mark poulson

Welcome back!

This stuff will hold an eye, and top coat it, too: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Mend-It_Glue/descpage-MIG.html

I use a pair of split ring pliers to remove any paint that gets into the hook eye while it's curing. The paint is brittle, so it cracks off My first choice is to make sure the eyes are clear before curing, but it doesn't always help.

It's good to know you can do it, if people are willing to pay the freight.

Let us know how it works out.

I soak my disassembled air brush overnight in Createx Air Brush Restorer. I keep in a wide mouthed pickle jar, and it can be used over and over. http://www.coastairbrush.com/products.asp?cat=59

I began lure painting with Krylon paints and clears, back in the early 2000's. At that time, the clears yellowed over time. My recent experience with rattle can clear acrylics is that they work, but they need to be separated from all soft plastic baits. I'm currently using Rustoleum X2 High Gloss. It is really durable, doesn't seem to diminish the shine of metallic paints, and is easy to spray onto lures in multiple thin coats to avoid drips and runs. Spray it outside and down wind, because it has FUMES.

Try posting your question in the Fly Tying Forum.

Thanks. I found the top-coat answer on the site.

Bob, are these kinds of molds what you can make? I'm asking out of curiosity, not because I'm in the market.

Does that paint spray easily with the same air brush that I use to shoot my Createx paint? I'm interested in trying it, but not in investing in a whole new system.

Yeah, we used to throw "the iron", big metal jigs, to them, and they would put bite marks in the metal. One tough customer. The little ones wiggled like stripers, and the big ones thrashed so hard it was scarey. Lots of teeth, the only way to handle them back then was with a gaff, and half the time they shook themselves off.

Yeah, but I used to fish the salt, and your pike and musky look like the barracudas we used to catch. All teeth and slime, and with retro rockets. I don't think anything in my boat would stand up to your toothy critters.

I use dollar store clear polish, and it works fine, too. I have some top waters with the silver polish on them that have held up for quite a few years.

There are clear polishes with different colored glitter that hold up really well, so you can add glitter to an already powder coated jig, or to an already painted head. I get them at the dollar store.

Playing around with a successful bait is the easiest way I found to learn when starting out, at least for me. I started by taking a commercial crankbait that I liked, and copying it. I used the original to learn about lip angle and size, hardware locations, and ballasting, by floating it in a bucket of water, and then adding ballast to my bait's front treble until I got mine to hang at the same angle and depth as the original. Once I'd figured out how to do that, I started changing the bait in different ways, and seeing how those changes affected the bait's action. I can now make a crankbait from scratch, to run at a specific depth and with a certain action, and be really close before I take it out to fine tune it in the water, but it took lots of failures to learn what affects what, and how to correct problems. Good luck. It's a fun ride.

I went to Bait Junky's high temp glitter, and no more problems. http://www.shopbaitjunkys.com/High-Temp-Polyester-Glitter_c_190.html

Sounds like fun!

If you can make it work with your design, Solarez UV surfboard repair resin is an easy to use, strong resin. It can be dipped, and then hung over the dipping jar to drip off, without setting up, as long as you do it inside, with no sunlight and no UV emitting lighting, like LEDs. It sets up hard in three minutes under a UV nail curing light. You can redip as often as you like, as long as you cure each dip coat before you redip. http://solarez.com/products/low-voc-dual-cure-polyester-resin/ This is what I use, but they have other products that may work better for you

Too funny! That cartoon was/is one of my all time favorites.

Which parts would be resin?

That's because you actually know what your doing! Hahaha

I would add silver and chartreuse flake.

Silver nail polish will give you a shiny silver finish. You can top coat with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails clear, and it will be bullet proof. It doesn't yellow over time, either.

If your split rings are getting sprung when you put them onto your lures, go to LurePartsOnline, and buy some of their heavy duty split rings. http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Split-Rings-Pliers/2X-Heavy-Split-Rings.html