mark poulson

I would try taking that mold and grinding out the faces so they were straight, like you want. Or you could use some JB Weld to fill in the ends and make the mold face flat, but that would make it a little lighter. I've done both with other molds, and both ways work.

My buddy came up for a few days, and brought me some 1/2 weedless arkie jigs to paint and fish. The holes were 1/8" diameter, and 3/16"+- deep. I powder coated them, cured them, drillied out the weedguard holes by hand using an 1/8" bit in a small vice grip pliers. I glued in the 1/8" weedguard with brush on super glue, putting in into the holes, and then pushing the weed guards in. I use the super glue that comes in the little bottles with the red top, and I refill the bottle with Zap gap filling glue. It is a little sloppy, but it dries clear, and the weed guards hold fine.

I'd like to grind off some aluminum in a couple of my molds. I tried the metal cutting bits, but they are very slow. What bits would you guys recommend I use?

I bought the Bass Tackle 6 oz. injector, because I am a hobby pourer, and this size is just right for pouring a few molds at a time. The nozzle has a turn and release mechanism, so it doesn't p.o.p. off when I pour, but it's really easy to remove to clean. I'm sure there are others that work fine, but this is the one I use and like.

Try practicing on a piece of white poster board, as was suggested earlier. Once you've figured out how to brush, how to thin, and how to mix colors, it will be easier to move to your lures. It takes both time and practice, like throwing a baitcaster.

Dieter, I love watching your videos of you working. You make it look so simple, even the complicated stuff.

Again, I asked because I use a snap to water test multiple cranks, and it's easier than retying for each lure test.

I saw someone using that Badger mixer, and he made it look easy. He just ran it in a bottle of clean water between colors. I would really like it for soft plastic colors, which seem to settle out a lot and hard back.

I posted the original question because I wanted to know if my lazy way of testing cranks by hooking a snap to the split ring already on the bait was giving me skewed results, not to advocate for using both when you're fishing. I typically tie directly to the split ring when I'm fishing.

His daughter just posted this on Facebook: Dad is discharging home from the hospital today! Please continue to pray, as he still as a long recovery at home. It'll be nice to get him home for the holidays!

I usually don't hand paint, but any of the air brush paints, like Createx, Folk Art, Apple Barrel, and Wildlife Colors, can be brushed on. Practice using the "dry brush" technique, where you dip the tip of the brush in the paint, and the blot some of it off on a piece of scratch paper, until you start getting the effect you want. It takes some playing around, but several people here, like Dieter (Diemai) and JR Hopkins, do it really well. Check their stuff out in the Hard Baits Gallery.

I was wrong. There was no tracking number, but they did notify me when my order shipped.

A hand pour mold needs a larger sprue hole, and one for each cavity. You need to be able to have a steady stream of hot plastic pour into each cavity, to fill from the bottom up. Trying to handpour a multiple cavity injection mold will almost certainly result in unfilled cavities, because the plastic will cool in the shared sprue before it fills each cavity. This problem is why injecting was invented in the first place.

I ordered two molds from them, and they sent me a USPS tracking number. I ordered on the 10th, and it's shipping today.

I'll try and remember to take some photos the next time I make a crank like this.

Look at Solarez gloss UV cured resin. It is strong, and fast. Since it is dipped (at least that's how I do it) if your swimbaits are jointed, you will have dip them before you join the pieces. I'm sure you could brush it on, and then let it hang to even out the coating. Do it inside, where the sun's light is blocked, and you can just hang you baits over the dipping container and let it drip back into the jar. It won't hurt it, as long as you keep sunlight, even reflected sunlight, away from the hanging baits, until the dripping stops and you're ready to cure them. Once they're stopped dripping, blot the last bit off the bottom with a brush, close the dipping jar and cover it, unless it's the black plastic jar my first Solarez came in, and either hang you bait in a UV nail light for three minutes, or take it out into the sunlight. It will even clear on an overcast day.

I drill two small holes where I want the line tie to pass through the bill, bend my line tie wire into a tight loop with a pair of small round nosed pliers, pass the wire tag ends down through the holes, slip a small drill bit or nail through the loop as a spacer, and then bend the two tag ends back away from the finish end of the bill, getting the bends as tight and close to 90 degrees as possible. I use Lexan, and cut my bill slots before I finish shape my lure bodies. After I've gotten the lure finish shaped, I cut a small flat into the lower side of the lip slot to give my brad point bit a good starting point, slip a piece of scrap Lexan into the bill slot to keep the bit from drifting into the slot itself. Once the hole is drilled, I cut the tag ends of the line tie wire just past the end of the bill that goes into the lure, put a small kink bent into the ends to give the epoxy something to grab, and then glue both the bill and wires into the lure. Dry fitting first helps me to be sure everything will work, including having masking tape on the bill with a centerline, both to align the line tie holes, and to align the bill once it's being glued in.

I'm lost, but I'm still reading!

From what I've found out with AC1315, and read here about the other concrete sealers, they all seem to not play well with plastisol. I still use it, but, when I do, I put a final layer of clear nail polish over it. That way I don't have to worry about anything touching them. Otherwise, it's like having my kids in the car. "He touched me!". Hahaha

Man, you are one tough dude! Get better soon!

How does your construction hold up to a strike by a 2lb+ largemouth? Has one gotten it down between it's crushers yet?

I like to think of the fat Ika as a weedless finesse jig. I rig it with the 5/0 ewg hook going through the skirt end 1/4"+-, then turned out, and passed through the bottom of the bait, 1/4" up from the end, and skin hooked. It is fat, so you need a hook with a big bite/gap, so when the fish bites it his bite can move the hook belly enough to pop the point out. I usually pinch a split shot on the line above the hook , and slide it down tight to the line tie, to help it fall a little faster. I vary the size of the split shot, depending on wind, current, and how deep I'm fishing. If I'm fishing grass, I put a buck shot double rattle claw on the hook before I pass it through the bottom, so the rattles look line pinchers, and are dragged behind the bait as it comes through the weeds. I use a baitcaster, a med. heavy rod, and 17lb fluoro. The Ika casts really well. Just pull it slow, and keep it moving slowly. When it hits something, pause and then pull it free. I usually get bit when it comes free, as though they have been following it, and decide to eat when it looks like it's escaping. In clear, rocky lakes with weed edge, I cast up onto the bank, drag it back out to the weed line, and then pull it through until it snags. When it pops free, they bite. Or throw it parallel to the shore on the inside of the weed line, and drag it slowly back. The bass are right on the inside edge, and will eat it. If there is an outside weed line, again throw it parallel and work it slowly back. It is a good bait to pitch tight to cover, since it's almost weedless and doesn't snag very often. Yo yo it up and down in brush and trees. The skirt flares as it falls. It falls away from you, so you can pitch it to overhangs, and it will glide back, if you give it line. Green pumpkin with green and purple flake is a great bluegill imitator, and looks like a crawdad, too. Oxblood/red flake works, watermelon/ red flake works, black/red or blue flake works. In the winter I fish it even slower, and use scent.

My kids did the same thing! You just can't get good, cheap help anymore! Hahaha

I made and Solarez dip coated a craw crank and it's painted lexan bill. Afterward, in order to try and make the lure more stable, I heated and bent the bill. The Solarez coating has not come off so far, even though the bill got really hot, and I've fished the lure a lot since then. But I don't have many clean rocky bottoms to grind it on where I live now.

I found it on the classified pages here. I'm embarrassed to admit I can't remember who I bought them from, but I still have the box they came in, so his name is down there, somewhere.