mark poulson

I do the same, using a cheap pair of needle nose pliers. Smooth off the teeth a little so they don't scar your hook eye.

Those look great!

So do Kitchen hood fans. They have to be explosion-proof, to prevent grease fires.

Contact the manuf. and ask them.

Putting blue painter's tape on the lips and marking a centerline on them will help you align your lips when you install them.

That homemade setup should work fine.

Glad you guys worked it out.

I just hate how salt tears up the old bronze hooks.

If you thin the D2T, like Bob said, and brush it on, you can hang the lure from the line tie, and let the excess drip off. You'll get a thinner topcoat, but it will be lighter in weight.

I find hunting crankbaits are great for open water from a boat, where bass track a lure out of curiosity, and strike when it veers off, trying to escape. They really work well for suspended fish, and for schooling fish chasing shad. For fishing from shore, try cutting the bottom hooks off your trebles, to make them more snagproof. Another thing to try is chatterbaits. If you bend the top of the blade back a little, you can burn them without having the jump out of the water, and they will hunt like crazy. Since they are a top hook bait, you can slow roll them deep, and then speed up your retrieve as you approach the shore, to elicit reaction strikes from shallow fish as it passes over them fast.

Try a real paint store instead.

Thanks for the link.

Man, those look great! Where can I get some of those beads?

Finally, a use for all the old hooks I have from when we used to split shot worms for trout in the Sierra creeks!

http://www.pouryourownworms.com/ It's Jeff's store.

Three thing come to mind. First, be sure your paint is thoroughly dried. Too thick a coat can retain trapped moisture, so be sure to do multiple thin coats, and heat set each coat really well. Second, try a coat of Createx Clear Gloss over the paint before you seal with the Garco. The clear gloss has a much higher film strength than their paints, and should protect the paint. Be sure you clean your airbrush really well after spraying the clear gloss because it will set up like concrete in your brush and be a nightmare to clean if you don't. Last, do a dip in another top coat first, like a water borne urethane, to protect the paint. It will add a stronger layer, too. All urethanes designed as top coats are much stronger than the paints they protect. I've never used MCU, but, from what I've read here, it has a small amount of solvent in it that can affect paint sometimes. Good luck.

I think the variation in weight has to do with how much salt they can use and still achieve the different colors. Salt affects different bait colors and flake combinations differently. The clearer/lighter the color, the less salt they can add, and the lighter the bait. I use Kosher salt in my Ikas, because it is very course and doesn't change the color of the baits as much.

When my first two boy were young we fished a lot together. They really got hooked when they went down to the lake and the stock truck had just emptied a load nearby. They threw every lure in my tackle box, and must have caught 25 fish each. All catch and release. There is nothing like fast and furious to set the hook in a kid!

I really like your design!

I don't put soft fins on my swimbaits, only a soft plastic tail that screws into a SST coil I glue into the tail section. But, if I were going to try to add fins, I'd probably try using a harder soft plastic formula and make some with molds, so they are easily replaced if damaged. I would think super glue will hold them in mounting slots, since they are small. If they get torn up when the fish bites, I could live with that. Replacing them wouldn't be that hard, as long as I had a mold so the fins could be accurately repeated.

A good rule of thumb is light wire hooks need lighter line, and lighter action rods. The trade off for easy penetration of a light wire hook is strength...you can't horse the fish, you have to play it. I do use lighter wire hooks in some of my football jigs, 14oz-3/8oz, with 12lb fluoro, but that is because I fish hula grugs in rocky lakes, and want to get them back when they snag.

Has anyone tried brush guard fibers?

I mix up some D2T really well, add enough denatured alcohol to make a 1/1 mix, and brush it on. After it gets hard, I add a second coat, and it's done. Because it's been thinned it soaks into the POP if it's dry, but it takes a little longer to harden. I actually recoat after two hours, and then let the mold sit overnight. It's ready to pour the next day, and it holds details. Just be sure to spray it with PAM before you pour your plastics.