mark poulson

Pleas let us know how that works out for you.

Wayne, I got cold just reading that! It only gets down to freezing here a few days a year, but it gets cold enough, in an unheated garage, to turn epoxy into a semi-solid. The weather has already started cooling here. It's down to mid 50s at night, and high 70s during the day. The water temps never got above 75, but they're down to 70 now first thing in the morning. It's enough of a change to make a difference to the bass in the Delta, which have Florida genes, so they don't like cold. Both the stripers and the salmon have started their fall runs, so it's time to break out the spooks and swimbaits.

I think you're smart to do that. Heat is definatly the enemy of scents.

If you shoot that with green pumpkin/orange flake on top, and orange/red flake on the bottom they will get bit bigtime! That is exactly what a red swamp crawdad looks like. The mottled effect will be killer! I wish I could do it, but I'm too cheap to buy a double injector and laminating block. So I pour the bellies first with the orange, and then inject the green pumpkin over it to get the top and claws. As long as I shoot the gp at 330, the two bond well enough to not delaminate.

Al, do you even have a problem with Pro-Cure scents going bad, or turning moldy/rancid? I left a bottle in the boat over a season (I forgot it was in the compartment), and when I opened it the stuff had turned a nasty dark yellow, and stank.

Raw lead will oxidize in a soft plastic bait, so you should plan on coating it first with some kind of a primer. Rustoleum etching primer would probably work, but I've never tried it for that. but I've sprayed spinnerbait and chatterbait heads before painting them with Createx. That stuff sticks to lead heads (and spinnerbait wire) like glue, so be sure to cover/mask off anthing you don't want painted. And the fumes are nasty, so spray it down wind, and/or with a solvent filter mask. I try to spray it outside, with the wind at my back, or with the big garage door open, and a box fan behind me blowing out in cold weather.

I use a hair dryer shot on the side of the soft plastic epoxy resin bottle to heat it and get it to flow. The hardener is more viscus, so it flows more easily, and I usually don't need to heat it. In cold weather, I do heat both.

That is a fun video. Thanks for sharing.

Didn't I read somewhere that that lake has smallmouth?

I mix glonation powder paints into my soft plastics all the time.

Would these work? https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Blade_Runner_Swim_Bait_Insert_Weighted_Hook/descpage-BRHSBI.html

You can't mix lacquer and water based paint to achieve different colors, because they are different solvent based. You can't spray lacquer over enamel or other solvent based paints, because the lacquer will dissolve them. But you can spray water based paints over lacquer paint, and vice versa.

Maybe adding some green to the Lifetone bright yellow will give you a chartreuse. That's how I do it with waterbased Createx paint.

I would contact M-F and ask them. There may be something in their saltwater formula that won't bond to glue. Or maybe you added something, like a scent or worm oil, that's interfering with the bond.

Can you add salt, both for flavor and as a preservative?

This may be a stupid question (my specialty), but what brand of Antifreeze? If it's the kind that's fluorescent yellow/green, there are Createx fluorescent colors that will get close. http://www.coastairbrush.com/products.asp?cat=56

For #1 and #2, I dip my plastic blanks quickly in clean acetone. Quickly, because the acetone is usually a solvent for the plastic itself, or the glue. A quick dip exposed a fresh "virgin" layer of plastic, and my Createx will stick to the blank without primer, so I can even paint ghost patterns, as well as patterns that require a white or colored base coat.

Rustoleum sells an etching primer in a spray can that bonds to anything, and takes paint really well. It does have fumes, so either spray outside and with the wind at your back, or inside with a box blowing past you and out an open garage door. I use it on spinnerbait heads, before I paint them with Createx and top coat with clear nail polish, and the heads hold up to fishing through tules, weeds, and wood. Even the occasional rock encounter doesn't seem to be a problem. The wire on the spinnerbait will become suspect (weak from rebending) long before the paint on the head fails.

I mix .015 glitter in Createx transparent base, and brush it on over my paint scheme before I add a clear. Just be sure the paint is really dry first, and don't over brush.

I use sst wire, either .051 cutoffs from my whopper plopper shafts, or spinnerbait wire, that I get from LPO. http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Wire-Shafts/Looped-End-Wire-Shafts.html

Do a test first, so you don't mess up a bait. Apply some nail polish over a test painted scrap piece, let it cure overnight, and then apply KBS. If it works, great. If the KBS dissolves the nail polish, try putting the KBS on first, let it cure for a couple of days, and then apply the nail polish.

I learned that a really free moving hinge joint was one of the keys for my glide bait success. For me, a double screw eye and SST wire hinge pin gave me the most freedom of movement in my V shaped joints. Plus, it allowed me to adjust both the joint gap and the alignment of the sections so I got the S action I wanted, and a symmetrical water flow over the bait.

I've had the opposite experience. I actually use runny super glue to reinforce the thread holes in my balsa baits. I drill a small pilot hole, run the screw in and then back out again, to cut the threads in the wood. Then I put a drop or two of runny super glue over the hole, using a wire to get it down in, and let it soak into the wood. I think the glue soaks into the wood and reinforces the area around the hole. After a minute, I coat the screw threads with brush-on super glue, which has a longer setting time, and run the screw into the hole again. I don't have screws seize before they are in position, and the squeeze out forms a locking "faring" at the base of the screw eye, to further prevent unscrewing. I've never had a screw eye pull out, or unscrew.

My friend pours my 3/8oz and 1/2oz weedless arkie head jigs with Mustad 32786 BLN hooks, 4/0, and I can open the eyes with an awl and hammer to get the blades on, and then squeeze them closed again with a pair of pliers.

For the record, Dave "Vodkaman" is the reason I was able to make a successful glide bait.