May 22, 2022

6″ Two Piece Open Pour Swimbait (2022)

STL’s for this lure are available for purchase from Cults3d.com

This is a larger 6″ version of a swimbait I started working on back in 2020. The smaller version worked great but I never really fully tested the 6″ version because I don’t fish large baits. I did send a few out to people but I never heard back from them…. go figure.  I decided to give this bait another go as I needed something cool to send to “someone” as part of a (super secret) bait trade and I know they fish/make big baits so here we go again….

I changed a few small things on the bait like the lateral line position but most of the other changes are not as noticeable as far as the body design goes … but they are there. (The top is 2020 and the bottom is the 2022 version.)

Some of the design changes had to do with the mold design and getting the venting correct.

Being a “specially bait” with life like fins… the mold required some weird venting on the fin aspects of the mold design.

This is what the 3D printed mold pieces look like. The hook slot piece will have to be eventually made from metal. (or I’d have to print I bunch of them as they start to deform pretty quick.)

I made two different sized hook slot inserts and here you can see how the top one deformed after a few uses. So basically these will just be used as patterns to cut them out of a piece of 1/8″ aluminum.

The first pour ready for de-molding.

The fins pockets are oiled prior to pouring but a little extra care is used with a pair of tweezers while removing them to keep them from tearing.

Here is how it looks so far…

It needs a little clean up but so far so good…

Here you can get a sense of the life like fins.  (Whether they increase the action or not has yet to be determined.)

I designed these little stands to hold the baits for painting as doing multiple color open pours in a 3D printed mold (while not impossible) is a pain in the ass without the ability to heat the mold.

Ready for paint.

Baits out of a printed mold are a little rough so the paint work is harder to do but they came out OK for the time crunch I was under. (I always seem to get a little heave handed with the paint)

Overall they should catch fish anyway. My only concern right now is these were poured in Dead-on Plastix’s Craw blend and I’m not sure if it’s going to be stiff enough for a bait like this.  Time will tell once these are tested I guess.

I also did a “No Fins” version to make for easier pouring. (I have not printed this version myself though.)

 

Quick Video of the Swimming Action.  I only wanted a subtle tail action which I think it looks pretty good and it also has a slight head shake.

I normally don’t fish big baits like these but I have tested these briefly and did mange to hook up on a nice bass but lost it right at the boat.  I think a lot had to do with the hook slot placement which I have since moved forward and this should help with the hook ups and retaining the fish. I just need to get back out and test them again. I also sent a bunch to Nate Marling as part of a bait trade group we are in together and he also made them “Offishal” (see video) but this was before the hook slot fix too. 

To be continued…

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