hookedonbigbaits Posted July 5, 2019 Report Share Posted July 5, 2019 I've tossed around the idea of building a bait for a couple years now and never really moved forward with the idea until recently. I decided on making a billed waking bait out of bass wood to start. I began drawing up ideas and finally settled on this one. Extensive research on this forum helped me to figure out most of what I needed but a lot of design features here were simply educated guesses. Things like hook hanger placement, bill size / design / angle, and joint location all fell into the educated guess category. I have a scroll saw, a belt/disk sander combo, and a chop saw as well as other hand tools so the basic forming of the bait went pretty well. I quickly figured out that bass wood is very easy to work with and almost too easy. It can get very pulpy and seemed to not take precise cuts very well at times. I have some black walnut and red cedar I'll be using on the next one which should help with that. I tossed around the idea of molding my own tails or making one out of lexan and decided to just use one of the many Toxic tails I have laying around for now. I will invest in the molding and pouring materials for the next build and try to come up with a unique design. Sanding the bait down went well but again, that bass wood just doesn't give a lot of feedback when sanding or using a chisel. I wish I would have rounded the sides out a little more but I was hesitant to do too much at the time. The assembly went well overall and I was ready to seal with polyurethane. One coat of poly, assembly, and it was ready for a test float. The test float didn't go great but I kind of figured that I would need a ballast of some sort a the bottom of the bait. I ordered a real simple lee precision stirring and lead pouring tool and melted down some lead shot for the ballasts. You can see where I put one with a 1/2" hole in the front section, and another with a 3/8" hole at the back. Baking soda and super glue sealed the lead in and I decided to coat the entire bait with a thin layer of super glue to seal it a little better than that one coat of ploy offered. The paint is very simple. Two coats of white spray paint, a little orange around the belly area, and some clear I found at Michael's. I was hoping to find a can of 1k but couldn't easily source it when I was looking. I'll bet an automotive shop or paint store will have it. I was really nervous as to how it would swim but when I tossed it the first time it was excellent. It has a nice side to side wobble that is a little on the tighter side as I crank it in. It will stay on the top of the water with a slow reel, go subsurface with a slightly faster reel, and will get down about 4" when I bring it in fast. I did not have to tune the line tie at all. It swam straight right from the get go and I could not get it to wash out on a very fast retrieve. I was really happy with this outcome! Two smaller fish swiped at it on the crank near a weed like as the sun was going down and this small guy got it on a twitch! There is something very satisfying about catching a fish on your first build. Here are the photos and thanks for the read everyone! bchalk22, GreenPig, porkmeatballs and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolunteerSwimbaits Posted July 5, 2019 Report Share Posted July 5, 2019 It really is the best feeling! Awesome job man! hookedonbigbaits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted July 5, 2019 Report Share Posted July 5, 2019 Looks sweet! Awesome job! hookedonbigbaits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bchalk22 Posted July 6, 2019 Report Share Posted July 6, 2019 Very nice.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porkmeatballs Posted July 8, 2019 Report Share Posted July 8, 2019 Good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookedonbigbaits Posted July 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2019 Sourced some black walnut and some eastern red cedar for the next couple. Here is the start to the cedar. So much nicer to work with! bchalk22, Rogervang and DoomDiver 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookedonbigbaits Posted July 12, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2019 This one turned out a lot better! Love the natural cedar look so it’s sticking around! DoomDiver and porkmeatballs 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chefchris Posted July 12, 2019 Report Share Posted July 12, 2019 That’s awesome man, bait has a great profile and the fish seem to like it. Been a big fan of keeping the dark cedar baits all natural myself this season. Think it works for a number of bait fish. Only thing I would suggest is to round off the joint cut edges as that will help with water getting in once the joint gets banged up and less likely to splinter hookedonbigbaits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookedonbigbaits Posted July 12, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2019 2 minutes ago, chefchris said: That’s awesome man, bait has a great profile and the fish seem to like it. Been a big fan of keeping the dark cedar baits all natural myself this season. Think it works for a number of bait fish. Only thing I would suggest is to round off the joint cut edges as that will help with water getting in once the joint gets banged up and less likely to splinter I’ve got some tweaking I’d like to do and that is on the list now. I’m going to go back to magnum screw eyes for the joint. The smaller screw eyes won’t stay round enough when I pinch them closed so I’ve got some binding at the joint from time to time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted July 13, 2019 Report Share Posted July 13, 2019 Love the wood look, keep it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtrwsel Posted July 19, 2019 Report Share Posted July 19, 2019 Well done! It's cools catching fish on the stuff you make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookedonbigbaits Posted July 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2019 Here is a final re-work of the cedar blank. I sanded it down and rounded the joint out a bit. Larger and 3D eyes are sunk into the body. Switched the joint hardware as well. Also went with a polycrylic seal and finish instead of the oil base. greentrout, Fishfoo, danthefisherman and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogervang Posted July 22, 2019 Report Share Posted July 22, 2019 Something about those eyes. Turned out great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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