mark poulson

Have a great trip!

If I were you I wouldn't bother with the powder coating. The bare heads slide in just fine with a little lube, like worm oil or smelly jelly.

I'm pretty sure you'd think of something! Hahaha

Good for you. Those look really good. If it were me, I would concentrate on getting the glide action like I want it first. The carving/detailing and the paint scheme are for the fishermen. They're fun to do, but very secondary to the actual action of the bait. That's what catches the fish.

If you find a 3/4 oz Arky jig mold that has a vert. eye hook slot you can use a dremel ro a drill press to modify it to take a flat eye. I do the reverse and it's easy.

If you want to add hardener, mix it well into your cold plastic before you heat it, or all you'll wind up with is hard lumps.

From my experience with Solarez UV resin, I think any UV resin would add weight that would affect the side to side fall of a casting spoon.

Sorry, I don't know of any, but I'm sure they're out there. Most local lumber yards get samples of new products. See if they'll let you float test those to see which one is most buoyant. You can do it in a tupperware container full of their water.

They used to be a common thing at arcades, carnivals, and theme parks, after WW2.

Well done and congratulations!!!

Sorry, but all the baits I've made have been painted and finished. If you look at my gallery photos there are some photos on the first couple of pages of pictures there are some baits I made that haven't been painted yet: https://www.tackleunderground.com/community/profile/14932-mark-poulson/content/?type=gallery_image

Tiderunner said, "Make sure your injectors have locking nozzles." He's right.

For your first question, I use two ways to increase buoyancy. First, I increase buoyancy by drill holes in the top/back of my baits, and gluing discs from aluminum cans over them, to trap air inside and I cover the discs with a thin coat of bondo, so I can sand the bondo down to follow the bait's contours. When I'm done sanding/shaping, I add a drop or two of runny super glue to strengthen the bondo disc patch area. Second, I actually use the natural buoyancy of the bait's material, because I use either wood or PVC trim board to make my baits from. I shape my baits with a V cross section, like the cross section of a battleship, so there is more buoyant material higher in the bait. That way I can add less ballast and still get a stable bait that is lighter and more active. Plus that shape keeps the bait from rolling or blowing out on a fast retrieve. As to the second question, I've found that the wider the body and the wider the bill, the wider and more exaggerated the wobble. The reverse is also the case. A flatter sided body and narrower bill will have less wobble. That's why most commercial flat sided cranks also have narrower bills. As far as how modifying your bait will affect it, every bait is different. When I modify a bait, I do it one thing at a time, so I can see what works, and know that I will ruin some bait in the process. I also use unpainted cheap knockoff blanks to do my experimenting on, so I'm not out a lot of money if they get ruined. I hope this helps.

I did something similar back in the '70s and my first two boys wore the trout out with them.

I would replace it. They are cheap.

The reports of my death have been exaggerated, but just barely. Welcome back.

Nathan, Didn't we play around with this stuff to use as a top coat years ago? It rings a bell....

I use 24, and lay the 1" twisted tag end back along the hook to act as a bait keeper.

When I'm making a new-to-me lure, I start by looking at some of the successful commercial baits that are similar, and use them as a starting point. One other thing I would try is taking the tail off completely to see if that helps. The longer the bait, the more stable/less action it will have, because there is more lure body inertia to overcome.

Whose craw is that?

Those look really nice! Good for you!

Bob, if you're thinking of Bojon, he died a while back.

When I used to make jointed swimbaits, I found that the key to keeping them stable at higher retrieve speeds was to make the body taper from top to bottom, creating a V cross section. In my case, my swimbaits tapered from 7/8" at the top/back to 5/8" at the bottom/belly. This kept more buoyancy higher in the lure body, so I could put less ballast into the belly and still get the stable retrieve at higher speeds. I actually started the taper about a third of the way down from the shoulders of the bait, as you can see in this picture" It doesn't look like much, but it worked, so I could burn my swimbaits without them rolling.

I read that reheating to 350-400 for an hour relieves the stresses that the initial heat hardening puts into the hook, or any metal that has been heat hardened. It seems to redistribute the stress more evenly throughout the metal, so it won't break.

I use my Do-It Arky weedless jig mold to pour 1/2oz vibrating jig heads, using Mustad 5/0 60 degree jig hooks, but I found the hook eyes would crack when I tried to open them to insert the chatter blade. So I tried heating my hook eyes red hot with my torch, and that made them soft enough to open by driving an awl into them until I got enough gap to put the chatter blade on. That worked, but the hook eye felt soft and ovaled when I pinched it shut with the blade in place. So I took a batch of the opened eye hooks and put them into my toaster oven for a hour at 350 degrees, the same temp I use to bake my powder coat, to retemper them. When I pinched them closed this time I felt much more resistance, but none broke, so this is another step in my vibrating jig making process. Success!