mark poulson

So, as I am home, Covidizing and not venturing out in public, I've reread this thread, and had a thought you guys might be able to help me with. I use PVC trimboard to build my cranks, so they are totally waterproof. In thinking about how to get an erratic movement in my sliding ballast, I am now wondering if I put something like vaseline into the crossways bore for the moving ballast, would it offer enough resistance to get the ballast to move at a different "frequency" than the rate of X ing of the lure? I am definitely going to try it in a test piece to see if it does make the ballast move differntly. Of course, it might just become a lubricant, or freeze the ballast completely, but I won't know until I do a test...tomorrow. I'm fighting allergies, so no more shop work today.

I can't help you with your dipping problem, but those are some really beautiful baits!

I've been using Createx, Folk Art, and Apple Barrel paints for 15 years+-. Transparents, iridescents, and opaques mostly. I recently bought a bottle each of Createx Bloodline Vile Green and Illustration Moss Green for the first time. Wow, what a difference! No thinning, and the colors really pop. And the bottles come with easy to use single drip tops. I'm actually looking forward to doing my next paint job.

I haven't, yet. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks.

I made a turner using a BBQ rotisserie motor and shaft. It came in a replacement kit from a local hardware store. I cut two 12" discs from 3/4" plywood, used the meat holders to hold the discs, and suspended my jointed swimbaits between the discs. I put them on evenly so they would counter balance each other, and I never had a problem. This picture shows my turner:

Sounds like the accountant's moto, "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure." Hahaha

I just tried to cut the lip slot far enough from the nose that it had some material/strength, and then make the lip's tip line up with the nose of the bait. It wasn't scientific. I have made wake baits before, and found that it isn't that critical. On a fast retrieve, most wake baits go sub-surface, so I just went for close. The reason it doesn't wake isn't the lip angle so much as the fact that it sits too low in the water at rest. I made the bait so thin that there isn't enough buoyant material to overcome the amount of ballast I needed to keep it upright on the pause. The next one I make I'll keep it fatter, to try and overcome that, like I do with my rat wake baits.

It might have worked with balsa, but I don't think it would hold up. Even when I've strengthened balsa with super glue, I wouldn't trust it for a jointed bait. I guess I'm just chicken. It would break my heart to have a big bass destroy something I'd made and then swim off! Hahaha I'm going to make another, but leave it thicker so it's more buoyant. That works on the rat wakebaits I make with Azek. I just got carried away with trying to make this bait "sexy", and it came back to bite me.

Congrats. on a great lure! When I made epoxy coated wooden baits I used Etex. It is a decoupage epoxy, designed to move with the large wooden surfaces it is used to cover, like bar tops. It stays somewhat soft and flexible by design D2T is glue epoxy, designed to be very rigid and hard. It is designed to act as a glue between two surfaces, not to coat them. That makes it brittle over large surfaces, and prone to chipping off in big pieces on big lures. If that were my lure, I'd touch up the damaged section with bondo, and then paint to match. I'd scuff up the D2T with fine sandpaper, wipe it down with denatured alcohol, and then I'd put two coats of Etex over the D2T. It won't be perfect, but it should hold up for a while.

Guilty as charged. If they'll eat it, there's no more explosive strike than a big bass trying to kill a topwater lure. My heart just about jumps out of my chest every time, because it's so random. I hope this lure will get blasted, too, since it's only an inch below the surface on the retrieve, and it really active and loud.

I just put a couple of pictures of my latest bait attempt. It failed as a wake bait, but I really like it as a barely sub-surface bait with a lot of action and noise.

Here are a picture of an arkie jig, and one of three chatterbaits (I hope).

You might have better responses if you post this on the Wire Forum.

Beautiful job all the way around.

I'll have to try that. That's the way air is exhaust in a paint booth, and it works. Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up.

Do you thin your paint?

I've found that the only thing that reacts with epoxy, once it's cured, is a hammer.

Beautiful job!