mark poulson

I think the stuff we're using is for repairs, not for large areas. What makes it so great as a top coat, curing quickly under UV lights, would be a drawback for large areas, unless you work in really low light conditions. I have a couple of dings on the flake on my boat gunwales (tieing up too close to a floating bathroom in the wind) that I have been thinking of trying to fix with silver flake and Solarez. I'll let you know if it works.

No doubt lacquer paints offer a wide variety of colors and advantages in terms of drying time, but, as I have gotten older, I stay away from all sovent based paints, if I can. The fumes from lacquer paints are nasty, and probably toxic. We used to think it was a cheap high when I was a teenager, but the headaches you got from it were ferocious. I worked on construction sites where lacquer was sprayed without protection, before the AQMD or EPA, or whoever, outlawed using them without a controlled spray booth. We also used solvent based contact cement to adhere plywood paneling to drywall in office buildings and homes, back in the day. The fumes got so bad we had to go outside to sober up, and let the rooms vent, before we continued. Use an activated charcoal filter respirator mask, store it in a sealed plastic bag so the charcoal doesn't keep absorbing stuff from the surrounding air, and change the filters often. They are no good once the charcoal has absorbed it's limit. Whatever you decide to do, be careful. Once your lungs have been damaged, you're screwed for life.

John, I'm sorry, but I don't have a picture to post. The bait came out 2 1/4" long, 1" wide at the tail, and 3/4" tall at the tail. It weighs 17 grams with a #4 belly treble, and a #6 feathered treble on the tail. The bottom is flat. The bait tapers from around midpoint to almost a point at the nose, and tapers down from the same point in a curve to the nose point almost at the bottom. I didn't weight it, other than the twist wire hook hangers and line tie, and the trebles and split rings. It casts like a bullet, so I will just play around with the lure shape instead of adding ballast. I purposely didn't put a diving bill on it, to see how it swam without one. I put bills on my other mice, to get more side to side action out of them, and they do dive on a med. to fast retrieve. I made them out of pine, and they pop back up like a cork. I also made them with plastic worm for a tail, and just a belly hook. The PVC trimboard I used this time is just as buoyant as the pine, and I think the feathered treble lets the new mouse move a lot more freely side to side, so it doesn't need a bill, except to get it to dive. I would never have thought of using long feathers like that if it hadn't been for you balsa fly. This mouse moves like a combo jerk bait and a Spook. I retrieved it with an erratic, jerky Spook retrieve, and it darted and turned tightly. On a faster retrieve I had to work hard to throw enough slack back on each jerk to keep up the Spook retrieve. Otherwise, it has a tendency to just chug forward like a frog on a fast retrieve. I am going to keep it like it is until I've had a chance to throw it in warmer weather, when I would normally throw a Spook. I think it will get slammed. I'll probably make a couple of different versions. One of the will have a concave belly like you suggested. That would probably get the nose to dive by itself. I have Sat. and Sunday off, so I'll probably make a couple of different versions. Thanks again for the inspiration.

If you're asking me, I'm totally clueless.

Here's a picture of it: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Reaction_Innovations_Sweet_Beaver_420_10pk/descpage-RISB.html#multiview It looks like a dark watermelon or green pumpkin/red flake to me, with more red flake on the belly.

I drip like Anglinarcher. I hold the lure over the jug and let the excess drip back to the jug until it slows to an occasional drip, then hang it and let it finish dripping. Finally, I pinch off the bottom drip with a paper towel, blow through the belly hanger to clear the resin out of it, pinch off the bottom drip with the paper towel one more time, check it one more time for obvious problems, and hang it in the UV light. I put the lure in the nail light box for 30 seconds, lift and turn it 180 degrees (another 10 seconds) and put in back in for another 30 seconds. I repeat this until it's been exposed a full three minutes, but, after two minutes, it's already pretty hard. I get totally clear finishes, so far.

I'm with you, Bob. Solarez works, and isn't that expensive, when you figure out how many cranks you can coat with one jug. I'm guessing 100+. It's like glue in woodworking. It's the cheapest part of furniture, when you consider how far a gallon goes, but one of the most important in terms of making things that last.

John, I have a mouse hanging in the garage. I made it, painted it, and coated it today. You gotta love PVC, Createx, and Solarez. I'm going to take it out for a test swim tomorrow. I didn't put in a bill, which I normally do with my mice, because I want to work it with the erratic twitching you had in your video. We'll see how it works with a triple white hackle feather treble on the rear, and a treble on the belly, too. I'll post the results.

Nathan, Does the sheep fur hold more water than feathers, and make it heavier and more difficult to cast?

The reason older POP mixes and sets up weird is that it is constantly pulling moisture out of the air when it's stored, like activated charcoal filters, so it's important to store it in a sealed container.

I hang my brush with the nozzle and cup in the water of my cleaning tuperware between colors, so I can dry the lure's paint, and then clean the brush without the tip drying out.

Ben, My soon-to-be 18 year old daughter read that, and said, "I guess they know you dad". Did I mention that her car insurance will be canceled, and her keys revoked? Hahaha

Cadman, That's called the Hook. Hahaha

One thing that really helped me to pour consistently was buying a digital thermometer, so I can tell how hot my plastic really was. If you keep it between 340 and 350, you do fine. And don't forget to stir it before you take it's temp. The surface is always colder than the plastic in the middle.

Bass100 was the guy who first suggested using Solarez. He gets my vote for MVB (Most Valuable Builder) for 2012!

How can people spend so much time and money worrying about animals when so many people are in need?

John, I thought it looked like a mouse in the water, but I wasn't sure that was your intent, and I didn't want to open my mouth and put my foot in it! Where do you get your marabou? Mark

Try spraying your molds with PAM cooking spray. You may have cleaned them too well, and opened up the aluminum faces a little.

John and Ben, That's exactly where I'm starting. Thanks for the inspiration! When I saw your fly, my first thought was it was a hollow plastic frog. I think a pointed, thinner head will be less buoyant, and the weight of the line tie will pull the nose down, too. A sloped head will get it started down on the pull. I'm just wondering how to get that great erratic action. Normally, I weight walking baits just behind the center of the bait, so they're slightly tail heavy. The smaller the bait, the more tail down I want them to sit at rest. But I want my AJLures fly lookalike to sit almost flat at rest, so the feathered tail has a chance to fan out. Maybe I'll have to go to a single hook, too, or not even have a tail hook, just one in the belly. Decisions, decisions......Hahaha

Man, that sucks. Maybe it's some kind of filter Jerry had to put in to filter out all the Ebombs that were attacking the site.

With the AZEK trimboard and decking I use, I find I need to put a seal coat of runny super glue on after I sand, but before I paint, or I get little bubbles in some of the painted areas from the PVC off gassing. It is annoying when that happens. I know there's no grain in the material, but I think something in the way it's extruded that aligns stuff along the long dimension, because I notice the bubbling where end grain would be exposed if it were wood. Then again, ever since I quit drinking, I notice a lot of weird stuff that wasn't there before. Hahaha

love how the site works now. What a pleasure! It's like how good your finger feels when you finally get that splinter out. Thanks again Jerry.

Thanks for posting the link. I already signed the petition.

You're right, it isn't important what it's made out of, what's important is that it is a great bait building material.

Really nice fish! I'm guessing your leader is fluorocarbon, so it is probably pulling the fly down on the twitch/pull. I would probably make a semi-popper with the same marabou tied to the rear treble, and use a fluorocarbon leader instead of mono, so it lies horizontal at rest, and pulls under on the twitch/pause. Play around with the shape of the nose to get it to have a similar action. You can make a smaller lure out of PVC that will be heavy enough to cast and still be buoyant. With wood, it might be harder. I've found that 5/16 ounce is about the limit of castability for a crank with a baitcaster for me. You might even fool around with a small bill to get it to dive a little, like a small wake bait. I think the marabou is the key. It looks alive at rest.