mark poulson

C, I fished the crank for a few casts, just to test the water proofing, and to see how it held up after being wet, and then dry. I never got bit on it. I had dipped it twice the day before, 4 hours between dips and two passes with the hair dryer, once the first coat was dry to the touch, and one on the second coat, once it had dried to the touch. I got up early the next morning for a tournament (fifth out of ten boats) and put the hooks and split rings on, and tossed it into the boat. When I tied it on in the boat mid morning it felt totally dry and hard. This morning, the day after, it was fingernail proof. I am going to try painting some plastic knockoffs this week and dipping them. I'm going to see if I can hurry the drying time even more. I'll let you know how it works out.

Most of the paint schemes we do are fragile. They do not have long chain polymers to provide a strong, protective top coat. So we do top coat our lures. If you use either rattle can paints, or lacquers, you can probably skip the top coat, but the paint will get thrashed just from the bait being cast and retrieved. Hook rash is an ugly thing.

I'm looking for a mold for a GYCB-type single tail grub, with a 1 1/2" body, and an overall length of 2 1/2". Does anyone here know of one that's made for sale to home pourers?

I heard a saying long ago that seems to apply here. "If you want to get something done, give to a person with a messy desk". I prefer to think of the lack of obvious organization in my shop as just another example of my multi-tasking prowess.

Yesterday I fished the lure I dipped on the day before. I dipped it twice, four hours between dips, and hit it with a hair dryer after each dip had dried to the touch. The lure held up fine yesterday, even after it spent most of the day on the deck in the hot sun. I just went out and checked it, and it's good, and hard as a rock. This week I'm going to do a dip of a painted lure, with no other top coat, to see how it reacts with Createx-type water-based acrylic paint.

My experience has also been that narrowing a lip decreased the diving depth. Less water resistance, less down force.

I didn't have any baits yellow, but I used to hit them hard with a hair dryer first, until all the hardener stops bubbling out of the end grain, and then let them hand another day before painting.

Other than the smell, this stuff is easy to use, so far. I did my dipping outside, and brought the samples back into my garage once they'd stopped dripping to dry over my work bench. There is a definite solvent smell when you open the can and dip the lure, but it goes away almost completely once the lure is hard and handleable, in about an hour. I dipped three test pieces today, a plain piece of bare PVC trimboard, a PVC crank that had already been painted and top coated with SC9000 interior urethane, and a 1.5 squarebill plastic knockoff, again painted and top coated with urethane. I hit them all with a hair dryer twice, and redipped them after 4 hours, with no wrinkling or other problems. They were all dry to the touch and handleable in an hour, but I waited the minimum recommended (4 hours) before recoating. I let them all drip back into the can. and removed the drips from the lure bottoms with my finger, and scraped it back into the can, too, to try and give it a worst case test. I'll know more later today. Right now, I'm betting I could fish them tomorrow. They felt dry and hard after the first four hours. This stuff is designed for coating concrete, which has residual moisture in it all the time. I'm betting that residual moisture, plus the weight of a car driving on it, is why they say wait 48 hours before using the coated surface. My experience with Glaze and Seal, a similar masonry coating, leads me to believe they err on the side of caution, in terms of curing time. Once it's clear and hard, it's good for light foot traffic. But don't recoat until it is truly clear. If you put it on too thick, it will show a blueish haze that will never go away. I'm going to put hooks on the 1.5 squarebill and fish it tomorrow, so I can see how it holds up. If it holds up okay, I'll paint a couple of test lures this coming week with Createx and top coat them with it, with no SC9000 urethane coating, to see if it affects the paint. Fingers crossed!

Sound like neat stuff. Let us know how it works for you.

Hahaha. A clean floor just seems to attract everything, doesn't it?

Have you tried to speed up the recoat and curing time with a hair dryer?

My sample arrived this evening. I'll try dipping something tomorrow, and let you know how it goes. Their site says: Apply in thin coats. Do not exceed three coats of sealer. Allow each coat to dry for a minimum of 4-6 hours between coats. Applying an additional coat of sealer to a surface that is tacky, milky or has ridges will not improve the overall appearance of the floor and will only compound existing problems. Allow the final coat of sealer to dry for 24-48 hours depending on weather conditions before allowing vehicle traffic. Note: Allow for 48-72 hours dry time for floors sealed with solvent based sealers before applying Residentialor Commercial Wax. Use xylene for tool and sprayer clean-up. I may get only two coats on something tomorrow, but I should be able to tell if it's user friendly. I plan to have both front and rear doors of my garage open, and a fan blowing from back to front, so I don't get knocked out by the fumes. I plan to let it drip back into the open can. If it's going to be a problem, I want to find out now, before I order a bigger container. Once I've made the first dip, I'll get an idea of how fast it dries, and whether I can speed the between dip time by using a hair dryer periodically. But I want all the solvent to have evaporated first. I'm allergic to flash fires and explosions.

If you're up for painting and then top coating, try shooting some Wildlife Sparkle White over the blades, and then top coating them. http://www.mckenziesp.com/WCP6514-P13070.aspx

Maybe leaving a longer "tag end" on your wire, so the crimp is a little farther from the R bend, might help by leaving more wire to act like a spring. I've found I can open larger tempered hooks so the point is up from the centerline of the eye if I hold them just behind the eye, and just behind the barb, and gently pull them open. It spreads the bend over the entire hook wire, instead of just at the straight to bend transition. Maybe that will help spread the load and keep the wire from breaking when you try to straighten it back out.

Years ago I was searching for a penetrating wood sealer and protector, and found this product: http://hardwareonlinestore.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=9003&virtuemart_category_id=15602&gclid=Cj0KEQjwh96hBRCnsefbvZrKrpcBEiQAF7oMdBv7C3AHswxkpCcjn_YHwfeoYLtXqc5ZNtuywqkIl0IaAlUX8P8HAQ It does penetrate and seal well. I found that soaking my lures in it for ten minutes, or until the bubbles stopped appearing, was plenty. Longer than that, and it penetrated so deeply that it's own solvents wound up being trapped in the wood, and would bubble my heat set paints. I found the way to test for "ready to paint" was to hit the unpainted lure with a hair dryer, especially on the end grain. Once it stopped bubbling, I knew it was okay to start painting. For rattle can paints it was no problem, since there was no heat involved in the paint process. If I were using it on a through wire bait, I'd pass a loose fitting wire or string through the bore hole several times when the bait was soaking, to be sure to wet the entire shaft channel. There are other things available. If you google wood restorer you'll find some water based stuff, too.

Thanks for the "field" testing.

X2 Been there, done that.

I was confused at first, but then I realized the open space in front of your work area is clean floor! I haven't seen that in my "lair" for a long time. Hahaha I'm sooo jealous!

The morning dawn 160 looks too red to me. I think their purple 123 color with some fine black flake might be the ticket. The black flake should make the body darker, like in the picture posted. You may have to add some red, or some other color, to get a perfect match. Maybe just a fine red flake would do the trick. Be sure to make notes as you play around, so you can duplicate it once you nail it.

Just a side bar. If you already have two similar injectors, you can join them with a couple of blocks of wood, notched for the injector bodies, and joined by a through bolt. You can even make a wooden handle for the setup, if you like. It won't be as elegant as Baitjunky's, but it will work. You will still need the blending block.

Smart man! A happy wife is a happy life!

Do you think the fine flake is changing/adding to the color?

Did it break on the wire just in front of the crimp sleeve?

Nathan, I ordered the gloss sample. I called them first to see if they would ship to Calif., and the woman said yes, so, if this works, it may be an alternative for people in other "smart" states.

Dave, I can see all the other pictures there, but the video won't load.