RiverMan

I like a popper that you can really yank and it won't come out of the water...some poppers either "pop out" or won't skim the surface. My favorite is made by one of Bill Dance's sponsers, have gotten many nice smallmouth on this bait and had some great boils by largemouth too. This particular bait will make more of a "blurb, bloop, blurb, bloop, blurb", sound, I love it! Damn, I'm gonna have to go cast that baby tomorrow, lol. Jed

Thanks for the kind words Cory. No it is not the bait in the photo-shop, will be posting a video for this bait very soon tho. And no there isn't any roll to the bait in the video altho it will roll some if you push it real hard. The bait in the video is more of a "drop-belly" style and I appropriately named it the "beerbelly". This bait can be worked much more slowly if one desires. I kept it rolling with just a couple of "hang-times" in the video to make things more entertaining. Glad you liked it. Jed

I haven't brought this up as I don't want to get into the Devcon/Etex spat again but some of you might remember the Devcon bait I put in my truck window? Well, it's been more than 90 degrees here each day now for weeks and the bait is sitting directly in the sun. The bait has been there for about 6 weeks, maybe longer? The bait has a paper-photo finish and neither the paper or the Devcon have yellowed in the slightest way. I might add that a orange colored brochure I had sitting beside it was nearly white in two weeks! I phoned Devcon several weeks ago and spoke with one of their techs. He explained from his experience that Devcon will yellow over time but that it would be very slight, not enough to destroy the bait. When I asked him "how long will the stuff last?", he told me it should last indefinitely as it essentially turns to a plastic once cured. Jed

DeVery, The bait doesn't have a lip, it gets its action from the way it is weighted and from the way it is retrieved. The bait sinks very slowly while maintaining a totally horizontal posture. Jed

Thanks for the kind words guys. The video could be better but I recruited my youngest son to do the filming and he is on crutches...this makes following along with the camera a bit tricky! More video to come! Jed

Dave, For what it's worth, most of my commercial poppers don't "pop" either. I haven't ever worried about it, more important to me is that they create a good commotion. Jed

My boy taped this video last night of one of my gliders, thought you guys would like to see it. I uploaded it to this link: www.eoni.com/~volkman Once there, double click on "beerbelly.avi" and your media player should pop up and begin the download. Alternately you may choose to "right click" on the "beerbelly.avi" and save it to an obvious spot on your hard drive. Jed

Hey Stranger, great job! Jed

That's what I am thinking too. The only problem I am noticing with the whole idea is the cost of the decal paper. For the 7 inch baits I am making the decal paper will get quite spendy in a hurry! Jed

Yea, what skeeter said.

It is good, still working through some problems, certainly much more touchy than the Devcon. Had a bait fail tonight because the stuff wants to keep sliding off the back of the bait...kinda odd. I will work through it. Jed

Through a combination of suggestions and hints from helpful board members I have developed a process with the Etex that is working for me. I hope the info proves helpful to someone on the board. I mix the Etex vigorously in a small cup for two or three minutes and put it aside for exactly 30 minutes. This allows the product to thicken making it much easier to brush on and eliminates the problems I was having before with small "craters" and blurring of my signature. I then brush the Etex on and put the bait on the wheel turner. Next fire up a torch and run it quickly over the bait, this eliminates all bubbles. Yes this is an additional step but I don't mind taking the time to do it. There is a fine line between removing bubbles and burning the glue so go easy. Finally I run a heat lamp directly above the baits as they are turning. With this process I can have the bait dry to the touch in 4 hours, completely dry in 6 hours. Jed

Thanks, The process that Maddox outlined is the one I have been using for quite some time. I was interested in trying the decal material as it would allow a person to use metallic colors underneath the stencil. It's difficult to get a true "metallic" shine like you see on a shiner, dace, etc., from a piece of paper. Where's Artbrush when you need him? Jed

Hey that's great Chip! Congrats! Jed

BlackJack, Sounds like you may be interested in speeding things up. Add to your drying wheel a heat lamp....I have done this and it cuts the drying time in half! You can buy a clip-on lamp near the auto-parts in Wal-Mart....bulb is about 4 dollars. Hehehehehehehe Jed

Very impressive, very realistic, great job! Jed

I am wanting to try this but the comment about having problems with getting the stuff to lay flat concerns me......anyone doing this now? Jed

The Bullseye is only used to seal the bait BEFORE painting. After the paint you typically use some kind of epoxy to put a final protective finish on the bait. Guys here mostly use either Devcon Two Ton Epoxy which can be obtained at Wal-Mart or Enviro-tex Lite...another two part product. The Bullseye wood sealer is used to provide an additional "barrier" in the event water gets past the outer epoxy layer. Do a search in this forum to learn how to apply the Devcon and Envirotex. Jed

I use a product called Bullseye "shellac and sealer", comes in a spray can. I like it because it dries very quickly, maybe 15 mins. You can buy the stuff at Home Depot and various other hardware stores. It's not necessary, however, to seal the bait prior to testing. I test mine all the time without sealing them, just make sure you let the bait dry completely before putting on the seal. Keep in mind that the grain of the bait will raise when it gets wet so you may have to lightly sand to smoothe it out before sealing. Make sure you test the bait before finishing. It's very disappointing to do all the work only to find out it wont run... I know, I have a box of "misfits" in my shop. You have a great start, keep up the work! Jed

Hey some great ideas, thank you! I find on my gliders to get the completely horizontal balance I want it will sometimes be the difference in just a few specks of lead added or taken out. This is why I am concerned about dropping in several large chunks of epoxy putty. Thanks again. Jed

I'm not very happy with the wood filler I have been using. The only way it works is if I wait a full 24 hours and then it still has some soft spots in it. I have also been using epoxy putty which works great but I am concerned that in some cases it may change the balance on some of my glider baits. I would like a product that dries hard, fast, and has little weight to it....is there such a thing? RM

Your mention Red of the "methyl ethyl" brought back some bad memories of college chemistry, yikes! Do you remember counting with the alkanes? Methane, ethane, propane, butane, etc.? A fellow student of mine once asked the chem professor why we didn't count above decane? His reply that I will never forget was "because all above that were "mundane", lol. Jed

You are taking a risk by doing so. I have modified the paint on some of my wiggle warts for steelhead fishing and finished them with Devcon. I found that some of them would no longer run!! Bummer. Lucky craft baits are beautiful and I would be very hesitant to change much about them. Although some guys here spray Etex I think most brush this product on, it's quite thick when used in this way. Devcon is the same, quite thick when brushed which adds to liklihood of causing problems with the action. If you are going to give this a try look at a spray on coat of some type, there are many versions at any hardware store. Make sure you get something that won't yellow the baits. I am not comfortable enough with telling you which product to use, someone here much more experienced in this regard will chime in soon Im' sure. Good luck! Jed

Hi Striper, I noticed that this was your first post, welcome to TU! I have never caught a striper but have always wanted to, they are fascinating critters. I have also always wanted to build lures that would catch them too. Have you built any? RM

Skeeter brings up a good point, use the search feature up top, literally hundreds of posts concerning lip design and size. RM