danthefisherman Posted March 10, 2021 Report Share Posted March 10, 2021 Don't you hate that feeling of helplessness when you can't get bit on your big trout glide because the fish are keyed in on tiny shad? I sure do haha. The Rapala Shad Rap has been my top conventional bait when small threadfin or baitfish are on the menu (I've caught some big fish on that little bait), so I've been wanting to make an upscaled and more realistic shad imitator for a good while. I'm planning to have this bait sit at 4.25" long and will experiment with a variety of actions, joint combinations, materials, applications, etc. I'll be molding the master as one piece so that I can have more opportunities to experiment with it. I've been working on this bait for a bit, and thus far it has been very challenging just to carve the master. As much as I love working with bass wood, it does have the tendency to crack and flake when I try to carve scales or fine detail. My eyes keep crossing trying to focus on what I'm doing for long periods of time. Tuning the bait will probably be an even bigger hurdle seeing as I have less material to work with. Hardware selection and placement will be a critical factor with such a small bait. I left the front half of the master fairly wide to try and maximize how much resin I'll have to work with while still maintaining a good body profile. Also, I'd like this bait to move water and stand out from the millions of real shad swimming around. So here she is so far! My brother @porkmeatballs told me I shouldn't post this until I was ready to mold but it's my way of keeping myself accountable and motivated to push forward . She still needs a bit of cleaning up done, but this is more or less the finished look. Wish me the best. I have the tendency to drop the ball on new projects or end up with a dud more often than I'd care to admit haha. Either way, it's still been a fun little piece to pour my efforts into. Enjoy and thanks for following along! CaliBassin, Mason, 168 Rookie and 33 others 36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azfisher Posted March 10, 2021 Report Share Posted March 10, 2021 Beautiful lines to it Dan, it looks like it would make a killer soft bait also. Scales hurt my head... Mason, danthefisherman and DoomDiver 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CG_Fishes Posted March 10, 2021 Report Share Posted March 10, 2021 looks awesome so far, I love small shad baits for smallmouths, they hammer them danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted March 10, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2021 3 hours ago, azfisher said: Beautiful lines to it Dan, it looks like it would make a killer soft bait also. Scales hurt my head... Much thanks, Will! Yeah I was thinkin "soft bait" when I decided to mold one piece. It would be near impossible for me to convert after cutting a joint with all those scales in the way. Also I hate carving resin haha 17 minutes ago, CG_Fishes said: looks awesome so far, I love small shad baits for smallmouths, they hammer them Thank you! There is a small population of smallies where I usually fish, but I've never run into a decent one yet. It would be sweet to catch one on this! CG_Fishes and BigBaitThirty 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxd12 Posted March 11, 2021 Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 As always, awesome work man. If I ONLY had that kind of skill and patience! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted March 11, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 27 minutes ago, Jinxd12 said: As always, awesome work man. If I ONLY had that kind of skill and patience! Thank you kindly! Skill and patience shaped by many failures and bad experiences haha BigBaitThirty and Jinxd12 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socalswimbait Posted March 11, 2021 Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 Nice looking body. I did a small one a few years back and it was such a pain to pour and balance. Still have the master but every time I see it I just shake my head and hide it in the pile. Lol Good luck man!! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrizzleyShad Posted March 11, 2021 Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 That is nice work.. I want one lol danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted March 11, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Socalswimbait said: Nice looking body. I did a small one a few years back and it was such a pain to pour and balance. Still have the master but every time I see it I just shake my head and hide it in the pile. Lol Good luck man!! Well that's not what I wanted to hear haha...I've got a feeling ill be doing a lot of scratching and shaking of my head with this little thing. Thanks for the well wishes hopefully I can make you proud. 13 minutes ago, GrizzleyShad said: That is nice work.. I want one lol Thank you! Hoping the bass do too when/if I can dial it in GrizzleyShad 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azsouth Posted March 11, 2021 Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 Sweet bait! I say after all that work you should do both resin and soft. danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lumpy Posted March 11, 2021 Report Share Posted March 11, 2021 Great work.. looks like another winner danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzn n bassin Posted March 12, 2021 Report Share Posted March 12, 2021 nice job man , great detail on those scales ! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVT THUNDER Posted March 12, 2021 Report Share Posted March 12, 2021 That’s absolutely up there with some of the cleanest carving I’ve ever seen. Looking forward to your future progress with this bait. danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustBassinAround916 Posted March 12, 2021 Report Share Posted March 12, 2021 Awesome work! I wpuld smash them at my spots if that was a glide! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socalswimbait Posted March 12, 2021 Report Share Posted March 12, 2021 You’ll get it. But as you said, so little room to work with. Little time and I’m sure you’ll have it moving properly and sticking fish. Had to take out my blank to look at it again and wonder what if.......hahahaha danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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