mark poulson

Cadman, My Do-It football mold takes a 32746BLN hook. I'd like a longer Mustad hook, like a shakey head hook, because I fish a lot of hula grubs, and I want the hook down near the claws. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

+1 A speedy recovery, for sure.

So how do you do it? I find that black doesn't bleed for me, but red does. I don't pour enough to really know any more than that, so I'd appreciate any help you can give.

I'm also sorry you lost your mom. She'll live forever in your memory. Cherish that.

No deep fried turkey this year, so no chicharones from turkey skin. The good news is that my three youngest are home for the holiday. All it takes is free food and drink, and a crash pad, and they seem to decend like a flock of cormorants.

Fingers crossed.

Glad to see they work. The less active swimming action should be good as a twitch bait for cold water, and the other for warmer water, when the fish are more active. The weight shifting systems look like they are a success. Congratulations.

Congrats! Just my luck, another job I missed out on. Hahaha I guess I'm just too old for the job.

Will turkey skin work like pork rinds?

Are you doing auditions for your next avatar?

I know you're right. I'm just thinking cheap.

Get well fast!

I hope everyone here has a good turkey day.

Dieter is the TU Metal Meister. Take a look at some of the spoons and metal lures he makes. Vodkaman is the resident TU Plug Engineer, vortexually speaking.

Thanks. I'll give that a try. Maybe with paper clips.

Bass are visual hunters, and I think they see color to help them differentiate between things in their environment. I figure bass see red, because their eyes fire up red during the spawn, and that must be to tell other bass they're horney. All their body colors intensify during the spawn, giving them more contrast, and making them more visible to each other. If they couldn't see color, why would they go to the trouble. I figure bass see color because they will hit a crank with a green back, but ignore the same crank in a different color, and it varies from day to day. I figure bass see purple deeper, because a jig with brown and purple, or black and purple, will get bit a lot more in 25' than a green one. I see flash, so I figure they do, too. Bass are predators, so they have to be able to hunt, and the flash a baitfish gives off is what they key on. A stunned baitfish turns differently than the rest of the school, and the different flash it gives off makes it stand out. I add clear nail polish with glitter in it to shallow running baits, and have gotten bitten when my partner, throwing the same bait without the glitter, has been skunked. When he switched to the glitter, wham. So the flash of the glitter makes a difference. That color link is great. It's on my favorites list now. Thanks.

I would use a thin dipped coating, like a urethane, and not worry about the coating inside the joints. After each dipping coat dries, work the segments free, clean out any dangling top coat with an exacto knife and tweezers, and then dip again. An auto clear might work, too, but I've never used one, so I don't know. The main thing is not to add so much weight with your top coat that you change the buoyancy, or the action, of the lure. The advantage of plastic lures is that the top coat doesn't have to provide any waterproofing protection for the lure body, only for the paint job.

So how'd things go at the dentist?

Every piece of wood is different, including balsa, so you're probably better off with a system to determine how much ballast weight each crank of a particular "identical" batch will need, and use that for those lures. I only use balsa when I want a really buoyant lure, because it's buoyancy really makes lures lively, and is what sets it apart from other woods and materials. If you want a lure that sinks, there are lots of other woods that are easier to work and denser, so they require less ballast. Pine, fir, and poplar come to mind as woods that are readily available, and heavier than balsa, but still workable and buoyant enough for lures. I've found that any lure needs buoyancy, so I can add ballast to the belly and still have it sit upright, even on suspending or sinking lures. Whenever I make a new lure, I add the hardware and hooks, and then float test it to determine how much ballast I need to get it to sit like I want it to sit in the water. I add split shot or egg sinkers to the tines of the trebles until the lure looks right. On cranks, I ignore the weight of my Createx/urethane paint and topcoat. On swimbaits, I figure the whole paint/top coat scheme weighs 2-3 grams, and allow for that in the ballasting. Once I've determined how much a particular bait needs, I use that as a guide for the rest of that shape and size I make. But only as a guide. I've made batches of six swimbaits, all hand shaped, and they vary by as much as three grams in their weight before hardware, so each one has to be float tested to determine how much ballast it needs. And I'm using PVC, which is uniform in density. Wood varies more. The only truly consistent lure bodies are injection molded plastic, and even they can have slight variations. I've made peace with that, and actually enjoy the part of the process where I determine the ballast each lure needs. Sorry to be long winded, but you asked, and this is how I do it.

Jig Man, Do you have a source I can check out?

That finally dawned on me, too. Doh!!!! I bought a 3/8 oz, 7 cavity Do-It mold from Barlows, and some 2/0 hooks for it. I figure I can modify the Do-It 3/8 oz football jig mold if I need to, to accept a different, longer hook. And I think the single barb will hold fine on the one I bought. If not, I'll wrap some heavy mono or braid onto the shank after I take them out of the mold, anchored by crazy glue, to give it some bulk and texture, and that should work. You gotta wonder how many days it would have taken to make the world if crazy glue and duct tape had come on the first day. Thanks for all the help. You guys are the best.

I'm sorry to hear about your truck, but it sounds like you're okay, so that's a good thing. Sounds like fog is as disorienting for deer as it is for people. Glad you're okay. I wondered if a settling box, with the inlet for the exhaust fumes existing below the filter level, and the outlet for the air above it, would help. I made that kind of thing for my garage dust collector, and it works great.

Gloomisman, One of the reasons I like the double collar keeper is that I can change grubs fast when one gets torn up. Having to glue them on is tough when you're fishing in rain and wind, like yesterday. And I haven't found a football head mold that takes a longer hook, like the shakey head mold. But I'm open to any suggestions, except the ones my kids have already made!

I don't sell, I only pour for me, and I go through a ton of football head jigs fishing hula grubs.. So I've been looking online for a jig mold to pour 3/8oz football heads, with a double ring bait holder and longer hook capacity. The closest I've found is a shaky head multi cavity mold from Do-It: http://do-itmolds.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=1_7_234 It is a ball head mold, and I am wondering if there is enough metal on the sides of the mold to deepen the cavities into the football shape. Anyone here have any advice? I am open to other jig molds/manufs., but this one is the closest to the shape/size I've found so far. Thanks in advance, Mark