Stringjam

If you're serious about getting your crankbaits back, get a telescoping pole - - - I still carry a sliding knocker, but I only use it when I'm super deep and the pole won't reach. I use a modified 24' Mr. Long Arm painter's pole. I epoxy a spiral tip into the end of it. Voila.

You definitely don't have to be an artist to paint lures with an airbrush, especially classic patterns....you just need some practice. Pick up a decent gravity feed airbrush and start having some fun with it.

What Bob said. They're a killer design with a tight wiggle.

I dig Lost. My wife and I were bored over our Christmas vacation, so we rented the first 5 seasons and watched them all that week (yes - - we watched 5 seasons in a week).

Bingo And even though it isn't actually designed to do it, it can nose stand if you keep just a tad bit of pressure on it. Two things this antiquated design does better than half of the new modern (overpriced) lipless cranks out there do. Still one of the best lipless crank designs ever made.

I much prefer a Rapala DT-20, which gets almost as deep as the so-called "30+".....which is really a low 20's plug at best, and pulls like an anchor all the way there. Heck, I can get a DT-16 deeper than their "20+." The Rapalas are a much better design with far less cranking resistance.

Fantastic job, as usual - - unique colors on the craw, and I like!

+1.....the Lizards look really good!

Great stuff, Bob! Love the recessed eyes...very clean. And firetiger!!!

That's a sweet looking crank!

+1 The only Constitutional census right the government has is to count you every 10 years. The rest of the information they're asking is none of their business.

I love it when people read that book. I just pull in behind them with my clown Pointer and catch all the fish they left behind.

As long as people only listen with their eyes, there will be Lady Gagas. This entire thread is about everything BUT her music.

One of the best designed lipless cranks you can buy - at any price.

I painted the deep diver on the bottom.....not the others!

I love tubes - in any season. When water gets up in the pre-spawn, I always have a 5" Gambler Hibdon flippin' tube on. I rig with a 5/0 Mustad Ultra-Lock, and either a bullet or an internal weight. Internal weights cause the tube to fall much more erratically (spiral), but when you're flipping heavy cover it makes it a little more difficult to get through the branches. Gitzits are staples here in the Ozarks. Everybody uses them and everybody catches fish on them. Spots, smallies, and largemouth.

I believe "M-Baits" is another builder (I think I remember seeing his stuff one time....looked pretty nice from what I remember). We have the one and only "Big M" on this forum.

I must reiterate . . firetiger is probably my favorite color in life. There are so many variations of it as well...... This is kind of my version of a bluegillish tiger. Not a true firetiger, but definitely influenced by.

Yes. I have one particular RICO that devastates. It almost walks itself, and smallmouth seem to attack it with visceral rage. Who cares how much it costs.....I've been using the same RICO for over a decade. The same guys who complain about the cost of RICOS will spend $100 a month on Senko's or Rage Tails and not think twice about it. Plop down your $20 and enjoy your life a little more.

The only lipless crank I've used to date that I could actually get by with in any condition would be the Jackall TN/70, followed by the 1/2 oz. Cotton Cordell Spot. In terms of design and versatility, the XCalibur isn't a dot on a line compared to the Jackall. I fish rocks, steep breaks, and timber though....I need a bait that can stand on it's nose and work at any/every speed. If Jackall would make a larger version of the TN/70 - I would dance a jig......naked......and tip a pint of Guinness with the first person I could find.

Firetiger is one of my favorite colors in life - in ANY water condition.

Arcadia Reef shallow crank. Expensive, beautiful, and completely worthless.

Don't like them for what I look for in a lipless crank. They only work reeled fast. If you drop them to the bottom, they just flop over on their side, and if you reel them slowly, they don't wiggle at all. If it's just the shape you like, I would get a YoZuri Rattlin' Vibe instead. Much better action.

Very cool....I really like the lipless!

I think materials require design specific to the material. Crankbait builders are very particular about what they build with, because they learn how to make a material behave in a manner they like. In my experimenting, I've been able to get Sintra to behave exactly how I want it to, but I'm sure if I were to attempt the same design with balsa, I would have to make adjustments. The obvious difference is density. Balsa has a specific gravity of .15-.20 while Sintra is .50. What this immediately means is that Sintra is going to require a smaller ballast for the same rate of buoyancy. Another thing - and this is just me thinking out loud, because I don't have experience with balsa - - is that a higher density body needs to be pushed farther before it destabilizes. Here's one example of what I mean by that.....on a lipped bait like a deep diver, positioning the line-tie closer to the nose causes more instability and widens the action - to a certain point. After that point the crank doesn't work. When I designed my Sintra deep diver, that point seemed to be closer to the nose than comparative wooden cranks. A lot of expert wood crank builders told me that they thought it was way too close. Perhaps it would have been with a much lower density body, but perhaps more force is required to swing the Sintra body - - allowing more "force" to be designed into the spec. In the end result...my crank has more kick and liveliness than a DT-16, which is made from balsa...so design I think is a big component here. Another example....lip size. I designed a small 2" shallow crank - and wanted something very kickin' and lively. I got what I wanted, but the lip is much larger than you would see on a comparative balsa crank. Once again - is it that the heavier Sintra body requires more force to destabilize, and can therefore have more force applied against it? Another spec which it seems like I can push is the distance from line-tie to lip on shallow cranks - which makes for some of the biggest differences in crank behavior that I've seen. Perhaps I'll pick up some balsa, and create exact designs of both to actually see if what I'm talking out of my arse about is actually the case. I'm very curious, and I've been wanting to mess with wood at some point, anyway. I'll always have a soft spot for it. Here is that 2" crank....kicks like a champ.