is your bait going to be wooden? if so, the castaic trout hard bait comes to mind. you can make it out of wood, or even injected, hard plastic. thats what i want to see, and not at 100 bux a pop either. something that dives 4 feet on a medium retrieve, and crawls the surface on a slow one, but maintains the same good action however fast you crank it. most importantly just ake it have the profile of a trout, like not cylindrical, but ovular(is that a word?) you know what im sayin. well if its gonna be a soft plastic bait, you may as wekk just give up...there are MANY soft plastic lures out there. i throw the stocker, thats a bait i think draws the most strikes. if you can make a stocker without making it a STOCKER, i mean not usin the wing, but has the same action, and has 2 hooks, you've got a winning bait.
-patrick