Wicked Smelt Fishing Lure

Wicked Smelt Fishing Lure 

A one-piece  lure with supports designed in for easy printing.  It prints vertically, reducing layer lines.

This a modified trolling version of the Ugly Smelt  which includes a soft line guide and flexible stack bead that are printed out of TPU.

The TPU parts are a nice improvement for this design and are recommended if you use the lure mainly for trolling.  The lure will work without them.

Printing Body:  

Use 3 Perimeters (minimum) to help make it water tight, and adjust your Infill for floating or sinking (deeper diving).  

If you aren't getting good bed adhesion, add a single layer of Brim to expand the base 2-5mm.  

You can improve the lures balance and strength by adjusting the Solid Infill Threshold Area (PrusaSlicer-Infill-Advanced).  Adjust the setting to have solid infill stop around the top of the eyes (start at 60mm² and change as needed). 

For a cleaner look, align the seam on the belly with the Seam Tool and set the seam position to "align" under "Layers and Perimeters" in PrusaSlicer.  

PLA or PETG work well. 

Printing the Line Guide Insert and Stack Bead (TPU):

• Use a smooth build plate if you have one. 

• Heat the bead to about 40-45°C. 

• Use Vase Mode for printing, set the bottom solid layers to 4 or 5 layers.

• Print very slowly, first layer speed to 3-4mm/s and all other speeds to about 4-5mm/s.

• Cooling fan on 100%.

• Extruder temperature at or below the minimum recommend temperature for the filament.  Test at different temperatures manually for good flow.

• Disable retractions if your TPU is very soft to avoid jamming.

I use NOVA Maker TPU on a Bowden tube Ender printer and it works quite well as long as I print slowly.

Installing the Line Guide Insert:

1) Grab a toothpick and your insert. 

2) Put the toothpick into the small end of the insert. 

3) Push the toothpick with insert into the line guide opening from the bottom of the lure. 

4) Push the insert into the back and pull the toothpick from the front at the same time while twisting.  The insert should fully seat.  Remove the toothpick.

Have a good day and good luck fishing.