January 11, 2019

Jointed Topwater Minnow

STL files for these Lure w/stencils can be purchased from CULTS3d.com

This is a jointed topwater lure a did. It is modeled after a common jointed Rapla Lure and these are the equivalent of J-7 and J-9’s for size.

It’s the same typical design I always use and this one also uses sinker eyes for attachment points just like my last lure. I’m starting to like these eyes because they save a lot of time over bending custom forms from wire.  This is a relatively small lure too so it will probably be a little challenging to print and assemble.

It printed pretty well actually.

Lots of bits and pieces to this one.

I started with the rear section because it should be easier to start with.

That part wasn’t too bad, here it is after a little sanding to clean up the joints.

The front half is a little trickier to work with so I used tweezers to hold everything aligned.

I did glue my fingers to this one but after a little clean up it looks pretty good. The gap is a little big so I’ll have to go back and fix that on the next one.

Here it is for a size comparison to my hand… it’s pretty small.

Another comparison to the J-7 size lure it was modeled after.

The tail hangs to low and it also floats a little low in the water….

… compared to a factory lure.

I went back to the design and removed the extra weights, added a few air chambers, and moved the hinges a little to close the gap.

After reprinting it this one floats better and the tail hangs better with a gap closed up a bit.   It is a challenging lure to assemble and probably requires a good printer to be able to print the parts correctly but I think it should fish pretty well… only time will tell.  I’m going to scale it up a little larger and try a few more.  Next I’ll throw some paint on them and hopefully they still float after that.

Here’s the finished lure. The smaller J-7 sized one was painted in a pearl blue pattern.  It looks a lot better in real life than the picture.  I used size 10 hooks on this one.

I did the larger J-9 one in my typical perch pattern.

I used slightly larger size 6 hooks on this one.

I recently added a ultralight J-5 size one to the line up too.

Even though they were a little challenging to assemble I think they came out great. The hard part was not getting any epoxy on the hinge during the sealing process… I did but I was able to clean them up pretty well so they should still have a decent action.

Well after the finishing process they still float so that’s a good sign. I can’t wait to get out and fish with these this season.

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