mark poulson

I have been unable to fish for the last week due to trigger finger surgery on my left pinky. It's the spot where the rod's trigger hits my off hand. Figures! Too much fishing, I guess. I've run out of jigs and spinnerbaits to reskirt, and my boat has been reorganized twice. I even resorted my skirt boxes, and my tackle making materials. I'm going stir crazy! My home waters, the CA Delta, are muddy and cold right now. I've been throwing black/blue jigs and trailers, with the tips of the trailers dipped in chart. dip and glo. So yesterday I returned to the idea of putting glow powder in some trailers, to make them more visible in the muddy water. I added 1 tblsp. of green glow powder to 1 cup of med. plastic, with a few drops of chart. color and some .035 chart. glitter, and poured some ES swimbaits, ES grubs, and ES beavers. I played around after the first batch, adding blue color to see if I could get the best of both worlds, blue trailers that also glow. It worked. The first batch glowed the brightest (it was also the most translucent), and, as I added more more blue, the glow diminished, but was still there after I'd gotten down to a deeper blue. I also added 2 tblsp. of sea salt, for flavor, but that didn't seem to diminish the glow. I'll fish them as soon as my trigger finger surgery heals (one more week and the stitches come out), and report back. Here's the glo powder I used: https://www.glonation.com/glow-in-the-dark-products/neutral-glow-powders.html I see they also offer a blue and dark blue powder, so those may be my next experiment.

Have you tried the Predator Baits wart copies? I find they run great, and catch fish. http://www.predatorbassbaits.com/id69.html

The closest I've found is by adding a chatter-type blade to a weedless arkie jig, using two split rings. Here's one that's made commercially: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/TNT_Baits_Claymore_Jig/descpage-TNTC.html The jig needs to have a vertical eye, and the split rings need to be stout. When I tried it with a horizontal eye and only one split ring, it stuck sometimes on the cast and didn't chatter. I've even substituted a piece of weed wacker filament (a heavy plastic) for the fiber weed guard. They are not weedless, but they come through stickups and sparse tulles much better than ones without the weed guards.

Dude, I'm clueless when it comes to doing anything more than emailing pictures from my phone. My smart phone is smarter than I am.

Would spraying the mold with PAM help? I do that every so often with an ES beaver injection mold to which I added a row of drilled holes at the edge of the claw tips. Sort of a poor mans attempt to get a ragetail-type action. I did not vent the drilled holes I don't know if it really helped with the bait's action, but I do know the holes won't fill if I don't spray it periodically. I spray all my molds now, and it seems to help details fill completely, but I don't know why.

I remember, way back in the stone age, I took metal shop and I made a cold chisel. After I beveled the tip, the shop teacher and I heated it in the forge to red hot, then dipped in the water bucket quickly. We pulled it back out, and watched as the color of the steel on the tip changed as it cooled. When it reached a straw color, we put the chisel back in the quenching bucket again, and let it cool all the way. I gave that chisel to my father, and he used it for years, so I guess we did it right, but I sure didn't know exactly what we were doing at the time.

It occurred to me that the only cranks I make with screweye line ties are shallow runners and wake baits, so I don't know how much of a true test turning the line tie in one of them would be. I think it might make the bait more prone to catch weeds, but that's just a guess.

Dave, could a horizontal line tie help make the baits run truer? I put my line tie horizontal on the glide baits I made, because the example I was working from had a horizontal line tie. Since there was no diving bill, I guess it didn't make any difference in how the lures ran. Also jointed swim baits, prop baits, and Whopper Ploppers work well with a horizontal line tie. But I've never tried it with a billed bait. I guess the next crank I make with a sst screweye for a line tie, I'll have to remember to try it, since it won't affect the PVC when I water test it.

I am just a hobby jig maker, so keep that in mind. I used to have dripping, too, but I then bought a fluid bed and that cured the too much paint problem. You have to pay attention, and be quick. And different colors are easier or harder for me, so I have to play around with air pressure and lure temperature for each jig head, and each color. It sounds harder than it is. It just takes some fiddling around when I first start. Also, I make sure my jigs are not hanging directly over the toaster oven's heating elements when they're curing at 350 degrees for twenty minutes. If they do, they will overheat, and drip/burn.

Rawjigs, Have your tried the Ventilated "Air-Trap" Skirts from LPO?

Do you want your ned rigged worm to lie flat on the bottom, or nose down?

Can you post a picture of the blade you're looking for?

Is that the blade size? What about hook size, and wire gauge?

When you're using a 2 part epoxy that you plan to thin with denatured alcohol, be sure you mix the two parts together thoroughly before you add the alcohol. If there is any unmixed material when you add the alcohol, it will bond to the unmixed material, and prevent the epoxy from curing. As Ben would say, beat the snot out of it when you're mixing, and then thin it with the alcohol.

You are one clever devil! When I first fished an underspin, in the early 2000's, it was made by a local SoCal maker, and had light wire to hold the blade and swivel. They worked well, but I left them in a plano box with some salty plastics, and the hooks rusted away. When the Sworming Hornet Fishhead Spin come out, the local maker just went away. They had better hooks, hardware, and colos. I think the heavier wire is to make production easier, not to make the bait work better.

Is that like case hardening?

Thanks. I always feel a little guilty posting my baits with nail polish paint jobs, because you guys are such artists. But they work, so I guess the fish have no taste. Hahaha

You can also use old braided fishing line for tying.

I typically use the back side of an exacto knife, or other rigid blade, to scrape as much of the original top coat and paint off as possible first, without scarring the actual lure body. I use the sharp tip to clean out the details. The plastic and glue are typically thick and strong enough to allow me to use a quick dip in dirty acetone after my initial scrapping to further loosen any paint that's left. If there is still paint left, I do some more picking, and even light sanding with 220 grit paper. Then I dip them quickly in clean acetone, and remove them and let them hang, to remelt the scratched surface plastic. I saw quickly because acetone can dissolve the plastic itself, and/or the glue holding the two halves together. I use a pair of hemostats clamped on the rear hook hanger to hold the lure while I'm dipping it, and then hang it by a paper clip hooked through the line tie to let the acetone evaporate off.

On clear lakes in SoCal, a transparent Ika with black flake, dipped in UV coating. gets hammered on overcast and foggy days. I haven't tried it on the Delta yet, but, as soon as the muddy water clears a little....

What hook are you going to use?

Go to Bait Junkys and check out his high temp glitter. http://www.shopbaitjunkys.com/High-Temp-Polyester-Glitter_c_190.html

Could you use JB Weld to keep the modified mold from flashing?