mark poulson

Plus Leonard is good people. He helped me with my color/glitter issues, and I'm just a hobby pourer.

Man, who let fish get so picky? Hahaha

For belly weighted hangers that big, I've use egg sinkers with sst wire pushed up through them (I've used sst cotter pins, too) and then bent the tag ends back down over the opposite end. Once you epoxy them in, they hold.

That was back down south in Los Angeles, 40+ years ago. I was too drunk to even taste it, except that it was HOT, or to remember to bring it in when I got home. She was from Roswell, NM, and she said it was her dad's salsa recipe. I'm kind glad I didn't get the recipe from her, or I'd probably have a hole in my stomach by now!

Travis, It has been many years since I use Durham's Rock Hard Putty. How long does it take to get hard enough to shape/work? Have you ever used it in a soft silicone mold to make a hard master, so you can add or change the shape of the original mold? I'm wondering if it will pour well enough to let me make a master of some store bought silicone molds.

If you are making a hard master, there is no reason you can't mix materials. You can make details out of clay, like fins, bake them hard, and glue them to your wood master, for example. As long as it holds together when you pour in your silicone, you're good to go. You can also use bondo to fix errors, like Dave said, or to add material to areas where you want to carve details. Bondo carves really easily. I even used it to add a lip bump to the aluminum prop fin on one of my whopper ploppers, and it let me give some shape to the lip's otherwise flat surface. I did sand the lip first, for a mechanical anchor point, and then coated the finished bondo with super glue, to reinforce it, before I painted it and dipped it in Solarez.

Here's a link to a Roboworm color listing that MonteSS posted: http://www.roboworm.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/2012%20color%20descriptions.pdf I couldn't find Perris Special on it.

Take digital pictures with your cellphone of the build process, and all the options you try, and you'll have a record to send to your computer.

The little canister works better than a spoon or brush for me. My hands aren't that steady anymore.

It's hell to be popular!

Those baits look great, but you need to post them in the Hard Baits Gallery, and then post a link to them here. This is a discussion forum.

Here's a good tutorial: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/5190-kb-powdercoating-101/

"My paint and solvent locker is a freezer that was hit by lightning." Do we even want to know how?

The 7" senko weighs almost an ounce. I wonder how much a 10" senko would weigh? You might have to throw it with a swimbait rod!

Drat! Another great idea shot all to hell!!!

Keep in mind that the higher the gloss, the stronger the top coat. Maybe do a first coat of gloss, for protection, and then a coat of matte for looks. Or just knock the shine off the gloss with fine steel wool or a scotch brite pad.

Do you mean a picture of Ben, or the lure?

Frog, That has been my experience, too. Maybe the plopping tail orients them more toward the middle. I've only lost two fish last year on the original plopper, and I think they were on the rear treble. One was a gooood fish that ate the rear treble on my original plopper, and bent out one of the hooks on the treble. It hit the bait so hard (giant toilet flush) it scared both me and my fishing partner. It was three or four seconds of amazing pull, and then, nothing. I'd rather they eat the belly hook, and then get hooked farther down with the rear treble. Silly me. Of course, I do pay for my sins. Tuesday I threw the plopper (41 grams) hard with long casts using a 7'4" heavy frog rod for two hours, and yesterday my back reminded me of that, big time. I can fish two days in a row if I'm flipping or worming, but throwing heavy baits is a very self-limiting thing for me now. But when I grow up....

I had a "solo" cup holding some of my friend's homemade salsa melt when I left in my truck overnight.

You'd probably get more answers if you posted this in the Wire Baits Forum.

Just because he knows what he's talking about is no reason to actually take his advice! Hahaha

That's a terrific answer! Could I do a dark blue back/bleeding chartreuse belly, and wind up with a green line where the two meet?

I can only comment on the dust question, and this is a general answer, based on my experience with a different, slow cure top coat. Dust will be a problem if you coat in a dusty environment. That's why cabinet shops have separate paint areas. If it is slow cure, you should think about a covered turning box. I used to turn my Etex-coated swimbaits with their first coats overnight in my dusty garage, but I coated them last thing, and didn't open the door again until the next day, so air movement to disturb the dust was at a minimum. When I had to recoat, I would do it the next morning, before I went to work, and then close the garage again for another 8 hours.

Pete, I know that old saying. But I do miss putting on the nail bags. There is something very satisfying about doing a good day's work.

You'll get more answers if you post this in the Wire Baits Forum.