mark poulson

I have used this for years, and it works great: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Naked_Bait_Jig_Spinnerbait_Skirt_Expander/descpage-NBSE.html I pass the jaws of a pair of tweezers through from the back, pinch the skirt tabs double, and use the tweezers to pull them back through the band. I use a small O ring now instead of the rubber band (thank you whoever it was here on TU who shared that tip), because I wire my skirts on, so I can just roll the O ring back off the hook when I've wired the skirt, and reuse the O ring over and over.

Sorry, I don't. I would start with the Iwata website, to see if they have any "how to" videos. Then go to some air brush websites, and look for videos. I am not very computer literate, but I'm sure you could find some videos on YouTube, too.

If you're just getting started, look at the "Why PVC" stick at the top of this forum.

Wow, that has to smart! I've been a carpenter my whole adult life, so I've had my share of encounters with spinning tools. It's never good. I hope you can recover enough function in your hand to fish. Everything else is secondary!

For big bucktails I some times use old 30lb. braid.

This is a good thread to start with: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/29536-new-swimbait-gliding-problemsweighting/?hl=%2Bglide+%2Bbaits#entry234077

Be sure and practice a good, fast cleaning routine, so the lacquer doesn't set up in your brush. A squeeze bottle of lacquer thinner right next to you, so you can quickly shoot a cupful through the brush and backflush as needed, will help keep you painting, instead of cleaning.

As the earth warms, the atmosphere and oceans act like a heat exchanger, moving heat from the equator to the poles by convection. Warm air rises, and move north or south as it enters the prevailing winds that are caused by the earth's rotation, and colder, denser air moved south beneath the warm air, to take it's place. The same thing happens in the oceans, as warmer, less dense water moves north or south, and colder, denser water move toward the equator beneath the warmer water above. As more heat needs to be transferred, the intensity of the storms produced by the movement of hot, wet air toward the poles colliding with colder, dryer air moving toward the equator increases . And the path of the jet stream, which is the prevailing west to east air circulation in the northern hemisphere, changes, so local weather patterns change as more or less moisture is passed over different areas. Just like a pot of water's roiling action increases as it approaches boiling. I'm no atmospheric scientist, but I did sleep in a Motel last night!

With global warming, I'm afraid it is the future, unless we develop a national interstate water transfer system, and sustainable farming practices. Here in CA, we have San Joaquin Valley farmers raising water intensive crops (alfalfa for Japanese cattle and nuts for global markets) for export with subsidized water, so they are exporting our water and making a profit, with our help! I'm sure there are lots of other examples of water waste and misappropriation, but these are the most local ones I'm aware of.

Drought is serious. We had another brush fire next to the 5 fwy in SoCal a few weeks ago, from some knuckle head doing something dumb. I remember driving through Oregon in 1977, and they only allow logging when the humidity was above a certain level, so they only logged for two hours a day, early in the morning.

Invest in an Iwata quick disconnect. It will make servicing your air brush so much easier, and will let you use the same hose for multiple air brushes, once the insanity takes full effect.

JUST BE CAREFUL!

That looks like some kind of a dental tool to me, like what they use to mix stuff for fillings. Or at least used to use.

I think contrasting colors are more visible, and so they draw the bass' attention. Years ago, Carol Martens, Aaron's mom, told our Club that Aaron was color blind, so he picked color on the basis of how much the differences/contrasts showed. If you look at the Robo colors Aaron's Magic and Aaron's Madness, they do have contrasting colors. That seems to have worked out pretty well for him, so far.

There was a thread here recently about modifying a DoIt mold to accept a wire keeper. Scroll down to the next page or two, and you'll find it. Personally, if it's going to be a skirted jig, I tie the skirt on with wire, twist and pull until the wire's tight, leave about 3/4" of twist when I cut the wire off, and bend it down toward the hook, once I've trimmed off the tab connectors. That makes a great holder. I do the same for spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, and almost never lose trailers or have them slide down.

Bob, I guess I was just put off by Lewin because he reminded me of my father-in-law, an aerospace engineer who worked on the Apollo Program, who delights in showing how smart he is. It is maddening, because he never has a conversation, it's always a pedantic lecture, with questions allowed only so he can further enlighten everyone. He is smart (most engineers are really smart), but he is not very adjusted socially. One of the reasons I use commercial baits as a starting point is because they have already done the engineering. I know that, and don't want to reinvent the wheel, just personalize it a little. I don't think I'm the smartest guy in the room, ever. Experience, and my kids, has taught me that much. But I am sure of what my experience has taught me if something works, even if I'm not sure exactly why something works. I really enjoy reading what you, Dave, and the rest of the builders here on TU post, because I learn something every day. I just read something on the internet that says it all for me: "I just read an article about the dangers of drinking. Scared the shit out of me. So that's it! After today, no more reading!"

I altered the DoIt mold to accept bigger hooks. Adding a bent wire holder along the hook shaft shouldn't be that difficult.

I hand pour thin stuff with no salt all the time, and just put salt onto the open side while it's still hot, so it soaks in. That way, I keep the small baits buoyant, but have the salt for flavor. I figure, if it's good enough for Robo, and Steve Merlo, it's good enough for me. But the silicone cups I use tend to clog if I pinch down the pouring spout too small, so I'm always pouring a little faster than I would like, and wind up with uneven pouring results. I'm hoping that, with a little practice, I'll be able to pour my smaller works without have tons of trimming to do afterwards. I'm sure there will be a learning curve, but I'll have the time to learn now.

I watched as much of those videos as I could stand. The two by Walter Lewin were particularly hard to sit through, because he's clearly so sure he's the smartest person in the room that he's insufferable! At least the guy in the second video actually included a correction by someone else. I'm not sure how much these engineering videos relate to lure building, since fishing lures have air inside, which provides the buoyancy, but swim though water, which is a different density, and provides much more resistance. I am a carpenter, not an engineer, so that's about as far as can get, theoretically. In practical terms, just as the most buoyant balsa, which is the lightest because it has the thinnest cell walls or the largest cells and therefore has more air trapped per volume, makes the most active baits, a hollow plastic bait with really thin walls, like the old Speed Traps, are the most active, too, and actually rival the best balsa baits. But they were so fragile that they had a very short life expectancy. And no manuf. today will make a bait that is that fragile. Too bad. The square bill cranks now being produced come closest, as far as really active X'ing, and wobble, and they are hard enough to take a lot of punishment. I am not a lure designer. I have always used a successful commercial lure as a starting point for my lure building. Once I've been able to make a similar lure that works, I have varied that basic design to see what of my own design I could make that would work, and pretty quickly learned a lot about what doesn't work, and, thanks in large part to the help of TU members, what does. As amateur lure builders, we are all somewhat limited in how we can build our lures. Obviously, making hollow plastic lures is beyond the range of most of our building abilities, so we try and achieve similar results with wood, PVC, and resin. I've found that, for me, a well shaped, properly weighted and lipped crank will catch fish, whatever I use to build it. The same principles of lure building apply, no matter what it's built out of. I've added ballast to, and changed the lips of, enough store bought plastic lures to know that hollow plastic lures also follow the same rules. All of this is to say, build a lot, and learn from your mistakes. I've found that, for me, It is the best way, no matter which engineering principles are involved.

That is a nice looking bait!

Thanks guys. That's just what I was hoping to hear, good and bad.

If the lip fits too loosely, put some blue painters tape on it to make the fit more snug.

I forgot that, years ago, I was able to get an almost 3D effect with a larger scale pattern over a smaller one. I used Tulle from a fabric store, and overlaid it with the green mesh that avocados come it. I sprayed bait with a gloss black base coat, fading to pearl white on the belly. Then I put the two mesh layers over it, and sprayed it with pearl silver, to get the effect. Here's a link to a pick: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/4425-wood-vs-pvc/ If I had pulled the avocado mesh and stretched it more before I shot the silver, I'm sure I could have gotten more of a tall diamond effect. This is just to give you another option.

I watched Steve Merlo's video (thanks Big Ray) and am wondering, first of all, is this the pot he uses, and, second, is it really that much easier to pour thin stuff with this pot? http://www.lurecraft.com/Lee-Plastic-Production-Pot/productinfo/2X111/ I currently use silcone cups, and pinch the ends down to get a small pour spout, but it is hard to be precise, and I'd really like to do some smaller laminates. Plus, going back and forth to the micro to reheat is a lot of work. Sooo....what do you guys think about this pot?

I don't use a stencil for scales (there is a tutorial here on TU somewhere that shows that technique), so I would use a mesh with larger squares, stretch it tight over the bait vertically until the squares are taller diamonds, and spray at angle from the back, so the front part of the mesh diamond gets more paint. I have a foam board mounted on a piece of plywood that I use for scale spraying. I hold the bait and put the mesh over it, so doesn't fall, and then spread the mesh and pin it close to the bait, using push pins. I sometimes have to re-position the pins until I get the mesh tight, and how I want it shaped and located. If I were you I would try a test first, to determine how much to stretch the mesh, and what angle and direction to spray the scales from.