danthefisherman

Yes, Paul “Big Bait” Bailey guides on CL (I’ve gone with him too). First time throwing a heavy a-rig for me which was fun. Also tossed a hudd around for a bit and he had me fish it so slowly I thought I was going to lose my mind haha. Other techniques used were frogging and dragging a Carolina rig. Paul has a small boat so he can only bring two additional people max probably.

Cool catch! Congrats!

I’ve gone with Bob Myskey and he’s pretty family friendly. Mainly focused us using soft plastic finesse tactics, but he will cater to whatever technique you want to use.

Anyone have experience with the newer Revo Beast 40X?

In!

Yep! I make a separate mold for each segment. Depending on my hardware layout and orientation of the carved features, I will mold the segments at various angles to help promote venting and minimize air entrapment.

Yes, I’ve been throwing my 8.75” trout on and off with my SLX/Curado combo since December. The key I found is to really let the rod load up and launch the bait for me. Leaning into the cast doesn’t seem to gain me much distance anyways so I utilize that nice long handle for leverage instead. I just wish the rod had about 2 inches extra tip as it seems just a tad too short.

Fishing from a kayak with a good lure retriever on hand helps somewhat to fish with less anxiety. I’ve lost a lot of my favorite baits mostly while fishing the bank. I know I have to get the baits into some of the nasty stuff to get bites, but that doesn’t mean I should take unnecessary risks. These are probably my top three causes of bait loss and imminent sorrow: 1. Wind - a gust of wind can easily throw an arching cast off by several yards and into a tree or patch of tules. I try to be more aware of wind direction and adjust accordingly. Keeping my cast low and more parallel to the water also helps my bait cut through the wind better…stop the spool right before touchdown so that your line can straighten out and not get blown into a snag. 2. Leader failure - I always wet my line before cinching down my knots, but I need to get better at retying whenever I am suspicious of leader condition. Or go to straight braid and lighter hooks that can bend out if needed. 3. Unexpected snags - nothing much you can do if you snag an unseen tire at the bottom of the lake. Maybe pray before you try to pull the bait free?

Ditto to the above post! Different glide baits can and will fish differently…I like reels with a 30-35ipt retrieve for slinging those traditional 8-10” glide baits. This allows me to pair one directional change of the bait with roughly one half-turn off the handle. Smaller or ”Choppier” glides (with say a bluegill profile) are better fished on a slower reel as they do not cover as much distance for each directional change.

That’s what I like to hear! Is the star drag metal at least? I cannot bear a plastic star drag…

Primary use will be to toss one of my own 8.75” trout glides (I think it’s 5oz or something). Currently my Curado paired with the 7’8” Shimano SLX to fish from my kayak, although I’m thinking about looking into a slightly longer rod too. Yes, braid to mono leader.

I was just going to ask if the Beast has a plastic frame…never been a fan of the “cheap” feel of the Abus that I’ve used, but those were understandably cheap reels (og black max, pro max) Of course these other reels have plastic components too but they just feel refined enough that I never notice. Three votes for the revo beast…doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me

Hi Underground, I have a Curado 300HGK and love the thing for fishing my glide baits except for one issue: my hands are relatively small and the reel isn’t the most comfortable for me to palm. Does anyone have recommendations for a similar reel in the same price range that sits lower on the rod? The Curado 300HGK has a 35ipt retrieve which is an ideal speed. I was thinking about looking for an old Lexa 300HG but my past experience with them is they are not near as smooth as the Curado K’s…which is fine if need be, but man the Curado really has me “spoiled” now

It takes a steady hand at first, but once you get the cut started it’s not so bad

Wow, I hadn’t realized how long I have been working on this bait…time flies! You can’t really tell from the photos, but the physical master looks 2x better now than from my last update. I have been slowly forming the body to be more conducive to the action that I want to achieve and to better match the natural profile of live bluegill caught out of my local waters. Here is one of the critical steps that will probably either make or break the bait: cutting the joint… I know, I should probably mold the master before cutting the joint…but silicone is so painfully expensive these days I’m banking on my past experience and hoping that I can nail the joint location and play first try!

Pretty neat! I imagine this will be for trolling behind a boat?

Any time! Happy building!

Again, I’ve never done it before myself, but you can try making the mold out of urethane rubber. Use the same exact concept as making a silicone mold. This will allow you to pour silicone tails as the material will not stick to the urethane. Alternatively, you could try making a silicone mold and just make sure to spray the tail with a good coating of mold release before you pour the mold. You won’t be able to make silicone tails this way, but this will be just fine if you only plan to make plastisol tails.

My apologies, I misread and thought your plan was to use Flex series urethane from Alumilite to make the mold haha. I’ve actually never made a urethane mold, but I imagine it’s the same concept. Good luck!

Nice, I was going to suggest making a urethane mold if the tail was silicone. Sounds like you’re on the right track!

Is the tail a soft plastic or more rigid? I would think a one or two piece silicone mold would work. Typically I carve my tail masters out of wood for rigidity, but if you can keep the tail straight during the mold process you shouldn’t have many issues. Alumulite makes a cool red food grade silicone that you can heat up and reuse. Might not work for pouring plastisol tails because of the heat, but I’ve always wanted to try it for semi soft urethane tails.

Cool fish!

What a beautiful beast of a fish…congrats and well done!

In

My favorite “swimbait memory” was actually a catch made by my brother. Growing up, it was one of our shared dreams to one day catch a 20lb class striped bass. Not a particularly lofty goal, but for us even a 6lb fish would be bigger than anything we had ever caught regardless of species. As anglers who have always tinkered around building our own baits, it would be that much more special to land one on a bait of our own design. We had been learning a new body of water for less than a year and happened to catch a few baby striper by accident while fishing for bass. We thought ok cool maybe we can finally get a shot at landing a bonus, keeper size striper (previous pb probably wasn’t even 2lbs). Dave was throwing his homemade trout glide behind me while I was trying to catch a bass. All of a sudden, I hear him yelling, “Oh my goodness! Striper!” I swing my kayak around and see his rod doubled over and him getting pulled around on his kayak like a one-fish, sit-on-top sleigh. The water was muddy and I couldn’t see how big the fish actually was. Thinking it was maybe a 3-5lber, I kept telling Dave to crank it in hard as I paddled over with my small foldable net from Amazon. As I drew closer I knew that something was off by the size of wakes the fish was leaving in the water, the way the fish was spinning Dave’s kayak in circles, and how all Dave could do was hold on and mutter gibberish the whole time. I slid in to save the day with my little net as Dave coaxed the fish to the surface. I didn’t realize how big the fish was until it was in the net…or at least partially in the net (only the head fit). My heart skipped a beat when I saw that the beast of a striper only had one treble in the mouth and that the other treble had become lodged in the net. It was an intense moment as Dave idled in with his own tiny net to try to scoop the tail. Knowing this would probably not end well and I would regret my life as a net man later, I made a split second decision to lip the beast with my off hand. The fish went crazy upon contact, but I held on with all my grip strength and somehow managed to not capsize or take a hook to the hand. We were pretty speechless when we got that fish into my little kayak. It absolutely shattered our old pb and was the biggest fish we had ever caught by a long shot. Can’t beat that it was caught on one of our own baits either…or that we got to see her swim away for another angler to enjoy! Not sure if she actually went 20lbs or not based on her build, but we’ve since caught a few that have been the same size and surpassed this mark. Needless to say, it was an experience that I will never forget and one after which we made sure to go buy an extra scale