Travis

I can help out on some of the questions. 1. Carved mouth and details are fine as long as you don't create a mold that will cause the lure to "lock" itself. Essentially nothing can create an undercut. I have never had foam break or flake. I have weighted too long to demold and had to force it out. Silicone most likely will be more forgiving but I still use the low tech stuff. 2. I only use through wire construction on my foamies. I recall some have set screw eyes with devcon with no problems. I just find for about the same amount of effort (maybe less) I can bend a through wire harness. 3. I have used Durhams Rock Puddy but mainly bondo to create my molds. Haven't ventured into the RTV although that is probably the best way to go. I will most likely try it out soon. 4. Take time making the mold and don't rush things. Venting is often needed to eliminate air pockets in some areas. Coating the mold in these difficult areas (like recessed sockets for eyes) before filling the one half, reduces blemishes a lot. I find vasoline brushed on straight with a child's paint brush works easily for a demolding agent. In my experience the most frustrating thing about foamies is the surface prep time needed to get a surface ready for paint.

Plaster of paris and Durhams Rock Puddy are probably the two best to use as a beginner, both can give great results if a little time and care is taken. Plenty of how to info previously discussed. Also check out the tutorials.

Acetone works well. Just make sure it is 100 percent.

I have been reading this thread for a now while with a slight grin. I not a big believer in scents at all. There are a lot of articles out there, not from fish magazines that may shed a little light on the subject of schreckstoff. Intresting topic with research continually being done. Typically these "chemicals" are released in response to fright in some species of fish. So a few questions come to mind: do bass secret these fright scents? If this is a negatvie scent response why would it "bass fright" increase bass feeding activity, shouldn't the exact opposite be the case? http://apt.allenpress.com/aptonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=0045-8511&volume=004&issue=03&page=0592

I use a lot of Mark Enterprises stuff also almost exclusively. They have the Stampendous line of glitters if I remember correctly. I haven't had any of the stuff from them bleed. My local craft store carries it. Not the cheapest but it alwasy ends up going on sale and then I stock up.

Also because of California and New Jersey laws, many manufactures have been "forced" to slap that darn sticker on everthing. It gets put on products that have no reason to have it. According to what I read the cost associated with seperating out inventory with and without stickers, time spent paying attention to the shipments, etc.... it is much easier for them to pass the price onto consumers and have all packaging done with the "Cali label". All the non residents of these states then manage to get punished with our purchases because of it. If I recall correctly it was A LOT of money consumers end up paying a year for this very informative (now virtually meaningless) sticker.

Sounds like you didn't heat your plastic long enough. The plastic will go from liquid to "gel" and back to liquid. 4oz in microwave takes generally 2 to 4 minutes depending upon wattage. For you first few batches stir every 30 seconds or so. This will make sure you "catch" it in the gel phase. Keep heating until it flows again. Beat me to it!!!

I see these threads a lot but some craft glitter does work. Check out the Stampendous line of products. I use it qutie frequently, reheated multiple times all still good. I haven't had any problems with it at all. Only negative is hard to find larger sized glitter. Fine and extra fine are the two most frequently carried. Price can be another negative but I bought my stampendous multiple time on reduced prices for a fraction of what others sell glitter plus no shipping costs. I have found it mostly at Michael's craft stores.

I use stickers usually. I like the realistic look they typically give. I don't think it makes much difference to the fish. I buy mine from Janns Netcraft or Cabelas (who ever has them in stock). They work great and always turn out good. Only catch is sometimes dependent upon the bait shape you may have to drill recess points to get the eyes to sit flush.

So strange how trends go. I thought it came and went already. I have a few lizards left. Cherry seed Zoom lizards were rather popular on KY and Barkley. Maybe eight years ago. I still throw it now and then.

Looks good. I made one just like it only made a two worm zipper mold. I still need to go the extra distance and make a series of molds just haven't gotten around to it.

I didn't come up with the idea. Yes just place you bottom half down, put the master in it squirt with WD and then pour the bondo. same process as making the bondo mold for cranks in the tutorial.

Shot of WD-40. No sticking at all. Sets and pulls apart with no problems.

I have used bondo many times to make two part molds. The molds I made turned out just fine. I find them easier to make than rock puddy or plaster of paris but of course aren't as strong.

UV cured epoxies. I had a project at work and contacted many adheasive and coating manufactuers. They all say no problem to create a sprayable or dipable product to meet your specs that can be cured in seconds. Many of these same companies make other products also that meet most needs. I can't find the companies at work or the contact information for some reason. I need to request our IT department, at work, to look into it. Most were willing to send me free samples to try (free samples to them are near lifetime supplies to me). http://www.epoxycoatingsco.com/uv_curable_coatings.html#lures

Hit it on the head, good looking lure and good advertizing scheme. They should have paid some big names to "use" their product and would have done better. The craws worked fine but so do about every other craw (and more importantly tubes) on the market and the timing was bad if you think about soft plastics. It wasn't my first choice (second or third for that matter) for texas or carolina rigging so basically you had flipping/pitching bait. If you were going to flip or pitch, Denny had solidified the tube as the bait of choice at that point if I remember correctly.

Roadkill definetly hot in the south, perhaps even past tense in many areas. I can remember using roadkill camo at least 3 years ago in the Western KY, Tennesse area. It was pretty common every fishing report would have the roadkill cammo tubes as what the fish where biting. Snoozers brand generally I know they have been making that color for a minimum of 4 years.

I am sure it most likely was due to the effects of acetone or other non compatible solvent in the "glue". Maybe with the addition of imperfections along the cut edges you saw this cracking. Acetone will crack it, I did extensive research on plastic compatibility and "solvents" a couple of years ago at work. Sure it will dissolve it also if enough solvent is around. Here is a link that some may find helpful for material compatiblity. www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/chemcomp.asp

Take some scrap lexan pieces and drop them in the "alcohol" you will have your answer within minutes. I would assume acetone is likely your culprit. If these are wood baits they could have wicked additional quantities of acetone into the wood and increased the exposure time of the lexan bill. Another thing is too look at your spray adhesive often they contain incompatible solvents used for propellants, etc... The foil would work as a barrier not allowing the solvents to evaporate but be soaked (minimal amounts but enough) into the wood. These also could work there way through the wood or just concentrated on the cutout portion. I know the wood baits I have made the bill insert is usually rather rough in comparison to the finished bait and will work sort of like a wick when it comes to solvents and water. The denatured stuff shouldn't have done this but you never no. I am not for sure how close they follow specs on "generic" stuff. The toluene or benzene could have been higher but usually those are kept in lower ppm concentrations. Methanol and water would be the highest "impurities" in denatured.

Earth on an axis? I guess you are going to tell me it ain't flat either!

Movement is very important. It is amazing how keen bass are to the slightest movement. Both the snail and fillet both move either on their own or due to current. It is funny to see some of the stuff bass will eat. I picked through the stomach contents of one 10 inch bass that looked like it had eaten a salad. It was filled with filamentous algae. Sure enough as you picked away at the strands crawfish around an 1/8 of an inch were present. Also had a few small spotted bass from a creek that upon analysis had stomach filled with horsehair worms. We has siened a lot of them (horsehair worms) from the creek earlier.

Enjoyable post so far. Yes eyes can make a difference but probably one of the lesser things to really focus on. Most lures actually are poorly designed to take of any advantage of eyes. Too many crankbaits have eyes too small for the body size of the crank. Just look at first of the year and juveniles. Eyes are very large in respect to the body and most eyes aren?t positioned on top of the head as many crankbait have them (Poe?s for example). As mentioned a lot depends upon overall water conditions if it is going to be observed or not. Many freshwater species have spots or darkened areas along the caudal tail region that loosely mimic eyes/vital areas. Predators typically do attempt to strike head region as mentioned. The likely hood of hitting vital areas is increased greatly and result in higher predation rates. A fish can always come back and get a disoriented minnow. Just nature at work. Along with the fact fish go forward to escape thus striking at the eye means the prey will be coming towards the mouth once again increasing likely hood of success. Of course fish will also grab anything any way they can also. The closer the bait size to fish the more critical the orientation of the fish. The smallmouth I had in college typically struck 80 percent of the feeders headfirst. Sure they grabbed some by the tail or the side but guess which ones easily worked their ways out or darted quickly to miss the strike? Now these smallies were only about 5 inches and the goldfish and guppies 1 inch. False eye spots can be also thought of as disruptive coloration in that it disrupts the overall pattern/silhouette of the fish and can thus decrease the likelihood of standing out. Many fish may have spots as juveniles, when they are more apt to be preyed on, these fade as they age. Some freshwater fish in many of our waters exhibit a darkened area/false eye spot. Some examples would be shiners and minnows for example alabama, tricolor, blacktail, tenessee, taillight, suckermouth, bluntnose, and bullhead or the central mudminnow and one of the most obvious the flier.

Not trying to say your products are BS or shoot them down, will avoid this hot topic.

Seems to me a lot of new products aren't really that new but just someone decided to make a buck off of them and had the smarts to go the legal route. No problem with that, thats the American way. Yes most are a little different, use slightly different design or material but overall you have the same product. Look at the Lindy No Snagg, I forget the name but the rubber coated lead ball, the old repelling cord/rope with shot stuffed in it etc... Basically we have a free sliding weight system infront of a stop mechanism that has changed the fulcrum point of the system and hopefully has characteristics that doesn't snag as easily, either do to shape, friction, etc... I am almost certain I saw a guy 15 years ago (KY and Barkley lake) regions using a set up similar to the rockhopper, except he had drilled a hole in the top and used a snap swivel, similar to the repelling line photo. Growing up we used drop shotting a lot for crappie and white bass. We used florist tape and fine gauged wire to "position" the hook properly. A few wraps along the shank and then twisted down the line it worked fine. Then they were always selling for crappie, light wire rigs that essentially presented the minnow in a dropshot fashion , your line threaded down a the spiral shaft of the twisted wire and tied onto a weight. As they had twisted the shaft they created short arms horizontal to light wire hooks.

~ 2/3 cup of plastic will give you 6 baits