned correctly can be burned. ...Which btw you will likely notice will result in a "blow out" to one side at the end of said burn... Which in this light looks rather cool as opposed to your perceived struggle at the onset with the actual rod jerks your imparting. In essence from a guess your struggling against the design style of the bait in glide mode' rather than your actual profile. A nice smooth sweep from side to side with a level horizontal presentation orientation of the bait itself maybe able to keep keel under burn should be your goal with the glide. Save the able to withstand jerks for the multi-joint swimmer better suited in design for this arena. I hope & really feel this may help you to know as knowledge is power and not being able to compare your endeavor with that of say a popular proven glide like a Deps, BGC, 3:16, Hinkle or Phoney... All of which I have and 3:16 Workhorse unsurprisingly and arguably the best tuned of all still isn't a jerk bait... Glides are more of a finesse retrieve bait. After staying tuned and reading everything you've presented I hate to think you just might be struggling in vain with your measuring stick of available action inherently shy the capacity of expectation. Granted we are not on the water together for me to say first hand but having keenly paid attention through out the whole thread in its entirety, I think this just might be the disconnect. Your multi-joint "Swimmer" will out perform your glide in this regard everytime. Every bait has its strengths and available capacity available to it based on its design and just wanted to help you to know that most "glides" are better suited for just that. Save the jerks for swimmers. ***Off top I'd get the 100%'r weighted to slowly fall perfectly horizontal to where just the hooks rest on the bottom while the bait still suspends above them for the most part. Then experiment with amount of space or play in the joint (not a ton needed). The 100% resin belly maybe 3/4-1" high in both sections is a great way to keel the bait initially without having to mess with lead and a bunch of holes. The tail will likely need a tad less of the pure resin keel. A hard tail is also still an available option in my opinion. Keep us posted. Congrats on the first fish on the swimmer, addaboy👊 Deltaman, swim16, chevro1et and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Bendhard Posted February 6, 2018 Report Share Posted February 6, 2018 I appreciate the rambling dude haha danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Hey bud, Im stoked on your progress and applaud your motivation to endure through... Just a heads up from something I've noticed you mentioned a few times... I think you may have already achieved a successful glide for the most part and please know that most glides baits out if not all don't fair well with abrupt rod jerks.The jerk forces the bait to jackknife in one direction or another and "blowout". "Swimmers" are better suited for this range of movement and stability and can not only withstand manual input from the rod but fair well when fished with the directional changes inherent to such input. A glide only has the one joint to withstand the vortex of water & energy abruptly forced upon it with "rod jerks". They are much better suited to nuanced input imparted to them by the reel themselves with various combinations of slow half or quarter turns. And if tuned correctly can be burned. ...Which btw you will likely notice will result in a "blow out" to one side at the end of said burn... Which in this light looks rather cool as opposed to your perceived struggle at the onset with the actual rod jerks your imparting. In essence from a guess your struggling against the design style of the bait in glide mode' rather than your actual profile. A nice smooth sweep from side to side with a level horizontal presentation orientation of the bait itself maybe able to keep keel under burn should be your goal with the glide. Save the able to withstand jerks for the multi-joint swimmer better suited in design for this arena. I hope & really feel this may help you to know as knowledge is power and not being able to compare your endeavor with that of say a popular proven glide like a Deps, BGC, 3:16, Hinkle or Phoney... All of which I have and 3:16 Workhorse unsurprisingly and arguably the best tuned of all still isn't a jerk bait... Glides are more of a finesse retrieve bait. After staying tuned and reading everything you've presented I hate to think you just might be struggling in vain with your measuring stick of available action inherently shy the capacity of expectation. Granted we are not on the water together for me to say first hand but having keenly paid attention through out the whole thread in its entirety, I think this just might be the disconnect. Your multi-joint "Swimmer" will out perform your glide in this regard everytime. Every bait has its strengths and available capacity available to it based on its design and just wanted to help you to know that most "glides" are better suited for just that. Save the jerks for swimmers. ***Off top I'd get the 100%'r weighted to slowly fall perfectly horizontal to where just the hooks rest on the bottom while the bait still suspends above them for the most part. Then experiment with amount of space or play in the joint (not a ton needed). The 100% resin belly maybe 3/4-1" high in both sections is a great way to keel the bait initially without having to mess with lead and a bunch of holes. The tail will likely need a tad less of the pure resin keel. A hard tail is also still an available option in my opinion. Keep us posted. Congrats on the first fish on the swimmer, addaboy Wow...thanks for taking the time to write this out, Justin! I really needed to hear this and appreciate all the thought you put into it. It's true, I had very high expectations of what a glide should be all the way from the beginning. I assumed that blowout wasn't normal or favorable and that if I couldn't rip the bait with my rod then I must've made it wrong. I don't even own a true glide you see, and so I think I ambitiously combined all the good things I heard about individual baits and set the bar for my own way too high. Working the bait with mostly the reel definitely helps...like I can fish the bait consistently without fear of it rolling. For myself, this was enough. Ripping the rod all day really wore me down anyway, and so I was content with it. Still, I wanted it to be better, but now that you said all those things I have more peace of mind knowing that glides are not jerkbaits lol. I'm still going to play around with the ballast a bit more to see if it makes a difference, but after that I'm going to follow your advice of stop fretting so much and start focusing on catching fish haha. Thanks again! Dan chevro1et and BigBaitThirty 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 I appreciate the rambling dude haha Then it's all worth it, haha! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted February 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2018 Forgot to post this...but a huge thank you to Mr. Nick S. for letting me borrow some REAL glides to compare mine with! It's been really helpful to see these reputable baits swim in person, and I've already learned so much about how each bait has its own unique strengths and applications. Hoping to take everything I've been learning and incorporate it into how I make this stubborn thing haha.Thanks again, Nick...and thanks SU for tagging along with me in this endeavor! azsouth, chevro1et, Mason and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted March 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 I promise this will be the last update before I catch a fish on this bait haha! This thread is old news by now, so I'm sorry for bugging you guys so much about it Here's another prototype that I'm super excited for...it was actually a failed resin density experiment that needed too much weight to sink, so I thought I'd just turn it into a surface glide. Dave tested his hand at airbrushing the thing and I can honestly say that it looks ten times cleaner than my spray painted prototypes. Still, I couldn't help adding my own personal touches, so I painted up some scratches and bleeding gills to mimic a trout that had escaped an osprey or some toothy critter and is now struggling wounded on the surface.I love the way it turned out! Plus my made up backstory puts more thrill into fishing it...at least in my mind. A red feather in the front would MAKE this! Definitely the most-prized bait in my possession. Now I just have to make sure she swims okay lolEnjoy! swim16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountainryan Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 Can we take a moment and say how cool it was you won second in hardbaits in tackleunderground?!? Congratulations again! danthefisherman and swim16 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azfisher Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 I didn't know they had posted the winners on TU until I saw Ryan's post. Congrats Dan, that's a nice feather in your cap. Now catch a toad with it and bring it full circle!!! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse74 Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 That glide turned out awesome, Love the battle wounds... danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted March 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 Can we take a moment and say how cool it was you won second in hardbaits in tackleunderground?!? Congratulations again! Thanks Ryan! It definitely is something special...I didn't think I would place anywhere next to all that truly amazing work like Yohan Custom's I didn't know they had posted the winners on TU until I saw Ryan's post. Congrats Dan, that's a nice feather in your cap. Now catch a toad with it and bring it full circle!!! Thanks Will! Going for my pb on this bait lol That glide turned out awesome, Love the battle wounds... Thanks Jesse! I'm liking it too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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