delawareswimbaits

Sweet work! Definitely want one of those glides, saw em on instagram and decided I need one haha

Nice grab! Gives me hope down here in Southern DE. How far from cape may are you? I'm only about 15 minutes from the cape may/lewes ferry. Nice to see some mid Atlantic east coast representing.

I'm thinking Golden Shiner/Carp. I really like Pizz's Shiner/Carp jobs, my ponds are full of em. But I've got a bunch of them to paint, and to have him do all of them would get pretty expensive. I'm looking into getting the Neo airbrush, seems to be a good beginners brush. The wood is poplar, and it weighs about 3.5 oz. As far as the joint goes, I think it helps with Gliders to have a restricted joint, rather than one where the tail can touch the mouth. But for "freestyle" baits (multi jointed, non billed) I like them to have the maximum range of movement on each joint. But also since I built them, I can make the joint as wide as need be, plus side of using 1.5" screw eyes haha. Here's a video of my first one, same exact bait, but sinks a little bit faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x7efvvB8iM

I've always been told things are worth what people are willing to pay. but, I've never paid over 50 dollars for a lure also.

It's all about tool sharpness. I suggest to anyone who wants to make their own baits, get GOOD knives, and READ UP ON SHARPENING. That's the number one thing, if your tools are dull you might as well use a hammer.

If you're talking about the Shimano, this is true. BUT I have one that I've been fishing salt water for 10 years now that my dad gave me, and it's been through a bad fire. Took it apart and cleaned it, added a bearing to the spool shaft, and it works. Not near as good as a high dollar reel, but it does work, and pretty good for what it is.

Beat me to it. I buy on the black market, but mainly build my own. Once you get the weighting figured out you can make some awesome baits. I have a full shop, but all I use are basic hand tools. Chisels, rasps, knives, exacto blade set. Won't lie, drill presses make things a ton easier though. And a band saw. And my whole shop haha you should send me some pics of those fish arrows.... Definitely! Had the bills pulled that night! Weighted em last night, one sits JUST under the water, and ones a slow slow sink. I'll have pics and video when I get my cousins fish tank tomorrow. Mines embarrassingly dirty right now.

Thanks guys. Need an airbrush and resin next. Or if any of you who read this are handy at airbrushing wanna paint me up the favor would be returned! Monetarily, or with baits

Beat me to it. I buy on the black market, but mainly build my own. Once you get the weighting figured out you can make some awesome baits. I have a full shop, but all I use are basic hand tools. Chisels, rasps, knives, exacto blade set. Won't lie, drill presses make things a ton easier though. And a band saw. And my whole shop haha

After seeing the potential in my first glide, I was really excited to start another, and I'm extremely pleased with how this one turned out. My lines were a lot cleaner, and straighter. And the sink rate is awesome. I've got it sinking at about 1 foot every 3.5-4 seconds, as apposed to my fist one, about a foot ever second and a half. I also figured out a way to keep from seeing those 2 big slots in the second half that you always see. BAM! Left and Right: Here's a pic with the joint fully open, notice how there's no big slots there. (for those of you who don't believe it's open, look at the hooks hanging straight down) Tail movement: Gill detail: I'm super stoked on this one. Hopefully I'll have a video of it tomorrow in a fish tank showing how slow it sinks, and sunlight permitting one of it swimming.

It works fine, in fact it's my second choice. Just make sure your knives/tools are sharp. I use poplar the most, just because it carves just a little easier than maple, but I wouldn't get too hung up on what wood to use. Honestly most people I've read about use balsa wood or some other crappy stuff that should be used for kindling. I feel it's way too soft and would ding up super easy, despite whatever topcoat you've got. I've used cedar, same thing, too soft and dings easily. You want something hard, with a tight single grain. Double grain like fir and cedar can be harder too sand due to the double grain, the softer lighter colored wood sands away much faster than the darker grain.

Those are looking great! Your scales are awesome.

Just about spit out my cinnamon toast crunch reading that. haha

Single joint for the win! I build baits both ways, but I really like the really wide S turns of a single joint. Remember that it's not only about the number of joints, but how wide they are too. a restricted joint will make your bait go far off the center line and have big nice S turns. A loose joint with lots of movement, will tend to stay on that centerline better and have a tighter wobble, and more frantic looking swim.

Damn! I've never met him, but I've talked with him a few times, and bought some baits from him too. Cool guy, sucks that happened to him. I hate a thief. I vote send it his way.

Thanks for all replies guys! I have been looking into smooth on also, and seems like the best deal. Here's an update on how my progress is going: Got everything how I like it basically. My punker type bait had great action, then I swapped out hooks for st41's and seemed to kill it some, gotta go back to the 36's. I'm most excited about my wake bait and glide bait. The wake has a great knocking sound when you pop it. My glide was the one I was the most worried about, ballasting a glide bait is a little more unforgiving. I find it's best to weight both pieces separately, so they're both level and have the same buoyancy, puts less stress on the joint, and it moves much more freely. Anyway, here's some video of the wake and glide. Gide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x7efvvB8iM Wake: :::EDIT::: I can't get the videos to post, just copy and paste the links. Maybe an Admin can help? Sorry for the video quality, took it on my phone, and then youtube compressed it even more and made it worse, but you can get a general idea. Now I'm looking into airbrushes, and the Neo CN seems to be a good starting point, but if anyone has ANYTHING bad to say about it from FIRST HAND users, I wanna hear it. But only from first hand guys, no guys talking crap about a product they've never held

Looks great! What did you use for topcoat?

Awesome fish! That mouth is huge! Mind if I ask what part of the country you're in?

Congrats, that's a great looking fish!

Awesome video! Glad to see I'm not the only one who cusses like a sailor both when I miss a fish, and when I come back later and smash it haha.

As far as trying to get it to float/sink correctly, this is from another forum, and another guy posted it, but it's what I do, and it works:

Nice! I'm about to get some resin myself, trying to decide on what products to buy. I love carving wooden lures, but I love the idea of being able to copy it exactly without carving an entire new one.

What would you suggest? The only reason I said Allumalite because they have a kit for 80 bucks, enough to get my feet wet and figure out resin baits. But if you have a cheaper alternative I'm all ears. Should be painting a few today, hopefully anyway. I'll try and get some pics up when I can.

Nice fish! That's the same exact way I caught my PB, not sure on the weight but it went 23.5" long and was as big around as a full size football. It seems the closer you can get to weedlines like that without getting fouled up you get better and more strikes. Big bass don't want to work too hard chasing down food.