chang127

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Devcon 2 ton is what I have been using but lately Ive been experimenting with bob smith industries epoxy with good results. Make sure you use a lure turner or flip the bait periodically to help the epoxy set evenly if you go this route. Auto clear is probably your best bet when it comes to jointed baits. Epoxy tends to pull away from edges when setting. Just make sure to take the necessary safety measures when using auto clear. I've seen first hand what it can do to someone without the proper gear, some nasty stuff.

If your talking about slide swimmers there are better glides out there when it comes to the 175 size. As for the 250, it's up there with the best imho. Not saying its #1, there's a time and place for each bait, but there's good reason why its constantly used as almost a baseline comparison to other baits in that size range. Just like what this thread is doing right now.

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This is something I've been thinking about for awhile now. You hear all the time a DD or bigger bass didn't get big by being dumb, but what about in other parts of the country where the bass take longer to grow? For instance whats to say a 12 year old 8 lb bass in New York isn't just as wise or wiser than a 8 year old 10lb bass in California? These are just random numbers Im throwing out there for an example not factual data. Just something to think about....

John hopes book is a good read for sure, I bought a used copy of his book on ebay a few years back. Check out the last post in this thread for a few links to some of his work if youre not familiar with him. http://swimbaitunderground.com/forums/index.php?/topic/130-how-many-big-bass-are-in-your-lake/page-2?hl=%2Bjohn+%2Bhope&do=findComment&comment=182266

It swims just like the stock setup. I got just enough extra slack out to where the joint still moves freely without restriction. I have to say though, since I picked up a top hook negotiator I rarely ever use this bait as a top hook anymore. Basically the damper is just a piece of mono that you stick into a slot in between the joints. The piece of mono is still flexible enough that the joint can still move but stiff enough where it restricts the movement of the joint giving it a different tighter swim. Cool concept but I never really used them. I felt with the damper in place it was much harder to get it to do a wide glide if need be. I realized if I just slowed down my retrieve and/or changed my cadence I could achieve a tighter glide yet still have the ability to have it do a wider glide if I wanted it to. Still a pretty cool glide bait that isn't too hard to find and won't necessarily break the bank if you know where to look.

The new style weighting is different from the OG. There's more to it than just adding weight to get it to glide right. You have to know "where" to add the weight. The rear weight on the New style silent killers are heavier than the OG (not the tail weight, but the one in the front half). Also the rear weight on the "new style" slide swimmers are not the same size as the rear weight on the "new style" silent killers and neither weights are the same as one from an OG. From my experience (correct me if I'm wrong) all the stock OG's have the same rear weight regardless of model. I have converted a few silent killers both new and OG but the new ones are harder to tune right and I have to do a few more things to get them to swim the way I like. Even after all the mods done to a new style they are still not up to par with my OG's. Hope this doesn't sound too confusing and makes more sense.

On one of the OG's I used to have the previous owner epoxied small magnets to the foam inside the skin. They were pretty strong and kept the hooks laying flat against the skin on a cast but weak enough to come loose if a fish bit. The extra weight from the magnets did make it sink faster so if your ok with that or willing to remove some weight to accommodate for it then this might work for you.

Cool, didn't know this. I bought the lure second hand so it didn't come with anything else. Mine was a heavy floater so I added suspend strips to get it to sink to the bottom when I used the top hooks for boottom bouncing.

I have the bigroid 210 which is pretty much the bigger version of the ayuroid. Like Bigbaiter I recommend the belly hooks over the top hooks. 1st reason being the top hooks never really stayed in the hook slot on top when making long casts. They would pop out and dangle from one side or another messing up the action. It's a cool feature but the design is seriously flawed IMHO. There's really nothing to keep it in place beside gravity so if it tilts to far to one side or even up side down on a cast it'll pop out. I ended up tearing small pieces off old plastic baits I didn't use anymore like senkos,lizards,etc. and mashing them into the bottom hook point that goes into the slot. It keeps the hooks nice and snug and works until the plastic gets too worn out then just tear off another piece. It's only a bandaid fix but it works for now. I also thought about using small magnets and glueing them into the slots as well but that'll be a future project. Second reason being the hook up ratio on top is significantly lower which is expected on a hard bait of this size. You might have a better hook up with the smaller ayuroid but this was my experience with the bigroid. To help increase my hookups I tried rigging it butch brown style but haven't gotten any strikes since the mod. Good luck!

Was on the edge of getting this book for awhile until I saw his swimbait video and it really steered me away from it. But after reading this I think I'll pick myself up a copy. Thanks for the review!

I had the bb2 and it was a great reel but then I upgraded to the bb2 inshore and never looked back. Imo it's a superior reel and I especially love the oversized power handles on the inshore. Only downside is it only comes in 7.1:1 gear ratio. I throw baits up to the deps 250s on it.

Just throwing this out there from my observations. I removed the weight completely and noticed one morning it was a heavy floater glanced at the water temps and it was 79-80 degrees. Next couple fishing trips mid-day it became a suspender, glanced at water temps again and it was 86 degrees.

Interesting topic. There was a guy in Texas named John Hope that put transmitters in several trophy bass and studied them in several different lakes. I'm sure some of you have heard of him. He actually has a book out on all his findings. Some pretty interesting stuff on big bass behavior. Here are a some articles on him. http://www.flwoutdoors.com/fishing-arti ... Iz63SjnZSA http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/hop ... icles.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/lun ... mouth.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/tra ... phies.html