mark poulson

Thanks for the link. I just ordered a bottle, to see if it works for me. I'll let you know how I do with it.

A stupid question! Finally, something I might be qualified to answer. ) Alas, I've never sprayed nail polish. But I've used it, and still use it, to add glitter/flash to jerk baits and crank baits. It looks to me like the glitter in the cheap 99cent polish I use would be too big for an airbrush. But I haven't actually tried it. I use rattle can glitter from Michael's.

Benton, I think glitter adds flash, and that's a great attractor, and can be a strike triggering feature.

Wood, because I can work with it. I'm a carpenter, and it just feels right. I can easily shape it, and I know how to glue and tool it. And I can vary both the buoyancy and durability by which wood I choose. And I can deal with saw/sanding dust easily. No fumes or chemicals, unless my band saw blade is dull and smokes. Plus I have a garage full of it! P.S. I am a hobbyist, and don't sell lures.

I just went on Jann's and couldn't find it. Can you post the name of the product?

What's it like to work with? How's it applied, what is the "open" working time, how many coats does it take to get a good finish? Inquiring minds want to know! )

Ohio, You made a wise choice not to try and "land" that bird, although I might have tried to break it off sooner. When I was a kid fishing the pier in Santa Monica, CA, I accidentally caught a seagull. If an older man hadn't come to my rescue, I'd have either been beaten and clawed to death, or thrown my fishing rod off the pier. I never guessed how many sharp parts birds have, especially when they're hooked and po'd.

There was a thread a few days ago about action vs. color. IMHO, for reaction baits, the action is critical, and the paint scheme secondary. For suspended fish in clear water, the paint scheme becomes much more important, but the action is still paramount. I've had fish hit a white lure, no detail. Spinnerbaits are long on action and short on detail, and fish whack them pretty good. Overall color scheme is important to reinforce the impression that the lure is a prey item, but actual detailed painting schemes are only critical for clear water, finicky bass, in slower presentations. Again, that's my opinion. Unfortunately, the tablet with that inscribed on it was the one Moses dropped on the way down. )

ff, Could you get around the brittle problem with the Lowe's stuff by laminating two thin pieces with epoxy?

Confession. I copied your idea of painting the insides of the joints red on one of my baits. But your lure, and the paint job, are way beyond my abilities. Great looking lure.

I asked about lacquer over water based in case I can't get the effect I want with the water based flip flop paint. I really don't want to fool with solvent based paints. I've already had my share of health problems from chemicals. So far, I haven't seen any flip flop effect on the lures I painted with it. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. I put on three coats over the entire lure. I had hoped to get the color shift on the darker back, and a scale effect on the sides, but, so far, no success. Maybe I just need more coats.

That's a great setup. Good job!

I don't think symetry is that important in a top water. I free hand their shape, even though I have a lathe. If I were making diving cranks, symetry would be critical, but part of the reason I can make topwaters and triple trout knockoffs is that the shape isn't that critical. If I were making a popper with a concave face, I'd probably use some kind of a stationary belt sander to hollow out the face, or I'd regrind the end of a paddle bit to the shape I want, and use a drill press. I'd use dowel stock to start, holow the face before I shaped so I could clamp it while I drilled out the face, and then have at it with a stationary belt sander, sanding block, or just a block plane and sand paper. It ain't rocket science. Good luck.

I use Envirotex Lite on repaints of traps, and have no issues. I use a piece of stainless steel wire (tempered) to "drill" out the eyes. That's a tip I picked up here. It removes the epoxy without damaging the lure, or the recoat on the lure, if you're careful. I have no clue about alligator clips. Sorry.

You're looking at $30+- for a rotisserie kit. It should have a motor, mounting brackets, a square shaft, and two meat attachment forks. Here's the one I built with a kit like that.

Shawn, I think you can achieve the glider action with the spook/wood chopper shape by where you place the weight. The flatter sides (relatively) of the Punker may affect the action a little, but the weighting is more important to the action than the detailed shape, so you should be able to make both types of baits from the same shaped body. You may find you want to put a slightly beveled underside to the head, like a spook, but otherwise the cylindrical body should work.

Try making a Lunker Punker type gliding topwater. They are roughly spook shaped, but the weight is mid and rear, so the bait sits horizontal in the water with only the first third of the lure out of the water at rest. The weight farther back makes the bait glide side to side after each pull. Depending on how hard or fast you work it, it can walk the dog, or glide side to side two feet. Great big fish action. And they're easy to make. Or look up the Wood Chopper online, and see if it's something you could imitate. It's a great, loud top water.

Depends on whether you're attracted by her laminar flow, or her votexes. Is Pergo a laminar flow?

I ajust the fall/suspend rate of small suspending jerkbaits by changing hook and split ring size. If you repaint/recoat a lure and it no longer suspends, try changing out the hood setup to a lighter/smaller hook and split ring. In the spring, when I want a jerbait to float down onto a bed and sit there, I put larger hooks and split rings on the front. They also cast a little better with the larger hook setups, due to the additional weight, but Orbits cast really well out of the box, and they consistently suspend at 3-4' from the factory.

Never mind, Vman. My question was answered in another thread a little farther down the page.

And...... I've repainted and recoated light jerkbaits baits like Orbit 80s, which are 5/16th oz. suspending jerkbaits, and they still suspend. I sand off the paint, but not what's in the cross hatch scale pattern, and the spray with Createx, and coat with one coat of Etex Lite.

I wipe down with alcohol after the first coat is set, 24hrs. I don't use alcohol to smooth the first coat, only to prep for the next coat. I was told by the tech at Envirotex that it was unnecessary to sand between coats, provided I wiped with alcohol between coats. If I have a really rough spot after the first coat has set, I will sand with 400 grit, and then recoat. But I only sand the rough spot, not the whole lure, and then do my alcohol wipe down and recoat.

We use mixing nozzles on the job for structural epoxy. I never knew they were available for hobby epoxy. Silly me! Where do you find the mixing nozzles? I've been using measuring and mixing cups for my Etex, and I just use my eye for my 5 minute Devcon.

I made my wheel out of a $29 rotisserie kit I bought from the local hdwe store. A chain store. The wheels are 16" diameter, and I used the forked meat holders to attach the wheels to the shaft. They have thumb turn set screws so I can adjust the distance between my wheels for different size lures, although I mostly just use extra paper clips to adjust the lenth of the lure attachments instead of moving the wheels. That way, I can coat and sping lures of different lengths at the same time. If I'm only coating one lure, I will attach an already finished lure of similar weight opposite the lure to be coated to make the wheel balanced, which makes the load onthe motor even. These motors aren't the most robust, and eccentric loading (out of balance loading) puts a strain on them. Here's a picture of my wheel. It took me 30 minutes to make, once I figured out what I wanted to do.

If you dip in Minnwax poly acrylic twice, and sand after each coat with 220, you can get a smooth enough bait for painting. I make larger baits, so fine detail isn't that critical. When I first started painting, I would dip and sand, base coat with Createx flat white, and then paint with pearl white or silver, putting enough on to even out any rough spots that might be left. Then any other shading colors, accents, and detail. Finally, I would coat with epoxy, and let the epoxy give the final smooth finish. Now, I don't sweat getting the bait too smooth. I found that wood grain showing through the paint gives an added 3D effect to the paint job, so I don't even worry about sanding too smooth, or filling the wood grain any more. I just hit it with 220, round the edges, and, if there's any grain showing, so be it.