mark poulson

Color is mixed well. It happens with or without salt. I only use the .15 flake in watermelon. The flake doesn't seem to be curled, but it's hard to tell if it's unchanged, because the bait has turned muddy. I've tried adding more green after I add the flake, but I lose the translucent watermelon color. I was thinking of offsetting the additional red by adding either blue or yellow, but I don't know how that will look either. I think my next batch I'm going to cook the plastic, stir in the flake, and then start adding the watermelon green, to see if that makes a difference. I may even use straight green instead of watermelon, and then add some black flake, too, but I'm just groping around in the dark. I really have no clue what I'm doing.

I am still having problems getting a watermelon bait with red flake that looks right. Every time I get the watermelon color right, and then add the red flake, I wind up with an almost pumpkin brown bait. I'm using Del's watermelon, and Del's .15 red flake. I add some softener and heat stabilizer, heat the plastic in 1 minute microwave bursts to 340-350, stir in the color, and then add the flake. I reheat to 340 and pour or inject. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what. Help!!

I agree. Every bluegill I've ever caught or seen has a basic green-green pumpkin color, with darker bars and turquoise blue gills. I think green pumpkin, blue and orange flake, with a chartreuse tip is as close as you can get.

Post your location and see if there is an experience pourer near enough to you who'd be willing to let you visit. There's nothing like hands on/first hand instruction.

Nice looking bait! I'd hit it!

You're right, but be careful and go slow. Those KVD hooks will break if you try to tweak them too much.

I like a yellowish bone, with red gills and a chart. feathered tail for first thing, and a clear/silver for once the sun comes up. I use silver flashabou in the tail. Since the bait is seen from below, I think the action is more important than the color scheme. Here's three I posted in the gallery: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?/gallery/image/5484-5-inch-gliderwalkers/

I like them because they let me go to one size larger without hooks getting tangled. But I like round bends for jerkbaits because they get slapped a lot.

I plan to make an opaque white body with large black flake, and use clear skirts with flake for contrast.

I have that HD in the garage. I'll give it a try.

I'll do a test on the back of the mold first, to see if the silicone sticks. The silicone I'm thinking of using is 100% silicone...GE Clearseal.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll stick to a top coat, and see how that works.

I haven't tried it, but it shouldn't ruin the insert or the bait. I'm thinking of trying the nail polish on a lead-weighted hook that I pour into a swimbait mold I have. If and when I do it, I'll let you know how it comes out.

Off the wall idea I haven't tried. Do you think you could fill a top pour swimbait mold using clear or white silicone caulk and a caulking gun, since it is forced out so it should fill all the fins and tail details? I'm sure it would take a while to completely cure, depending on the thickness of the bait, but do you think it would work, and hold up?

Maybe you need to coat your inserts. I have line-thru swimbaits that have inserts which turned white over time. It's the lead oxidizing. Maybe a coat of clear nail polish, or even a topcoat dip, will do the trick.

I kinda figured that, too. I was just hoping that there was a magic plastic out there that would work straight out of the jug.

He fishes other lakes and catches big fish there, too.

I don't know if that little aluminum boat can take much more power. As it is, he can damn near get up on plane!

Me, too.

For me, skirt colors are pretty basic. When I'm mixing and matching my skirt colors, I try and remember that contrast and natural colors are what gets the fish's attention here in SoCal, where our lakes are clear most of the year. For me, it's browns and greens, with purple flake and some chartreuse for contrast. Reds in shallow skirts add a blood hint, too. For deeper jigs I'll use black and purple, because those colors are the ones that show up best at depth. But I keep the accent colors, like chartreuse and red, to a minimum, so they are hints, not main themes. In the late winter and early spring, when the bass first come shallower and are eating crawdads heavily, I'll add a little more red to my brown jigs, but that's the only time.

I know you're right, but the fish just love it!

A cheap swivel that cuts the line makes a drop shot sinker unusable.

Ben's exactly right. We're drying the paint, not heat curing it. Moisture trapped in the paint under the top coat is a sure fire way to top coat failure. And top coat failure will ruin your nicest paint schemes.

I'm guessing you would have to dip it with either the back or belly up, and it would be pretty much the same on both sides. Neat technique, but I won't be doing it any time soon.

The thing that makes the slide swimmer work is the operator, Butch Brown. He is an amazing swimbait fisherman. And he fishes a lot, 200+ days a year. At a seminar he gave at this year's Bass-A-Thon at Anglers Marine, in Anaheim CA, Butch said he fished with the Deps bait until he figured out how to make it work, did some custom alterations to the weighting (I don't have a clue what they are) and got Deps to make some custom paint schemes for his baits, which he sells himself. One of my buddies bought one at this year's Bass-A-Thon (he got there early to get in line for the small number that were being sold) for something like $200, and resold it immediately on Ebay for $300+, so there is a market out there for them. I am not in that market. Butch rebuilt an aluminum boat specifically for fishing the Castaic afterbay, the Lagoon, which is an electric motor only lake. The lagoon is where all of the big bass caught in the upper lake in the '80's were released, and it has no stripers, so there are some big fish in there. His boat has a HUGE electric motor on the back, and he can do better than 5 mph with it, so he can move from spot to spot quickly and efficiently. He is a serious fisherman.