RiverMan

Yep, WD40 works very well, at least for salmon and steelhead. I am guessing that it would work well for other species too. jed

Very cool Mallard, thank you. Jed

I think that is a great idea although if you intend to release the fish it may be harmful. Keep in mind that the slimy coating on fish are their protective barrier from varios bacteria, fungi, etc. If you retain the fish and then rub the lure on it great, if you intend to release it I would suggest you touch the fish as little as possible. Here is an example; I live in Oregon and work on a small river with both salmon and steelhead. We have an adult trap near the mouth of the river that is used to enumerate adults and collect broodstock for our hatchery. When the fish are handled the guys naturally grab them in the narrow part of their tail. Several months later when the fish have matured, nearly all of them have a white fungus spot where they were grabbed and the slimed removed. Some popular scents out here are WD40 (which works great by the way), anise, garlic, shrimp, sardine, herring, grecian formula, MSG, and various others. Regards, RM

Didn't I tell you to get ready for confusion BB? lol. Beautiful topwater Mallard! At the risk of hijacking BB's thread, can you explain how you get it drilled from one end to the other? Jed V.

I agree Jerry it is good wood, nice to work with. I would be using it myself if it weren't for all the problems. Ask George (Woodieb8) he will tell you...same problems. I think if you are building bass-sized lures it probably helps, less chance for bubbles. If you are interested BB send me an email and I will send you out a pic of a bait with bubbles on it so you can see what I am talking about. I hope you have good luck with it. Jed tossmealine@yahoo.com

BB, Well are you ready to get confused? I don' EVER use Poplar as it is the WORST wood of all I have tested for causing bubbles in the finish clear coat. In fact I threw out enough poplar about two weeks ago to make 500 bass poppers! I have tried pine, western cedar, mahogany, poplar, willow, basswood, soft maple, hard maple, oak, doug fir, and probably others I have forgotten now and poplar is the worst of all for bubbles. Now keep in mind I am building musky lures which are quite large. This means I have a whole bunch more surface area to deal with when the clear coat goes on. That being said tho, poplar will nearly always bubble on me to the point of where it will at times ruin the lure. I do seal my baits and primer them, doesn't seem to help much. Also, if you don't glue in the screw eyes, get ready for mega bubbles coming from this area as well while the clear coat is drying. My suggestion........toss the poplar, if you are going "through wire" then you can use balsa. How about basswood? Wonderful wood with an even grain and more than tough enough for bass. I use hard or soft maple (both are very hard) for making my topwater baits. Keep in mind whether you use a soft wood or a hard wood, a bait of equal size and shape whether it is made from the lightest wood or the heaviest will weigh the same at the point of sinking. So, light woods will require more weight, heavier woods will require less. A heavier wood will require less weight and will hold screw eyes better. Light wood will require more weight and may or may not hold the screw eye as well as you would like. Buy a heavy wood like maple and a light wood like basswood, make the same popper out of each and see which you prefer, you may see huge differences. good luck. Jed V.

Woodie, You have mentioned before using the sanding sealer and I'm not familiar with that product, sounds interesting tho. Also, what do you like about the New Lustre over Etex? Do you think it's tougher? BC Carver, I use Bullseye Shellac to seal the baits, dip the baits in for about 30 seconds and hang to dry. They will be dry to the touch in about an hour but I typically wait 24 hours just in case. Jed V.

Good to see you Splash!!

Great tip Skeeter. I use Etex as you know but usually patch with 5-minute Devcon. I fill the hole with a toothpick and then put another coat or two over the entire thing, good as new. jed v.

Michael I odered some of the paints you are talking about maybe six months ago. A builder in WV who has many years under his belt suggested that I try it. The paint is called "polytranspar" and is a water-based paint. I found it to spray just "ok" and similar clogging problems with it that I do with regular createx. More alarming though is that once I put the etex on it there was some kind of chemical reaction that occurred and bubbles came out everywhere! The baits were literally destroyed! I mentioned this to the guy who uses the paints and he said this has never happened to him before. I threw all of mine in the garbage, about 100 dollars worth of paint just a few weeks ago. Take the info for what it's worth,didn't work for me but is working for others. If you are wanting to try a new paint I have heard the HOK and Auto Air are both formulated with smaller pigment making them easier to spray. Regular Createx was formulated to spray on clothing and has a much larger pigment size. Dixie Art Supply is a great source for the paints. Jed V.

Michael, You should probably do a search on this topic, it's been talked about literaelly a hundred times or more! Click on TU Search up top and search on the keywords "devcon etex". You will find there is hours and hours of reading to do. That aside, each of us has his own idea of what is "best". I personally feel that we have yet to find a really "good" clearcoat. I think there is one out there but this forum has yet to discover it or let it out of the bag. good luck. jed v.

Since we are using wood which in itself has considerable variance from one piece to the other it's always going to be difficult to make all of them identical. I have noticed with my baits that the clear coat thickness will change some baits too. As far as all the colors. Well, paint up 100 Firetigers and you will quickly see how "boring" it can get. The most fun for me in building is experimenting with new shapes, new ideas, new colors. Regards, Jed V.

Not sure I understand what you are asking. Are you asking to see baits in a "fire tiger" pattern or baits made by "fire tiger"? Jed V.

I have experimented some with this idea. I used to put additional layers on just the head of the bait so that the bait would taper toward the tail. It did look cool but added a considerable amount of time to construction. You could of course just cut out the shape of your bait on a vertical plane, turn the bait on its side and cut out the horizontal form. This is not so easy though when you are cutting out large bait such as those for musky. My bandsaw blade tends to flex a bit when there is two inches of it flying through the wood. Jed V.

I think it's great! Couple comments: 1. Does it swim? That is priority number 1...doesn't matter how pretty it is if it won't swim. Kind of like a pretty woman, doesn't matter how pretty she is if she won't...well you get the idea; 2. Get the bait as smooth as possible before painting, keep practicing on the paint, look at other lures and real fish to get ideas; 3. Use bigger and more realistic eyes, they probably don't catch more fish but they are perty; 4. Keep building, it's fun! Jed V.

I have heard of others using it but haven't tried it myself. I think I have tried about every other wood known to man though, lol. jed

Yep, Nathan has it right, hard to beat the glitter. Good to see you ArtBrush, been awhile!!! jed v.

Yep, stir it up Vy, be careful too! You don't want to have alot of that stuff on you. The guy I used to buy it from told me to be careful while using it! He said some people if they get it on them will have ill effects. RM

It's funny you mention that BigR. I was down watching a guy paint body tatoos at our local rodeo a few weeks back and he was using CO2. My only concern is that I would use so many tanks that it would get to be a nuisance. I will empty a 25 gallon tank at 120 psi in about 3 hours of spraying. If the CO2 would last for say 20 hours it would probably be worth it. Of course a guy could get a very large bottle of the CO2 but then you must deal with moving the beast from your vehicle to the painting room........guess that's where my wife comes in, lol. regards, Jed V.

That's essentially it Finlander. If you are going to just be doing a few lures here and there the smaller tanks will meet your needs. To my knowledge the pressure can be regulated on all of them. Good to see you here Mark!!! Smuttley Baits are awesome!! Overkill, Oh, you are shotting "auto air", maybe that's why you are able to get away with it. I am shooting the regular createx, whatever that is. I will have to try some auto air and see how I like it. Jed V.

I bought mine at HD an haven't been entirely happy with it. I would suggest you buy the largest tank you can because the constant running is really annoying! Overkill, I am very surprised that you don't thin the createx. With my Paasche or Iwata I sincerely doubt I could get the paint to even exit the brush without thinning much less keep from clogging. jed v.

Poplar=nightmare!!! Bubbles horribly when the clearcoat goes on. Use anything but poplar! Jed

Each builder has their own process but this is what I do: 1. Shape the bait and sand until smooth....doesn't have to be "freaky smooth", just smooth; 2. Drill the holes for the lead.....hold the lead in a pair of pliers and run a propane torch over it, let the lead drip into the pre-drilled hole; 3. Drop the bait in a bucket to check drop/water position, if necessary use a hand drill to remove some of the lead; 4. Let dry for at least 24 hours, fill in holes with wood filler; 5. Dip in Bullseye Shellac, dry 24 hours 6. Dip in white primer, dry 24 hours 7. Paint. 8. Grin like a jack-rabbit at the lure you have created! Jed V.

Yep, what Tom said. Jed V.

Mallard, As a side note and not really a response to your question....the WRC has a terrible tendency to show grain whenever you put something wet on it. All woods do this to some degree but WRC seems to be one of the worst. I do like this wood because it's nice for shaping and provides a very lively action but for the most part I try not to use it for the above stated reasons. Jed V.