fatfingers

Rod, are they like a sort of "pre T-d" hook?

Excellent work. Pass out the fillet knives. Those look good enough to make a meal out of.

Thanks, Dean. I appreciate the backup, but for what its worth, it doesn't bother me. This very evening when the sun went down I was packing up the stuff in the boat while slowly trolling back to the dock. The middle lure of the three I posted was still in the water being trolled at:) about 3 mph. It got eaten and I landed the 37 inch fish. Not the biggest I've ever caught, but that was the "star" rating I like the best. It's hard to say what's going on. At the end of the day, I don't even break stride for that type of stuff. I will continue to build, post, and perhaps most importantly, try to help others with what I've learned on my own and from all the great people on this board. There are waaaaaay too many great guys on this board and if there was any malice, it will have no affect on the overall spectrum of people we've got here. For what it's worth, I use to race. I ran the marathon and my long term goal was to qualify to run the Boston Marathon. I did qualify and I did run it and it was great. The main thing that I learned from years of racing was that no matter how good you get, no matter how gifted you might be, you will always be humbled by the spectrum of talent out there. As I was running the last few miles of the Boston Marathon at age 38, I happen to be running next to three guys who were conversing in Spanish. One of them broke into English for a moment and I asked him where they were from. He said the three of them were brothers and they were from Mexico. I noticed that they were much older than me and they were running as fast as I was, despite their age. I asked him how old they were...the youngest of the three brothers was 65 years old! The point is that its all relevant to a degree. We all have different styles, different methods and different goals. If we're having fun...we're doing it right. Now let's get back to throwing sawdust and paint.

Pete, that pink is paint. It's actually sign painting paint, which has a much thinker base and a lot more pigment in it. It sprays like any enamel thought. I quit using it because it takes forever to stir it before you paint with it and its a lot more work to clean out of the brush between colors. The other one was a bait I made out of solid plastic. I never fished that one so I can't say whether it would work or not. The bait didn't run right, and I won't fish with baits that I have to fool around with too much. In mid-2005 I started with the hard baits. Prior to that I made only wire baits.

Epoxy.... I like the fumes. ....sniff, sniff. .....Oh, yea.

About 8 years ago, I tried a simple repaint. I looked at it and said, "This stuff ain't for me." I started trying again two years ago. Here's some of my 2005 stuff:

I tried Rookie's Duck Tape and reluctantly, I must say that I cannot endorse or recommend it. It kept getting stuck in my cassette player and when it wasn't getting stuck,I still never heard even the slightest sound resembling a duck.

I think its a great idea. You can see a lot of changes in building techniques in just the last two years here at TU. A lot of great info has been exchanged and it seems that everyone has not only run with whatever they've learned, they've added to it and given it all back to the forums too. I enjoy looking at antique lures for similar reasons. Its a real hoot to look back and see how they approached things back then. Interestingly, although the paints, materials, and methods have all improved, the hard bait today is largely similar to the hard baits of yesterday.

I don't count my time working on baits. I cherish it. I only wish I had more of it.

You could also consider using larger glass rattles like the bass guys use on jigs and plastic baits. You drill a hole in the bait, insert the glass rattle, and then seal the hole with plumbers putty and sand it off smooth.

The hook is set. The addiction will reel you in. There is only one rule: Have fun with it. Okay, there's two rules: Don't ever get to thinking you'll save any money making your own. Welcome to the madness.

I tried envirotex for musky baits and found it to be a bit too soft. I've switched back to Devcon2 which has served me well with dozens of muskies over the last few years. The envirotex seems to more susceptable to failure near the lip and screweyes. I know that is a matter of great debate and I'm not trying to spark one on this thread; just sharing my perception and my first-hand experience with musky fishing and envirotex. Muskies can eventually destroy any bait, commercial or homemade. Its a matter of physics.

Rjbass is right. A sanding sealer, which is more like a varnish than a primer, actually seals the surface of the wood much better than any primer you can buy. I had a very old can of penetrating sealer, which was the best stuff I've found so far. It penetrates the wood very very deeply and prevented the water from passing through the bait in the event that the clearcoat was pierced or somehow breached. Unfortunately, I can't seem to locate another can of it. All I've been able to find is "sanding sealer," which is okay, but it really doesn't do the same thing. It seems to penetrate only the surface area of the bait as opposed to penetrating the wood fibers through and through. Priming directly over the bare wood has caused several of my early baits to get ruined when water got beneath the surface of the clear somehow. Sound like the same thing may have happened to yours. Do a search on this site for propionate sealing techniques. It is a method that sounds quite promising. I will be giving it a try this winter after the musky fishing season is over.

Now you know you can't post something that interesting without photos.

The cutting and shaping times vary depending upon what type of lure I'm building, but it usually take about 25 to 30 minutes. Light sanding, about 10 minutes Sealing the bait takes about 10. (I don't count drying time for sealing or painting) Weighting, which I don't do very often, takes about 10 minutes. Priming and painting easily take an hour if I'm applying a normal amount of detail, such as gills, stripes, belly details, scale effects. I really slow down for the painting process because I cannot paint that fast without spilling paint and solvents everywhere. I often paint the bait in the base colors and then apply a coat of automotive sealer or Devcon2 before applying gill and scale details. Applying the eyescrews and lip about 20 minutes. Clearing (3 coats of Devcon2ton epoxy) takes about 35 to 40 minutes total. This is another step where I try to go slow and get it right. Total time probably averages around 3 to 4 hours.