Skeeter

I have spent alot of time on Lake Barkley, Kentucky, and Old Hickory. I probably know Barkley and Hickory better than Kentucky. You will probably spend the majority of your time on Barkley. It will be the closest to you. Outstanding lake. Kentucky has HUGE smallmouth. I saw a BASS tounament there where Rick Clunn brought in 4 smallmouth and 1 largemouth that went 32.3 lbs. Hickory has ALOT of different type of cover and situations to fish. If you would like any info on any of these lakes feel free to ask. I have spots on all of them. Better stock up on Bubba baits. Your going to need them. Skeeter

MAN...... not only is the carving the best I have ever seen, but that paint job is tremendous!!!!!!!!!!! OUTSTANDING WORK! Skeeter

I use the Devcon long drying epoxy to clearcoat. Usually one thick coat is all you need. If you do need a second coat you can put it on right over the first coat after the first coat has dried. You can use a model paint brush to apply it and you can cleanup with acetone, MEK, or any other type of lacquer thinner. A coat of Devcon carries some weight to it. It is a resin based epoxy. If you weight your lures close then two coats may make the bait slowly sink. You may have to adjust your weight. If you apply Devcon above 70 deg. then you can apply it and spin the lure slowly to even it out for about 20 min. and then hang the lure to dry. For every 5 deg. below 70 add 10 more min. of spinning before you hang it or it may sag. Skeeter

Acetone will eat plastic. However, it is not an immediate thing. If you get the paint off then I would rinse the bait to make sure that it is clean. Same with the lip. If the lip is Lexan then it should take it for the time it takes to get the paint off. Again, rinse the lip when you are done. Skeeter

Hughesy's metheod is the best for saving time. By far lacquer will dry almost instantly. If you do it my way... you really should let the dot dry for 12 hrs. or more. Especially if you are doing eyes. Dot the first color of red, yellow, or whatever and then let it completely dry before you dot the eyeball. If you do not and you make a mistake and wipe it then it could also remove or smear the color underneath it. Using the water based paint is time consuming. Dotting with lacquer has been a hit and miss for me. Sometimes lacquer gets an air bubble in it and when you dot the lure then the paint can kick that air bubble out and splatter. Then you're screwed. If you are going to use a stencil and spray, then make sure that the material that you are using for the stencil covers the entire side of the lure. That way if there is any overspray it will not get on the side of the bait. Skeeter

Another thing that you can do is to use Latex Enamel paint. ( regular water based house paint.) It will work over any type of paint that you use to paint the bait with. The really nice thing about this is that if you make a mistake you can take a damp rag and just wipe the dot off and do it again. Go to the store and just get a pint. It will cost you about $3.00. I have been using the same can for 3 yrs. now. You can also use it to do the eyes. Just dot it on with a nail or dowl or whatever else you decide to use. Skeeter

A coat of Devcon on a lure that size weighs around 1/16 oz. You might also try lighter hooks. If you are using beefy wire round bend hooks, you might try some Eagle claws. The wire is a little thinner. Skeeter

Cajun is a kick ass boat. I had one for 10 yrs. Wish they still made them. Skeeter

If it is clear Urathane like a Urathane clear for cars, I wouldn't. It will chip. Skeeter

If the lure is wood then you could use Acetone or MEK on a rag to remove the clearcoat and paint. Skeeter

Right here: http://www.tackleunderground.com/shop/ Skeeter

Dave, You're just not living right. I have 3yr. old Devcon baits that still look perfect. Even after banging the bottom of High Rock and laying on the deck in the summer sun for the day. Skeeter

Balsa is pretty forgiving as far as weighting goes. You have way too much weight in the bait if just a coat of Devcon sinks the bait. If it was hardwood then I could understand. Hardwood is a touchy thing to weight properly. For the 1 3/4 in bait use 1/8 oz. If you have problems with that much weight for that lure you can go to 1/16oz. but the lure will be hard to throw with anything other than a spinning rod. Make the lure 1/2 inch wide. It will take the 1/8th. For the 2 1/4 try 1/8 to 3/16oz. This will get you in the ballpark. Skeeter

Tally, Son, ya got to try things, or else nothing will be learned. Dave, DEVCON!!!!!!!!!!!! Jann, Too much work. Jed, You're welcome. Even though I have been guilty of using: "Because I say so." Skeeter

Thanks fellas, The only thing that I did different on this lure than I normally do is to use spring steel wire for the line tie and belly hook hanger. Mainly because of what he will be fishing for. Skeeter

OK fellas, here is some more stuff from Ol Skeet on balsa, sealing, and clearcoats. We have been buzzing on the site about sealing balsa. Seems I caused a lot of anxiety in folks about balsa flexing and that using Devcon to seal and stiffen the wood first was the way to go. Well, today I went fishing and took a new prototype lure to the water to test it along with some other lures that I clearcoated with Urathane clear. I learned a lot. Now I?m going to share it with ya. In another post I told yall about a bait that I made had the clearcoat crack. The clearcoat was Devcon. I have never in three years of using Devcon had a clearcoat crack. I just plain freaked. When I pressed on the bait with my fingers the entire lure was spongy feeling, especially where the crack was. I could actually pinch the lure and leave indentions in the lure clearcoat and all. I am sure I could have totally rearranged the shape of the bait completely if I had squeezed it in my fist. It was my thinking that a 4 1/2lb. Bass that I had caught earlier hit the lure so hard that it caused the balsa to flex and the clearcoat to crack. Then Cody had mentioned that maybe water got to the wood from it not being clearcoated completely and caused the wood to expand cracking the clearcoat. Then Hughesy said that Bagley used a very thick white primer on their lures and never did seal the balsa before the primer went on. Their comments put a big question mark in my head. I took some bare balsa bodies that I made and squeezed them. Even though I could feel some flex, they did not flex near as much as the one that failed on me. Both round and flat bodies seemed pretty stiff to me. So then I thought that maybe I had a bad piece of balsa. Well it seems that Cody had the correct answer. Somewhere in that bait, I had to have missed a spot. Today while testing my prototype lure the clearcoat chipped. The clearcoat was a Urathane clear. Another baitmaker put me on to the stuff. You can shoot it through an airbrush. I did several baits with it and put 6 coats on each of them. Dude it was just too easy and the baits looked gorgeous. BlackJack had metioned Duracryl (which is the PPG equivalent) and said it was no good. Dave Reeves mentioned that he had baits coated with this type of stuff that chipped when they hit the rocks. Well, they were right. The stuff chips, plain and simple. I threw the prototype through all kinds of junk with no problems. But, when it came to rocks, it fell apart. My prototype had a small chip in it that I did not notice. I kept fishing the lure. The chip was in the clearcoat no more than 15 minutes before I noticed it. I kept checking the lure every so often to see how the Urathane was holding up. But once I did see the chip, I cussed a lot. Then I pinched the lure. It compressed and left a permanent dent in the lure. It was like pressing a stiff sponge. The balsa was lightly coated with polyurethane before painting and clearcoating. Even though balsa supposedly does not absorb water like other woods, I can promise you that it will absorb enough to make the wood very pliable. Once water got to the balsa through the chip in the finish, it spread throughout the entire wooden body. There was not a place on the body that would not dent by pinching even though the water got in at one spot that was the size of a large pin hole. It may not have soaked to the core, but it spread throughout the entire surface of the body quickly. Conclusions: 1. Urathane clear sucks. 2. Balsa does absorb water. It needs to be sealed. 3. From now on all of my baits will be epoxy clearcoated. Hail Devcon. Skeeter

Now that is truely a picture of a man enjoying life. The smile says it all. Now all you need is a stringer of them Chip. Skeeter

No. I am not Jerry Lohr. I assume that is who you thought I might be. Good try. The only problem that I see with the Mellinium is that it appears to be a cup only airbrush. You just can't hold much paint in a cup. Skeeter

Joe told you right, Paasche VL. Skeeter

Joe, The main problem that I had was with a large round bait. I have not had any problems with flat ones. I have other round baits made out of balsa that were not "strengthened" that have done just fine. But they haven't had the beating that the other one had. The one that busted was a prototype. I beat the heck out of prototypes. But I have a standard that I expect from my lures. This one failed. My baits are not cheap. The customer expects alot for their money and I believe in giving it to them. Even though I have found a way to fix the problem I am still not happy with it. I am always looking for better performance and durability with my crankbaits. Seems I am rarely completely satisfied. Dive into the balsa. It is good stuff. You can really make some awsome baits with it. You may have some problems, but you will also have many successes. Take one of your baits and make it out of different types of wood. You will find that some designs perform better made of a different wood. It is all part of the process. You will figure it all out. And if you run into a problem and haven't got an answer to it....... then get to the forum. One of the tallented folks on this board will get you an answer. Skeeter

Joe, That was my point. We all want to make the best that we can. Therefore we ALL overbuild the lure. I do it on every lure that I make. It is the thing to do. I call it quality. Which post bugged you? I have done about 360 of them. Is it something that I can help you with? Skeeter

Try www.sewinsams.com Skeeter

Cody, I understand what you are saying. The crack was all over the place. It wasn't just a straight crack. There was a dent toward the front of the crack. It was a very small one and you had to look for it. Perhaps the fish or something that hit the lure caused the dent and allowed water to get in. That is a big possibility and therefore your theory could be right on the money. I never thought of that. But the bottom line is that one of my lures cracked and failed. That is just plain unacceptable. Thanks for the thought. It is a good one. Skeeter

OK boys, remember this post? I have sent the lure to Bob. We didn't get to it earlier because everything has been frozen up there in Yankee land. He should be getting the bait tommorrow or friday. I don't know about you guys, but I am anxious to see how the bait holds up. Skeeter

The dowl will hold up just fine. Your bait should not warp even if water gets to it. This stuff about firming up the balsa was probably started by me. I had a large round lure made of balsa that the clearcoat cracked on. My conclusion was that the balsa flexed when a larger fish hit it causing the crack. My answer was to clearcoat the lure first. Then paint over the clear and then clearcoat the lure after it was painted. This is about as bullet proof as you can make a balsa lure. Dowls are used in balsa anywhere you want to add holding support. Screweyes are the best example of this. You don't need a long piece. Usually 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long. I usually drill a 1/32 hole in the dowl after it is placed in the lure. This will allow the screweye to go in easily and still have hold. I also put epoxy on the threads to make sure that it won't pull out. Just about all of us "Over build" a bait. I guarantee that the baits that are built on this site are much stronger than factory baits. Balsa does not absorb water like other woods, and since you glued your dowls in with epoxy then they are sealed. Warpage won't happen. You did just fine. Skeeter