Fishwhittler

Very nice!

Those look very good, especially the one with the fin.

Here's a smaller swimbait I just finished up. PVC, slow sinker, 5 1/8" long, weight just under 1 ounce.

Very nice! Those fat wobblers look awesome.

I see. Thanks for the info!

Very nice! I like #4 and #9.

Here's my latest. Midnight Craw Chartreuse/Black Back Albino Citrus Shad Wounded Copperhead Shad Wounded Blueback Herring White Crappie Let me know what you think! Ben

Thanks for the response! I may go ahead and get one anyway; I'm most comfortable with a left-hand retrieve, but I can still use right-handed reels if necessary. Another question: What's the difference between the Producer X and the Performa X? They have different profiles and the Performa X is .4 ounce heavier, but other than that the specifications are identical. Ben

Is there any chance Pinnacle is going to come out with left-handed baitcasters for their Performa and Producer reel series? Thanks in advance! Ben

Very nice baits there! I can't pick a favorite.

I've found the line tie should generally be located within 1/4" of the midpoint of the bill on deep divers. I don't know yet if my Longbill is going to reach the depth I intended, so I may or may not need to adjust the location of the line tie.

The bait casts reasonably well due to its weight, but it does have some tendency to windmill. There's definitely room for improvement, so depending on how the bait works for my tester (I can't do the testing myself, as I don't have access to water deep enough to tell how deep the bait runs), I may try some different body profiles to see if I can make it a bit more cast-able without sacrificing any depth. I think the bill profile is going to work pretty well, so probably the only changes I'll make to it will be using G10 instead of lexan.

Those look very good, especially the bluegill. Great work!

Very nice! I really like #7 and #8.

Thanks for the tips! I haven't made a serious attempt at a 20'+ diver until now, so I really appreciate any help. What you said makes perfect sense. This bait isn't particularly bad when it comes to casting, but it's not very good either. It's already ballasted just about as much as possible without turning it into a sinker, so I may have to experiment with some larger body designs. Thanks again! Ben

Thanks! I think 800 feet is a little optomistic (), but I was aiming for 20' plus. I don't know if this one will hit that, but that's what I hope to reach with the final version. The lip is 4 1/8" long when measured from the nose of the lure body, and the bait's overall length is 7 3/8". Weight is just over 1 ounce. Big M, I figured G10 might make a better lip material than lexan for super-deep divers, but I didn't have any while I was building this one so I used lexan. The flex isn't too bad, but I think that G10 will definitely be the way to go in the future. I've also heard that baits with G10 bills dive deeper than baits with lexan bills, because the G10 is thinner than lexan. Is that correct? I have done some testing with it, and it has a tight action with a pull that's surprisingly light. I'd say the pull is a bit harder than a DD22, but by no means unmanageable. It dives quickly, but I've only tested it from the shore in a pond that's 12-15' deep at the deepest point, so I don't have an accurate readout on how deep it will run. I sent this bait out for testing on Monday, so the tester should have it pretty soon and be able to determine the diving depth.

I had a request for some deep divers, and here's what I came up with.

The only thing wrong with those is they're not in my tackle box. Great work as always!

Hanger wire might be too thick for lures, especially smaller baits. 19 gauge stainless steel wire is what I use, or you can use galvanized wire if you want to save a little money. Galvanized wire is softer and will rust more easily than stainless wire, but it's fine if you're just building lures for yourself. Sinkers will work fine for ballasting cranks. Poppers don't need any ballast to pop, but if you want them to have a walking action you'll need to add some ballast to the tail of the bait. You'll probably have to spend some money to get a decent topcoat; I doubt if you'll find what you're looking for around the house. You might have clear lacquer, but it can eat away paint unless you use a pre-topcoat sealer to protect the paint. Envirotex Lite is a good, relatively inexpensive topcoat, which you should be able to find at a local hardware store. I hope this helps. Ben

Some fat square bills, and a few other baits. HS American Shad on a Subwart HS American Shad II Chartreuse Shad Moss-Back Craw Aurora Black Aurora Black II Let me know what you think! Ben

Awesome guys! Mattlures, that's an amazing bluegill pattern. CatchingConcepts, those are some very nice bluegills. I particularly like the one in the second pic.

ToledoEF, glad to see you posting some of your work. Nothing wrong with those patterns; the whole point of this thread is to get a bunch of different takes on the bluegill pattern.

Very nice! I really like those last two.

What exactly do you mean by a reasonable price? I don't know if you'll find many lure builders that sell their lures for much less than $15.00; that's about as low as it goes. If you're in the market for custom lures, you've got to remember that the builder has to make enough at it to make it worth his while (obviously, this doesn't apply to the guys that build lures only for their personal use and for their friends). It takes about 3-4 hours of work on average to produce one crankbait, so $15 for a lure translates to less than $5 an hour, which is not a bad price to pay by any stretch of the imagination. Plus you have to factor in cost for materials, which is generally somewhat less than 10% of the lures cost. That's another bite out of the lure cost, so the builder isn't making as much as you might think. A lure making business is like any other business: if it's not making money, it's not worth doing. Something I just don't get is how some guys will pay $15 for a mass-produced Lucky Craft ® jerkbait without batting an eye, but they think a $20 handmade lure is overpriced. My $0.02 Ben

Big M, those are some very nice patterns there, particularly the lighter version. MonteSS, that's a very good looking spinnerbait.