mark poulson

Rookie, I think that's liquor, not lacquer. At least that's what the stuff women's thighs seem to drive men to.

I use tap water in a tupper ware container next to where I paint, and then run Createx airbrush cleaner through last thing, to remove the water and coat the innards of the brush. I use a small, throw away artist's brush to clean the nozzle by holding the bristles in my hand and twisting the brush around in the tip. Not scientific, but it seems to work. About every week or so I take it apart and wash the parts with acetone, but I've never removed the nozzle. Chicken.

If your neighbor crashes his motor home into his house, and you think he's just done a room addition, you might be a red neck.

Thanks. Anything that makes coating joints easier would be a big help.

Bob, I use Etex to top coat my jointed lures. I was thinking about using 2 ton to coat the joints first, as this is always a problem when I do it at the same time as the rest of the lure. Do you know if I will have any problems with Etex bonding to or delaminating from 2 ton? I'd use Etex for the joints in a separate operation, but it take soooo long to set. At least, with the 2 ton, I think I could do the joints, and then coat the baits the same day when it has set.

A-mac, Did you ever post a photo of your bluegill with the changed fins, after you'd gotten it to swim. I'd sure like to see it. Mark

Good news, bad news. Good news is I can see the lures. Bad news is I can see how much I have to learn.

I guess good head is a matter of opinion......from a vortex point of view, of course. Dave, I'm disappointed. I was really looking forward to hearing from you why lure shapes work the way they do. As I said, I've copied shapes of lures that work, changed the shapes a little and gotten good results, and made my own shapes, some of which worked and some didn't. For me, the most important thing is having really loose joints. If there's any resistance, you lose all slow retrieve action. And sometimes the lure just won't swim, period. I've got a few twitch baits that became twitch baits because they don't swim. But they move well when twitched, or fished like a spook. So I'm just guessing when I make a lure. Hopefully, an educated guess based on past experience, but a guess, none the less.

I cast too far and put my Ika on the rocks, in the process of shaking it loose I dislodged small rocks which fell into the water with splashes, and then, when I got the Ika free and it fell into the same spot, I got hammered. I think, as long as you're far enough away that the bass don't know you're there, a splash is an attractor. Bass are curious. When I throw a swim bait, I know the splash is an attractor. If you've ever seen bass actively chasing trout, you'll know the trout will actually come out of the water to escape, and make a huge ruckus. And a big bass boiling on a trout makes a sound like a toilet flushing. Because big bass frequent the same "feeding stations" when they're busting trout, the slash triggers a competitive feeding instinct in them. I've seen several big bass chasing the same trout. When the stock truck pulls up, it's stupid how bold and aggressive big bass can be. And greedy. Same thing with bass busting shad. When they have shad cornered shallow, a lure needs to make a splash, and plenty of noise, to stand out from the rest. Now for pitching and flipping, I've heard it both ways, but Dave Gliebe, who learned flipping with Dee Thomas and who was the first west coast guy to come east and win, doesn't care if he splashes on his flips and pitches. He thinks it's a pure reaction deal, and it really doesn't matter. There's a free video of him flipping and talking on westernbass.com, in the video section. Way cool. As was said above, most things in nature that are at the surface make noise, especially if they're wounded. And Larry Nixon bass have a brain the size of a pea. My ex would say the same thing about fishermen.

Sounds like you guys all got it wired! Congrats!

Striperknight, Are you using the 5 minute epoxy? The 2 ton is not supposed to yellow.

Pete, Hope you don't mind a personal question. How long does it take you, more or less, to shape a lure body and how long does it take you to do one of you amazing paint jobs?

DVS, I make lipless swimbaits, but I'm no expert. Try the search feature. Try lipless swimbaits, jointed baits, hinges, any other key ideas you might have. I personally have used screw eyes, twisted stainless steel wire, cotter pins, and use the hinge pin idea with stainless steel wire for hinge pins. There are a lot of different ways to do it, and I can't really talk about the others because I haven't tried them all. Do the search, read that stuff, and then try a bait or two. As for flat sided baits, I have made both flat sided and round sided baits that swim, and a few that don't. It's voodoo to me why some work and some don't. I just copy stuff that I know works, and go from there.

Thanks Benton. I'll try that.

Bruce, Post a connection to whatever you've been drinking. )

I'd start by adding the lip, line tie, weighted hook hangers, and sealing the bait. Then add the split rings and trebles you want to use, and see how the lure sits in the water. You can use a bowl of water to test. Add weight to the hooks (either lead wire or split shots) until you get the distribution and sink rate you want. Then drill and epoxy in the weights, or melt and pour it, which ever you prefer. Myself, I don't melt because I've gotten more than my share of lead fumes over the years. If you want it to run 1-2 deep, I'd weight it so it just barely floats (allow 3 grams for paint and epoxy), and use the lip to get it down to depth. Trying to get a lure to suspend at that depth, or any depth, is a nightmare, at least for me.

I think he's sharing his "thinner" with the monkey.

If the lure still looks good and flashes when it's wet, it may just need a clear coat. If it were mine, and it still caught fish, I'd use some clear nail polish, maybe with a blue glitter, to touch it up, and call it a day.

Bob, Forgive me for being dense, but how would the lip cause the lure to cartwheel? I thought the lip would act like the fletches on an arrow, and keep the head at the rear. Silly me. I've found that how much let down (the amount of line from the rod tip to the lure) I have affects how a crank casts, and also how much whip I put into the cast. I don't troll, so I can't speak to lures specifically made for trolling. Pete, I learned here to "T" my trebles. Just curious, do you?

A clean up tip. Don't every let cleaning water get into the trigger part of your brush. If there's any paint in it at all, it can make the piston in the trigger valve stick, and that's a pain. If it does happen, soaking it for a minute in acetone, and then blowing it out will clean it (assuming you have teflon/sovent-rated seals), but it's easier just not to let it happen. The valve on my Iwata HP-CS is in the stem where the hose attaches. I remove the hose, then unscrew the short section that holds the valve. Not hard, but a pain if it starts to stick while you're painting something.

I just repainted a bait I'd already finished and top coated with Envirotex. I sanded it with 400 grit sand paper first, and the painted without primer. Mistake. I had fish eyes all over. I was able to heat set the first coat, which had stuck for the most part, and then I sprayed a second coat which bonded just fine. I just hope, now that I've top coated it again, that there are no problems with durability. Of course, if there are, I'll just sand all the epoxy off and start from scratch. I was just in a hurry. Shame on me.

phil, What you suggest would probably work, but I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to computers, and my IT guy is my brother-in-law, who has a real job and family, and already does more than his fair share with my kids' computer problems. My youngest is taking computers, so there's hope she can help, but she charges way too much for any help she provides. You know how it is with 13 year olds. I'm satified with just getting the messages in the bulk box. I don't want to take the time to research what happened as long as I can still get them. I'd rather spend my free time making and painting lures, and fishing with them. Mark

A really easy one might be did you shake the paint really well before you used it? Sometimes, some colors sit on the store shelf long enough to have the pigment settle to the bottom, and you have to shake it for a half a minute or so. If you have some copper or stainless steel bb's , drop a couple into the plastic bottle as agitators. Did you heat set the first coat? Heat setting with a hair dryer not only dries the first coat quickly, it will warm the bait for the second coat, as recommended here. Also, as suggested, use less air. If you have a single action air brush, turn the regulator down to 10-15lbs for transparents and test how it sprays. If you have a dual action, adjust the air flow restricter (mine is at the end of my brush opposite the spray nozzle) down so the trigger can't be depressed as far and the amount of air/paint is reduced. Test the spray on something white to see how it looks. I spray transparents all the time, and don't really have a problem. I sometimes have trouble with paint running if I have too much air flow too close to the lure, so the paint builds too much and the air pushes it around while it's still wet. When that happens, I quickly and gently wipe off the runny paint, and move adjust the air flow and move back a bit from the lure. You can also just do multiple light coats, hair drying between coats. You should heat set between each coat, anyway. You don't want any water trapped under the final topcoat, or it will fail. If I'm trying to do a fine detail, no small feat in my case, I adjust my dual action brush so the air flow is just enough to spray paint, and play with the distance on my spray board before I try again. P.S. If you're just starting, stick with water based paints. Sovent based paints may be more versatile, but there are really for experienced painters who have all the necessary safety equipment. There are so many health risks with the solvents that it's just not worth it for a beginner. Stay with water based until you're good with the airbrush, and then build a vented spray booth, buy a good respirator with a charcoal cartridge rated for the solvents you want to spray, and then have at it! Good luck. And don't dispair. It really isn't that hard. And everyone makes mistakes. My mistakes have given the paint manufacturers their profit margins for the year.

Thanks redg8r. I'll try the Yahoo email tip. I already went into the UserCP and fixed the reverse order thing, thanks to Dave.

Can't open the new ones.