RiverMan

Does anyone on the board have a feel for whether or not lead weight in a bait will cause it to sink the same as an equal amount of clear coat weight? If so it would make the business of determining how my baits will sink once clear-coated a whole bunch easier. Thx. Jed

Well I have a bait that's running perfect now but have no idea what it's going to do with clear coat. I am thinking that some careful weight measurements before and after clear coating will give me an idea of what to expect. jed

I have been experimenting some with topwater baits. Does anyone have experience weighting big topwaters? I'm concerned that once the bait swims the clear coat will sink it!! lol Jed V.

I bought an Iwata Eclipse and it just sits in the box over yonder. I like the Iwata but after using the single action Paasche for a number of months I just stayed with it. I use the thin needle that comes with it all of the time. I do, however, constantly fight the paints and clogging, particularly with some colors. I run at 40 PSI...I know many say this is too much but if I don't it won't spray, simple as that. Anymore pressure and you start to get alot of bounce.......paint going everywhere. Good paint helps but isn't the complete answer...I use both createx and wal-mart versions at diffent times. You will have to thin all of these paints, I use only Windex for this task. I wish somone who was highly skilled in painting could put together a video with one topic..................."how to keep the damn brush spraying"! If you can get a brush to spray perfectly all the time it's easy to paint great lures. A brush that fights you is a constant nightmare! Jed

Hey FF....."I feel your pain"....my boy has a new lab pup and the other day whilst I was working the pup decided to chew my airbrush hose into six sections! I am now waiting for Dixie to send me another! I have an Iwata and hose just sitting in the closet but have gotten so used to the single action Paasche now that I don't want to use it. Jed V.

I find the same thing with Paasche. From my experience brushes are alot like women, you just never know what the next minute will bring! My brush will work perfectly one night and the next I fight it for two hours. The brush looks exactly the same near as I can tell, the tip is clearn, and I am using the same paint...go figure. It would really be fun to work with someone that airbrushes for a living and see just exactly how they keep the brush working perfectly nearly all the time. I still think much of the inconsistencies we experience are a result of the paints. Jed V.

Hi Ken.......hope you enjoy the site, it's a great place! Jed V.

I buy them too. I used to try and make them but they are so inexpensive that I quit fooling with it. If guy is just making a few baits tho for himself it's always fun to make them. Jed

He's cool, maybe a big glass eye on him to bring him to life! Jed V.

I think I asked this before but have forgotten. Are the fins wood too? Jed V.

You can trace a bait that you are fond of, you can print a pricture of a bait that you like after sizing it with software, you can draw out a shape that you like, you can print a fish or similar shape out and use that...lots of options. I would suggest that you start with a shape from a proven lure. Once you have this down then go from there. You might try luremaking101, they have some stencils there for musky baits that you could resize for bass if that's what you are after. Jed

Good looking baits again FF. I think you could go very thin with the bait and not worry about breakage. So long as the screw eye can get a good hold I doubt there is much to worry about. I do worry tho about using soft wood like basswood for musky and similar sized critters. I haven't had a bait fail with basswood but don't use it anymore for musky baits because of the above mentioned concerns. I would also be interested in knowing what type of plastic this is and what exactly they are using it for. Jed

Those are nice Coley, great tip! I have seen where guys have done just the back of baits in this manner but not the entire bait, looks really nice. Jed

BB, You can use a piece of plastic like that used to make milk jugs to make a stencil, playing cards work too. Draw out the designs you would like to have on the side of your baits on the stencil material. Now take an xacto knife and cut out the shapes on the stencil....now you have a stencil. Now hold this up to the bait and spray through it with a rattle can of whichever color you want..works great! You can use stencils to make gill patterns, eye marks, vertical lines, etc. I have tried pens and they do work but it's hard to make natural looking marks with them. If you do try a pen make sure your marks are small, larger stuff looks very unnatural. Have fun. Jed

Welcome BB, you have come to the right place! I like the bait on the left side, great paint job! Stick around, you will learn much and have a great time doing so. Jed V.

I have had screw eyes from just about everyone break at one point or another. I haven't ever tried screw eyes from the hardware store tho, maybe they are from a softer metal. I always pre-drill the hole so as to prevent breakage. Funny that you mention this as I had one break while installing it on the nose of a bait today while preparing to give it a test -cast or two. Try going up a couple sizes on the screw eyes, the real large guys rarely break. jed

That is true ingenuity! Great info!

The stuff I am using now is called Kilz It and I prefer it over the regular Kilz. About the Devcon....when I was using the stuff I would buy every container on the shelf when it came in! Jed

Guess I need to step back and let the "new guys" take over for awhile since this is officially my 1000th post on TU!! Yahooooo! Jed

Those are awesome, beautiful job! jed v.

Hi Jaime, If you go to Yahoo, Google, etc., and choose "images" then type in the species of interest you would like an image for you will find many examples. I would caution those on this board about using images that are copyrighted...............which most are. If you are building the bait for your own use I wouldn't be concerned but if you plan on selling the baits this could become a serious problem. Just about all lithos used for species identification for state and federal agencies, posters, cards, paintings, etc., are copyrighted! Jed V.

That does show up nice, thank you for posting it. With tissue paper being so thin it seems as if it would be difficult to smooth it out properly on the lure.....I don't know maybe the fact that it is thin is an advantage. I hope to try it sometime in the next couple weeks. Thank you again. jed

I have never tried the tissue before Husky but want to try it sometime. From the photos I have seen it looks as tho the foil doesn't show up real well through the tissue. Have you compared tissue over just white primer vs tissue over foil? Jed

What's Bulldog BlackJack? Folk that is a beauty of a lure, great job! jed

They sent me stuff too just the other day...I nibbled just to see what they were up to and when he hit me with the form letter and $375 I hit delete! Jed