mark poulson

You'll need a pressure regulator, water trap, and a good, flexible air hose. You can probably find those things at a good hobby store that carries Iwata airbrushes. Google it. Spend your money on a good setup to start with, since you already have a compressor. Air brushes don't take a lot of air, and operate at relatively low pressures, so getting the right setup to start with is important, so you can concentrate on learning to paint, not wrestling with your equipment.

John, Chugger/spitter type lures usually have a cupped, concave face that traps the water when you pull it forward. I haven't made any of them but I've thrown some striper lures, like the pencil popper, that have a variation of that feature. You might try Googling striper lures and see what they look like. It might be a good place to start. As far as hooks go, with a 100 lb tuna, you need some 4X strong hooks, in no less than a 4/0 treble. At least that's what I would put on them. Again, go to some salt water sites and see what the people who have already invented the wheel are doing. For me, hook size has to do with line strength and rod action. Typically, the lighter the line, the lighter the hook, or you run the risk of breaking the line on the hookset. For tuna, you will probably be using at least 20lb, and probably 30 or 40, so heavy hooks are a must, since you will be able to put enough pressure on the fish to straighten out a light gauge hook. Tuna are a visual predator, and have great eyesight. Remember, flourocarbon leaders were first used in salt water. I'd use some big eyes. Chartruese and black. Lots of flash. And a green anchovie scheme, with lots of silver.

Unless you're in a well vented area, or using a respirator, or both, melting and pouring lead can be dangerous.

Depends on the action you want. For gliders, a sloped belly down from the eye tie for about a third of the length, and tail weighted so only the front third of the top of the bait is out of the water, but it still sits basically horizontal. Make the belly cross section more round, and don't make the overall bait too tall. For a walk the dog action, more tail weight, so it hangs a little more vertical. Just be careful not to make it too vertical, or it is really hard to work the bait. A taller profile again makes it harder to work. Too much water resistance, and it will foul more easily. If you want a minnow swimming action, use the same shape as above with either a bill that's almost vertical, or multi-joints. I would stick with a bill. I'd think it would be hard to come up with jointed bait hardware that would stand up to a 100 lb tuna. It would work for the first fish, but you probably never get it to the boat before the hinges failed.

I use split shot also. I drill a tight hole, put in a little 5 min epoxy, and then shove in a split shot or two. Then top it off with the rest of the 5 min. I like spit shots because I can pinch them onto my lures' trebles to test weight them beforehand. And they're pretty consistent in weight. For me, it's much easier than melting lead, and safer, too.

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Before you ruin a mould, make a two part simple test mould, and experiment with release agents and demould time until you get it right, then use your real mould. Too much work to ruin experimenting. Unrelated question. Why does my spellcheck list demold as the proper spelling, but remould as an alternative?

There is a water-based silicone available that comes out white, but cures clear. It might be an alternative. Much clearer than the original GE Clearseal. Also, a little harder, but still flexible. I think I have a tube in one of my trucks. If I do, I'll post the brand name.

I use that hook with the large hitchhiker for toads, and it works great. Better than the black plastic spike that comes on the ready made version. It also makes changing colors or lures much easier, since I've found I need to use fishing glue to keep the toad on the black spike after a fish, or a few hangups.

I just ordered some Wildlife colors from Bearair. I'll let you know if they come out okay.

PB, Are you able to mix Createx colors in quantity, and store them? I always have left overs when I'm mixing colors, and sure would like to be able to save them to use later. And.....do regular paint tinting colors, like you get in the tubes at the paint store, work for airbrush water based paints, or are the pigments too coarse to spray?

Robert, You know what they say, "First liar doesn't stand a chance". Of course, I don't know who "they" are, but I do know that taking a picture of a bridge, no matter how beautiful, doesn't compare with actually working on one. Especially a draw/lift bridge. Raise the drawbridge! To the walls! Man, I'd be like a kid again, playing pirates. Thanks for both the pictures, and the explanation. Enjoy you job. Take what you can, give nothing back! Haaarrr!!!!!

This should be in the tutorials under, "The dangers of painting and clear coating without adequate ventilation".

Bruce, Thanks for the kind words. I made the wheels 14" in diameter, figuring the added size would help make up for the slower 1 rpm motor, and that I would have room for a lot of lures if I wanted. I did think that I could put another wheel on, too, if needed, because the whole rotating spit is almost three feet long. I put two concentric rings of eyebolts to attach my lures to, so I could, in theory, do sixteen lures at a time, but....... I've found that I am clear coating the lures on the wheel, so it's not really practical to do more than four at a time. Plus, the Envirotex Lite does drip, so the fewer lures I have, the less chance of accidental dripping from one to another. At first I worried about such big wheels, but then I realized that this motor is able to turn beef roasts, so a balanced 14" wheel should be no problem. I did put an intermediate support next to the wheel farthest from the motor, to take the sag out of the two part shaft. The wheel works great, and I am now trying to coat a couple of jointed lures on it. I'll post photos, now that I know how (thanks everybody), as soon as I have them done.

I haven't had any success yet with any of them. Actually, I've only had a chance to throw two of them so far, other than to test their weighting and action before painting and clear coat. I'll keep you posted. Late winter/early spring is when the bass eat stocked trout down here in SoCal, and that's when the trout glider bite kicks off. I made the bass lure for spawn/post spawn, but it should work soon, too. The ideas for the gliders came from the Lunker Punker lures. Jeremy came up with the idea to make a super spook-type lure that glides, and it is a huge success. I just started making lures because I broke my buddy's 9" pupfish at Casitas one day, when a cast wound up on a mud bank and hit the only hard thing on it, a beer bottle. Poetic justice. I bought him a Lunker Punker to replace the lure I broke. I made my first glider to try to replace his Pupfish, not too successfully, and then I saw how well the Lunker Punker worked, and decided to try to make one for myself. It's a blast, and beats sitting in front of the T.V., drinking beer. Barely.

Thank you Rofish and Hazmail. Here's a 5' bluegill airbrush http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0290.jpg Here's my drying wheel. Thank you Dean. http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0260.jpg http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0262.jpg I'm working on a couple of jointed baits. I'll post them when I'm finished.

I've read Hazmail's instructions (they're printed out next to me). Here goes nothing. The 9" pupfish imitation I made to replace my partner's lure that I broke and that started me on this path, rattle can http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0282.jpg My first 6" glider, rattle can http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0288.jpg My newer 6" gliders, airbrush http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0277.jpg http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0274.jpg http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0278.jpg http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0272.jpg 9" glider airbrush http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/DSCN0270.jpg

One more try. http://s150.photobucket.com/albums/s105/markpoulson_stevie/th_DSCN0288.jpg Drat! It's still small. Can anyone tell me how to enlarge the image before I send it?

Beer doesn't work.

Great site! Thanks. The color charts are perfect.

A question. If you don't like the color of the bill material, can't you just paint it and coat it when you coat the rest of your lure? I have a couple of lures with painted bills. They work.

I Googled staminainc, and found them again. I've ordered stuff from them over the last few years, and, other than some things being out of stock, never had a problem.

Bruce, Does that mean I shouldn't try to post pictures that way? It's the simplest way I know. I should have known there must be something wrong with it. I can't figure out how to get my photos from Photobucket to the TU website, either in the gallery or in a post.

http://thumbp2.mail.mud.yahoo.com/tn? sid=2101622168&mid=ADHPjkQAAAD1R3vMtAGJmhNHiEc&partid=11&f=818&fid=Inbox I quit! I can't get it to enlarge (oops, did I just say that?)!

C:Documents and SettingsMarkLocal SettingsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5LGOFP5OT Maybe this is bigger. Drat, foiled again!!