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5.5lber crushed my hudd right off the end of a dock! Loving the North Carolina bits right now !

O.k. some of you may frown on this one because it's the Cheepo route but I have been throwing an 8" Castaic Boot Tail in Trout and a Sebile Magic Swimmer 9" 228sk in Natural Shiner since Thanksgiving. I drove to my closest spot yesterday afternoon with light rain and temps in the mid 50's. I made a lap with the Castaic for nothing then nailed this one. The fish or at least one fish was actively on the surface chasing a trout near shore( v wakes). She crushed the swimmer after nipping at it on the cast before. The fish was hooked on the body as well so I popped the hook off. Just over or dead at 5lbs. The lifeguards offered to help take to take more pics. but I figured the selfie way is the way to roll nowadays. Never give up. Swimbait fishin' ain't easy!

Got it to eat the Huddleston on a quick shore trip. Been slow for me lately but nice to get a good bite.

Merry Christmas SU family! Here's a few cheapo kastking wraps my sis got me off of Amazon to try out...I gotta say I'm starting to really like them. Now I just need to get a hold of some SU baitwraps haha

Recent heat melted the snow around the mailbox.

Merry christmas to me!

Added a couple to the arsenal.

Took David from FOM lures out to one of my favorite spots today and stuck a few solid ones biggest going 4 pounds! Had a blast and Im stoked I had the opportunity to take him out bait used was A bluegill pattern ES flat KO.

Excited on how this bait is coming out. need to find a softer plastic for the tail as this one is killing the action. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Got the bait! Im weighting a set of hooks so it will suspend or be a super slowsink. Gunna try for some winter Pa bass this weekend

Man you’re doing better than I am in N.C. and I friggin live here. Haha

Merry Christmas you filthy animals! My wife killed it!

Low of 60?! You better bundle up lol

Howdy. Lurker here. Figured I should make a post and try to contribute somewhat. Started making swimbaits just over a year ago, and have found the forum a great help. I started with wood and shortly after transitioned to 3d printing once I realized an entry level printer was only in the $200 range. I don't have any prior experience with CAD / design software, so I've been teaching myself as I go. The ability to easily change/scale my designs is what sold me on starting with 3d printing. I haven't focused too much on the detailing (gills, scales etc) yet, which Is something I actually find a bit easier with wood at this point. Still trying to figure out how to add fish scale details, which I believe I'm very close to. Up to this point I have mostly been focusing on shape, joints and action. Looking forward to improving my designs and continuing to learn how to paint. Still experimenting with clear coats. Currently dipping KBS. For the bait swap, I am planning on making a multi-joint catfish in a few variations. Pictures of some of the 3d printed baits I've designed so far. Small two piece bait is just the three piece without the middle section, hah. Oversized crankbait. IMG_2795.mov

mods. i’m sorry, I literally have no idea where to post this. but I need SU’s help. —— ive only been a part of this community for a short while, but there are so many amazing people here, that I had to take my chances and come on here to ask for help. mods, delete this if need be. anyways, here it goes... — on 12/8/2019 my father suffered a cerebral stroke. he had surgery and spent a week in ICU. then he was sent to an assisted living facility to begin his rehab. well, insurance said no more and he had to leave. now the medical bills are piling up along with our every day bills. my brother and I are both working to help our family but it just simply isn’t enough. so i’m coming on here to ask if anybody would be able to help contribute to a gofundme that I set up for him https://www.gofundme.com/f/superstorm-of-heart-attack-and-stroke if you’re able to contribute, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. if you’re not, could you please pass along the message. I don’t know what to do or where to go from here. i’m not on facebook so I can’t use that platform. i’ve been using instagram but who knows how that will pan out. all i’m trying to do is get my father back into rehab even if it’s outpatient and to help catch up on the bills that fell by the wayside while he was fighting for his life. —- the main reason I reached out to this community is because y’all are some of the best folks i’ve come across. always willing to help each other out, etc. I hate asking for help but here I am. if you’ve read it this far, thank you so much. & again, mods... if this is against the rules, i’m sorry. I just needed a place to reach out for help. you can delete this if you wish, though I really wish y’all wouldn’t & that y’all could at least help me spread the message. I have no idea what i’m doing here and i have no idea how to market or do any of this. anyways, i’m sorry for the wall of text. if you read it, thank you so much. thank you to anybody and everybody. sincerely, Joey.

I was riding the "Skunk Train" pretty had for a few weeks so I decided to take a few days off work and catch the 1st Trout Drop here in Texas... I about blew my elbow out in the process but I managed to catch 3 decent fish in 2 days (5.3,7.8, and 8.2)... All my bites came on the RM Negotiatior Alumni...Had 2 over 5 come unbuttoned and saw a few followers looked to be 10ish ROD: LDC Heavy and XH ... LINE: 17-20LB Segar Invesex REEL: ABU REVO Toro Beast /Tranx 200

Made the trip down here yesterday and was able to get today. Caught a 6 lber slow rolling a 8 inch hudd.

Check out this chunky monkey choke the 8 inch hud she hits so hard on the drop! Remember Rainy days gets um up shallow!

Drt Tiny Klash Cast 2 Catch

Me too. Fishing guide buddy of mine caught a 10-5 out of Jordan Lake yesterday. Probably on a jig though

Yeah way better guys are drilling holes and ice fishing when I left haha

Haha I’m having a decent trip ! Fish on 2/3 outings. Hope you stick a pig !

Thinner and softer definitely gets the nod. You'll have to experiment to find what works best for your bait, but Alumilite or Bait Plastics make decent plastisols for a fair price. Try contacting the manufacture about it and most of them will be happy to send you sample product. Good luck!

Awesome fish man! Sure beats ice fishing back up here in NY!

Merry Christmas to all of you and your families!

Here’s some screenshots of text messages between me and cd7 in case theres any doubts. Collin called me in the morning and said he caught one that was 8lbs even. I told him to weigh it soon before it loses any weight. You can see the timeline.

I have had the same issues with some of my baits, so you can remove the tail or allow for a movable tail.... even a very flexible kills the action on some baits. The learning curve can be brutal so always have different size, style and weights for bills and tails

PLA is the filament I have been using, which in its raw form, sinks. You set the infill percentage when printing, which introduces tiny air pockets into the print. So in general a printed object will float from 0-80% Infill. Once you get up towards 80-90% infill a print will start sinking. Makes for a fairly heavy bait at that point. I'm starting to mess around with placing weights inside the prints during the printing process.

The rat got it done tonight!

Yup, I tossed a couple of casts out today but the bait just bounced across the ice.

Don't know I hate them I prefer double paddle handles.

Got around to messing with the laminated birch this weekend. Turned what I’m going to call the “Waterplace Park Sewer Rat” which is a park in Providence,RI. It’s where they do the Waterfires (google it if you’re not familiar, it’s pretty cool) I ran a restaurant that was in the basin of the park and there were always these massive rats everywhere late night cruising around the park and streets. When the built the mall all the rats took up residence along the river and there is these massive holes/tunnels in the sides of river wall. The rat is 16” overall with the tail and finished weight will be about 10oz (9oz now before sealer/hooks/epoxy) body is 9” right now, might be a hair longer after I test swim it and adjust the joints. It has 600lb krok swivels with recessed grommets. The swivels are pinned in from the cut side of the joint with 1.5” ss nails. tail will be a ron z tail, have to get some other colors but had some green ones kicking around for testing purposes. Have to round out all the edges and finish sand some areas and I’ll seal it up and test swim it this week. it might not be the most practical bait ever but I’m sure some people out there will toss it.

So I’ve been using a lot more coffin style lips on my builds of various sizes and have to cut them from an LPO round lip. so I whipped up this quick template guide for the band saw. Just some scrap wood and screws. works great and I was able to cut about 2 dozen lips in no time without having to mark em at all. i plan on making a better one with some aluminum edges so there’s no chance of cutting the template.

The hero we need, but not deserve... Thanks Chef

Nice, I find it amazing how everyone finds different ways to make it work!

So here is what I found out about carving/shaping pvc. 1. Carves easy but is really messy, pvc creates static electricity so the dust sticks to anything and everything. 2. Must be sealed just like wood if you want a really smooth bait with good details. 3. If you break the outside finish there are a lot of small voids that should be filled. 4. Extremely buoyant and needs to have bottom weighting. 5. Super glue and baking soda method does not work well, it's to hard and does not sand at the same rate as the pvc. ( I am using 5 minute epoxy ) 6. Paints and finishes well....no problems of any kind so far.

Still some tinkering to do, but a 2 piece bunker glide( ~8.25") I'll be targeting stripers with next season.

It was a mess let me tell ya! Yes- One full strip of Fabric down the middle (I figured it would compromise the strength to have separate pieces) As you can see I had to cut the Fabric Strap in the middle to add movement...clearly has along way to go!

So a few weeks ago was cutting the joints in the two piece rats which were a mix of 3 types of woods based on the stock I had. I usually cut all my stock the same length for the same build but had some AYC (alaskan yellow cedar) that was left over from a previous build that was a little longer. Well I cut all the two piece version in the western red cedar and spanish cedar and went to cut the AYC blanks and on the first cut I realized that my stops were way off due to the overall wood stock being longer. After looking at the first cut i decided I would make it into a 3 piece version, at least try it instead of scrapping it. So cut the joint angles and adjusted the stops after I decided on how big the middle section should be. I had already added the belly hook hangers so had to work around those as far sections went. After it was all cut, I set it on the band saw table and thought it looked good enough to keep building. So put it off to the side for a week or so. Then picked it up and realized the middle section was kind of small to have multiple screw eyes going into it, or doing it like a morning wood/woodrow, with a pin on one side screw eye for the tail section on the other. So decided to try doing 1 center pin and attaching the front and the back sections thru the middle. each section has two 2" magnum screw eyes that fit stacked into each other with the pin (ss nail) running the entire length of the body. Screw eyes are epoxied in like always. The nail will be cut to size obviously but still felt i should say it. Fit is perfect after a little tweaking, no binding, moves super easy and has a nice squeak. Heres a few pics of the gaps in between the joints straight on and when its turning, the gaps are all even but the way its sitting on the table make it look distorted. For the lip i wanted to do a big coffin style, like a nez rat. I used a LPO 4051 round lip for stock and cut my own on the band saw. Drew it out on the graph paper and marked the lip with a sharpie, used a metal edge clamped to the band saw table to keep the cuts clean and straight, I will say its probably the nicest lip I've ever cut for a bait. It may look pretty big but the bait is fairly thick and its a good size piece of wood to make swim. Hook hangers are 6 gram weighted hook hangers from LPO. Been really liking these as they add just enough weight to keep the baits stable and the hook hangers are pretty stout, they are epoxied in 2x. The 6 gram are kind of a odd size so the hole needed is just a little bigger than the weight itself. Installed them with epoxy and waited it for it to settle and start to cure and then filled the hole in and over the top of the weight. I did a few test runs of these hangers and epoxied them into some old stock baits, i couldn't pull them out. The hook hanger itself will distort way before they pull out a bait, guys are using em for pike baits so confident they'll stand up to LMB. Going to paint it solid bone this weekend, solid black eyes and either a pink zoom tail or natural color creme worm tail. I'll tie some feathered hooks for it too as I really feel those have been making a big difference in bites/hook up ratio. Epoxy top coat of all pieces with some fine micro pearl pearls mixed in, then assembly and fish time on the next new moon.

This is the one I made. Think it cost be $60 total, 4 rpm motor from eBay, 2-12” clock templates from michaels, some left over. Part stock, some hooks and elastics, I used this one for a full year of building, a few 100 Baits with no issues. IMG_7434.MOV IMG_7396.MOV

Good Morning SU .... haven’t posted anything as of late.... seems trout are the current fall rage.... started this one several weeks ago , put it down for awhile as health issues were nagging...decided to get back on it... a six inch version of a McCloud River Red-Band Trout.... built of Azek ... Createx Transparent paints... weighs approximately 2.8 ounces ....2 coats of Devcon 2-Ton Epoxy top coat... Constructive criticism welcome ... thanks for the opportunity to share... michel.... Go Fish!!! IMG_4722.MP4

Nice....i wish I had some baits to post

Some more good ones from this morning even got my wife in on the action!

I like to slow wake it parallel to the shore. Sometimes I will do a few quick turns of the handle to get it to dive and dart as it comes beside a piece of cover, going for the reaction strike if the slow wake doesn't produce. I also like to fish it like big square bill, bouncing it off and through boulders and logs.