mark poulson

My computer has paint, and any photos I load from my email get opened in paint. It has a resize tab, so I can reduce or enlarge both the height and the width independently, if I want. Now that I've typed that out, I can see how I could use it to reshape a lure to thinner or taller pretty easily. Doh!!!

That's a clever idea! I made several versions of a single hook crank, after seeing the Sebile version, and always just relied on the weight of the hook to keep it below the crank body. I also made some weedless frog with drop down hooks, and used magnets to hold the hooks down. The sst clip is a really smart solution. Thanks for sharing it.

You can make almost any plastic lure with the line tie in the body, not the bill, into a wake bait, by heating the bill and bending it down to 80+ degrees. You can control how much it dives on a fast pull by shortening the bill until it dives like you want it to, or doesn't dive at all.

That's a great pair of videos. Thanks for sharing.

I dip them once, quickly, in clean acetone, hang them to let it evaporate, and then paint directly over the freshly exposed plastic with my water based air brush paints. For me, the dipping provides a totally clean, "open" surface, and I've had not problems with my Createx or Wildlife paints bonding. It also clears any sanding dullness at the joints. The top coat protects the paint. I've been doing this for years now, and it's worked for me. But, bear in mind, I'm a hobby builder, so I don't have tons of baits out there that I have to stand behind.

I looked at the thickness of the bait at the place I wanted to put a joint, and figured out how much lure material I wanted left in front of the pin. Then I added enough for the thickness of the screw eye, and a little for hinge clearance, and made the angle of my hinge joint enough to have that much material on my male end, where the pin is located. If you've cut your joint, and, when you go to drill for you pin, you find you have to move it past the joint cut in order to have enough material to be strong, you can steepen the angle of you male joint faces until it passes the pin point. I find the easiest way for me is to cut the joint, drill for the pin with the proper angle+-, add my screw eyes to the female part, and then cut my hinge slots with a band saw until they are deep enough for the eyes to move freely. I used a band saw because I could make cuts that were tighter than drilling, so there isn't as much vertical movement in the joint. Once that's done, the band saw slots show me how much steeper I need to make the joint face so the slot is still in the joint, and not on the face of the lure. If you look at the pictures I posted on the first page of this thread, you'll see two store bought S Wavers, plus my own version. The slots in mine reach the edge of the joint face. I did steepen the joint face until the slots were totally in the joint. It's purely an aesthetic thing for me. I don't think the fish care.

I've heard here that Tyvek water barrier works, but I've never tried it.

Amen! That is a great setup!!!

Funny how life is sometimes. I was putting a Createx transparent orange patch on the belly of some spybaits, and, because I had thinned the orange too much with my water/soap cleaning mixture, the paint went on and formed tiny beads. I liked it! It let the base white come into play, like scales, at least to me. P.S. It's time to buy another bottle of the orange, or try to make some up from the flourescent orange I have a ton of.

I think color is important as far as visibility and contrast, especially in off colored and murky water. If the fish see the bait better, they can be triggered. Of course, in clear water, they can be turned off, and that's where transparent color schemes, that only give a hint of a shape to a bait as it move through the water, shine. The action gets their attention, they can't see it as clearly to get turned off, so they eat it before it gets away. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Hahaha

I've used wood rasps to round wood that tore out a lot in the past. I still got the blank as close to the final size with a table saw, cutting champfers like Travis said. The surest way to avoid it is to use a belt sander, starting with course, and then progressively finer belts, but it takes time.

The shortened 1" props still spin, but they don't allow the baits to wobble. I'm guessing it because they are heavy enough to dampen the wobble, since they are still twice as heavy as the smaller props. I noticed that the Duo Realis bait has really small props, too. For a moment I thought about making my own, and then I remembered I'm not Dieter, the Metal Meister. Hahaha So I'll just stick with the small props from LPO.

I have a parabolic heater that works really well, but I can't remember where it is anymore! Being cold is my penance for being forgetful, I guess.

Fun to paint, bluegill and trout. Fish catching, shad and crawdad.

That is slick! I can only imagine the hours it took to design and make. But, if you're a machinist, it's totally doable. Who knew there were fishing nuts in Portugal?

I would be worried that it is not set up to filter the fumes from lead, or from hot plastic. Call the manuf. and ask before you buy.

Pete, Does gravity hold the hook down, or did you use something mechanical, like a magnet? P.S. I love your lures!

From the videos I've seen of musky fishing, I'd use some really heavy wire. Those things look like monsters!

V is for Victory! Man, I must be old if I can remember the WW2 posters and slogans that were still around when I grew up in the 50's! Hahaha

My garage is unheated, living in SoCal, but it's been in the high 30's the last few nights. Working in fingerless wool gloves is a pain. The wool gets in everything.