mark poulson

Diemai, How about that soccer game! My older daughter was watching it as she did her homework, and talked on the phone to her sweetie, a member of their school's soccer team. According to her (all I know about soccer is my girls play it, love it, and I pay for it), it was a great game.

It looks great. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Great looking bait. The spray glitter I use is made by Krylon. It comes silver, gold, or mixed. I buy it a Michael's, a local hobby store. It doesn't bother the Createx I spray it over, dries fast, and takes a topcoat epoxy fine. When I've had a topcoat failure, it's never just down to the glitter, so I know it bonds well.

Dave, After viewing your video, I noticed you used a beer glass for your testing. Did you consider your lures might have a natural aversion to the bottom of the glass? I know I have that fear, so I strive to keep my beer glass at least half full at all times. Seriously, that looks like a great method, and a great spreadsheet! And you can toast the lure when you're done with the beer glass! Brilliant!

I've found that a sufficient amount of Bud Lite helps me achieve a neutrally buoyant state whenever I need to! Not sure about the science, but the results are conclusive. And I've found no variation between batches, no matter where they're made. My borther-in-law and father-in-law are both aerospace engineers. They could never talk about what they did, because they work on secret stuff, but they've both embraced the computer challenge, and joyfully spend hours discussing and arguing the different things about computers, software, and all the other stuff that goes along with it. It seems like they finally have something they both do and can talk about, and they're makeing up for 15 years of silence! My point is they love having problems to solve, and spend hours trying to come up with more and more elegant solutions. More power to them. But when they need a door hung, or windows fixed, or structural repairs to their houses, they call me, and I go over and do it. Not a lot of elegant solutions, just a bit of sweat. I use the KISS method for weighting lures. Just make the lure, install the hooks and bill, seal it, put it in some water, add enough weight until it just barely floats, and then install that weight, paint, and topcoat. The combination of the epoxy that holds the ballast, the paint, and the topcoat should be enough to make the bait neutrally buoyant. If it still floats, wrap a little fly tying lead around the front hook shank. But if you really fight to get it to just barely float before you finish it, it should work fine. You'll never get it right the first time, unless it's dumb luck, but you'll learn a lot about what to do, and what not to do. Seriously, read this next line carefully. It can't be that difficult if I can do it, and it sure ain't rocket science.

I was also looking for a ghost finish-type paint, and ordered some Wildelive Colors I770 Iridescent Green, since I wanted a green cast. It works great. I spray it over my final paint job, and it makes my swimbait lures almost glow. It is transparent enough not to cover the paint job, as long as I apply it lightly, building in thin coats until I get the effect I want. I used it on some black crappie lures I made, and it really makes them seem to glow in the water in low light and clear water, or even in stainede water. I haven't really tried them in any off colored water yet, other than mud lines. I did get a nice fish off a rock pile on a mud point with a mud line from the wind. The fish came out from behind the rocks, slammed the lure, and turned to try to take it back with him. My 25lb Bass Pro Shops mono, and the 1/0 Owner trebles kind of spoiled his lunch. I plan to use it as a scale enhancer on my next batch of lures, 6" three piece trout swimbaits.

I played hookey with a friend yesterday, and went up to fish Castaic. First thing, I was throwing my 6" crappie swimbait, slow sink, and he was throwing my 8" trout, fast sink. He got slapped but no hookup, and had a big follower. I got this fish, and had a monster come up out of the depths and turn away when she saw the boat. It was an, "Oh my .........!" moment. You fill in the blanks. If I had been working that wall from the opposite direction, so the lure came across her at the start of the cast instead of the end, she would have eaten it, she was coming up so hard and fast. Her tail looked like a broom when she turned in about 4' of gin clear water. Anyway, here's the fish I caught. Not the biggest on this lure so far, but fun.

Works for me. Both topics.

Laminar flow! I don't know what that means, but I've always wanted to say it. Seriously, I think the water passing along the sides of the lure is interrupted by the space in the joints, and that creates uneven pressure on the sides of the second section, causing it to swing from one side to the other as it tries to reach equilibrium. And that side to side moves the next section, which lags a little, and then cracks like a whip. That's why I think open, loose fitting joints swim much better than tight fitting joints. Also, weighting the first section toward the rear makes it unstable, as the front is lighter and is constantly moving sideways from the water pressure on it as it's towed through the water. My three piece lures flap like a flag, if that makes sense, with the second section moving wildly side to side, and the tail being flapped behind it. My four piece lures swim like a snake, I think because the fourth section makes them a little more stable by dampening the wild swing of the third section. Kind of like how big rigs with three trailers (illegal here in California) are less prone to jackknife that the tandem trailer rigs you see all the time. At least that's my considered opinion. And you know what they say about opinions. They're like armpits...everyone has them, and they all stink to someone else.

It can't be real good for the drill. Low speed under load will surely heat up the windings. And cordless batteries have a finite life, with a limited number of times they can be recharged. Short term, you can probably get away with it a couple of times, but it's no long term solution.

You can buy tempered spinnerbait wire from Barlows, Stamina, or any other online supplier that sells lure making supplies. It's amazing how quickly a 15' roll of wire disappears! I find tempered wire is easier to push into the tight pin holes I drill. I also bend little 90 degree flags on my pins so I can remove them if I need to. It makes the finishing process much easier, and also the repairs I sometimes need to make due to rude interactions with rocks. I also got some sst welding wire from a friend, and it also works.

Grrr... Just what we need, another guy who actually knows what he's talking about! Welcome into the pool Shortlite. Maybe you can explain how obnoxious people, like exwives, keep coming back up no matter how much you weight them under. There must be a formula for that.

Diemai's right. Before you invest your time and energy in a paint job and topcoat, try to get a picture posted here, along with an explanation of what your lure does and doesn't do. There are guys on this site who know what they're doing, and are really generous with their hard earned knowledge. If it can be tweaked to work, they'll figure out a way. [quote name=diemai;98683@ FERG DADDY Try posting a pic or two of that "Quad P" pretty fast ' date=' maybe you'd find someone here to give you advice on how to get your lure to perform better or even well , sometimes with a little luck such is possible on a distance , even with minor work efforts .

Instead of Bourbon.

ff, I began using the D2T to just coat the joints at first, with a small lap onto the face of the sections. Then I'd assemble the lure, put it on my wheel, with is horizontal with two opposing plywood discs, so the lure can be suspended between them, and I would coat the faces with Etex, being careful not to let it get into the joints, and then I would turn it for 12 hours. At that point I could put on a second coat if I wanted to. But I got seduced. As I was coating the joints of one batch, I decided to just coat the whole thing while it was in my hot little hand. I put a hemostat on the hook hanger, or on a hinge screw, and finished the coating. By the time I'd done all three of the sections on those baits, and moved them each a couple of times to avoid sags, they were firm enough to ignore. Done in fifteen minutes, handle or recoat in two hours, and ready to fish in eight hours. But the hard finish of the D2T, at least on the large surfaces of the swim bait sections, seems more brittle/fragile than the Etex. As for painting, I prime the lures in sections, with Krylon white primer, then I assemble them and base coat them hanging vertically, using pearl white or silver Createx. Then I suspend them horizontally between two long screws on my painting board, a 4X8 sheet of masonite leaning up next to my work bench. I use paper clips, opened up as needed, and with a rubber band attached to the clip at one end for tension. That way the lure is aligned properly, and the joints are open, so, as I spray the paint onto it, the paint is consistent from one section to the next, and it also gets into the joints to some degree. I use a latex glove on my non-spraying hand, so I can hold the lure close to the lure clip, and rotate and hold it with the back facing me to do the shoulders and back. My final paint step is to take it outside, and spray glitter on it while it hangs vertically from my gloved hand. After I've hair dryered the glitter dry, I disassemble the lure, coat the joints, and then reassemble it and coat the faces. I made my drying wheel with eyelets for coating eight lures at once, but I've found that with larger swimbaits, I only want to paint four at a time, so I have enough room to coat one without touching the wet one next to it. According to the women I've spoken to, it's not that the Etex is harder, it's that it lasts longer!

Clemmy/Vodkaman, I call foul! No fair talking in engineer talk. My computer doesn't have an automatic translate feature, and neither does my brain. Are you saying you can take the volume of the lure, calculate weight of the water it would displace, figure out the weight of the lure minus the ballast holes, calculate how much lead (along with an allowance for the finish) is needed to reach the weight of the displaced water, to achieve neutral buoyancy, and go from there?

fatfingers, I've been using D2T for my topcoat for the last two batches of jointed swimbaits I made because it is easier to coat the joints with it than with Envirotex. It does seem to be harder, but more inclined to chip off in large pieces. I think I'll put a final coat over the D2T, and see if I can't get the best of both worlds on the next batch I make. I use Etex on repainted cranks, and put them on the wheel, and they look too good to throw! I actually don't mind an uneven finish, which I sometimes get on the second coat, on my swimbaits. They move so much as they swim that I doubt the fish know the difference, and it puts out a different hydraulic signature when they move through the water, due to the uneven surface. Probably a really cool vortex deal, Dave. I can just imagine a bunch of little vortices (is that a word?) spinning off the sides as they pass through the water.

I've had that happen where I didn't fully rough up the first coat of epoxy, and the second seemed to pull away from the smooth spots. It was hard for me to sand the first coat, since it looked so pretty, so I just scuffed it with a scouring pad. Mistake.

I would use cold water when trying to achieve suspension. For me, it's in winter/cold water, with suspended jerk bait fishing, that a lure that is actually neutrally buoyant is much more critical. Cold water is more dense, and any lure that suspends in cold water will slowly sink in warmer water. Generally that's not a problem for me, since I use a much more active jerk retrieve in warmer water, as the fish are much more active due to their increased body temperature. A lure that suspends in warm water will slowly rise in colder water. I really wouldn't sweat a small amount of rise or sink, though. Unless I'm fishing over flooded brush, where the lure can get snagged, a lure that sinks or rises slowly is still effective. I guess we'll have to modify that old saying to read, "Close only counts in horseshoes, handgrenades, and suspending baits".

Well said!

That's a clever method of locking the pins. Good going. Can't wait to see the finished lure.

Congratulations. You'll really learn quickly with a good brush to start with. Be sure to get a pressure regulator and water separater for your compressor.

Pete, Jointed baits are easy. Since all they do is swim horizontally, and, hopefully, wiggle as they do, it's not that difficult. Lipped cranks that swim right, on the other hand, are the hard ones. Lip angles, location of line tie, location of hooks and ballast, body shape. Man, the variables are endless, and they all affect the action of the lure. Diemai, Once again, kudos to you. I've found the taller shape makes the head more stable, and I get a bigger side to side action with the second section and the tail. My four piece lures swim more snake like, and the 12" five piece even more so, although I think I'll hire someone to cast it for me. As to the shape of the first section, I taper my baits from the line tie back to the first joint, so the head is almost V shaped, or a pointed U shape, and then back again toward the tail, so the first joint is the fattest part of the lure. That just looked right to me so I did it that way. No ryme or reason. The triple trout by 22nd Century, the gold standard three piece trout lure here in SoCal, is more similar to yours in that the thickness of the lure remains constant for most of the lure, or at least it looks that way to me. And it swims really well. I learned early on to make the joints looser, to leave room for finish and epoxy, and so they would swim more. My first attempt at a jointed lure, which was a glide bait that I cut up, was beautiful looking, with hinges were hidden, but it didn't swim for beans. So now I leave the screw eyes out a little farther now, so I have 3/16" clearance before finishing. Seems to be about right. And the fish don't seem to care. Using screw eyes lets me do adjustments after I've shaped the lure and finished the hinge detailing. I can assemble the sections two at a time, and play with the screw depth until I'm happy. I can even bend them a little when they're in the final position, to compensate for any errors I have in positioning. Then I remove them one at a time, and epoxy them in , so I can use the other one in the pair for depth reference. And be sure to ease the edges of your sections so you don't have any sharp edges. It won't affect the action or looks of the lure, but your finish will bond better to it. I don't know about the actual system you use, but epoxy doesn't like sharp edges. It seems to like to pull away as it sets, leaving little fish eyes and weak spots. I reviewed your gallery pics again this morning, and was reminded again of how fertile you imagination is. I have a fertile mind, too, but those who know me think it's due to the abundance of fertilizer up there. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing some huge pike with your lures hanging from their mouths.

Um, er, ah, vortices. I know it's a dirty word, but it is what makes swimbaits swim (thanks Vodkman). Also, grooving the top of the lure from the line tie to the top of the first section, like the top of a rattle trap, seems to make the lures a little more erratic.

Dude, Looks like you'e well along on the swimbait curve. And you've discovered the big secret, that it not really that hard to do, just time consuming. With your shaping, painting, and finishing skills, this type of lure is a natural for you, and should be a piece of cake. Save your Euros, and invest in an occilating belt sander. Way easier to shape lures with a sander than with a router, and symetry isn't really that critical in swimbaits. I am looking forward to when you post photos of your finished lures, hanging out of a 50" pike's mouth.