mark poulson

Nathan, Didn't we play around with this stuff to use as a top coat years ago? It rings a bell....

I use 24, and lay the 1" twisted tag end back along the hook to act as a bait keeper.

When I'm making a new-to-me lure, I start by looking at some of the successful commercial baits that are similar, and use them as a starting point. One other thing I would try is taking the tail off completely to see if that helps. The longer the bait, the more stable/less action it will have, because there is more lure body inertia to overcome.

Whose craw is that?

Those look really nice! Good for you!

Bob, if you're thinking of Bojon, he died a while back.

When I used to make jointed swimbaits, I found that the key to keeping them stable at higher retrieve speeds was to make the body taper from top to bottom, creating a V cross section. In my case, my swimbaits tapered from 7/8" at the top/back to 5/8" at the bottom/belly. This kept more buoyancy higher in the lure body, so I could put less ballast into the belly and still get the stable retrieve at higher speeds. I actually started the taper about a third of the way down from the shoulders of the bait, as you can see in this picture" It doesn't look like much, but it worked, so I could burn my swimbaits without them rolling.

I read that reheating to 350-400 for an hour relieves the stresses that the initial heat hardening puts into the hook, or any metal that has been heat hardened. It seems to redistribute the stress more evenly throughout the metal, so it won't break.

I use my Do-It Arky weedless jig mold to pour 1/2oz vibrating jig heads, using Mustad 5/0 60 degree jig hooks, but I found the hook eyes would crack when I tried to open them to insert the chatter blade. So I tried heating my hook eyes red hot with my torch, and that made them soft enough to open by driving an awl into them until I got enough gap to put the chatter blade on. That worked, but the hook eye felt soft and ovaled when I pinched it shut with the blade in place. So I took a batch of the opened eye hooks and put them into my toaster oven for a hour at 350 degrees, the same temp I use to bake my powder coat, to retemper them. When I pinched them closed this time I felt much more resistance, but none broke, so this is another step in my vibrating jig making process. Success!

I've had to turn off my adblock sometimes.

Years ago I had take a lead abatement class in order to keep my contractors license, and they went over many of the same things, but related it to removing lead-based paint in residential construction. Lead paint is a real threat for children. My instructor emphasized that lead dust can also lead to sterility, but I think he was just trying to get the male case to pay attention. It has been 20+ years since I had to worry about this, and things may have changed, but that's how it was in the 90's.

Barry is the Jedi Master of wood baits! I learned a lot of what I know about wood baits from him.

I shape (including ballast holes adding hardware hangers) and seal my baits with penetrating epoxy (epoxy thinned with alcohol), add ballast as needed to get them to suspend, seal the ballast holes, paint, and finish. For me, the paint and topcoat don't effect the suspension enough to worry about.

I've found that decoupage epoxy, like what is used for bar tops, works best for my wooden baits, because it is designed to move with the wood's expansion and contraction. For small plastic baits, Devcon 2 ton, which is a glue epoxy and designed to be rigid, will work, but it cracks on bigger wooden baits.

If you have lead sprue cutters you can just pour the heads with no pins, and the cut small nibs off flush when you're cutting off the sprues. The fish won't care.

Just be sure to keep a log of what you're doing, so you can duplicate it once you've got it solved.

Thanks. Does flat rubber fall more slowly?

Forgive what might be a stupid question (surprise, surprise) but why is flat rubber better than round rubber?

Maybe because it's sub-til! Hahaha

You can use waterproof Sharpies to color them, or to add detail.

Nice!

Please wear some kind of respirator. Lead dust is bad to breathe.

I use clear fingernail polish over my acrylic paint jobs. It is really clear, and tough. I use it on the hook paths on cranks to stop hook rash.

Try Googling ac1315.

Like Tiderunner said, "Just remember to stir well, the stir some more to make sure it's blended in your Cold plastisol. " If you don't you'll wind up with some hard snakes in your plastisol, because unmixed hardener won't dissolve without mixing. I add some heat stabilizer every time I add hardener, 1 tsp per cup of plastisol. That way I never have to worry about discolor when reheating.