mark poulson

I fished one of my plastic knockoff 1.5's hard yesterday. It was cleaned with acetone, painted with Createx and Wildlife colors, and dipped once in the AC1315. All of that was done on Thursday. I caught one largemouth, several nice smallies, and a 4lb striper on it, fishing it over and through grass. I didn't bounce it off any wood, but I did run it over the top of some shallow rock, so it dug and bounced during the retrieve. The finish held up great. I also fished a wiggle wart knockoff painted at the same time, but not as much. Again, the finish is still great. I just posted pictures of them in the Hard Baits Gallery.

But, but, but...where can we go for great stencils now? Hahaha

Has anyone contact the pot manuf. and asked them if they changed the alloy they use for the pots?

Hahaha. I was just wondering if I should say something. Ron, we get it, and thanks for the website. If you do this kind of thing too often, your posts will just be ignored, so pick your spots.

I do the same, but use O rings instead of rubber collars. Not quite as easy to spread the skirts perfectly, but totally reusable.

http://www.lunkercity.com/ Sorry, I thought I put it in the last post. After I posted you last time I emailed them, because I couldn't find the 4" HyroTail worm on their site. Terry emailed me back to say they no longer sell them, and that all he had left in stock were 6" and 8". I haven't tried their HydroTail grub, but it looks like it would work. Good luck.

Correction. The red solvent based sharpie did NOT run when I dipped a newly painted lure with red gills. Evidently the bleeding I saw on the older bait I redipped was from the previous topcoat, and the AC1315 just brought back the clarity of the paint job so well I could see it again. Doh!!! I have a digital scale that measures to tenths of a gram, and one dip coat on a 15.1 gram lure didn't add enough weight to change it's weight on the scale. So, if this stuff holds up, I won't have to worry about the weight of the topcoat affecting the action of my lures. As I said before, I dip outside, let it drip back into the container, use my finger to remove the last drips and put them back into the container, and then move them into my garage to dry. I have the back door open and a fan blowing back to front, to push any smell out the open front door, but the smell is gone pretty quickly. I liked the idea of using a concrete sealer because I know they need are really high film strength, to be able to stand up to car tires. The drying and curing times they recommend are for concrete, to be sure it's strong enough for traffic. I think, for our lure making, hurrying up the process won't hurt that strength enough to matter. If I blow dry one coat, and let it hang, after 24 hours the lures are too hard to dent with my fingernail. Ben, you just might have to "git u sum". http://www.directcolors.com/product/ac-1315-high-gloss-concrete-sealer/

I need to amend my post about solvent based sharpies. The black doesn't run when it's dipped in the Ac1315, but the red bleeds a little. If you don't want it to run, shoot a coat of Createx clear over the red first. I used red to accent the gills, so a little bleeding didn't mess up the lure. I dipped a 4" Sammie knock off that I had finished with nail polish and sharpies over a year ago. It had become somewhat dull over the year, and the split rings had started to rust. The Ac1315 really cleared up the bait, making all the glitter and colors vivid once again. I took the opportunity to change out the split rings, too. And I dipped a brand new clear plastic 1.5 knockoff that had become a little cloudy after it's acetone dip. It made the bait gin clear again, and really brought out the iridescent violet over light black on the back, and the sparkle white on the belly. I have now dipped five baits once only. They were dry to the touch in less than an hour, but still felt soft. They are hanging over my workbench curing now, and will be tied on tomorrow to fish Saturday. If it doesn't fade due to UV, which it is supposed to be protected from, this looks like my new dipping top coat, when I don't want the slight haze and weight of the Solarez.

I bought the version of this vise that was available 15 years ago, and it is still going strong: http://www.basspro.com/White-River-Fly-Shop-Classic-Vise/product/98228/

Darkman, Go to this site, and contact them about the Hydro Tail worm they used to sell. I don't see it on their site now, but they may still sell them. They are thinner than the robo 4 1/2" curly tail worm, and have a great tail that moves. My buddy had some of their watermelon worms with black and copper flake, and, when I contacted them, they were able to sell some out of their stock.

I dip outside, and then bring the bait back into my open garage after it stops dripping. But I live in SoCal, and it seldom gets down to 50 here. I just painted three plastic cranks with Createx and Wildlife paints, added some shad dots with a black solvent based sharpie, heat set each coat and the sharpie, too, and then dipped them one time each. No problems with either the paint or the sharpie, and I was able to add split rings and hooks after an hour. I did hit the baits twice during that hour with a hair dryer, after they were dry to the touch (about 20 minutes here). I'm doing this as an experiment. They will be fished on Sat, so I'll see how one dip coat holds up. I've been letting them drip back into the open container and, so far, no issues at all. This stuff feels really hard after a few days, and I hope one dip coat is going to be enough for bass baits. I don't know how it would hold up to toothy critters, as we don't have any in the fresh down here.

It would probably work, like everything else people here have suggested. I find the best way to see if a new technique/paint scheme will work is to try it on a piece of white PVC pipe first. That way, I can play around until I get something I like, without having to wash any failures off my bait. Plus you can keep the pipe for future reference. Everyone here on TU learned from someone else, and it's usually from someone here as well. That's what makes this site so great.

I haven't done a glitter stripe with a stencil, but I've found that the farther I hold a stencil from the bait, and the closer I hold the air brush to the stencil, the softer the edges of the stenciled shapes become. I play around each time, to get the effect I want, by moving both the stencil and the brush until my sample is right, and then I use that setup on my lures. I tried this for a faint chartreuse stripe on a sexy shad paint scheme, and it worked, but it was a pain. I think you may have trouble shooting glitter through an air brush without need a very big tip and high pressure. Have you thought of spraying a thin line of Createx clear as the stripe, and then dusting on the glitter by hand while the clear is still wet, using a spoon, until you get what you want? I add glitter to clear Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails nail polish, and use that to make m glitter accents. I don't know why it wouldn't work for glitter stripes, too. Let us know how you finally do it.

Cool Amps says prevents power loss from oxidation and corrosion, so would it tarnish?

Try pushing a plastic disc onto the hook after the leech. You can punch them out of margarine tub tops, and they will hold your leech better.

When in doubt, copy a successful lure exactly, and then play around with variations until it won't work anymore. That way, you'll see the limitations of the design.

If the lever has intermediate stops, you can stop when it's snug. Otherwise, adjust it so it just barely locks down at full pull. You'll be able to see pretty quickly if it's snug enough for what you're doing, or if you need more pressure.

Is it like the robo 4 1/2" curly tail?

You're such a buzz kill! Hahaha

As in, work is waaaaay overrated?

Figure out what shape you want, print out a bunch of the shape on paper, cut it to the line, glue it onto the bill material, and cut and sand it to the final shape. Believe it or not, close counts, as long as your lip slots are square and semi-tight. You can fine tune the bait after the bill is installed. Just be sure the bill and the lure body are a proven design, so you're not swimming upstream. With square bills, it's hard to screw it up. They are very forgiving. For deep divers, if you have the line tie space right from the nose of the bait to the tip of the bill, it's a matter of tuning the line tie.