kvillebasser

Do you guys know of a good face shield that I could buy that would protect my face when going down the lake early on those cold mornings? I fished a B.A.S.S. tournament earlier this year, and there was a guy there who handed out these fliers on his face shield. They were very nice, but now that I'm interested in buying one, I cant remember the name or where to find them on the web! Thanks for you input!

I agree with Skeeter, well said. The bait posted at the beginning of this string is a nice looking bait. The time and effort that it takes to sit down and actually build a bait like that, or any bait, from scratch, should be applauded, not jumped on because it looks similar to what somebody else made, thats a copy of what somebody else made, thats a copy of what somebody else made, etc etc. I appreciate the workmanship, the dedication, the time and the effort to build even one bait. Not to mention the tool expense. Not to mention the forethought to plan out how the final bait will appear and act. I think the bait is well done, and I appreciate what he's done. Dont be afraid to post future work!

I was wondering if anybody has kept up with Tony Christian getting DQ'd from two FLW tour tournaments this year. Does anybody know the truth about what happened in those two tournaments? FLW's own website is allowing people to post messages on their discussion board that are very slanderous of Tony, yet FLW will not comment on the DQ's to clear the air. I dont understand FLW.....they wont say anything about what happened themselves, but they'll let people post on their website very bad accusations and rumors of what happened. I dont think FLW wants to stop the bad rumors. I feel like FLW is not professional in reporting the in's and out's of a DQ, if for no other reason to uphold the integrity of the tournaments that they hold, and second, if the bad rumors I read on Bassfan.com and FLW are not true, why doesn't Tony come out and set the record straight in a public forum.....like bassfan.com?

My wife and I had a new baby boy last January ('03). Its amazing how much of my baitmaking time has been eliminated! Its a good change, dont get me wrong, but I sure miss spending time with my baits! Anybody else out there experienced this?

I was reviewing how I've done in the past in the BFL tournaments in this area, and I have not done all that well, as I usually do not catch a limit. Which brought me to a question.......when you guys go out for a typical day on the lake bass fishing, how often do you catch a limit? I often catch 8 or 10 bass in a trip, but I rarely catch (5) that are greater than 14" (limit here in N.C.) in one trip. Am I in the minority or the majority?

Back in the early 80's, I was reading a bass fishing magazine, and in the back, was the song "Mamma's Dont let you Babies Grow up to be Cowboys" re-written to the tune of "Mamma's dont let your babies grow up to be bassers". The lyrics were hilarious! I emailed Bassmaster thinking that they had it in the back of one of their magizines (near Harry 'n Charley) but they say it wasnt in their mag. Does anyone remember reading this.....way back when? Could anyone tell me where to find it?

I'm changing airbrushes!.......at least temporarily. I've been using the Badger model 150, which I like very much, but I can not keep the dang thing clean (its internally mixed and double action). Also, I dropped it the other night, and I bent the needle holder, so now I am waiting on parts from Dixie Art. In the meantime, I got a coupon out of the paper for AC Moore and went there last night and purchased a Badger 350 airbrush. The 350 is external mix and is single action. It comes with a medium needle. It is also much cheaper than the 150. My question is this, are there any pitfalls to the externally mixed airbrush that I need to be aware of before beginning use? Its seems alot easier to clean than my 150, and thats a plus for sure. My 150 and I have also been fighting over seating of the needle and bigger drops of paint. For some reason, I have not been able to keep the brush from spraying paint when I depress the trigger to release air only. I was thinking its because there must be some dried paint in the tip, but the tip I was using was a medium and was brand new. I tried releasing the needle holder and reseating the needle in the tip, but I still had the problem. I am thinking of soaking the whole 150.......gun, needle, tips....everything, in paint thinner in an effort to wholesale clean the thing out. I've been airbrushing awhile, and I've never had these problems until recently......any suggestions or advice?

I use wire insulation to guard my hook points. I've got some old wire, but you can purchase new wire at lowes or Home Depot or Wal-mart for near about nothing, and take a wire stripper and strip the wire in little 1/4" segments. It'll need to be light gauge electrical wire so that the diameter is small enought to stay on the hook.

Thats a great idea. Do you plan to go with a "coffin" bill or a rounded bill? Wtih that rounded body, I was thinking that the rounded bill might offer you a little more wobble, if you're looking to make this bait a 5' to 8' stump bumping type bait.

There are a few other items that will make a lure spin instead of running correctly..... I assume that you've created a wire line tie to the bait. Did you "true" the bait by bending the line tie toward the direction that the bait wants to run or spin? You can be "off" a little bit in your lip installation and still get a good bait by trueing the bait up at the line tie. Very small adjustments in the line tie angle create huge differences in how the bait runs. Also, do you have enough weight in the belly of the bait? The bait will seem to run the best if it sits upright, with the head pointed slightly down, when the bait is just floating around and not being pulled. What I do is make a bait with no weight in it (complete bait with hooks) then I float it in my sink and take small worm weights and hang them on the hook points on the hook in the belly until I get the weight like I want it. If you use this method, as stated by someone else on this board, you've got to remember that hanging the weights from the hooks in the test mode actually places the center of gravity lower on the bait than it will truely be when you weight the bait for real, but at least it gives you a good starting point. I hope this helps too, in combination with Coley's and Skeeter's comments. Hang in there! A few baits down the road, and these things will be running like champs! Kvillebasser

Does anyone know of a good source to get printed cards for packaging crankbaits? Often times we see baits packaged as a clear plastic cup over a bait that has been laminated to the face of a printed, heavy thickness, paper card. Does anyone know who prints these cards and a source for the "plastic shell" that I could staple to the face of the card? As always, ya'lls help is greatly appreciated.

No doubt! The barber is the way to go! The day after my barber caught his fish, I had a note on my door when I got home from a guy who left his phone number and asked that I call him about some baits. I called the guy, and he said he'd seen my barber and saw my lures and wanted to come by that night and buy 6! I asked him if he'd tried one of my barber's lures? He said no, he'd just had never seen a finish like that before and really liked it. I told him since he'd never tried them, I'd rather give him one, let him try it, and if he likes it, we could talk about buying some then. I might want to drop one or two by the VFD too!

I think you're on to something. Sounds like a great idea.

I sure appreciate the compliments on the baits guys, and I appreciate your input on the gills. I've got some more ideas on painting the gills, and when I get a night or two to paint some up, I'll post them for everybody to see. I gave away a couple of baits to my barber, a couple of baits to a friend of mine, and a couple of baits to a man I work with. My barber called me the other night and said he'd caught a 5lb 3oz largemouth at High Rock with my bait the day after I gave it to him. The other guys have caught several 1lb to 3lb fish. There's nothing like somebody catching fish on a bait that you make!

I just posted two baits to the gallery. I titled them a very non-creative Bait 1 and Bowman Bait 2. I'm confused about painting gills on these baits. Bait 2 has a gill painted on, but I'm afraid to paint the gill on baits colored like bait 1 because I do not want to over-do it with the paint job. Neither bait has scales. Mainly because I like a fade rather than scales. Do you guys have any recommendations on painting gills? Or if I should just quit worrying about it and leave them off?

OK! I found the macro thing on the back of the camera. I've taken a few test close-ups, and I think I'm in good shape. Thank you very much for your help. I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow.

I'd like to post a photo or two of my baits to the gallery, but when I get close to my baits to take a picture, my camera will not focus. Its a digital Olympus. Does anyone have any suggestions.

I tried dipping my lures in primer. I thought that the primer that remained was too thick when I did it that way. The primer also was soft, because it was so thick, and tended to make my sandpaper gummy if I need to touch-up a place or two....even after several days of drying. Here recently, I've taken some advice from Skeeter and combined it with some of my own methods when priming. I take polyurethane or sanding sealer, and rub it on my baits with a rag. You can put it on wth a small brush, but it you do, the wooden bait will soak up a great deal of material, and it seems to make the bait heavy and "lazy". Rub on the poly, then I wait till the next day where I come back and prime with primer in a spray can. The combination of rubing on the poly and then priming with the primer in a spray can does raise the grain alittle, and also, any stray rough places in the sanded bait will also be raised. Usually, I have to lightly sand these small rough areas again, and then reprime. Then I'm ready to paint.