Joe

I made a spray hood using a 20" box fan and fiberboard. Keep in mind, I'm using water based createx paints. This set up should not be used for any other flamable paints. Set the fan on a flat surface. Construct a box in front of it with some amount of outward flare. Mine projects out about 16" from the fan. Inside the box, just in front of the fan, make a rack that will hold two a/c filters one in front of the other. I also set up a towel on the back side of the fan to see if any paint spray was able to get through the filters and the towel is allways clean. I also cut a hole in the top of the box and places a 24" light fixture on top for light inside my spray booth. The box fans have several speeds and my set up works fine. An added plus, is after patinting, set your painted baits in the hood and put the fan on low speed and the air flow over the baits help to dry the paint.

Thanks for the input. Reading your sugggestions I have an idea. Let me know if you think it will work. The back of the box is covered with a black material. If I were to cut peices of wood dowl and attach them to the back board at locations matching the location of my line tie and rear hook hanger, I could use a small brass screw or brad and go through the screw eye holes and into the dowl. The dowls would be painted black as not to stand out?????????? I like the idea of the lexan, but I'm concerned once the box leaves my hands, it may not be handled with as much care as we would use and the lures may fall out of place. Thanks, Joe

Hi Guy's' I have a customer who is having me make 12 lures for him and put them in a shaddow box for display in his office. I purchased a ready made shaddow box from Michaels, but I'm not sure of the best way to mount the lures in the box. The back of the box is about 1/4 in. thick and I would like to mount all the baits sideways vs. just hanging them from the rear hook. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Joe

Hey Guy's, This does seem to be one of the most drawn out post, but everything said here is very important. The only way to protecy your personal holdings is to have your lure business incorporated. This is also the most complicated way to go for the small businesses we have. The attorny I spoke to had me register my company as an LLC. This gives much the same protection as the incorporated business with out a lot of the extra paper work and hastle big companies must deal with. The cost was around$75.00 which is not much concidering the protection it provides. I am still looking for a good deal on finished product liability insurance and have not found a good co. I have a rider tacked onto my personal insurance and it's higher than I would like to pay. Joe

Hey Guy's, When paying excise taxes, be careful not to overpay. The tax is 10% of the sale price, BUT, if you have paid excise tax on the components you purchased to make your lures, that amount can be deducted from what you owe. The excise taxes are paid quarterly by filing the form 720. There are several components purchased for making lures that do not have excise taxes tacked on , such as beads and feathers. There are other items as well. If you have a bait that sells for $12.95, you do not pay 10% of that amount. What you do, is divide $12.95 by 1.1. This gives you a base amount to start from. Take the base amount and multiply it by.1 to come up with the tax owed. $12.95Divided bt 1.1 is $11.77 This is the base amount.Multiply $11.77 times .1 and the tax owed on a bait that is sold for $12.95 is $1.18 If you do it by a flat 10% , you are paying tax on the tax. If you paid $1.00 for the components to make a bait and paid tax on that amount and sold the bait for $2.00 , all you owe is the difference. Just be sure to keep good records,because at some point being audited is a given. Joe

Hey Guy's, Can someone give me information for a supplier of 3" egg shaped styrofoam corks. Not rigged corks, but plain styrofoam cork bodies. Thanks, Joe

Hey Guys, Looks like I'm bringing this to the top again. Today, I received an e mail from Ted Pacholik with the Fayette County School System in Lexington, Kentucky. He is looking for donations of lures for a program called " Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs"He says his high school chapter has been given a booth at the Louisville Sport & Boat Show in January and proceeds from the lure sales would go to future fishing club endevors for the kids and maybe a small lure company where the kids would learn lure making skills amd marketing skills. Some of you in this area may know more about this. Just tossing it out into the mix. Joe

Stamina sells a brass skirt body. The skirt is attached the same as on a spinnerbait or buzzbait. The body has a hole, so that the body slides onto your wire before putting the hook in place. Good Luck, Joe

Good Luck

Is the Rand M RV86 able to be brushed on? I use the Devcon II on my carved baits, but I have been looking for something better for spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. The working time of Devcon is too short when topcoating 200 spinnerbaits baits at a time. Too much time is spent mixing the small batches. What is the drying time for the RV86? Is it a two part mix ? Is only one coat needed for coverage? Sorry for all the questions, but this sounds like what I have been looking for. Thanks, Joe

Robbor, Check out www.okiebug.com I'm sure these are what you are looking for and you should love the price .39 each Joe

Jed, I understand what your saying. I agree with starting to aquire donations ASAP. I guess your right about St. Jude and their other fund raisers. What if we located one family for TU to adopt or maybe a couple who gives their time to a group home or such. I'm sure any donation would be very usefull to them as well as appreciated. The only draw back to that, as I see it, would be the extra work involved in converting our donations to cash. I guess we could still have an auction and maybe contact some of the larger bass clubs and sell lures at their meetings or weigh ins.Are their any sportsman shows comming up in any areas where a booth space could be donated to TU and the lures sold at the show??? When and where should we send our lure donations??? In addition to donating our custom baits, if the rest of you are like me, you aquire a lot of different baits at tournaments and weigh ins and gifts as door prizes. I just gave a box of these type baits to a local radio station for use as give aways at a childrens cancer fund raiser. Just another idea. Joe

Hi Guy's, Count me in. Just a thought,. Basskat mentioned the St. Jude Tournament and the Memphis Club that runs it. Usually a tournament of this type and size has a dinner or some type of meeting prior to the tournament. If the tackle were to be turned over to the people running the tournament, the tackle could be either auctioned or sold to the fishermen and anyone else involved in the tournament. If the tournament draws 300 boats, you can figure that to be 600 fishermen as well as support personnel, wives, friends. When all is said and done, you could have close to 800 or more customers who should be happy to purchase custom tackle for a good cause. Joe

I really appreciate the help. Paul, I will check back with you in October. Thanks for the help. Basskat, check your PM. Thanks ,Joe

Thanks for the help, this info is just what I needed. Thanks again, Joe

Hi Guys, I will be fishing a regional tournament the end of October. The tournament is being held in Columbus, Mississippi, on the Ten - Tom waterway. I have been trying to find maps of the area and have had no luck. The bait shops in the area tell me that there are no maps, wich I find hard to beleive, but but since I can't find any, they may be right. If anyone has a lead as to where I can find a map please let me know. Thanks, Joe

Could you use a peice of ss wire with a bend on the hook side, like a buzzbait wire or spinnerbait wire?The hook bend would attach the extension to the hook and at the point the wire exits the bait, turn it into itself at the angle you need and let the tag end of the wire go back into the head of the jig. I use this on some wood baits nd it works fine. Joe

I had an e mail from Tom at Oakiebug.com He had a shipment of white silicone quick change skirts. He said he should have enough to last for a while. Just wanted to let everyone know that they were in. Joe

Hey Guys, I have a few Bagleys and one was in bad shape, so I operated on it to see what made it work. Skeeter the weight you mentioned was added by drilling a hole part way through the side of the bait. The little round plastic box was inserted into the hole and the small asprin shaped lead weight went in next with the plastic cover on top. After this was done, a balsa plug was glued in place, sealed and painted over. If you look close from the inside, you can see the grain of the plug running a different direction than the body of the lure. Joe

Hey Guys, Sorry, I've been out of touch a few days. Clemmy, I,m sorry, Oakie bug is where I had been getting the wrapped skirts, I thought I mentioned that in an earlier post, but did not see it when I looked back. Richo, thanks for the info the price of the skirts at okiebug is a little high compaired to regular pad type skirts, but at .39 it's still hard to beat their price. Mr. B , thanks for the Cabela info,Bass Pro also offers some quick change skirts, but they are way up there in price. I have been told by several people that the reason the skirts are getting hard to get is that the glue used is not friendly to the environment and the gov. is cracking down. Not sure if it is true, just what I have been told. I have seen the flair colars and will get some to try. I do use the starflash skirts from Stamina for the legs on a frog popper that I make. You can see the pic of the frog on my site. Those skirts are really full and give nice action when in the water. Well, I haven't given up looking for other sources, I'll keep you posted as to what I find. I just placed an order with Rat Trap Baits for skirts( pads with collars) , prices are goodI'll post the Address if anyone is interested. Joe

Just wanted to give an update on the hunt for wraped skirts. NO LUCK! I did hear back from the lady at Hydro Silk and she sent me a hard back binder with sample skirts. The skirts range in price from .17 to .22 each by the 100. The sample book is very nice and she had it out to me in a matter of a few days. I'll keep you posted if I find any new info. If anyone would like a sample book, I'm sure all that is needed is a phone call, that is all it took for me. Joe The phone no. is listed on one of the earlier post on this topic.

Richoc, I just ordered a skirt tool this week. I have several customers who really like the flaired effect of the Terminator style skirt, that is why I have been pushing so hard to find the white ones. Have you used the plastic flair colars on any of your skirts to give them a fuller look? I was thinking that may be a solution to my problem if I can't find the other skirts. I called Hydro Silk and am still waiting for a return call from the owner. Who would you recomend as the best supplier for skirt material if I were to start making my own skirts? Thanks, Joe

OK , lets try this again. The skirt on the left is the Terminator style, or quick change skirt. This is the one I am having problems finding in white silicone. I talked to the girl at Hydro Silk yesterday and she is having her boss call me today. I'l keep yopu posted on the progress. Joe

Hi Guys, Sorry about the pics. I thought I posted them correctly, I'll try again when I get home tonight. Yes, the skirts I am looking for are the Terminator style skirt with the colar. Much like the flat rubber quick change skirt on many of the older style baits. Things were crazy yesterday and I did not call Hydro Silk, Iwill call today and let you know what they say. The rubber skirts can be had from several suppliers, but the silicone is harder to come by. Thanks, Joe

Sorry about the double pics, my brain is not working too good today. Fat Ratz, thanks for the phone no. I will call tomorrow and let you know what I find out.