Leaderboard

Thank you very much Jon Kross. That fly is magnificent.

I agree with John Kross about the display of talent in the fly competition and congratulate him on his well deserved first place award. My advice is don't leave that bug on a log or a bird will certainly get hooked. Congratulations as well to River Raisin for their third place finish. Stone flies and stone fly nymphs are the patterns I tie on first when I visit the limestone creeks of Central PA. All the entries look pretty fishy to me and serve as an inspiration to keep tying. I really appreciate my second place award and view it as validation of my return to fly tying after a 53 year hiatus. Of course the ultimate judges have yet to arrive in my local marsh. No disrespect to the TU judges but a striped bass' judgement is the one that means the most to me.

And the lami plate saves you a lot of wasted plastic in the sprue. You could just hand pour the first side which in my opinion is a little faster. Also, you won't get as much problems with lifting if you don't pull the first side out of the mold and then put them back in (like making a bunch of the black half first and then going back and doing the red) the plastic sticks to the mold and won't lift as badly.

Congratulations to all winners! A lot of amazing stuff!! I need to step it up next year!

Thanks guys I am honored to take 1st place in the homemade hard bait category...especially with the plethora of wonderful baits entered. Thanks to the staff for all of their hard work and I can't wait to come up with another entry for next year. Thanks again. Brandon Nelson

The judging for the 2017 Coolest Lure Contest is completed and we have chosen the winners. The level of competition this year was incredible. The amount of skill and talent in this year's entries was the best we've seen yet. So judging was really, really tough. But, with that said, here are the winners for 2017. Congratulations!! 2017 Coolest Lure Contest Winners Best Custom Painted Bait 1st - Supreme Pumpkinseed by @mdojet 2nd - Rainbow Trout By @Venutian_Lures 3rd - Brown Trout by @NorCal Coho Best Homemade Hardbait 1st - Code Blue Trout by @Nellynelson23 2nd - Handcrafted Crawfish by @Gastonfishlures 3rd - Creeping Duck by @foxbites Best Wire Bait 1st - Gold Shiner by @EXtremeLures 2nd - Hurricane by @Bigt2666 3rd - 4 Bladed Double Clacking Wire Tied Buzzbait By @Anthony Awgul Best Soft Bait 1st - IMG-5980.jpg by @DarkCloudCustoms 2nd - Green Mamba by @Bogbaits 3rd - IMG-5456.jpg by @riveratackle Best Fly 1st - Hookers Hopper by @John kross 2nd - Sand shrimp fly by @TomBell 3rd - Realistic Golden Stonefly By @RiverRaisinFlyCompany13 Best Rod/Reel 1st - NFC Burlwood Custom by @gekhang 2nd - IMG-2776.jpg by @MCiciulla 3rd - Fly rod By @rattlesnake

Thanks Brandon. I had to watch your video a few times, that was just too cool !

Thank you Tom. john

Watch out sometimes duds are not duds. I made some lipless rattle trap type lures last winter, after sealing I tested them and they floated , I painted them up and as it turned out they were awesome for shallow water spring pike, now if I only had taken some notes. So as long as they swim they might be worth something even if it was not the swim profile you were looking for. For sealing I like thinned e-tex followed by a full strength e-tex and as it turns out you can do it in pretty much one step, but you need a rotatory rack to use e-tex e-tex = Envirotex light

.45 and you want .015 or .045 just to clarify.

I never even considered he might be doing that, good point. I always shoot the first half, lift and cut the sprue, slap the other half of the mold on and shoot the second color.

Personally, I would modify this mold to accept the w800 wire keeper and hook of your choice... Not using the screw lok.

Air pockets in tails does not always mean air in the injector. I get them when I don't fully push on the injector at the end. Depending on the mold most fill from the lowest point up. But if there is a narrowing near the tail it will require q final push at the end to force out any air left in the tail. On the comment of heating your plastic to 350, I never do this and never have a problem. Mine get to 330-335 and never any hotter. Getting it that hot put you real close to the point of no return( yellow plastic). You need to really know your temps if you get it that hot but in my opinion is not nessesary. These comments come from shooting about 5-6 drums a year by hand and no magic machines. If you get an infrared temp guage make sure and stir while you are getting g a reading, strait from the microwave it will have hot spots. Good luck.

Congrats Brandon ! It's not hard to see why you won. Very impressive, very impressive indeed ! john

Congrats Brandon !

thats all you can do with any product you sell.