The Hunt For Big Fish with Larry Dahlberg

Larry, I noticed in your SwimWiz.pdf document that the Diving bill is part of the Lure. Will the Alumilite White hold up or would you suggest adding a separate Lip/bill? BTW-Whens Patrick coming back to the show?

Good observation. That's done with Alumilite. No bill material needed. There are many lures in that family, Brooks Reefer, Sparkle Tail, Burmek, Bass o Reno, Lasy Ike, Flatfish, and many, many others which are excellent designs but have been left more or less by the wayside since Otis Young created his Big O!
best,
L

Along the same line of question of lips/bills:

Over the weekend I made a mold of one of my favorite diving crank baits. I was able to make a one piece mold with the High Strength 2. I poured a couple of the baits using super plastic and they turned out great. I was able to take the baits out of the mold before they were totally set and manipulate the shape/angle of the bill, put the bait in front of a heat source and the bait would set up with the bill in whatever shape I wanted.

The question is: How durable do you think the bill on those medium size bait will be?


I have a long time to wait before open water here in MN, and I don't want to make a bunch if the bills are expected to be easy to break off.

Thanks!

hi ls
It depends on how long and how thick the bills are. A lip like a Long A, no problem, a lip like a bagley and it will eventually break!
However, it's easy to cast a lexan lip into the mold.
best,
L

Thanks Larry!

Long A is the bait. I'm excited to toy with this bait! The alumidust looks really cool on the white hard plastic.

You can also bulk up the bottom base of the lip where it connects to the bait. A little added thickness where the lip connects to the bait on the under side makes a big difference to the durability. Easiest way to do this is take a small amount of clay and round the joint where the lip hits the bait eliminating the sharp angle. Smooth it round and build up it up just a little and this will add a lot of strength to the lip and reduce the flex and increase the strength.

I end up testing my lures in the Kalamazoo river this time of year where the current doesn't freeze it over.

Mike
Alumilite

another place to beef up the bill is from under the chin to the tip. just make a gentle curved "rib" so it won't effect the direction the lure runs. I like the idea of leaving a spot for a lexan bill, that way you can experiment with different shapes. Just have one bodystyle and make it run shallow, med, deep and in the mud.