mark poulson

Evidently it is illegal to use WD40 as an attractant here in Calif. I know catfish guys here who swear by it.

That pepto color looks like a molting crawdad to me.

I have two of the old suspending warts in red crawfish. The catch fish. I don't know why...yet! Hahaha

The gloss finish is the strongest, so you might be better off knocking off the gloss after it's cured.

Me, too!

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Where did you find that bait?

If Robo does it you can bet they have a automated system for it, too. Those guys have it figured out.

Have you tried hitting the lure with a hair dryer in cold weather, to preheat it, before you dip?

Maybe the one I got was cheap, but it didn't stay sharp long, and I never could get it to hold an edge. Glad to hear you had better luck.

Those are a gimmic. They dont hold an edge and are very hard to resharpen.

Yes, he do! And he uses Solarez as a top coat, too. Hahaha I watched a video of a guy coating a surfboard with Solarez gloss, and he added "a couple of drops" of the MEKP catalyst to the mix before he applied it. He still had plenty of time to lay it off so the brush strokes disappeared, before he set it out in the sun to UV cure. Maybe it was for the parts that didn't get direct sun. I have no clue. His board come out dead clear and beautiful, but he polishes them with a buffer and different grits of polishing compound.

Thanks. I never noticed if they had rattles when I first fished them. I was more interested in the suspending feature. They have sat long enough for the lead to get stuck, for sure. I'll try that today.

So the rattle is important, if I'm reading this right. I'll have to think on that a while. I usually use sst BB's for rattles, but I may have to try a big split shot instead.

I spray mine with rattle can clear acrylic. It's to make sure the silicone doesn't bond, but it also smooths the clay a little. But getting it as smooth as you can first helps. If the clay gets too warm and sticky, put it in the freezer to cool it back down and make it easier to work with.

Really clever, original thinking! I don't need no stinking molds!

Sean, I got that idea from Matt Moreau's post. But I'll take credit for it, anyway! Hahaha

I was thinking that those bills helped them to "hunt".

Stretcher, Thanks for the link. That pretty much sums up what I should be shooting for in terms of action. Glenn, I hear they are worth their weight in....fish. Hahaha That brown craw paint scheme looks like the hot setup. Out here in SoCal, in lakes with northern largies, the red craw is a great spring pattern, especially in off colored water. I have a few of both the larger and the smaller. A couple of my smaller ones suspend. The Mag Warts have a really loud rattle, but the smaller ones are silent. I was checking out their bills, and they are dished both ways, like Rapalas. I make my bills out of Lexan, so I will be heating and bending them. I'm making a couple of the Mags out of PVC, and was wondering if there was a "secret ingredient" I should include. Any help is appreciated.

Do a test before you break your heart on a finished lure.

Ben, I googled both, and they are different. MEK is a solvent, and MEKP is a catalyst. Who knew? Hahaha

I thought Jeremy had that name first. Oh, well, something else I don't know. Hahaha

What made the original Wiggle Wart so special?

I had a few lighter wire, heavy bodied spinnerbaits that would break right behind or at the R bend. If I got one back with a broken off blade section, or if one broke when I was tuning it after a fish, that's when I made the chatterbaits out of them. They used the lighter wire on only their deeper runners, for some reason. It sucked, but they caught fish. I don't think the chatterbaits with the longer wire catch more fish, at least the ones I've made. In fact, since I throw them in off colored water, or over submerged grass, I think having the vibrating blade removed somewhat from the lure is a liability, since the fish hone in on the vibration. And the longer wire catches more grass because the bait hangs down deeper, at least for me.

How in the world do you get 3D eyes on a dipped bait?

No Ben, I haven't tried it. I should have said MEKP, not MEK. I don't know if MEK is different from MEKP. It's been so long since I bought any of that stuff.