LaPala

I agree with what Dvowell said. But taking a step back we might want to look at it in a broad term or a narrower one. Broad Term: Any lure that is tweaked individually to meet a certain fishing condition can be called custom. Be it paint, tweak of the lips, weighting etc. Narrower Definition: It has to be designed & executed from the ground up to meet specific fishing critirea. So u decide which catogory of a custom lure maker u are But lures from copying & making a lure from existing design sure don't fit in my books as a custom lure.

It's a catch 22 both way is equally workable. But my take on suspending lure is that it depends so much on water tempreture/density to really suspend so I never bother. Make a very slow floating lure & use suspend dots to adjust to the when where u are fishing.

Thanks for the post, I copied the whole stuff down for save keeping, now I have to find someone who reads Finnish & can translated it into something I can understand

I'm quite happy with what I can do with rattle-cans (click here to see example) though it's true that painting finer details with rattle cans can be a chore. Like what F/Tig3r said, doing thin layers & wait to dry or lightly hair dryer it if u can't wait is most important. Also try out different brands of rattle paints, not all are created the same, some brands spray better than others (I can't help with brands as what's available to me is totally diff from what u'll get). Try checking out graffity painting online stores to see what stuff are available. There are some diff rattle can tips that u get for finer or thinner sprays. I'm not sure what problems u are having with rattle can but if u need help, ur welcome to PM me. I'll help with what I know though painting is not really my strong point. But ifu already have an air-brush keep practicing, it's definately worth the effort.

I won't suggest any wood from my side of the world but I can offer some stuff I do with carving 1. Whatever u do a RAZOR sharp knife is critical. With a sharp knife u minimize the danger of of it slipping & cut u instead. It will also produce such clean cut that don't require any sanding after. 2. Use burrs with dremel tool for power carving when u need to take off deeper chunks of wood or to rough out the shape. Or there are diamond coated grinding tips with various shapes & sizes to do the finer work. What u used I believe is called an engraving tip. (See here for burrs & cutter bits: http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/dremel-burr-cutter) 3. Wood wise, pick a wood with consistant tight grains. Wood like Pine is a chore to carve because the different density btw the hard & soft wood will need different pressure to to cut to the same depth thus making ur knife/burrs wander as u cross from one grain to another. To me any wood with even grain density is a pleasure to carve. Hope this helps.

Boy I better get a start on the airbrushing on my end. Glad to see the young ones start early in this addiction. Blades u better buckup on your painting,he looks like a natural who will do a better job then you do pretty soon :-D

Sry to be blunt here Savacs, but I think u're missing Jed's point here. Placement of weight affect the roll of a lure as well. So in some cases, close enough is not good enough if u want to make a really good lure.

Merry Christmas to All too. We are not that fortunate to have a very nice Chrismas this year but alls well & we take it all in with a smile still. Here's some pics I've done to record this pre-Christmas present for us over here: http://www.pbase.com/sebarau/asflood

Cool one Red. Love to see the store/auction up again. Got some stuff from BigSplash last time and it sure was the best online experience I've had. Dealing with someone in Tu whom we have communicated before sure beats doing buisness with non-faces in eBay. You've got PM too Red.

In a cardboard box with fan blowing from back :grin:

U didn't mention what type of action u expect from that lure and the weighting config, but off hand, lip is too long, lure might go belly up as u crank faster.

This link should answer ur questions Bryce: http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial.asp?TutorialID=23&CurPage=1 I haven't finished building mine yet, but it's a combination of the downdraft option from the link above and this spray booth DIY article: http://www.interlog.com/~ask/scale/tips/booth.htm

All I see is a box maybe make out 2 PC fans?? :grin:

This is what i use for most of my carving/detailing (made from a jigsawblade): As long as ur knife is razor sharp, any knife is good enough, exacto, snap blades etc. Special micro carving knife set are nice to have to make easy work of doing v grooves, gouging etc but not necessary. My advice is stick to normal type lures first until u've mastered the intricacies of making a well made functional lure. Details have their place in altering a lure's behaviour but until u've mastered the basic type, it's not an area where u can just jump in & expect good results. When the details are not functional, it's just an embellishment which can be achieved with photo-finish & other painting tecniques or simple detailing which can be done with a just a file (example: the gill contour of a Rapala ShadRap). Just my 2 cents.

Liberty of a drawing program??? LOL, but that shape would have the weight concentrated in lowest point & the bulk control the COG U figure out how best to do that shape, too many choices. Custom cast, hammer a round weight flat & cut out, shape the cavity in lure & pour lead in, many more to list all. Whatever works best for ya, may not need that shape even.

suggested weight position & mod to lip angle (approx.)

Shape (how deep belly it is), tow eye position & lip angle does play a big part in having the lure run straight at high speed too. Can't tell much without a look at ur lure, post a pic.

Cool pics Danny, makes me drool again thinking of a proper DSLR system for myself . Any chance u were there when Janet Jackson made her famous appearances & have some photos to share :-D ?

I'm not sure if u sealed ur lure properly b4 doing the water test. But if it's not and the lure blank got wet then the moisture that gets absorbed into the wood does makes a difference. Even when it seems dry on the outside, it's still damp inside. Here's soemthing about epoxies... they are not 100% waterproof. While ur blank sits after putting on the epoxy, the drying of the wood continues, humidity inside the wood has a way of finding their way out still until it's in equilibrium with ambient humidity. This could cause the extra bouyancy u observed too.

Jed, heat gun on low will be pretty close to a hairdryer temp. Maybe u can bring those painted lures to a Hair Dresser

Owner (http://www.owner.co.jp/en/treble_hook/treble_hook.html) do have them & I've seen them used on lures on this site.

Did U go to the auto body shop & borrow their spray-gun Jed? Good job as usual, time to get my GT popper rod out from the closet, my regular crankbait rods won't stand a chance against that monster bait Oh don't be surprise if u get a small fish on that bait LOL, my record was a 2in sebarau (jungle perch) on a 2 3/4in lure

Welcome home Big Splash Now give us a big splash

Try playing with the thickness of ur primer & for the first coat, soak instead of dip & swirl the blank a round a bit in the primer when u do it. A thiner primer & longer soaking with swirling gets most of the gas in the wood out & will be displaced by the primer.

I guess the simple answer would be -- we simply do not know exactly what color the fish wants from day to day. I divide colors schemes into 3 categories for my sanity: Natural - for when u want to imitate forage where u fish (match-the-hatch) or using those suspending jerk bait when it calls for long long pause in btw & I want the fish eyeballing the lure to see it as food & not a stick. High Contrast - FireTiger, and all those psychedelic color with very contrasting colors for when it's murky water or dark and I'd like the fish to be able to "see" the lure. Profile - Solid black is one classic for me here, When it's dark & I need the fish to have a clear view of the shape of a lure contrasted against the background. Side note: Halco of Australia has a stock color called Elton John which is quite a producing color cross species for me, so we never know what the fishes really sees in color :grin: