mark poulson

Alex, That's the way to tackle a problem head on. My sister-n-law is a food consultant, who will know how to get that stuff. I'll let you know what I find out.

I make wooden lures in very small quantities, so I'd vote #2. If I were a production shop, I'd vote #1. Question. Why the 10/4 mix?

Dan, One of the early selling points of water cured urethane floor finishes was that they don't yellow over time, so they keep the light woods, like maple, light. My floor guy uses "Traffic". It's a brand. Not sure of the spelling. He says it holds up the best on residential and commercial floors.

In the past, on my wooden swim baits, I've used D2T, which chips off wood lures, and Etex, which I love, but it yellows if the lure is in the sun all day. I've just started using Nu Lustre 55 epoxy on my wood swimbaits. It has UV inhibitors, which are supposed to stop the yellowing that drives me nuts, after I've spent so long coming up with a paint scheme I like. For balsa cranks, I used Etex, and will now use the Nu Lustre 55, over Createx. If I'm repainting a plastic crank, I use D2T over Createx. It is harder than the other epoxies, and holds up well on plastic baits. If I'm touching up a jerkbait, or adding glitter to a lure, I use cheap $.99 NYC nail polish, which, I think, is similar to vinyl lure paint. It comes in clear, too, and each bottle has it's own brush. To touch up gashes on the water, I use brush-on super glue. I just make sure the lure is dry first, and let it set for 15 minutes or so after I apply the glue, to avoid the chalky white that forms when the glue gets wet before it sets.

And....... If you paint Jamie's bell sinkers red, you'd have the best of both worlds.

David, If those rigs are used for trolling, would they work with a floating crank attached?

I haven't used a respirator in years, since I stopped spraying lacquers and polyurethane. My old mask had activated charcoal filters. So I'm not up to date on today's masks, and can't make any specific recommendations about cartridges. Someone already recommended the 6001 cartridge in an earlier post on this thread. Whichever one you choose, be sure to store the mask in a good plastic bag when you're not using it, or the cartridges will continue to filter the air around them, and wear out more quickly.

Dieter, Rubber core sinkers are elongated egg sinkers, with a large hole down the middle, and a smaller slot all along one side, from top to bottom. The idea of rubber core sinkers is that the line is laid into the slot that runs from one end of the lead to the other. Already in the slot is a piece of flat rubber with two round ends like tabs, that is a snug fit into the hole in the sinker, but too big to fit through the narrower slot unless it is pulled from both ends to stretch it. When the line is laid onto the rubber in the slot, first one end of the rubber is pulled and twisted to get the line trapped into the hole in the lead, and then the other, so that the line winds up behind the rubber in the hole. Usually, that is enough pressure to hold the line where you want it, and the line isn't pinched by anything hard. If you look at the picture in Cabela's again, maybe it will make more sense now.

Great minds think alike.

Dieter, I think what you want are rubber core lead sinkers that you can twist onto your line. They come in all weights, and I know Cabela's sells them. They've been around for as long as I have been fishing, over 50 years now, and I'm sure they're available in Europe. If not, PM me.

bassin dave, I finally figured out where the video was, and watched it. That booth is slick as snot! The guy said he used a 1000cfm furnace blower, and two 4"/4' long spiral ducts so that enough air was being moved to insure that the airstream was diluted far below the explosion level. He certainly sounds like he has done his homework, and putting that video online makes him responsible if someone copies him and has a problem, so I don't think he was "blowing smoke" when he said it was safe. While I don't know what the safe level is, his basic point is to have way more air flow than you need just to catch overspray, in order to insure that there's no danger of a solvent buildup. I'm not sure you can go smaller than what he made and achieve that. If you're painting water based paints, you can use a couple of box fans, with washable hvac filters in front of them, set at right angles behind your work piece, like Downriver (I think) uses. That will more than catch the overspray. And you can wash the filters in hot water and soap periodically to remove the dried airbrush paint. If you're using solvent based paints with that setup, there might be a danger that the overspray will build up on the filters and become a problem. At a minimum, you would have to use disposable air filers, and there is still the posibility it could be dangerous, due to the open motor design of the box fan. But it's not a sealed system, so there would probably be enough dilution of the fumes to make it safe. However, it doesn't remove the dangerous-to-breat fumes from the air, so that system, if used with solvent based paints, should be used in an open garage or shop, with the fans near the door blowing out. In view of the liability issue, that homeowners or renters insurance won't cover a fire that results from a home built system that isn't UL approved, I'd think twice about any sealed system in my basement or garage. I use two 1000cfm fans in my garage sawdust collector system, because sawdust is heavy, and it takes a lot of air speed to move it up 8' and over 20' he blower/collector location. These fans were designed to move air through a 10" diameter duct, so two of them drawing air from an 8" pipe that reduces down to 4" at each of my locations means a lot higher air speed, which I need. If I were following his advice to build a paint booth, I'd only use one, and have the two 4' sections of 4" duct to actually allow the suspended paint particle to precipitate out in the duct on the way to the fan. That's the opposite of what I wanted for my dust collector, which needed to keep the sawdust in suspension until it reached the collector, a 30 gallon plastic trash can below my fan/filter assembly.

Jamie's idea gave me an idea. I've use front runners with top waters, little lures with line ties at fore and aft, and a small treble in the belly, tied six inches in front of a walking surface bait, to simulate a fleeing prey species. I bet you could fashiong a weighted spoon to put just in front of your deep diving swim bait, to get it to stay deeper, and at the same time add some flash, like a fleeing prey species, to catch the attention of Mr. Pike.

Dieter, I remember the pictures of the lakes and rivers you fish, and I can see how point fishing isn't really an option for you. I work lures more slowly as they get deeper. Realistic features aren't as important when it's deep and dark, but a predator will find a slow, easy meal. I am guessing pike are no exception. Since the lakes I fish have rocky bottoms, I'm not as worried about snagging my lures in deep brush, so, if they get stuck because I'm working them deep and slow, I drive the boat over the spot and pull from the other direction, and they usually come loose. The one lake that has lots of big fish, and lots of brush, Lake Casitas in Ojai, CA, has been on a restricted access regime to "protect" it's water infrastructure since the Quagga Mussel was discovered in some of the other SoCal lakes. The lake is, first and foremost, the major drinking water supply for Ventura, so the water board decided it was better to err on the side of caution. But, if I were in their shoes, I might have made the same choice. Since I would have to take my boat there to be inspected, and then not fish for a ten day quarantine period before I actually would be allowed on the lake, I don't go there anymore. Best swimbait lake in SoCal, by far.

philB, Gorilla glue foams, too. In my experience with it, the glue takes a while after it's foamed before it's hard. I'm sure different brands have different characteristics. Gorilla glue is the only brand I've used.

Sonny, it sounds like you're talking about triple grip hooks, which have the hook point turned back toward the shank a little. I use them as the rear hook on my cranks, and love how hard it is for fish to throw them. I don't use them on my swimbaits. I use Owner stinger trebles, because they are strong, short shank, and have a round bend, which I think gets fish that slap at a lure, which happens a lot with swimbaits. I think even the triple grips will cause hook rash. When they swing, they still rub against the finish of the lure. I think its as much the constant back and forth rubbing as it is the actual hook points that causes most hook rash. But there's no doubt that hook points are a lot more aggressive in digging into a finish.

Glad you guys can get along. I've seen other forums go up in smoke from online flaming sessions. Not a pretty thing, for sure. The fans I use for my dust collector are side mount remote ventilators that I got off a job. The motors are totally isolated from the fan chambers. It was fun to build the system, but it was a chore, and, in the end, is good for the sawdust, but I wouldn't trust it for anything else. I'm constantly worried, when I accidentally sand something with iron in it, and the sparks fly, that the sawdust might ignite. I remember all too well the silo explosions that were common when I was a kid. Those were dust explosions, set off by the static electricity generated when dry grain was off loaded from a rail car into a silo. There is safety equipment to prevent that now, but dust is nothing to take for granted. Paint solvent fumes can go off like a bomb. It's really important to make sure whatever you use is designed for that use. Gerryrigged systems, while ingenious, can be dangerous because of what we don't know. Sorry to be so long winded. I've just seen some weird things happen when something was supposed to be "totally safe".

Alex, I'm not sure a photo will show it. I take a radiused file, like a rat tail file, and file a slight groove along the top of the head. Then I use a more gentle round file to widen the groove, so the forehead of the lure is concave. I got the idea from lipless crankbaits made by Yozuri, which have their foreheads kind of scooped out like this. I guessed it was to help the lure dive faster. So I did it on my swimbaits. I'll look for one that has a pronounced groove, and, if I find one, I'll take a pic. No promises.

I use gorilla glue to laminate some of my lure bodies, and it has no effect on the sealer, paint, or top coat. I leave it clamped for at least an hour, or until it's hard enough to sand.

Dieter, Almost all wood swimbaits will rise if you retrieve them fast, even deep runners. Without a bill, a slow retrieve is what is required for a deep running swimbait. I try to counter the rise by putting a shallow groove on the head of my lures, between the eye tie and the top of the head, like some rattle trap lures have. The more weight you add, the faster you can retrieve it without having it rise. I've found even the best store bought swimbaits, at least the wood or hard plastic ones, have the same characteristic. I have a Matt Newman swimbait, 11" trout, that has adjustable ballast, so it can be swum on the surface, medium, or deep. It is very heavy and hard to cast all day, and, even with all four tungsten ballast balls in place, it will come up more shallow on a fast retrieve. Rather than a bad thing, I try to use it as a change of direction, strike-triggering thing. I think the lure is followed by the fish when it's retrieved slowly at depth, and then the fish thinks the lure is trying to escape when the retrieve is sped up and it starts to rise. Many times, I cast my sinking swimbaits across a point, let them sink to 10', and then begin a slow retrieve. As they approach the point, I speed them up, as though they see the fish approaching or sense danger, and are trying to escape. Actually, I want the lure to rise so it doesn't get hung up on the rocks. But, by repeating this method, first over the deeper part of the point, and then shallower, and finally right near the shore, the fish are repositioned to their shallow attack station (thank you BBZ) and the last cast brings the bait through their "funnel" zone, the part of the point where they naturally trap their prey by forcing it up against the point and shallow rock. This method works for largemouth bass. I don't know about pike, but a predator is a predator.

Downriver, Do you spray solvent based paints or water based paints?

ipock2 is right. I built my own dust collector from kitchen ventilator fans (they're explosion proof) and it works, but I wouldn't do it again. Go with a store-bought dust collector, and you'll be glad you did.

My first suggestion, aside from reading all you can on this site, is to buy a successful lure, similar to what you want to build, and try to copy it. I say try, because it's impossible to actually make a duplicate. And, as long as you're not planning on selling the lure, it's okay to copy. Just don't try to pass it off as your own. Give the original maker his or her due. You'll learn more from doing, in terms of shape, weighting, joint making, and hook/lie tie position. Just be sure you seal your wood before you wet test it.

dramone, Thanks. That's a great site for fish photos. How great is the internet when a guy from Switzerland can direct me to a US DFG site! I know, I'm showing my age, but it still amazes me. And my oldest daughter just emailed from Valpariso, Chile, where she's studying for a semester. Man, it really is a small world!