mark poulson

Pete's a genius, and always thinks outside the box. Maybe it's because he's in Australia, and upside down all the time.

Great. I'll call today to see who has it. Thanks.

I am no painting or lure making expert, by any stretch of the imagination, but here are a couple of really basic things I've learned over the years by trial and lots of error. First and foremost, when painting a wood lure, make sure it's sealed completely. Water intrusion will swell the wood, and ruin all your hard work. Do a site search here for sealing wood, and there are tons of threads, which you should take the time to read. Short story long, if you don't seal the wood well, the rest of your work is wasted. Second, heat set each coat of paint well before you spray the next coat. Trapped moisture in poorly set water based paints will return as bubbles under the next coat, and ruin your work. Third, make sure your top coat can expand and contract with the wood. D2T is a glue. It is great for plastic cranks, and really small wood cranks, but it is very rigid, and will fail eventually on larger wood baits. If you've already got a turner, and you want to make big wood baits, think about trying Etex Lite epoxy, or another one of the decoupage type or rod building epoxies, which are designed to flex and move with thermal changes and wood movement. Last, remember this. Your time is the most expensive part of lure making, so don't cheat yourself by cutting corners, and having a lure you've worked hard on fail because you skipped a step, or cheaped out a component. And don't be afraid to fail. That's how we all learn. Good luck, and have fun. That's an order!

I'll go looking for it tomorrow.

MrBass, I want to use bb's so I can enhance the casting weight transfer system at the same time. Dave, What kind of epoxy putty are you talking about?

Thanks Jim. I don't know why, other than internet stupidity, that I couldn't find it myself. That is a great price for the poursol. How does it compare to other plastics in terms of heating and performance?

Do you have a link for the plastic? I've googled it, and found nothing. Never mind. Jim answered me already on another thread.

Dave, Where did you find the plastic? I googled it, but came up empty.

That is a great idea! Is there a temp range that the paint needs to change?

Glenn, Do you know if the factory will sell them direct to us, or if there's a way to buy them?

I ordered 5 more unpainted bodies from Predator Bass. When they get here, I'll try and alter one with my original epoxy method. I want the balls to be able to move in the weight transfer system, not be stationary. I will also try the metal patch. It works for rattles, so I don't see why it wouldn't work for this. If I can't get the additional balls added to the weight transfer addition to work, then I'll just add them to the head, and epoxy them in. But I love the weight transfer idea. It really helps small, light jerkbaits, like the Orbit 80 which weighs 8 grams, to cast really well. Thanks for all the advice. I'll let you know how, or if, I solve the problem.

Here's what Pete wrote: Nemo Blobs Thanks guys again, for the compliments. StoneCoal, it's a bit hard to show how these were painted, as they take a while to paint (I am up to four now). I can tell you though - It is acrylic paint which I water down to about (guessing here) 20/1. The lure has to be pretty flat and held in a vice or something - using a small stick/nail (for bigger lures use a bigger stick) place the thinned color blob on the lure in the shape you want and let it dry. If you move the paint around while drying, you will get overlaps which will be darker shades of the original color.How it works as I am sure you would know, the watered down pigment tends to flow to the edge of the meniscus giving the darker line. Just keep adding colors and turning the lure (when dry) to add colors to top / bottom etc. It will speed up the drying if you use a hair dryer, but be careful as blowing the mix around may give you overlaps/ runs you don't want, then maybe you do, it's pretty random so try anything with it.. If that's not clear enough please ask again and I will try and elaborate. Have fun.pete If I'm reading it right, he uses a stick or nail, not a straw, and places the dots by hand, not by spraying.

Matt, The epoxy worked. Thanks. Bob, I thought about using the same can and hole punch setup I use to cover rattles in baits, but I didn't want a hole that big. Do you try to insert the cut out in the hole, or overlay it? Will a beer can do? I don't have any soda cans handy.

Thanks Dave. That was a great read, and so simple it must be true. The "lift" that the fish's body shape creates makes perfect sense, and the negative pressure created and transfered as thrust to the rear facing rough face of the scales is amazing. Once again, you've made the difficult easy to understand. So now I'm wondering how to exploit the one way scale-type surface to get a unique swimming action for my lures! Maybe a 3d pattern on the rear half of the lure, behind the center bulge, created by some kind of mesh attached to the lure. Something akin to expanded metal lath, which is punched out with all the faces oriented in the same direction, at an angle to the surface it covers, to allow plaster or stucco to bond. Then, again, maybe I'm making it too complicated. Again.

Matt, I was thinking that letting the epoxy, D2T in my case, set up a little before applying it might be the way to go. Glad to hear it works for you. Thanks.

I have bought some unpainted plastic jerkbaits. They have a weight transfer system, but they need additional weighting for how I want them to sit in the water on the pause. I was thinking about putting additional bb's into the weight transfer system to add ballast, and help them cast better, although the one I already tried casts very well. Do you guys know how to patch the plastic if I drill a hole and add some bb's? I keep thinking that the bb's will roll down and get stuck in the epoxy if I just put some on and let it rest on it's back to patch the hole. I've also thought about putting some epoxy on a piece of tape, and then sticking it onto the back, over the hole, but I'm afraid it would drip/run down into the bait. Any suggestions would really be appreciated. Otherwise, I'll go with the suspend dots I used on the first one.

Have you tried speeding the drying process with a hair dryer?

Dave, This is kind of a chicken/egg question. I understand what you said about the vortices traveling down the sides of the bait, and amplifying the swimming action. But we are pulling our baits through the water, and the tails are reacting to the passing vortices. Fish push their bodies through the water with their tails, so it's almost the exact opposite of what we do with our lures. How do the two different modes of travel relate?

Man, you make it look easy!!! Thanks.

I have found that the longer your make the head section in relation to the rest of the sections, the less it will move. I also groove the forehead of the head, like a lipless crank, to add a stabilizing shape.