mark poulson

I'm talking about the topwater lures/wake baits that Allan Cole made back in the early 90's. https://acplugs.com/

Does anyone here know what kind of wood the original A.C. Plugs were made from?

I shoot some PAM cooking spray into the injector between each shoot, and I'm still on the same O rings after 6+ years.

Those are beautiful!

Airbrushed, and then coated with clear nail polish. You'll lose the jig before the paint/nail polish ever fails.

If I really wanted to use the heavier Mustad hook, I'd pivot the hook so the eye is closer to the lead head, even if I wound up with the hook's shank at the bottom of the hook keeper where it enters the head or slightly exposed on the bottom. The bait will hide any exposed hook shank.

I use the Mustad 32786 for my jigs and chatterbaits, and I've never had one open up, either on a fish or on a snag. If hook strength is really important to you, modify your mold one time, and you're all set.

You might try spraying a water-based clear coat over the spray paint, and then try the nail polish.

Barlow's Tackle has a lot of new stuff for crankbait building on sale right now. I just got their email. barlowstackle.com

Beautiful baits!

Does the epoxy crack when the spoon is bent?

Try adding some yellow carpenter's glue to your POP after it's mixed to strengthen it. It will hold details better. 1/2 cup+- in 4 cups of POP.

Salt will make a bass hold a bait longer. Steve Merlo told me that years ago. I've had fish eat a Yamamoto Ika in brush, and they held it so long I was able to lead them out with constant pressure before I actually set the hook.

I think it has to do with the size of the color particle, but I don't know for sure.

I use Rustoleum white paint/primer as well, two coats, twenty minutes apart, and cured overnight. I've never had it bubble. Maybe you still have some solvent from the primer trapped before you paint. I do hit it with my hair dryer as soon as it's lost its wet look, and then again just before I paint it with Createx, to be sure all the solvent is gone.

The only thing I've found that will make water-based paint peel is either trapped moisture that keeps it soft, and caused the clear coat to crack and allow water intrusion, or expansion of a wood lure in the sun, which also cracks the clear coat and allows water intrusion. I haven't had that problem with decoupage epoxy, like Etex, but I've had that problem with glue epoxy top coats, like D2T. I've not had that problem with spray on solvent top coats, but I do dry my paint with a hair dryer between each coat, and again just before I top coat. I use Etex on wooden lures, and Rustoleum 2X Gloss Acrylic on plastic and PVC lures.

This is why I dip my plastic cranks in clean acetone before I paint them. It reveals a new, clean plastic layer, and it clears the bills. It also allows me to paint without a primer, so I can do transparent/translucent paint schemes. The bait in the middle hasn't been dipped yet.

I would start by trying to match a commercial bait that works for you. I read here that you can use mineral oil/worm oil to test you color mixing, before you try to color your plastic. I have never done it, but it sounds like it would work. I think green pumpkin works because most fish and crawdads have that color, or something close, in them. It probably has to do with living in grass or moss. Start out by adding less color. It's easier to darken a color by adding a few more drops than to have add more plastisol to lighten it.

Try skipping the water bath for one batch to see if that is the problem.

Is there salt in the white belly portion?

What about a center section that rotates, so it can be somewhat independent of the lure body, like a mid-lure whopper plopper, but with balanced props?

Try fingernail polish.

Does anyone know it there is a special way to store one of these baits after it's been used, or can you just leave it on the hook/lure?

Thanks Dave. That was a fun video, and a very interesting phenomenon. It certainly got my head spinning. :O) In order to use this idea in a hard bait, I think it would have to have a partially filled liquid interior. Larry Dahlberg once told me that liquid mercury had been used in the past to get a bait to hunt. Or maybe a spinning interior ballast that was just off of the lure's major axes. But I don't know how you would get it to spin without some kind of a motor and power source. I think this is a job for Livingston Lures!

If someone has a family with vulnerable people at home, they might not want to put those family members at risk.