mark poulson

I will post them into the gallery. I haven't figured out how to post them onto the forum yet. Give me a couple of hours to take the pics, and I'll do it.

Jamie, First, save that "ruined" lure! Too much work to just toss it. Second, what kind of a paint scheme are you going to use for your crappie? I just did a black crappie in a new way. I did the belly and lower body silver, and the mid, upper and back black, and then used drywall mesh to put a scale pattern over the base on the sides with silver. It really makes the lure light up, just like a black crappie in full spawn colors. I did two, one as described, and the second with some irridescent green over the silver scale and black back. Just enough to give it a slightly green cast. Then spray silver Krylon glitter. It really shines.

rofish, I actually only used Etex over D2T when I was trying to prevent the D2T from chipping, and it didn't work. I had use the D2T on the whole wooden lure for the first time, instead of just in the joints. Mistake. I just finished stripping and repainting/re coating three of the swimbaits whose top coats failed, even though I tried to save them with an Etex overcoat. I stripped them down to wood, and started over completely, from the sealer on up. I put two coats of Etex as the top coat this time. Etex has enough give to adjust to wood's "moods", and my inaccurate casting. I'll save the D2T for coating plastic cranks and lures, and coating the insides of my swimbait joints.

I use triple grips on the back of my cranks, and round bends on the belly. I think they can't throw the triple grips as easily when they only nip at the back hook and get one in the lip. I still T any hook that's going to rub the belly of a lure. But cheap hooks can break when you try to bend them. Maybe that's a good test.

I use Owner stinger hooks on my swimbaits. The smallest is a 1, and most are 1/0 to 3/0. I like the round bend, because the second hook can swing around and get the fish, too, while it's thrashing around. Sometimes they get them both in their mouths, and that kind of paralyzes them. The more hooks I get in them, and the bigger, the better, because they can sure throw those heavy lures. I had one fish swallow down my 6" trout lure, with 1/0 trebles front and back, and then she semi-jumped and spit it right back at me. I don't think she even felt the hooks, she grabbed that lure so hard. Even though I thought I put a good swing on her, I never got a hook in her. Frustrating. Might have been double digits. All I saw was a huge swirl, and then this enormous head shaking and throwing the lure. She never got up enough for me to see all of her, just enough to make me mad! Funny, when I lose a fish on a worm or a crank bait, I always say, "It was a small fish anyway", but when I lose a swimbait fish, I sound like Roland Martin. "It's a giant!":lol:

DSV, I can't believe that something that looks that good won't swim. Bummer! I hope a lip does the trick. If it's any consolation, I have a couple of non-swimming beauties hanging over my workbench, just to remind me to test before I paint.

16 ounces??? That sounds okay for a can of beer, but a fishing lure???? I hope you have good medical insurance! I see a hernia on your horizon, not to mention a torn rotator cuff, and ruptured discs. Sounds like a WMD to me. Be careful with that thing.

DVS, I have made hinges out of twisted sst wire, and they work. I went to sst screw eyes because they allow me to adjust the hinge gap width before I epoxy them in. I use two eyes per hinge, so I can get them adjusted, remove one and epoxy it in, using the other as a depth gauge to be sure I have the same depth, and then do the second one. I use 1" and 1 1/4" screw eyes. Since I have about 3/16" of the shank behind the eye exposed, I want at least 3/4" of screw embedded in the wood with epoxy. I've never had one fail or pull out. The screw eyes are thicker than the sst wire I use for the hinge pins, so I'm guessing the hinge pins would fail first, although I've never had that happen either. I just picked up some sst bicycle spokes (thanks captsully) to try as hinge pins on my next set of lures, whenever I can get to them. The spokes are thicker, so they shouldn't ever break, but the real reason I want to try them is that the bigger bit for the thicker wire should be easier to drill without drifting. No one system is fool proof. But, done right, all of them will make a lure that will last for a long time. I just went to the screw eye/hinge pin method because it's easier for me.

How about electroshock boats in the shallows, and frog gigs? Get rid of the majority of them, and not kill the bass.

Sonny, I think you got it right. I use Etex, which is softer but tougher. I avoid hook rash by Ting my trebles. I bend the two hooks that would normally rub the lure out until they're flat, parallel to each other. That way, there's not hook points rubbing the lure. Someone on this site who trolls a lot taught me that trick, but I can't remember his name. Sorry. But Ting the hooks lets me use a softer, but tougher, coating on my wood lures. I use D2T on plastic crank bait repaints, but the second coat is Etex, since it smooths out better on the wheel. I'm playing around with glow in the dark eyes on a deep diving Norman DD22 crank right now. I hope the epoxy topcoat won't cut down on the effect. Fingers crossed.

I'm glad you guys answered, because I only have lipped crank experience from fishing them, not making them. I would think a square bill would be much harder to use on a deep diver without making it tend to roll and be unstable. Shallow cranks aren't that much of a problem, since I fish them slowly, so I can work them through snags and wood without hanging up. Most of them I've fished are very buoyant, so they tend to be stable on the retrieve. A deep diver is much more finicky. I've played around with the lip shape on several commercial lures, making them into coffin bills, and all it did was reduce their diving depth, and make them tend to roll at faster retrieve rates. I'm sure Vodkaman will have the definitive answer, if you can pry him out of his secret lab long enough to answer.

Jeep, I think you're right about cutting the joints first. Cutting the joints before shaping is much easier. Someone on this forum suggested to me to not cut them all the way through, so there is enough wood left to hold the lure together while you shape it, and then finish the cuts after it's shaped. That's how I do it now, and it's much easier. I use a table saw tilted to 12 1/2 degrees. That angle isn't holy. It's just the angle most wood window sills are set at, and so it stuck in my head and I used it. I also drill both my hinge pin holes, and the relief holes that will receive the eye part of my hinges while the blank is still rectangular. After I shape the lure, I cut the remaining wood out of the joints, sand the male part of the lure sections to increase the angle from 12 1/2 degrees to 25 or sl. I don't really know how much angle I sand them to. I sand until the angle hits the back of the relief holes for the screw eyes. Then I use the band saw, or a dove tail saw, to cut out the wood leading to the relief holes. I try to have enough slop in the hinges in the rough, about 1/4", to leave room for my paint and epoxy, which quickly close the gap. I don't really know how to explain it well, but some of my jointed lures are in the gallery, and the six inchers should show the hinge relief holes. Rofish is dead on about rounding any sharp edges before you epoxy. Be sure to ease the sharp edges in the hinge relief holes, too.

Bruce, Reading you post made my teeth hurt! I feel for you. I'm not sure there's anything worse than a toothache, unless its an earache from a tooth that's bad. Enjoy your meds, and don't operate power tools or heavy equipment!

I fish my deep cranks slow, so I can feel what they're doing. I would go to the longer lip, and keep the buoyancy, so, when you bump a log or stick, you can stop your retrieve and the lure will float back up away from the wood and let you continue your retrieve. I think making a lure go deeper by weighting it is a recipe for lost lures. Except for jerk baits, I almost never throw a suspending crank.

Another thing to try is making the female part, the one with the screw eyes in it, more flat than the mating, male section that has the hinge pins. I cut the joints out at the shallow angle, about 12 1/2 degrees, and then steepen the angle on the male part at the belt sander by hand.

I've found the hard way that, for wooden lures, especially jointed baits, tough is more important than hard. That's why I went back to Etex Lite after a short romance with D2T. Hard doesn't forgive encounters with rocks. In fact, it chips or peels off in big sections. Tough might dent, but it doesn't peel off. Of course, more accurate casting might help, but the nature of throwing swimbaits parallel and in windy conditions kind of makes rocky encounters inevitable. Downriver, Is it possible, or practical, to add UV inhibiters to Envirotex?

I just sealed some lures using the Minwax wood hardner as a sealer. It is really runny, and seems to get into the hinge pin holes really well. My hope is that the lures will be wateproof even if the topcoat is damaged. Fingers crossed.

Dave, All that worshipping will ruin your back!

I wonder if a hair dryer would mold that material?

The epoxy will pull out of the wood before the hinges pull out of the epoxy as long as you have the ends doubled over like in the picture. Good luck.

Jeep, I apologize for assuming you knew what D2T is. D2T is Devcon 2 Ton epoxy, the thirty minute version. It's a clear glue epoxy that sets up in thirty minutes, and is water proof. If you have access to Google, or some other search engine, and type in Devcon Epoxy, you should find it. I get mine from Wood Carving Tools - Texas - The Old Texas Woodcarvers Shop, Tools, Roughouts, Books, Classes If you don't have access to that, try using the Etex. Mix a little, let it sit for five minutes to be sure it's really activated, and then lightly coat the insides of the joints. You may have to do it in two steps, so you can keep the epoxy from dripping from one end while you do the other. I don't know what's available as far as epoxy in Europe, but maybe one of the European builders, like deimai, could help you with locating some Devcon epoxy. It's stiffer that Etex, so it doesn't run as much and is much easier to use to coat the insides of the joints. I suppose any waterproof epoxy would do, if it sets relatively quickly. But the Devcon is clear, so the paint in the joints isn't hidden.

Jamie, I just went to their site, and asked for a free sample. I don't know what they'll send, but I hope it will work. DSV, A wrist rocket is a sling shot whose frame is tubular aluminum that passes down through the hand, wraps around the back of the wrist for additional support, and then goes back up through the hand again. Because you don't have to hold the handle with you hand alone, but use the leverage of your wrist for support, it makes more powerful sling shots possible, and that's why they call them wrist rockets.