mark poulson

Jim at Predator had a mold made, but I don't know where. He has an email on his website. Contact him and ask. His Warts are as close to the preRapala's as I have seen.

Isn't it funny how that works? I have a mechanicI like who will do my work for $450, but he's 45 miles away, and it involves two round trips. I'm using a local guy who is $50 more expensive, but I'll save double that in gas.

http://www.predatorbassbaits.com/

I made and painted an 8" glider, and dipped it in AC1315 the same day. I fished it the next day. It wound up with hook rash on the side of the bait in one place, and several small chips, right down to the Wicked White base coat. I should have let it cure more, I guess, because cranks I had done the same way on the same day had no problems at all. I'm guessing the larger glider pieces didn't cure as fast because they didn't get as hot as the smaller cranks. I didn't sand the margarine top tail that I colored with sharpies, and then coated with the AC1315, and you can see some of it pealed off, too. I haven't had to sand this kind of tail before, but I did let the top coat cure longer the other times. I'll touch up the paint, and redip the glider in AC1315, and this time let it hang for a day to cure. Here's a couple of pics of the damage:

If you can still scratch the actual top coat because it is soft, it's not cured. Maybe it needs to be warmer when you cure it. I hit my lures with a hair dryer after about 15 minutes, and then again after another 15 minutes, and they are dry/hard enough after an hour to put the split rings and trebles on. I can fish them the next day. If you can dent the lure through the top coat, the paint under the top coat is still soft, because isn't truly dry and cured. Multiple, thin coats of paint, dried really well with a hair dryer between coats, is the only way to insure everything is truly dry. I can paint much faster with multiple thin coats than with fewer, thick coats, because thick coats take three times as long to dry as thinner ones. Then let the lure hang in front of a light for a couple of hours before you coat it. In cold weather (for me that's high 40's) I heat my lures with my hair dryer before I start painting, to try and insure that the paint dried thoroughly.

If the second pour is hot, in the 340 degree range, it should melt into the first. You'll have to experiment, because each mold is different.

Do they need to be sealed, like pop molds?

What a neat find! One of my kids gave me her stock of glass beads years ago, when she "outgrew" jewelry making, and i stuck them somewhere in my garage. I think I'll go out and see if I can find them now. It also makes me wonder if the faceted glass beads I use for T rigs would work as eyes. Hmmm....

I think too much time is required to make truly good paint jobs to ever have it be a money maker for a small guy, unless you're Hughsey.

I just check out the KenFlash lures online, and their body looks almost exactly like the spybaits by Duo Realis. I would go slow before I ruined such a pretty lure. I tried converting a plastic jerkbait by adding props front and back. It was almost impossible, because the plastic cracked when I tried to remove the line tie and the rear hook hanger so I could add screw eyes and props. I was able to do it with the aid of D2T, to repair the cracks and anchor the screw eyes, but it was a real pain, time consuming, and I didn't trust that it would hold a fish when I finally got it done. I wound up hanging that bait from my wall of shame.

I've never just removed the cap to wipe off the needle. I'm too clumsy to take a chance on dropping my unprotected brush, and bending the needle.

Hahaha Nah, you're just prepared....for everything!

Rayburn Ben turned me on to Air Brush Restorer, and it works. I've broken down an airbrush, soaked it overnight, and came back to find crud in the restorer, from a brush I though was clean. It really cleans the little paint passageways. I'll back flush with a drop, at low air pressure so it doesn't spit back out, and there is always paint burped back into my cup. I got mine here: http://www.coastairbrush.com/products.asp?cat=59

My youngest just came in and showed me how to do picture adjustments in MS Word. I hate her!!! Hahaha

I stand up a lot, when my back won't let me sit down.

That is a well thought-out system. I know the line-thru concept has been around for a while, but they have really stepped it up a notch with their beautiful baits. I don't think I'd be feeding any of those baits to a fish with those teeth! As it is, when stripers eat a soft trout lure they tear it up pretty badly. I can't imagine what I'd get back from a big pike. Probably just a bloody stump. Hahaha

Nathan, I felt bad enough, not listening to the surfboard maker's warning. I was lucky I didn't ruin all of it. If it cost that much I would have been really pissed.....at myself! Hahaha

Here's a fun deal....not. I just posted a photo of some Poe's cranks I repainted for a friend in the Hard Baits gallery. He bought them for $1 apiece, because they were rejects, with the bills installed twisted. So I heated them and straightened them, and made the centerline of the bill and the hook hangers line up. I didn't strip them to bare wood, just added some belly weight to make them slow rise, bondo, Wicked White basecoat, Createx colors, and Solarez dipped once. I used Solarez to reinforce the bills, which may have been weakened by being heated and twisted. I found that there was crude floating and suspended in my Solarez, after I dipped the first batch of brown/purple and red/orange baits. I have been dipping with it open, and letting the resin drip back into the dipping jug. Evidently the reflected UV rays from outside hit the dripping resin, and started it setting up. I would up with icebergs floating and suspended in my resin. So I closed the overhead garage door, poured the resin through a scrubby netting as a screen into a tupperware, cleaned my black dip jug with some acetone, sloshed around and poured out, and then poured the screened resin back into my dip jug. If I had had some finer mesh I would have used it, but I just used what I had on hand. i dipped the last two, the bluegills, in the strained resin. There were only a few tiny particles left. I will not be dipping with the overhead garage door open from now on. Lesson learned.

Watching that video never gets old! Thanks.