# Glider Woods



## plugman (Jul 15, 2008)

I've got a stack of poplar, spanish cedar, cherry, maple, and some old growth cyprus and a bit of basswood sitting here staring at me. What should I pick up to make some gliders?


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## jerkin (Apr 3, 2008)

I make all my gliders from cherry and maple. Both are nice heavy, dense woods that don't need a ton of lead to make them sink. They both finish well and I haven't had any moisture problems yet either, though I put 4 or 5 coats of etex on all my lures. When I ran out of the maple I was using I switched over to the cherry and didn't really have to change anything, the weighting was almost identical between the two but there are many different subspecies of both wood types so I'm sure that doesn't happen all the time.


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## the greek (Feb 3, 2009)

I'm with Jerkin. Maple and cherry also. He pretty muched summed up my opinion on evrything. Cherry is very nice to work with and tools a bit easier than maple for what I'm doing.


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## plugman (Jul 15, 2008)

Swing by a buddy's millwork shop this afternoon. He was kind enough to cut out several basic glider blanks for me in maple. Looking forward to "whacking away" at them over the next few days and this weekend. Any tips on weighting are greatly appreciated.....


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

Gliders are probably one of the top two or three "fun" baits to make. They require no lip and that alone simplifies the building process an awful lot.

While cherry and maple are the ideal choices, good old poplar will do if that is all you have in the wood pile at the moment. Because it is cheaper and easier to work with, it is a good choice to experiment with. I used poplar for about 90% of my stuff, but I love cherry too. 

As to weighting...

Any discussion on a message board about weighting is an exercise in generalities. Because it varies with the length, thickness, shape and profile of the bait, it's pretty tough to be specific. Furthermore, everyone has their own idea of how a glider should perform. Some like them to "walk the dog" underwater, and others, myself included, like a glider that can be ripped and jerked at high speed while achieving a somewhat random action. I particularly prefer a bait that "thumps" twice when you rip it before it begins its side to side glide. I seem to get far, far more strikes from that type of bait. A glider with a double thump when you first begin the rip or "stroke" while casting can be a deadly device when conditions are right.

With that in mind, you can try a few shortcuts to get you closer to where you hope to wind up. 

Try taping the weights to the bottom of the bait and then place the bait in a large tub, deep sink, or even the bath tub to see how it sinks. (Seal the bait in sanding sealer first so it doesn't take on water.) You can add and subtract weight, move the weight and observe how the bait reacts. 

You may want the bait to dive after each glide. If so, a slightly forward weighting might help get you there. Most people seem to prefer the bait to maintain the same plane, so a level ascent might be a better place to start.

Placement of the weight? Again, personal choice depending on the action you hope to achieve, but a good starting point might 1/2 in forward of the belly hook closest to the nose and another weight 1/2 inch behind the next belly hook back (the one in the middle just forward of the tail hook).

When you actually drill out the bait and either pour lead into the holes or insert lead weights, do not drill above the center line of the bait as you look at it from the side. In other words, the center line is that line that is sort of like the lateral line fish often have, but lower in the center of the bait and it runs from the nose to where the tail hook hanger is usually drilled.

Why do you want to keep your weight below that line? Because any weight above that line is going to make the bait top heavy and it will struggle to keep the belly down and the top of the bait up. Now of course, you can play with this later to build a bait less "stable" because it will "roll" more with each jerk and may look more like a stunned or injured bait fish, but if you're just making your first few, strive for a more stable bait that has the action you can predict.

Line tie placement is also critical to the action of a glider and is a key element in experimenting with the range of possible action you could get from the same bait. 

There is no end to the possibilities, and there are rules but most of them are dying to be broken as you strive to build that "magic" action that triggers strikes more often.

A quick story. A number of years back, before I was building baits, Larry and I were at Piedmont. We had been trolling for a while and pulled up on our favorite point near a weed bed for a casting session. As we pulled up and reeled the lines in, we both had follows while bringing the trolling baits to the boat. 

In the next 15 or 20 minutes, we raised about a dozen fish, although of course, some of them may have been repeat appearances. At any rate, we were getting follows on crankbaits out the wazoo. It was not until I clipped on an Eddie Bait, which is a cylindrical glider/jerkbait, that we boated the first fish. I was instantly hooked on that "double thump" that the Eddie Bait produced. That incident was one on a long list of incidents that eventually led me to building my own baits. 

Lol, I still think about all the variations of certain jerkbaits and gliders that I have yet to try, but consider as probable producers in certain situations.

Sorry for the long reply, but I love gliders and jerkbaits.


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## plugman (Jul 15, 2008)

Vince, That was a huge help. Between your response and a PM from Husky who turned on to a couple "How to Links" at Lure Building and TU I've got tons of information to begin working with. As usual, your response has generated a couple additional questions. 

You've broadened my notion of the action you can achieve or might find useful when it come to this kind of bait. The few that I own (all commercially made) glide several feet and will roll/flash. Your technique now makes me say to myself, maybe the few attempts I did last summer weren't busts, just cause they didn't glide several feet. I need to revisit them. Sounds like your retrieve is intended to get a reaction strike? I am curious, what's a "double thump", if you can describe it in words? It looks like I will end up trying a couple ways to add the lead, focused in a couple spots and others spread out along the belly of the bait. I might even try thru drilling and sliding a slug of lead on to the thru wire. I have a friend who does that with the needlefish he makes and their action is extrememly erratic and unstable.

I've also been playing around with the notion of laminating woods of various densities together to see how that affects the action and balance of a bait.
Light on top, heavy on the belly vs sandwiching the heavy between two lighter desnity woods for example.


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## swest34643 (Dec 14, 2008)

I've only made gliders with basswood and maple. I started with basswood and really liked the action but switched to maple because all I had ever heard was that maple was THE THING to make gliders out of. However after doing it for a few months I found that the action on that lighter, less dense wood is hard to beat. Don't limit yourself to any wood - they all have a different action that makes them great.

Shane


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## plugman (Jul 15, 2008)

Thanks to my buddy Mr. Millwork, I now have a stack of rough gliders shapes in varying lengths, widths and wood species ranging from spanish cedar to maple to poplar to cyprus. This is going to get interesting. Now it's down to the basement to make some sawdust....

On a side note, if any of you can get your hands on some old growth cyprus, you might want to try it. It has interlocking grain like oak, has nice tight growth rings and is virtually rot resistant. It carves and turns like butter. It's pretty nice wood.


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