CaliBassin Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 Hi Su, looking into making some swimbaits and need some advice. Thinking of making Punker style topwaters, glides and also rats. What kind of wood, joints, eyes, paints, etc. All Advice helps. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolunteerSwimbaits Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 I love basswood, any eyes, and just make sure you seal the wood, polyurethane, multiple coats. Devcon 2 ton epoxy works great for a top coat. You can find screw eyes at home depot. Just super glue the hook hangers in. Pm me if you need any more help. CaliBassin and juice54 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliBassin Posted February 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 5 minutes ago, VolunteerSwimbaits said: I love basswood, any eyes, and just make sure you seal the wood, polyurethane, multiple coats. Devcon 2 ton epoxy works great for a top coat. You can find screw eyes at home depot. Just super glue the hook hangers in. Pm me if you need any more help. Thanks a lot. Big help VolunteerSwimbaits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean20 Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 The best advice I can give is to search this forum and watch every YouTube video you can find. There are a million different ways to make these baits, and no one does it the same. You just gotta find out what works for you. Keep in mind, there is a lot of trial and error in this process, so don’t get discouraged if your first bait doesn’t turn out like you expected. CaliBassin, juice54 and ScottyM'Sfishing 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azfisher Posted February 24, 2019 Report Share Posted February 24, 2019 Good advice above. I've used a few woods and have found red cedar to be good for topwater baits, it has a lively swim. I was getting rough sawn 2x6x8's for less than $20 thru lowes, not sure of the wood market today. They didn't stock it at my store but shipped it free to the store. While you will have a few knots, you can make a lot of baits out of a stick, I was making between 20-30 rats each. Try different type and see what you like. Four for sure rules, seal your baits well, use stainless steel hardware, use quality epoxy or SG for your hardware and have fun! juice54 and CaliBassin 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonister Posted February 25, 2019 Report Share Posted February 25, 2019 Tackle Underground is a great bait making forum that has years worth of threads on it. Everything you could ever want to know on just about any sort of bait. I actually came here from there. YouTube as stated above is great as well. Different woods have different properties, but in general any type will work with pros or cons. I second a easy to manipulate wood such as cedar, as it is readily available and cheap at most hardware stores. CaliBassin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdatwe Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 I like re-purposing stuff so I use scrap wood from broken fence boards from my back yard, pallet wood, fallen tree limbs, tool handles and scrap pine 2x4's. They have all worked well- denser woods work well for swim baits, plus they're free. If I screw it up it doesn't matter, but so far all of them have surpassed my expectations. Tuning is the hard part but also really satisfying to do. I don't make a lot of baits but spend time fixing what I make. I think I learn more that way. I'm not into making baits to sell or mass producing - I don't sell my lures because they're a part of me. Don't give up on a 'failed lure' - my favorite is a bluegill I made that didn't work at first and I set it aside. Later on I kept tinkering with it and it is my favorite. CaliBassin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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