blackjack

ditto here!!

"the strike king and the Mimic bait are one in the same both designed by Sonny McFarland from the greater knoxville area in Tennessee I use both and in a years time I go through several baits whether its the thru wire pulled out of them or the lips breaking or coming out of the bait or just wear and tear on the balsa they get pretty beat up. this is one of my tournament baits I always have tied on whether its the standard one or a modified one with a DOA crimp weight on the lip I have just became a fan of them I ordered 100 of them 3 years ago from kelly just primed and am now down to about 12 or so and I am starting to get paranoid about even using them unless money is on the line thats all" Bro, I think you have the details of your story mixed up a bit. Sonny McFarland is the owner and designer behind the "Flat Shad" line of baits. He has never been associated with the Stooksbury boys at Mimic Lures. The Mimic lure boys made a copy of a Shad Rap and threw in a circuit board lipThey marketed this bait to Strike King and began selling that bait and their other bait "Flat Shad" thru Strike King's Custom Shop. There is only one Flat Shad and the design and the name belong to Mr. McFarland

Well,if you were the real Dictator of Painters you would know that it is Innate prismafec. Your Welcome!

Looks Like some old Zooms before Ed C. engraved his baits on the bill, The other flat baits look like his Carolina Killer baits as well. I would bet my last dollar that they are not Thundershads

First and foremost a hunting crankbait is not some magical crankbait that will catch you a 40 pound limit everytime out.There are days when a fish will not touch a hunting bait and want the "William Tell" bait that comes straight back to the boat in a perfectly straight line. You don't need a PHD or have recieved enlightenment from the Dalai Lama to make a hunting bait. There are quite a few factors that can contribute to making a bait hunt. The angle of the lip, the shape of the lip, line tie placement, wire harness placement,type of wire used for the line tie, shape and profile of the bait, and placement of the ballast weight. The easist way to start experimenting is to adjust the placement of the ballast weight in a bait. The attached 3 diagrams will get you started in the right direction. Most bait makers will not tell you directly how they can get a bait to hunt. With the diagrams you must assume that all three of the baits are properly made and as close to identical as a handmade bait can be. One of the hardest parts of designing a bait that will hunt is to accurately mark where the horizontal centerline of the bait is. I am certainly not going to lay it all out here on this forum so you are gonna have to do your homework. I figured it out on my own you need to do your homework to recieve enlightenment!! This by the way is my Big O Diagram!!

I use various sizes depending upon the bait size, action, and application .372", .375", .42", .44", .46", .50", .75" and 1.00" I mill my own balsa from standard stock sizes

[i'll pass everything needed can be found right here!!

http://alsacorp.com/products/softtouch/softtouch.htm Here ya go!! Better start saving your pennies cause it sure aint cheap!!

I inquired about this awhile ago with a local company that I found locally on the internet and was advised that they cannot cut lexan as the cutting process released toxic and caustic fumes that would damage the machinery and anyone with in breathing distance

Problem solved and everything was worked out, Was not their fault and was not mine!! Thanks for the help!!

Anyone have any dealings with this company?? I ordered a 2 part aluminum worm mold, got the box, nothing inside besides receipt and crumbled up packing paper, emailed them, called no response at all. Contacted paypal and they dont investigate non-fleabay transactions. :pissed:Would be nice if someone would at least contact me back! Anyone know these guys they are in Arizona??

99% of the time fisheyes are the result of contamination of the painted surface if and I say if the epoxy was mixed properly. How are you handling the baits during priming, painting and clear coating. if you happen to touch a bait with your finger or hand the primer is contaminated with the oils produced by your skin. Do yourself a favor and get a box of latex gloves and wear them whenever you are handling the baits, from primeing to the final clearcoat

I thought they did that with a straw and some beechnut chewing tobacco!

Applying glitter to a hard bait leaves two viable options to attain an excellent finish. Airbrush or paint brush? 1)Shooting glitter To get the most bang out of your glitter whether it is micro glitter, fine, or course you are best to shoot your glitter with a carrier such as a thinned clear. When glitter is sprinkled onto a tacky surface the glitter will not lay completly flat leaving voids that will not refect light. 2) Mixing with clear coat The other way is to mix the glitter into your first coat of clear then apply the mix with a paintbrush. Let the first coat w/ clear cure overnight then apply a second coat of clear to smooth out the finish

Dean, as I mentioned in my previous post, not all Bagley Baits were created equal. I was not trying to ruffle any feathers or promote some other guys baits it was my observations as a whole of working on and restoring old baits for the past 15 years,There were 4 or 5 years where the baits that were made were excellent. The rest are as I said are suspect. Alot of people come to this board to gather and share information. My post was to let people know that there are many many years of baits that are not worth the wood that they were made out of. I have a whole box of Bagley baits that I have purchased over the last 30 or so years. But that box represents only a very small portion of Bagley Baits that I have purchased and collected that were produced with quality in mind. If Boyd Duckett wants to spend $75.00 on an old bait, bravo. He also endorses a crankbait with a laser light in it. Does that mean the average joe needs to buy a lure with a laser light in it? Buyer beware know what you are purchasing before you hand that hard earned cash over!

Dean, Who crapped in your coffee this morning? My point and 2 cents worth were to point out to those not in the know that the majority of baits produced by Bagley in the past 30 years are not what they are hyped up to be. I sure would hate to see someone pay $50 or $75 bucks on a bait that is not worth going for a boat drive!

Bagley,Shmagley, Bagley built great baits for approximately 4 or 5 years, everything else they have produced has been suspect at best. I have worked on a couple thousand old Bagley baits and there are very few around that are worth a darn!! Most have the lip slot cut at a crooked angle, the belly weight installed crooked, YADA,YADA,YADA. When they reintroduced the Big B they did not even get that right. They used a shorter lip than the Original Big B. If I want to buy a Square Lipped Bait I will stick with a WooDream or JawJacker Crank

BobP is right on the button with this, If you are not throwing your cranks where they will get hung up you might as well not fish cranks at all(become a worm fisherman!). The great beauty of making your own is to be able to reproduce the ones that work. That is why record keeping is mighty important to lure builders.

I just recently mixed up a similar color, I started with a white base and added drops of Chartreuse to the white until I reached the approxomite color (faded Chartreuse) And painted this bait with that color, I used the same process for the back color. It is much easier to work from a lighter color to to a darker color than vice-versa!

Any candy color is supposed to be layered over a particular color base coat and then finished with a high gloss clear

Swims just like this!! http://nomadlures.com/media/Producepetey.wmv Thanks for the compliment!

That wasco tool does make a nice scale pattern, I still prefer the old fashioned ratchet handle method. I think with the smaller sized scales produced with the textured ratchet handle there are alot more facets to give off more of a reflexion

1 MARK OUT BODIES ON SHEET OF WOOD 2 CUT OUT BODIES ON SCROLL SAW 3 MARK LOCATION OF LINE TIE AND REAR HOOK HANGER 4 MARK LOCATION OF BELLY WEIGHT AND LIP SLOT 5 INDEX CENTER LOCATIONS 6 DRILL BELLY WEIGHT HOLE 7 DRILL REAR HOOK HANGER HOLE 8 DRILL LINE TIE HOLE 9 SHAPE BAITS ON MACHINE 10 ROUGH SAND MACHINEDED EDGES 11 CUT LIP SLOT 12 CUT OUT LIPS 13 SAND LIPS 14 GLUE BELLY WEIGHT 15 GLUE LIP IN 16 GLUE LINE TIE IN 17 GLUE REAR HOOK HANGER 18 FILL WITH FILLERCOAT 19 FINISH SAND 20 SKIM COAT WITH EPOXY 21 SAND SKIM COAT 22 SEAL W/ EPOXY 23 SAND TO ROUGH UP EPOXY SO PRIMER WILL STICK 24 TAPE OFF LIP 25 PRIME 26 PAINT 27 1ST COAT CLEAR EPOXY 28 CLEAR LINE TIES ,HOOK HANGERS 29 2ND COAT CLEAR EPOXY 30 CLEAN LINE TIES ,HOOK HANGERS 31 INSTALL SPLIT RINGS 32 INSTALL HOOKS 33 CLEAN BAITS FOR PACKAGING 34 PACKAGE BAITS IN CLAMSHELLS 35 PACKAGE BAITS FOR SHIPPING 36 MAIL PACKAGE There is my operation in a nutshell!!