mark poulson

Look at FS #032 purple/neon and 193 blue/grape: http://fishingskirts.com/fishing-skirts-categories/skirt-making-material/solid-colors-glitter-flake?limitstart=0

I fished for four hours today, mid day, with a rising tide, overcast with intermittent clouds and light wind. I had half a dozen reaction fish, blades and cranks. My two best fish (3+lbs) came on my homemade whopper plopper. First plopper fish of the year, and first ones on this bait! http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/15445-whopper-plopper6/ Both fish ate the front treble, and then buried the tail treble in their gill plates when they turned and tried to pull the bait down. Both shallow fish, around 4' deep, out from the bank about 30' on the first ambush spot. The bait didn't get messed up in any way, even though the through wire was only .052 sst. Fun day!!!

Since I've built lots of jointed baits, from past experience I know to put my hinging in the first joint up high enough to allow for deep ballast holes. If I'm making a fast fall, I hold the hinging high in the next section, too. I try not to let my lead wire ballast go up above the center line of the bait, for stability. If you draw a center line on the side of your bait that will give you a rough guide for your lower hinge. I've found that adding ballast from the head back gives me a bait that falls nose first, but swims level, because the tail section or sections have not ballast, so they are still buoyant and float. This lets me swim a bait more slowly and still have it swim level, with a lively tail movement.

If you make a template, you can cut the round blades into a coffin shape with some heavy shears.

Which cups did you get?

I start with the lightest color, usually on the belly, and work my way up to the darkest on the back. For me, it is a lot easier to darken something that's too light than to try and lighten up a dark color.

Thanks Bob. Now I'm hungry!

The thinner glass is actually a good thing, because the glass is able to heat and cool evenly, which removes the kind of internal stress that causes thicker pyrex glass to fail eventually.

Devcon 5 minute epoxy is water resistant. Devcon 30 minute epoxy is waterproof. Big difference.

Ex-wives.

I actually like how solvent-based sharpies bleed. I can put black on the back of a clear or white swimbait, and it will become a deep purple overnight, fading down the shoulders. High lighting gills will also bleed, as will adding some blue to the cheeks. Chartreuse on the tail will bleed, too, but it works. I prefer the Spike-It markers, but those sharpies work in a pinch.

I think you should post this in the Wire Baits Forum.

The Essential 3" grub is a great mold. I fish the grub on a Texas rig, jig head, split shot, and use them almost exclusively as spinnerbait trailers.

I like the thicker blades better. I put mine in a vise tip first, as far down as I want it bent, and them push them with my thumbs to bend them. I always worried with the original chatterbait, and the first knockoffs, that the thinner blades would either bend out on their own, or just fail at the hole connection to the jig eye. I never had it happen, but I did have one of the first bait's snap open on a nice fish. I got it into the boat, because the wire caught in the blade hole, but I upgraded my snaps after that. As soon as the sst blades became available I bought some, and made my own baits with them.

My buddy pours jigs for me. I don't sell anything. I bought these, and was able to open the eye enough, with an awl, to slip a blade directly onto the eye: http://www.barlowstackle.com/Eagle-Claw-730BP-Jig-Hook--P416.aspx They fit my buddy's Do-It arkie jig mold, and he pours them for me. They are not long shanked, but they work, and they are a great jig hook, too.

Any idea which jig he was throwing?

Here's something Rayburn Ben shared with me that makes cleaning your air brush much easier: http://www.coastairbrush.com/search.asp?pg=1&stext=air+brush+restorer&sprice=&stype=&scat=

I use PVC (similar to resin in that it is totally waterproof) for my jointed baits, and I use clear nail polish inside the joints. Then I brush Solarez resin onto the finished bait faces and have no problems. I've even used brush on crazy glue inside the joints, so I don't gum them up, but the nail polish is easy to apply, thin, and tough.

I have a friend who makes a very successful line of jigs, and he paints Apple Barrel red eyes on his cured powder coat heads by hand. Then he recoats them with clear powder coat that has some fine glitter in it. The clear really makes the Apple Barrel paint p.o.p..

I had the same experience when I made some out of brass spinner bait blades. I had to drill the hole for the attachment to the lure too far from the edge of the blade in order for it to be strong enough for the repeated side-to-side motion.

Years ago my wife had a pyrex pan full of au gratin potatoes fall apart in her hands as she was taking it out of the oven. Fortunately she was wearing oven mits. The pan had been used for a long time, and I think the numerous expansion/contraction cycles of being used finally just overstressed the pyrex. Kinda like metal fatigue. Pyrex glass is just tempered glass, and it's tough, but it isn't indestructible. I use silicone NorPro cups now.

Why would blade thickness make a big difference, other than weight?

Bob makes a really good point. I used to run construction work for a very anal guy, my father, back in the days before cellphones. He would call several times an hour, with some detail question that popped into his head. I could never get anything done. So, one day, I stopped answering the phone, and he got in his car and drove to the jobsite to see why I wasn't answering. We had a very intense "discussion". The gist of it was me telling him I couldn't work and talk on the phone at the same time, and that he needed to call much less frequently if he wanted me to get anything done. We wound up having morning and afternoon calls, and it forced him to make a list of stuff as he thought of it, instead of jumping on the phone immediately. Cellphones, which I started using after I had my own business, are a double edged sword. I had a dozen for my employees at one time. They do make communication easier. I limited minutes to 15 a day, so the employees paid for anything over that, to discourage chitchat on my dime. The problem is, as the golfer Freddy Couples once said, when the phone rings there's probably someone on the other end who wants to talk. And I needed work, not talk.

I drill pilot holes in my potential ballast locations after I've cut out the lure shape, but still have flat sides. A 1/2" bit is really hard to keep centered. Have you considered more, smaller, deeper holes, to make centering easier? And a dull bit is almost impossible to keep centered, because it is hacking at against the harder material instead of cutting it.

It seems like a lot of work for a very iffy outcome. Between the acid residue, and the possibility of contaminants, you could spend a lot of time and effort on something that winds up being unusable.