mark poulson

Check out Jeep's thread about 15 down from this one. He asked a similar question.

My sister-in-law just emailed me that the quilted foil restaurants use is available at Smart and Final, and also Home Depot. I'll check it out and get back to you.

Brian's right. I've used one for years, both at home and on the jobsite. Uses 4X24 belts, which are readily available anywhere, and standard spindle sleeves. I use it for rough and finish sanding lure blanks, before any carving and final sanding, and it is great. I did hook it up to my dust collector. It puts out a lot of sanding dust, but that's because it really works. I think a dust collector, or at least a shop vac, is a must. It has a port in the back for a dust connection. And wear cheap dust masks. The amount of fine dust that doesn't get sucked up is incredible, even with a collector.

Done. Thanks.

Have you tried the Minwax Wood Hardner for reinforcing the wood before you epoxy? It is a penetrating resin that actually makes rotten wood stronger, so it should work for sound wood, too. If I were making balsa or cedar/redwood lures, I'd try it. Let me know if it works. I have stacks of redwood in storage next to my garage left over from jobs. I use it for a sealer on some of my wood baits, mostly pine and poplar, and it works great. It doesn't have the body of their polyacrylic, so you still have to put on another product as a pre-paint sanding coat. Bu I like that it is watery and penetrates. I apply it with a Q tip, and it runs all the way through my hinge pin holes, so I don't have to worry about water intrusion there. I'm confident that any lure I make and treat with it will be waterproof, no matter what.

Is it a Nu Lustre product?

Ouch!

Any bass lure will work for coastal bass. Here in Southern California, we have calico bass, sand bass, and several other smaller inshore, kelp loving bass that are accessible from a small boat. Typically, you have to upgrade the hooks and split rings, both for strength, and to make them more salt water corrosion resistant. I've out caught my buddies, who were using live bait, throwing jig heads with plastic thumper tails. I used my heavier freshwater bass rod and reel, with 17lb mono, and had no problems. There is also a successful Salt Water Bass club that holds tourneys here, and they are mostly fresh wate bass guys who also fish the salt, and use their freshwater stuff for the saltwater bass. Spinnerbaits are great in the kelp. So are the plastic swimbait with a lead head embedded. All manner of wooden and hard plastic swimbaits work, too, but it's kind of a waste of good lures when cheaper stuff works just as well. If you're wanting to make your own, start with surface gliders to get a feel for the skills you need, from carving to wood/hardware choices to finishing/painting skills. There's lots to read on this site that will help. Use the search option to find gliders, wood lures, and almost anything else you might need an answer for. Good luck. And remember you always need a weak link in the kelp, in case you hook something too big to handle. I've had to cut big thresher sharks off, or risk losing my rig. My friend set the hook on a grey whale that was feeding in the kelp. It was all he could do to cut the line before he got dragged out to sea!

Snax, I ran into the same obstacles when I tried different hinges. If the wood came out with the screw eye epoxy, then the glue is strong enough, but the wood isn't. I don't use cedar, or redwood, for that reason. I tried ovaling the hole in the wood to give it a bigger glue ball anchor, but, in the end, I found it too hard to align the eyes correctly in the epoxy. That's why I went to the screw eye/hinge pin method. I can adjust the sst screw eyes on each hinge to get the spacing and joint movement I want, and then glue them in, one at a time, so I have the other one still set to use as a depth guage. And, in the event I misjudge one, I can still unscrew it and readjust it. The screw eyes will unscrew if they're sst, but they won't pull out. JR Hopkins had perfected a hinge system using kevlar threads. He uses polyurethane foam, laminated, and places the threads in the open halves before he glues them, but I don't know any more about it than that. You might want to give him a call. And I just saw the lure picture you posted. I still hate you!

Mystery solved! The worm is an old 3" Lunker City ribbon tail (their hydro tail) that's not made any more. Old CRS, aka my fishing partner, finally remembered. I went on their website, and found what I think is the color, #54, which they call Olive pepper, but I can't be positive without buying a bag, which I will in their 4" worm. The color is clear, with a green tinge, black flake, and what my partner swears is a hint of copper superfine glitter. I think it's red, but what do I know? It's so subtle you have to hold the worm just right to see it at all! The bottom line is a worm that's thin, and almost completely transparent, so the flake and glitter is all the fish sees in the water. And, if you dip the tail in chartruese, it's killer in both clear and off color water.

Snax, I just finished my second, third, and fourth lures with the new 55, and it performed great. I mixed up 4+ grams of it, one to one, and let it sit while I did a little D2T work on the spring tail holder on the two rat baits I made, and then coated all three baits on my wheel. It was easy to brush on, and no bubbles. It went on at 1:00 Saturday afternoon, and was set enough to fish with at 5:00 the next morning. I'm curious. How much working time do you have with a two to one mix? Also, can you buy the hardner separately, because, obviously, you're using it up twice as fast?

Thanks Bob. I guess I didn't look deeply enough into the site the first time.

Longhorn, Thanks for the picture. It shows me the worms are not Rattlesnake. When I saw the package, I realized I still have some of those in my garage. Patrick, Thanks for following up for me, but Rattlesnake isn't the brand. I'll get one, if I can, tomorrow, and take a picture and post it, so you guys can see what I mean. This is truly a different worm.

BobP, What heading in the index did you find the BriteBak foil under. I went to that website, and thought I opened and read everything, but only found Venture foil in narrow strip rolls.

Thanks longhorn. That fits with the time frame when my buddy remembers he bought them. I'll check with him tomorrow.

As a general rule, I also take word of mouth over ads. However, this guy has gone on "national" T.V. with his claims, so, if it does yellow, he'll either have to replace the product, refund the money, or be out of business pretty quickly.

River jigin and David, That's really generous of both of you. The worms are my partner's, and he doesn't remember who made them. He's been bass fishing a long time, so he's used a lot of plastics. I showed one to another couple of friends, old time bass guys, and they both thought it was an old Culprit worm. The beaded body is about two inches long, and no more than 3/16" in diameter. Overall, it's about 4"-4 1/2", depending on how much you pull the ribbon tail. The plastic is clear, with black flake, and it has a kind of an amber tinge to it. Very transparent. If I can bum one from him Sunday, I'll send it to you David. I'm not sure he still has any left. I had one left in the boat, with most of the tail gone, so I wacky rigged it on a homemade weighted siwash hook jig, and caught a 2lber. on it in 25' of water. Just sucked it up off the bottom.

captsully18ataoldotcom

Downriver, Is it possible to have a UV activated epoxy with UV inhibiters? Seems like the UV inhibiters would prevent the UV light from penetrating and curing the epoxy.

LaPala, The guy on the video on the website says the Core material doesn't yellow. It seems expensive for the amounts I would use for a lure. I also wonder if it wouldn't be difficult to get a smooth coating over a large area. Coating a fly is a little different since the area you're coating is so small, and there is a matrix, the fibers of the fly, to hold the material in place while you shape it. It looks like the system is perfect for the kind of flies he is tying.

Dieter, Did you thru-wire the jointed lure? I have a jointed flatfish in my garage somewhere. I'll try and find it today.