mark poulson

I found I was getting inconsistent coloring because I wasn't mixing the color well before I added it.

Hardbaits imitate natural prey, so look at the prey species of baitfish in your waters, and then use that as a guide. Shad are white/silver/black. Perch are white/yellow/green/brown. Bluegill are white/green/brown/blue/red. Depending on what you're trying to match, the combinations are endless. Bear in mind that a bait that swims well and is the right size will get bit much more often than one that looks perfect, but doesn't swim or match the size of the prey. But painting is fun, and I hope you guys have a blast with it. There are beginners sets of Createx paints available from online suppliers like Coast Air who offer them. I think you could start with opaque white and black, and then go to transparents for your other colors, at least to start. Both opaques and transparents are handy, and pearls, too, once you get into shad patterns. Here's the link to Coast. There are lots of others, but I had this one handy: http://www.coastairbrush.com/categories.asp?cat=53 Good luck!

I, for one, seem to learn the most from my mistakes. I once had a boss who made us fix our mistakes on our own time. Every time, he'd say, "School's expensive". He was so right, but I didn't make the same mistake twice.

I'd think you'd have the best chance to save whatever's still usable by adding the Bloxygen, and then skinning off the hardened material, to minimize exposure to the air.

Hahaha Ain't it the truth!

Doh!!! I guess I should actually think about what I read before I write! Hahaha It's easy for me to say, since I'm not the one pouring the baits, but I would pour another lure, and add as much microballon lightener as possible to it without making it weak. Hopefully that will get you a very buoyant lure, and then you can try to ballast it temporarily with egg sinkers on the treble tines to get it to float upright. If it still has trouble, you may have to play with the actual shape of the bait and see if that helps. I hope you don't have to go that far. Your bait is beautiful, just the way it is.

The older I get, the better I was!

I am afraid to try Future, because of the sticky clogging threat, so I use Auto Aire 4011 reducer instead. That way, when (not if) I forget and leave a brush with some paint in it, I know I can clean it with acetone and all is not lost.

He's worked a lifetime to get the sponsors who give him all his "free" stuff. But it must be nice......

vikingbear8, Don't leave us hanging, let us know what you're up to, inquiring minds want to know..... The more I think about your lure, the more convinced I am that it can't be a floater, or you could correct the attitude with ballast, but I'm waiting to hear from you for confirmation. What I'm doing when I drill out the holes and cap them is making air pockets, in effect hollowing out the bait after it's already been shaped. If you use bondo to fill the air pocket holes, you can redo your scale patterns afterwards. In looking at your photo more closely, it looks like your hook hangers, line tie, and hinge screw eyes are a very heavy gauge. I use .91 sst screw eyes on my bigger swimbaits, and .72 on my smaller swimbaits. I mention this because lighter hardware is one way you can lighten your bait without drilling holes in it, but I doubt it will make enough difference. It's just a thought (yes, I do have them, occasionally). Hahaha

Very nice!

Larry Dahlberg is one clever guy. It's always fun to see how he solves problems.

Man Ben, you set the bar high! hahaha First of all, vikingbear8, that is a beautiful lure. I have never poured a resin bait, so I can't speak to microballons. But I agree with the others here that your bait has a ballast problem. Does you bait float with no ballast? If not, you're fighting an uphill battle, because it already has so much weight in the building material that you're going to have to add lots of ballast to overcome that built-in weight. There have been quite a few threads here about trying to make resin baits more buoyant. When I've added too much ballast and want to lighten a bait I drill through holes from side to side high in the back of the bait, cap them with discs cut from aluminum cans to make air chambers, and then seal them with crazy glue and bondo. I have a single hole punch that cuts 5/16" discs, so I drill a very small through pilot hole, then use a 5/16" Forstner bit to drill a 1/16"+- deep counter sink, and then drill a 1/4" though hole from both sides, using the tiny pilot hole to line up the two larger holes. I added all that verbiage because I've had to learn how to fix mistakes, since I make them a bunch! For me, any lure should be upright at rest, whether it's a floater or a sinker, unless you're making a specialty topwater. That makes it much easier to tune. Assuming your lure floats with no ballast added, I'd suggest you do a float test once you have it poured and have added the hooks. Use the tines of the front treble to add 1/8 oz egg sinkers symmetrically until, first, your bait floats upright, and then add more until you get the sink rate you want. And keep the ballast as low as you can. I drill mine up into the belly, so it's actually even with the bottom of the lure, with just a slight dent for bondo to let me reshape the belly after it's added. And keep you ballast in the head if possible. I've found that helps my baits swim horizontal, instead of tail down, since the PVC I use is naturally buoyant and holds the tail section(s) horizontal on the retrieve. They fall slightly head first, but immediately go to horizontal (level) once the retrieve is started. I'm afraid you're going to have to experiment some until you figure it out. Let us know how you do. And maybe someone who pours resin baits can chime in about the microballoons.

Is hard plastisol more dense than soft plastisol? Is soft more buoyant than hard? Does adding softener make plastics more buoyant?

True that! When I'm fishing a crank for the first time, I take along some lead wire, so I can wrap it around the front treble if the lure leans on the retrieve. I add wire until it swims right, then go back to the garage, weigh the lead wire, and add that amount of ballast like Bob said.

Hahaha!!! My next door neighbors had a Packard when I was a kid, and I used to think I could get lost in the back seat, it was so big! A huge tear drop shaped car, and it felt like you were in a cloud when you rode in it, it rode so soft. That car would probably be worth something today, if one of their four boys hadn't wrecked it!

Ben, You're right, of course. I was trying to say that by moving the ballast more or less equally away from the center of gravity, you'd give the front and rear more inertia on the pause, so that, once the lure starts to turn, it would continue more easily. I notice that the gliders on Dieter's Lurebuild site all seem to have their ballast split like that, to some degree. What you say makes sense, that moving it too far toward the ends would make working the bait harder. I guess you'd have to play around to find the spacing that works best for your lure shape and size, just like with any other bait we make.

The thing that's unique about the Deps lure is the soft outer skin, according to Butch. It feels like a real trout when bitten, and it's almost silent, since any contacting surfaces are soft rubber. He said he used to fish Huddlestons, because they were the most natural swimbait out there, but switched to Deps for the soft skin and large S swimming action. What kind of a paint scheme are you trying to achieve? I'm not sure you'll be able to both paint the soft skin and have the foil show through, because the soft skin is already somewhat opaque. At least, that's how it looks in your photos. I know solvent based sharpies would color the skin, but they may bleed. Since the skin is truly rubber, and not the soft plastisol we use for worms, I think, at the risk of messing up your outer skin, you're probably going to have to experiment with different paints to see what works. Just remember, having to touch up the bait after each trip isn't a bad thing, if the paint is coming off because you're getting bit.

I saw that the first glider on one of Dieter's links has ballast in the head and tail, but none in the middle, so, once it turns one way, there is enough momentum to get it to swing the other way on the jerk/pull. A center ballast weight might give it a center of gravity to pivot around, but the 6" Cobbs Glider doesn't have it. http://www.lurebuilding.nl/indexeng.html

Jeff, I'd suggest you post this question on the soft bait forum, and address it specifically to Frank. He is a guru when it comes to painting soft plastics. I know Butch Brown, so I'll ask him if he knows what they use the next time I see him. If I remember....Hahaha CRS strikes again!

I'm guessing they are a topwater, walk-the-dog type lure, so they would be weighted toward the rear, but still float. The larger the lure, the higher in the water you would want the butt to sit, so you don't have to wrench your shoulder to get it up and walking. But even the biggest topwaters, like the old 10"+- Pupfish, need to be tail heavy a little, so just the front 1/3 of the lure is out of the water.

I'm on my way to Pep Boys!

I finally bought his DVD. Why I waited soooo long I have no idea. Kaka por sesos! The man is amazing.

Thanks.

I don't make resin baits, but I do know some micro balloons need to handled carefully, with breathing protection. Don't do it until you've researched it thoroughly.