robalo01

Do you know how many strands of each tab has (the frog's hair skirting material) How many tabs do you think it would take to make an average spinnerbait? I usually use two tabs of the common twenty-strand stuff.

I'm looking for a brazed eye, straight shank flipping hook. Anybody ever heard of these? I want to a buy a couple thousand.

About how many t-sticks do you get, say per gallon, with this recipe? Can you poor it through a Lee pot?

Does anyone here make blade baits? Is this the right forum?

Anyone ever tried to make a suspending spinner bait? I'm thinking of attaching something bouyant to the blade arm. i don't think that I would want to make it completely suspending, but a slow fall spinner bait might be useful for pauses in a area where suspending jerk baits might be too risky to snags.

I'ts been a long time since I posted. I wonder if anyone has tried to connect a spinner blade to a wire lure (tail spinner, spinnerbail arm or body, etc.) with a small length of bead chain. I'm interested in seeing what effect the blade would have while falling. How do you think you could connect the blade/spil ring to the chain?

I came across a method of cutting tube tails the other day that I thought I should share. I was looking for the round fisker blades to make the ever-mentioned roller cutter with out any luck. They must not be very popular in Mexico. And the thought came to me that if I can't find round blades to role over the tubes, why not use fixed blades and press the tube into them. First I bought about ten single-edge razor blades, a used long distance phone card, a 6" x 6" piece of 5/8" plywood and some 1 1/2" strips of 5/8" plywood. I placed the blades (seperated by 1/4" strips of the phone card) on the sheet of plywood and boxed them in tightly by screwing down the plywood strips around them. To use it, place the tail on the blades and press it firmly down with a strip of plywood. Always align the grain of the pressing-strip with the blades and slide it about 1/2" down the blades to get a good slice. Use carpet knife blades for larger tubes. So far, I?ve cut about 350 tubes and the blades are still pretty sharp, but they will be pretty cheep to replace anyway.

I usually coat my molds with silicone oil with a paint brush, so from time to time a hair comes out into the plastic. At first it was anoying, but then a idea came. I took out some clippers and cut a few clups of hair out of the brush (1/8 " long) and mixed them with some smoke w/ small black flake plastic. This made a great dorsal for some flukes I've been working on. It seemed to hold up to the heat pretty well. I remember Bass Assasin adds "hair" to some of its colors. Any ideas of other home-grown things to add to soft plastic?

Bullfrog 200 ml plastic 12 drops watermelon 12 drops pumpkin 1/4 ts green high-light black and gold medium glitter to taste Great brush hog color. I also pour it in an 8 inch worm with a chatreuse ribbon tail.

Try a taxedermy supply house.

The reason an aluminum mold makes a lure shine is because it is polished. You can polish the resin just as easily. Try a dremel and polishing compound.

I've been able to pererate alluminum buzz bait blades with a paper hole punch. I'll wear out relatively soon but it makes a round, clean hole pretty easily.

What's going on over there? I haven't been able to log on.

I have seen a shop that pours for Creme. They have some very large alluminum molds -- about 100 cavities. They heat the plastic about 2 quarts at a time and pour it, very hot, over the entire mold and then quickly squeegee (sp) over the surface. For two colors they pour the tail first and then do the body. They can do about 500 an hour.

I heat 500 ml at a time. 3:30 in the mcrwv, then stirr, add color, zap for 1:20, wait about 2:00 for the bubbles to settle, zap another 1:00 and ready. I do think it takes longer to prepare that the LC did, but I think it stays liquid longer. I ordered the Hand Pour Medium. The bucket says "Hand Pour Soft", but it is a medium strength plastic. I suppose they just added hardener to a soft plastic and mailed it. The cost was $40 plus shipping for 5 gallons. $25 to Hidalgo Texas.

I had used about four five gallon buckets of the Lure Craft medium before buying the 3-g and I have to say that at least the batch that I got (5 gallon bucket) was great. I can?t seem to burn the stuff in the mcrwv. I think it was a step up from the lure craft, and considerably less expensive. The service was great. I called it in and they billed me by mail. I had never had someone extend credit with nothing but a purchase order. I come to their defense.