BobP

Here ya go. It's 2" wide Mosaic Accessories by Venture at Sunshine Glass If you Google "britebak foil" you'll get several sources.

If we're talking about BriteBak foil, here's where I got some last week: Welcome to Sunshine Glassworks Ltd. It had the best price of several I checked and shipping was fast.

Dean, I looked at a random link the other day on UV cured epoxy and it was selling for $42 per 30 ML double syringe. That's 21X the cost of Devcon 2 T. Maybe it was an anomaly, but sheesh! It has to be cost effective to be a rational choice.

I've used water based urethane on wood flooring and it works OK but I'm suspicious that it might absorb water and turn white on a crankbait (it goes on milky looking and dries clear). As far as thinning a floor epoxy, I don't like acetone because it is volatile and flashes out of the coating very quickly, not to mention it eats plastic. I'm thinking virgin lacquer thinner would be better but reading the instructions might tell you the best solvent.

I see guys going either way on your question depending on whether they make baits in large runs for sale or they do only small batches as a hobby. I'd add one other consideration: cost. If it's better, people are happy to pay more, but usually not hugely more. My preferences (as a hobby builder): No solvent content is better, but I want longer brush time than Devcon 2T's 5 minutes. 12 hrs max to cure to a "handle-able" hardness. I don't want to have to spin it for hours and hours. It must level well. 10/4 mix? Hmm - OK, I'll have to use syringes. I can do that.

A wider lip generally produces a wider swim action. Longer lips usually dive deeper but they can also introduce some added action because of their greater lip surface area. The segmented swimbaits I've made so far are all wakebaits so I keep the lips fairly short and set them at a very steep angle, about 80-85 degrees down from horizontal. The swimbait I mentioned with the triangular lip has a bunch of body roll, a rear prop and lots of glass beads that make tons of noise - but it has no segments. Everything affects everything else in a crankbait, so changing one feature often has unforeseen consequences. Sometimes the good, sometime not. You do the change as an experiment and the fish decide. Sometimes they want harder action, but not always. The trick is to have a variety of munchies on hand to find something they will eat on the day.

Uh, OK - Never mind! But I'd rather EAT flounder than striper any day!

Several TUers use Dick Nite moisture cured polyurethane (check it out by clicking on the banner ad that's often at the top of this page). I know similar polys are sold as floor finishes but I think DN poly is probably thinner. Another consideration is yellowing. It's not too big a deal when applying poly over interior wood floors but can be a biggie on a white bait. I think a tough poly with UV inhibitors might do OK though.

Mark, to fix gashes while fishing, I use a really fast method. Cut off the crank, toss it in the bottom of the boat and tie on another crank! Cuts that 15 min wait time down to nothing! A comment on treble hooks: Gamakatsu Round Bends are sharper out of the box and stay sharper than any I've used including japanese hook brands. They're also tempered to be tough. I found this out when cutting replacement hooks for blade baits (cut the eye of a treble with wire pliers, then bend it closed on the blade bait). You can't use Gamys because the temper is hard enough that the wire in the eye will break before it bends. I can't remember the last time a Gamy hook bent out on a fish. Not so with other brands, including the VMCs and Mustads I also use. I'm not knocking them. I put Rapala Inline VMCs and premium Mustad Triple Grips on some baits and like them. But Gamakatsu's are worth the extra cost to me because their light wire penetrates well and they are very strong and sharp.

Great action! I'm headed to the beach this weekend so paint it up and express ship it to me so I can test it for you A little more ballast might keep it upright better and make for a faster sink rate in current. After all, you'll be fishing current if you want active flounder. Do you think the fact that they attack a baitfish, then turn it head-first to eat it might be a problem on a bait with a single tail hook? I'd be interested in hearing how it does for you on the water.

I don't think a ton of design necessarily goes into lip design for wakebaits. Square lips work OK and they're easy to manufacture, so that's whatcha see. A Shimano Triple Action topwater swimbait has a rounded triangular lip (narrow at the nose and wide at the tip) and they have lots of body roll along with their swim action. I don't know if that's due more to the lip design or the "wave shaped" body however. And I'm not sure you'd want alot of roll in a segmented swimbait. If you're just looking for more swim action, a larger square lip will do that. If it's some other quality?

If you're shooting acrylic latex paint, explosions shouldn't be an issue since there are no volatile solvents present. But I bet the system is going to be a little noisy:)

It's a free market. If Brian has customers paying $40 for his baits, more power to him 'cause he's doing something right as a businessman. I sometimes wonder how custom builders evaluate the amount of work they put into it versus the rewards they're reaping. I think most of them love working with their hands to produce something that's both beautiful and useful, and just maybe earning enough bucks to augment their day jobs. Brian has done a good job of linking his crankbaits to some high profile fishermen in his area. They've been recommended by celeb bait slingers on TV fishing shows. His shop was also featured last year during ESPN coverage of a tournament on Lake Norman. That's the kind of thing that generates price increases!

Dave, It looks like the "cricket patterns" are photo finishes just like the ones you see in TU's Hardbait Gallery. Do a search on this page for info on how they are done.

I haven't had problems with epoxy delaminating from the foils I've tried so far. Does it add a little weight? Yes. I wouldn't refinish a suspending bait with it but the extra weight isn't much on a typical bass bait, maybe .02 oz including a thin epoxy overcoat. I use diluted Devcon under and over the foil before painting. The over is because acrylic paints don't adhere well to most foil. BTW, got some BriteBak reflective foil tape today. It's half as thick (1 mil or .025mm) than foil duct tape, not as thin as Mylar or silver leaf. It has a "permanent acrylic adhesive" that seems very strong and I think there's a vinyl film over the metal. It's easy to use and lays down well on a crankbait. Reflectivity is slightly better than duct tape but well below Mylar. Comes in silver and gold (brass). It's designed for backing stained glass. One advantage of foil tape to me (besides being darned handy to use) is that the adhesive allows you to emboss a scale pattern with bolt threads on it, something you can't do easily with Mylar or leaf.

Superlines usually break at the knot, especially if you use a snap hookset. The instantaneous strain transmitted down to the knot can be quite high. I've seen guys snap 50 lb braid. 65 lb braid is popular because it's pretty much immune to any stupid kind of hookset. The knot used at the lure is also a factor. Knots that include multiple wraps around the standing line (which cushions shock) generally do better than a Palomar knot. I use a San Diego knot, but there are various choices.

Most BassPro rods come with a butt cap that screws off to add their balancing system. It works fine. a balanced rod is a good idea for "touchy-feely" presentations like flipping jigs, worms and C-rigs where you balance the rod in your hand with a semi-slack line to feel the slightest bite. It doesn't increase the sensitivity of the rod because that is determined by the blank, the guides, and especially the line you're using. But using a balanced rod does greatly decrease fatigue in your hand muscles, and THAT increases YOUR sensitivity. The end effect is the same. IMO, balance systems for moving bait presentations like crankbaits and spinnerbaits is a waste of time and money. Your rod will ALWAYS be tip heavy due to the resistance of the lure so there's no advantage to it. I build most of the rods I use and usually balance my worm/jig/C-rig rods with lead epoxied into the butt before I glue on the butt cap. Most times, it's not even an issue. But it becomes more of a question if you're talking expensive very high end blanks and half the cost you paid was to get the LIGHTEST components

When it comes right down to it, ANYTHING you do to a crankbait has SOME effect, for better or worse. But I agree with BJ. Since LC 1.5's are floaters you shouldn't see any problems from one coat of Devcon. If you do similar baits in the future and are concerned about it, consider Dick Nite Fishermun's Lurecoat, a moisture cured poly that very thin, tough and glossy.

My main flipping/pitching reel is a circa 1970 Ambassadeur Pro Max 3600 - no mods except for ABEC-7 spool bearings and changing out the stock 5.3 gears for 6:1 gears. Slick little reels and smooth as glass.

You can't just saw a blank in half and make a telescoping rod out of it because the diameters won't work out. I've also only seen telescoping rods on longer flipping blanks here in the US.

I think functionally, just removing the threads with a single edge razor blade and epoxying on a new tip gets the job done. But it doesn't look exactly right if you're buying a rod. If you're doing it for resale, I'd plan on rewrapping the tip threads and putting on some slow cure thread epoxy. It only takes a few minutes and it's not hard to do but you need some way to rotate the rod while the epoxy cures.

Bone: I start with about 2 ounces of plain white - the last I used was a highly pigmented "cover white" airbrush paint but any standard white is fine. Add 5-6 drops of brown, a few drops of gray and a couple of drops of yellow, mixing while you add each color. I don't use a formula since I use different brands and shades of paint to mix it. "Bone" means different things to different people. I like a fairly light bone with cream and gray undertones. If it's too white, add more brown. If it's too bright in tone, add a little gray. Add the yellow to make it more buttery in color.

Sticky epoxy is almost always the product of bad measuring or mixing. You can cure the stickly epoxy most times by recoating it with properly measured and mixed epoxy. It's certainly worth a shot since the alternative is a complete strip job.

Low pressure, fine paint, tip held very close to the target = fine line. A steady hand and lots of practice also help. A .2mm tip can shoot a line as fine as frog's hair. My new .2mm Iwata had a test paper with a spiral starting hair thin and ending 1/2" wide - so I know it can be done .... just not by ME. It's worthwhile to visit a few airbrushing sites and read their lessons on techniques.

Thanks for the tips! Ordered some Britebak silver and gold to see what it's like. I love the idea of self-adhesive foil, just not so thick as the duct tape.