RiverMan

I use etex and am happy with it for the most part. I am sure there are better clearcoats out there but I haven't had the time to test them. You might look at EX74 and EX88 (http://www.creative-wholesale.com/EX88%20EX74.html), I have heard good things about both of them. I personally didn't like Devcon all that well either but many on the board are happy with it. Good luck. Jed V.

Cute little fella...just wait til he's a teenager like mine, then you will be ready to strangle him, lol. jed v.

The lure is 8" long and 1' thick. jed v.

Why not just delete out half of the oldest ones? jed v.

Did we lose our hardbait photo section? I haven't seen any new photos in quite some time. Maybe we used up all the space, lol. jed v.

I would agree with WoodieB8, be careful about using Devcon on a bomber. Devcon, etex, etc., will go on quite thick and may kill entirely the action you want from the bomber. I would personally use an auto clear as Woodieb8 suggested or three coats of Rustoleum Lacquer from a rattle can. Walleye have teeth but they aren't anything compared to a pike or musky........you should have no problem protecting the lure with a thin coat. Jed V.

Thanks guys. The video is really poor and I will probably have to shoot it again but you can see what the lure does pretty well. The lure is very easy to work. I had my boy cast the bait after we made the video and on the first cast he had it walking pretty well. jed v.

I just uploaded a pond demo I did with my topwater lure "Dr. Deth". If anyone would like to see it in action you can view it here. The video quality isn't the greatest but you can definitely see what's going on. http://media.putfile.com/dr-deth-demo jed v.

You didn't step on anyone's toes Mossy. It's just that Skeeter is getting kind of old and well you know how people get when they are old...crotchety. Whatever you do, don't ask him about Devcon!!! Jed V.

Beautiful lures Brett, wow! jed v.

I like fatfingers idea...cool! I generally just spray a red line on the bait but a stencil might be good too.....just keep the stencil back away from the bait a little ways so the line has a soft edge to it. jed v.

In my humble opinion: There is only ONE to get, an Iwata Eclipse. If you get an Eclipse you will experience far fewer clogs and be able to paint lines like you cannot even imagine with a VL....at least from my experience. jed v.

I use photobucket but others use putfile. jed

I think they are quite spendy which prevents most of us from having such a tool. I have spoken with folks that have them tho and I think they would work perfectly for what we are doing. I think many of the large wood bait manufacturers are using auto-shapers. jed v.

Thousands? I would look to find someone with an automated router to cut them out. jed

Big time! Really slow. jed

I tried polytranspar and when the etex went over the top it blistered. I was then told that it needed to "cure" so I waited three days, same thing again. I threw away about a gallon of it in various colors. jed v.

Jerry, In the last few days the loading time for TU has really slowed down for me. Last night I couldn't get this site to load at all. In the last few days it will literally take a solid minute sometimes for me to go from page to page or to get the homepage to load. I am not seeing this problem at any of my other "usual haunts", thought you might like to know. jed v.

If there was one bit of advice I could give you it would be to learn to "blend" paints. Put up a pic of the fish you want to paint and then start spraying with lighter colors first, then over the top with darker paints. If it starts getting too dark, come back over the top with a lighter color again. This will provide you with the most realistic results and it's quite amazing just how real you can make some lures look. Good luck. jed v.

Has anyone come up with a method other than two screw eyes for joining jointed baits? It seems we talked about some light cable of some kind at one time. I am wanting to build a jointed lure and wondering if there is "a better way". Thank you. jed v.

This is a difficult question to answer. I really think this is one part of TU that hasn't been thoroughly addressed/answered by the experts. At one time I had a great link that answered this question but can't seem to find it. I will keep looking. Skeeter? Where are you Skeeter? We know you are there Skeeter...come on out and help! You too blades, don't be shy! jed v.

As I understand it the guy that is selling a "knock-off" on Ebay has something that is very close to the Weagle, you might look into that. Yes the Weagle is a very simple and old concept but man has it ever sold like hot cakes! jed v.

Del, Can you build a mold that will fit an injector? jed v.

So true Terry, I think that's why it's so important to do a bunch of testing before you ever take a bait to paint. Most of what you are seeing in the pile is failed swimmers. With new ideas, I might weight three identical shapes in various ways and then run down to the river to see what they will do. I just keep testing and testing and eventually get one that is perfect!! Once you do, then and only then do I worry about going on to paint. About the only time I have a real loser now is with topwater baits....it's hard to predict what a wooden lure will do between bare wood and a finished product. jed v.

You know after looking at the pic it doesn't really look like that many of them...must be a 100 though. It sure seemed like a pile when I was loading them into the bucket, lol. What's great is I had forgotten about two concepts I once worked on...they are back on the table now! jed v.