I won the scorpion frog giveaway few years ago… I still have it. I only wish it was signed and dated by the EA. Great video brother 💯

Love the eyes on the frog.

For painted lures, I would use poplar. It’s easy to carve because there isn’t a strong grain, takes paint really well, widely available, but it’s stronger than cedar.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

I like poplar too but it can take some effort to shape.

Alright first lure build of the year and I was not disappointed Great job Franko

👍👍👍👍👍For handmade work, I like linden wood (basswood) most of all.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Thanks 👍

I love topwater lures. I’ve had northerns come clear out of the water after a hula popper. Bass do backflips when hitting poppers. That’s the best kind of fishing right there.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

I know, right!!?

I love using Bass Wood but I am not very particular. I will use pallet wood as well.

I like bass wood. Carves and sands well, stronger than balsa and is native to Missouri

I like Tupelo and basswood.

good info

Cool little bait

Great looking little frog it should work good

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

I think so too!

Wooww... this is really extraordinary, my brother.. it looks like a real one👍😁Greetings from a hobby from Sumatra, Indonesia 🇮🇩

awesome build!!!!!!!!!!

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Thanks!!

Knowing your background, I think you are the perfect person to ask this question. What mouth shape provides the best pop? Round, oval, more material at the top than bottom, or maybe something strange that’s shaped wider but narrow top to bottom. I’m assuming you have a knowledge or a way to test this to figure it out. Thanks.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Good question!

When you pulled out your make shift piping bag i thought you were making a frog cake haha i have used many in my time in the baking industry the piping bags, "frog looks mint", it would catch many aussie murray cod, bass estuary perch

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Thanks....can't wait to put it to use.

Welcome back! Hope you had a good Christmas and New Years! Love smaller popping frogs. Really fun getting pond blowups with them! Good news about the tank too! I am sure you could find a metal fab shop that could essentially recreate the gas tank you have or possibly weld a patch over the problem area.

Like always, very interesting and instructive content! Thank you a lot for all informations you give 🤝 Hope you'll tell us as soon as you can about different types of bibs and their effect on lures motion! I've learned a lot from your videos, Thanx a lot !!

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Sure thing!

If the tank is hard to find could the old tank be patched? A welder could surely do it but JB Weld has done some amazing things around here. Could you JB Weld another piece of plate over the area? This would eliminate a spark around a gas tank.

Pine, birch, or dogwood for me works pretty good for what I do.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Ok thanks.

First i realy enjoy your new video😊👍 And I often see you build lure with resin I have some problem resin lure. Im using clear epoxy resin, but my lure realy easy chipping when i accidently hit rock when i fishing (i do stream fishing on small rocky river). The break part is close the tie on eye rear hook and i don't have clue for change the shape that area for stronger body lure build. I hope you can help with some explaination on next video. Thank you Franco. #questionoftheweek

Hey Franco Thank you for making the physics of lure making more accesible! I startet making wooden lures because I want to reduce the negative impact on the environment in case I lose a lure while fishing. Using wood I got rid of most of the plastic but I still use lead to weigh down the lure. Now I am wondering if there are elegant ways to ditch the lead for at least floating and suspending lures without compromising the balance of the lure.

@hankvana2149

6 ай бұрын

I use heavy hardwoods, either for the whole body or just a part to get a lure that casts a long distance and dives deep without needing lead. Often the weight of the hardware is enough to sink a slim bait. Maple is good, buckthorn and hophornbeam are heavier but are difficult to source and carve. Cheers!

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Yes there are, but it takes some plan and a bit of cleverness

@andrietsa

6 ай бұрын

@@hankvana2149 Thank you, I'll try maple next maybe in combination with brass. Right now I found some mystery wood in my shop. Must be something tropical as it's very dark in colour and sinks almost by itself. I have laminated a thin piece of balsa on top to be on the safe side, because I want it ideally to float back to the surface when it's not being trolled or crancked. Also I hope that this will help keep the lure from rolling on it's side.

Fraaaannnkkk. A shackle would have helped u " find center" when pulling ur fuel tank. Rig like this ..rope shackle then chainfall hook

What about that elevator music version of the stone Temple pilots interstate love song at 13:07 🤣

Basswood mostly🙂

That frog is gonna catch a lot of Bass. If you lived closer, we could repair that tank. By buddy welds aluminum as a side job. If not repair it just outright build another one. Try to find a small shop that does aluminum work.

Here in Australia I like to use a wood called jelutong and it comes from south east Asia,have you tried it? I think if you can get hold of some then it would be really great to see what you think and what you could do with it. It's great to work with and very buoyant and alot of lure makers here in Australia use it.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Never heard of it...I'll have to look into it.

I know that the Smallmouth Bass will like the frog - it's perfect for them! Thanks for posting that Franko! I have a variety of woods available on my property. From lightest to heaviest, I use basswood, cedar, pine, spruce, poplar, birch, maple, buckthorn and hophornbeam - depending on the need. I'll often glue up a composite block (light/heavy) to get the buoyancy balance/instability I want. Pike and walleye teeth will easily peirce the clearcoat over the softer woods so I'm experimenting with wood hardeners. For puncture proofing, I use poplar, birch and maple with a preference for poplar. Poplar is a good density for general use, it's reasonably hard, carves and sands nicely, is porous enough to accept a (relatively) deep finish without sucking up too much and becoming saturated. Bonus is that an 24 inch, 80 foot poplar tree yields hundreds of board-feet of clear, fine grained planks. 😁 I see that you are using a "support handle" for cutting out the bait - I would say that you detached it too soon though. I make a lot of small baits and always leave 1/2 to 3/4 inch of wood (as supports) at both ends as a reference surface to work from and as a way to clamp/hold the lure while shaping, drilling and sanding. I do my shaping with a file, it's much easier, faster and safer than a knife or beltsander. I find it much faster and more accurate to clamp the rough shaped blank solidly in a vice for those operations. I leave the supports on as long as I can. I usually make baits in sets of three. By using supports, I can cut the profile for several baits at once, then slice off the thickness I need for each lure. Cheers! Hank

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Sounds like you got it down...

Go find some darning needles for threading fibers/rubber skirt material thru lure bodies

Hi Love the show and the way you share information. Can you tell me how to get the gig used to spray this lure?

When you're doing your calculations for buoyancy do you consider the impact of your clear coat and how that might affect the lure's weight? I'll put on 3 thin coats of etex on a lure which will usually add 1.5g to the final weight. Since adding this to my build considerations I've been really able to get some great repeatability in performance and sink rate.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Yes I do take it into consideration with lures where I'm really dialing in the sink rate. But remember what you have to consider is the specific gravity of the clear coat because as you add weight you also add volume. what matters is the added negative buoyancy, which is not much with epoxy.

Hello, Franco! Happy New Year to you and your family! Here in Serbia linden wood and poplar are most commonly used for making lures, mostly crank baits. I use linden wood because it is very easy to carve and I have abundance of it too. I have a question regarding the Chinese UV resin. When I brush it onto the lure it appears as if it retracts, leaving small oval spots on the lure without the resin. Did this ever happen to you, and what do you think the problem is? Should I maybe add some alcohol to it, or try to apply a thicker coat of UV resin? Thank you very much!

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

I used to get those blemishes but solved the problem by applying a mid-coat of minwax Polycrylic

What about TEAKWOOD?

Hi Franco! Great video as always, instantly went to watch the improved frog from a few years ago, the one with magnets after finishing this video. I was hoping you could answer me a question about action of crank baits. If I had two near identical crank baits, same body shape, same weight distribution, same lip, same sink rate, how would I increase or decrease the width of their action (using body features like fins)? Assuming both have more side to side action with little to no rolling action. I did manage to adjust the action with tie on eye position (closer to the lip gives wider movement) but I can only move it so far up and down before I run into stability problems and sometimes the walleye love a bit faster action that mimics bait fish swimming up stream but ide and asp love wider action.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

Every design will have its limits. The most reliable method of getting better action is moving the tie on eye. A secondary method is to make sure your body weights are consolidated in one location and that should be as close to the center of rotation of the body in action as possible. Otherwise, some redesign would be in order such as increasing the size of the bib, moving the tie on eye on to the bib and shortening the lure a bit.

Have you ever used popular or tupelo wood? By the way I love the little frog!!!

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

I've used poplar but not tupelo.

i prefer ipe

What do you think the best wood is to use for a typical salt water lure ?

@EngineeredAngler

5 ай бұрын

No such thing as a "typical saltwater lure". So many different styles, sizes, and methods for using, that it's hard to say. I would go with a general purpose wood like basswood.

Do you like Cypress and/or Tupelo for lures? I think I remember you using Cypress a long while back. I live in Arkansas and have a decent amount of Cypress boards saved up.

@barrettbryan8905

6 ай бұрын

Also what about Mahogany? I have some old growth mahogany that seems like it would be great for jerkbaits, almost as light as Balsa but not as soft.

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

I do like Cypress, its so easy to work. I've used mahogany but its a bit too dense for most lures I make. I need to try tupelo...

How about pecan

@EngineeredAngler

6 ай бұрын

If I can find some...