mark poulson

I chimed in with a "me too" too quickly, without reading enough about what was actually going on. I'll take a lot of heat from my fishing friends for saying this, but I think WalMart is being responsible in what they're doing. I grew up in the '50s, in Venice, CA, when the Santa Monica Bay was alive with fish. The bay used to be full of sardines, anchovies, and huge schools of bonita and barricuda, which preyed on the bait fish. I remember when white sea bass were almost trash fish. Then they were overharvested to the point where, without the stocking programs the state instituted, they would have been gone from our waters. Fortunately, both the white sea bass, and the squid they feed on, have made a strong recovery. But commercial fishing, especially with drag nets, and mostly foreign commercial fishing more recently, had decimated our rock fish stocks. It is a shame that, once again, the many have to suffer due to the sins of the few, but closing the sea in coastal areas is the only way to insure the rebound of the fisheries. Quotas and voluntary compliance just haven't worked.

I've seen that with striper boils on freshwater, and with tuna on the salt. It is truly amazing. But the ocean fish are usually over deeper water. Shallow boilers would be insane.

I use coins for curved gills.

Actually, my kids do a pretty good job of laughing at my computer skills. Amazing how fluent they are in all the IT stuff. I hate them all.

Hahaha That only works in the fall, when the acorns are available. The rest of the year they use peanut butter on Ritz crackers.

If you coat the ballast holes in your balsa with the runny kind of crazy glue before you add the ballast, the crazy glue penetrates into the balsa and makes a stronger surface for glue, and epoxy, to hold to.

I'm envious. I used to fish the salt a lot, and the fish in SoCal, like barricuda and sea bass, are a blast. I hear redfish are a kick to catch,too. I bet you need stout hooks for those guys. The closest I've come to that on freshwater is snagging a huge carp with a crankbait by accident. 10 seconds of terror, a bent pole and a screaming drag. Then pop, and all I got back was a huge scale on the treble. I thought for sure he was going to spool me. But it was a gas while it lasted.

When CA first became available, there was no medium viscosity option. I used to use microballs as a filler, and add a drop of the CA over them to harden them. That was probably 30+ years ago, and, if I remember right, the filler was really hard and brittle. I use the gap filling ZAP CA and their accelerator all the time. It works great, and the accelerator lets me work as fast as I want to.

Maybe this is a dumb question, from someone who gets his ice out of the frig, but how about adding a split ring to the hook eye, so you have room for the two "wings" and the line?

I didn't answer before because a jerkbait is one lure I definately would never use a single hook on. I've caught too many fish where the belly treble was in their mouth, and the back treble had snagged them in the gill plate, or somewhere else. I've only had one fish spit a jerkbait that I actually saw, and that was when it came out of the edge of a weedline 10' from my boat, and saw the boat just as it inhaled, and then spit out the jerkbait. I wound up swinging on empty water. I throw jerkbaits along the edge of weeds, so they can pull fish out of the weeds, where I think they wait in ambush. The flash and erratic action of a jerkbait would be kind of lost in the weeds themselves, I think. If you're trying to make a weedless jerkbait, go to a soft jerkbait and Texpose it on a weighted hook.

Blazt, I think there would be room for a small swivel hanger on the belly of a jerkbait, but it would be hard. I do not fill the hole with glue. That would make the swivel sieze up solid. I put just a drop of the gap filling ZAP brand crazy glue (CA) in the hole, use a small piece of wire to dip into the hole and coat the sides of the sem-snug hole with that glue, and then insert the swivel, being careful to keep the bait belly up until the clue sets. I use the ZAP accerrant to set the glue off more quickly. Anglinarcher, Thanks for the feedback on the Spintechs.

Hahaha That much gin would drive anyone to drink!

I have this one, and it works great: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Naked_Bait_JigSpinnerbait_Skirt_Expander/descpage-NBSE.html

Baltz, I guess us SoCal guys, who fish clear, pressured water with lighter line, better stay away from you.

Thanks.

The tech person at Etex told me to let the first coat set for 8hrs.+-, until you can handle it without affecting it, and then apply the second coat. She said there would be no bonding issues, and I've found that to be true.

Rookie, I don't agree with that blanket statement about epoxy. It does yellow over time, but not all epoxies get hard and crack/chip. There are two kinds of epoxies that I've used. One, D2T, is a glue. It's hard, strong, and brittle, because it's designed to hold things together with a thin glue line, not cover large areas. The other kind is Etex, which is a decoupage epoxy. It is designed to expand and contract with the large wooden surfaces it typically covers, like table tops and bar tops. It is softer and more flexible, and isn't good as a glue, because it will creep, as it never fully hardens. I've used D2T on small cranks, and it's held up fine. I've used Etex on larger baits, like jointed swimbaits, and it's held up fine. But I don't use epoxy any more, except as a glue.

Ow!!!!! You made my head hurt! No fair Dave. Next time speak English.

Powder paint is slick, so that is probably the reason. The Createx probably only coats the powder paint, without bonding, and so the epoxy also has nothing to bond to. A question. Why would you bother to powder paint, if you're going to paint over it with Createx? If it's to give a base coat, a rattle can metal primer like Rustoleum would probably give the Createx a better bond. The epoxy is there to protect the paint anyway, so I would think the powder coating is an unnecessary step.

You're a cruel mon, Skinner!

Does it affect the epoxy's strength or setting time?

A creative mind lost, for sure.

I think it's an east of the Mississippi thing. West coast glitter doesn't do that. Probably has something to do with Hollywood.

Properly mixed, Etex should set in 8 hours, and be harder after a couple of days. My guess is the epoxy is too thin, or not there at all, on the part you can scratch. If you are hanging the jigheads by the hookeye to cure, and not rotating them, the Etex is probably flowing down until it's super thin on the hookeye area. I've always had to rotate anything I coated with Etex, because it takes 8 hours+- to set. And I always use at least 2 coats. You might have better luck with D2T. It is more brittle, but it sets faster, so you don't have to rotate the lure/jig as long. If you want to keep using Etex, try double coating the jigheads, and hanging them from the opposite end the second time. Or use a lure turner for 8 hours.