fatfingers

I have never seen a silver or chrome paint that did not flatten under epoxy.

You simply cannot go wrong with an Iwata.

My guess... The effect was the result of the netting shifting slightly after the white was shot. If you look carefully, you'll note that the effect isn't uniform across the scaling. There is not evidence of a fade especially at the edges, in my opinion. Beautiful clean work.

I would suggest you pick a market in which you can be competitive...that alone is an accomplishment when you consider that you are competing with companies that have incredibly cheap labor, established infrastructure for mass production and an established distribution chain. If you are talking about making baits one at a time by yourself, you've got an uphill battle. If you are going to hire help in order to increase production, you've got an uphill battle. I'm not saying you can't win, but those are the facts. Others mentioned taxes. Don't forget insurance either. Someone steps on a treble hook, and right or wrong, you may have a lawsuit to address.

I like what Jamie had to say on the subject. It matches my experience in many ways. Making a glide bait isn't hard. Making one that catches fish is the trick. I've seen a good number of baits on various forums that actually show the action via video and many of them have what is essentially the wrong action or poor action, in my opinion. Bear in mind, I'm talking about they musky baits I've seen when I say that. There is a somewhat delicate balance to a glide bait that actually produces fish with regularity. They are a lot of fun to build and learning about what works and what doesn't is a time-consuming process. It is the essence of lire building and you can learn a lot about building all kinds of baits along the way. I have made a few that have caught several dozen fish and I made even more that would "run" but caught only a few or none at all.

Its harder for them to slip out of your pocket if you leave the hooks in them.

The words "too many" and "lures" used in the same sentence? Excuse me?

I prefer cotton netting over nylon, generally speaking, although I occasionally still use nylon if it is the only choice for the size/pattern of scaling I'm after. The cotton netting seems to less prone to shifting and also seems to have less problems with the paint wanting to bleed between the recesses. Also note that some netting has a 'grain' to it so that when you turn it horizontally you get one look and vertically another.

That can be easily achieved using a bench top sander. I use the rounded end of the sander where the roller turns the belt.

If you are using standard screw eyes, try making the bait mold with the screw eyes already installed. Then you simply put the screw eye in the mold before pouring the bait. For strength, you can simply put a ninety degree bend in the shank of the screw eye. When the pour is done, the bend precludes the screw eye from unscrewing...ever. No glue needed.

Everyone says that red disappears at a certain depth, but one of the hottest colors for musky on our local waters right now is a bait color pattern everyone is referring to as strawberry. It is essentially red splotches over white. On a hunch, I made one in all red and pink with no other colors on one my Flatshads. The guy that bought it emailed me to inform me that he caught three muskies the first day he used it and two more on the second day. Bear in mind, this is bait that is trolled at about 10 to 15 feet at what most fisherman would consider high speed. I find they types of discussions interesting because I firmly believe there is still much to be learned about color when it comes to lures. Take Firetiger for example. It catches fish big time. An amazing number of species respond to that particular color combination, yet, if you alter that pattern too much, the response rate drops off rather dramatically. I believe there are still other patterns waiting to be "discovered" since many, if not most builders paint the same patterns as they see others painting. It reminds me of the days when I used to go walleye fishing...everyone would choose the same general area of the lake to fish because they'd look across the water and see a bunch of boats in one area and they' d join them...and no one would be catching fish. I do believe, despite a lot of opinions to the contrary, that detail on a bait can make a difference, especially when one is painting the more natural patterns such as shad, perch, etc. Thus adding detail such a red near the gills, shadowing around the eye sockets, etc, make a bait that more properly matches the species being preyed upon.

While experimenting is fun and we are all constantly on the look out for better products and ways to do things, lure building has certain trade offs that should and must be accepted. Do you want buoyancy or less water absorption tendencies? Do you want a hard finish with less tendency to yellow or one that is faster to apply? Do you want a basic bait or one with much more detail? Do you want realistic eyes or are dots inside larger dots okay? As skeeter said, some of the parameters have been fully tested, especially with clear coats. The baits are exposed to water, sunlight, and a lot of wear and tear. You can deal with those variables, but not in equal measure and not completely without trade offs.

I have musky baits, some as old as 8 long hard seasons, with D2T in the lips slots and have not had even one fail. I've also experienced no problems using it with a number of different brands of polycarbonate. You need to properly install the lip by both slotting it and drilling two holes within the area that will be covered by the bait. You also need to "rough up" that same area with a sanding drum on a rotary tool so the epoxy has something to bite onto. There may stuff better than D2T but only in matters other than raw strength. That stuff is tough as nails.

Well done. That box will hold musky baits for the next three generations because it was made well to begin with.