mark poulson

I'm guessing a molting crawdad smells different, because it has more of it's soft flesh exposed, and it is in the process of hardening it's outer layer.

Yes!

And Air Brush Restorer is your friend. Taking your air brush apart and soaking it overnight every six months will remove the old paint that inevitably get trapped in the brush over time. It can even loosen a frozen needle. Here's a link. Scroll down to the Restorer. It's in the left hand column. http://www.coastairbrush.com/products.asp?cat=59

I think it may also be due to cheaper manufacturing techniques that require, or allow, a different softer plastic formulation. The first batch of swollen baits I had were a combination of red eye shad rattle traps, and some Norman DD22 lures, which cooked in a tackle compartment in my boat when it was under a boat cover on my driveway, in the direct sun. The traps were new, the year that Strike King first sold them, and the Normans were a more recent vintage, too. The traps looked like a set of barbells, swollen more at both ends, but the Normans just got fatter and kind of lumpy. Funny thing was the traps were worthless, but the Normans still fished just fine, lumps and all.

That silicone looks like it would be great for making plastisol bait molds.

Could you get something like that by using the Essential senko mold, using a soft plastisol, and not adding sinking additive or salt?

I've only used silicone to make molds, not baits, so this is just a wild ass guess. I am a big believer in trapped air as a flotation device. I've used air chambers to slow the fall of some of my swimbaits. If you're using a caulking gun silicone, like GE 100% silicone, and an open top fill mold, you will have time to put some kind of flotation stuff into the top of the bait as you fill the mold. I'm thinking of something like ping pong balls, only smaller. Maybe you can get something like that from a craft store.

With a direct tie, like a popper or frog, I don't think it makes any difference. The only thing it may do is move the line connection farther out from the cupped face.

Heat can cause a plastic bait to expand, and that will crack a glue epoxy like D2T, which is designed to be extremely rigid. You might have better luck with a decoupage epoxy like E tex, which is designed to expand and contract with the large wooden surfaces it is applied over.

Maybe there just isn't enough demand for the finer material to make it worthwhile to stock a bunch of colors.

Why in the world would they want to be able to search your vehicle? Do they have that much theft? That is weird.

For me, having the line tie up 1/3 from the bottom lip of a popper, and having the line itself tied to the lower part of the line tie, helps me get a bloop out the lure instead of a chg and spit. I can get that bloop on a subtle pull with the line tie low, so it's a great early morning presentation, when the bass are feeding. I think it's because the popper hangs down at rest, and is pulled down more on the first pop, catching both air and water. Getting the lure to pivot and bloop, and then resting it again, draws attention to the lure, so bluegills come up to nip at the feathered tail. Then the bass come up to eat what they think is the only bluegill that didn't spook when they appeared, the popper.

Is frog hair what you're looking for? http://www.skirtsplus.com/html/products.html

I would ask the people at Ultramolds. They should know best what their system needs. If not, you could take it to an electrical engineering shop and ask them.

I thing Dale's idea of multiple line tie locations on a prototype is a good one for testing you bait. Once you get it to swim the way you want it to, you can make your finished baits with that line tie location. Maybe thinking of your bait as a rattletrap might help. That is a crank that you can burn without fear of rolling, and it's line tie is up on the back. While I don't think moving it up to the dorsal area is the answer, moving it up a little onto the forehead might change the way it moves through the water, and make it wobble less. In my testing of my attempt to make spybaits, I figured out that raising part of the ballast above the centerline of the bait in a 1 to 2 ratio, so a third was about the centerline, gave my baits the side to side quiver on the fall, a wobble on the retrieve, and still kept them from rolling on a fast retrieve. Raising the line tie location will raise the centerline of the bait when it's retrieved, so it will also make the ballast even lower in the bait in relation to that centerline. That should make it more stable/less wobbly, too.

I ran my own small business for a lot of years, and I found that customer service is what sets successful companies apart. If you begin to grow too busy to handles orders in a timely fashion, you need to either hire more help, or tell people up front there is a wait. Communication is the key to good customer relations, even if it means telling someone there will be a delay. At least they know they are not being ignored. If you can't take the time to communicate you will not be successful, because you will always be stressed.

You can also use the weed whacker refill mono. It is stiff, but flexible.

Gesundheit!

I think the rings create more turbulence, so the bait has a larger water displacement for it's actual size. The turbulence may also affect the tail's action, too, but all of this is just a guess based on stuff I've tried.

That is a really nice bait!!!! Maybe the dorsal fin has something to do with the wobble. I've never built a bait with one, so I'm just guessing.

DON'T try powder coat! My buddy, a long time professional bass angler, did when he was up visiting me, and the blade wound up so heavy it would hardly turn.

If your bait has a tall profile, and your line tie is below the mid point of the bait, that might be the reason for the side to side wobble. I think the only way you can avoid that is to raise your line tie. My trout swimbaits were short enough that this wasn't an issue, but my crappie/bluegill baits did wobble, too. It wasn't a problem for me because I usually fished them fast, so any wobble just added flash. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/4425-wood-vs-pvc/

Burning a two joint/three piece swimbait over a point, or parallel to a steep wall, in clear water triggers reaction bites, especially in late winter/early spring prespawn, when the female are just moving up and are hungry. You can also use one to reposition fish on a point by throwing it over the point, first deep, then medium, and finally shallow, drawing the bass' interest, and getting them to move up to their ambush position. Cast beyond the point, let the bait sink 10'+-, begin a slow swim back, and speed it up as it reaches the point. It will get fish interested, and they will move up more shallow as you move the bait up more shallow. Thank you Bill Siemental for telling me why that retrieve worked.

You might think of using a long fine toothed sawzall blade, with some duct tape on one end as an handle. It will be more rigid and stronger than a hacksaw blade, and will be easier to control. I use one to make some of my cuts in my PVC frog baits. Using it on the pull stroke, like a Japanese hand saw, works really well.

I use nail polish.