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Sorry I have been away and missed all the comedy!! Use any type you like:eek:!! but as I said small meaning (I should have said) 2 - 5 amp OR use a rheostat.pete

Mart - hook a small 12 v battery either end of that harness (for a few seconds) and you can melt it into the PVC. Do a trial first though !!!! works good. pete

U62879*** if you use an aluminum /plastic/cardboard template for the lure shape and a jig to cut the slot, the lure and the lip angle should be the same every time, if it does not work alter the lip angle.pete

Maybe this would be useful, can be made one from round tube as well. As I think V.M is saying, use a long ruler/straight edge to check slot is plumb.pete

Mark- Just to confuse things further here's my two bob's worth. I cannot find your blue gill picture but this sounds like a problem I was having with most (in varying degrees) of the first four swim baits I made. I think your modification

Y.J - good on you, hope you have fun - 40 hours is going to seem like a holiday after 70-80 hours, enjoy.pete

Yankee Jigger - It's happening here too, fortunately things are not too bad here compared to other places, how would you like to be in Iceland?? I saw/ experienced all of these horrible things as a fire-fighter for 33 years (and counting), so sometimes you think you are living in a permanent disaster area. You have empathy and lots of it, so you are more than half way there, most people would not know (or care) for what you are talking about, as long as they are cosy and warm. Hang in there .pete

Thanks Chugbug5, I particularly liked this one: Jenzi Jack S Pete

Tim - Have you tried U Tube, there is a quite a few showing stencil techniques etc on there, or google, which usually leads you to the same place - usually they are painting cars or helmets but the techniques are much the same, just the lures are a bit smaller- someone posted that they practice on a round piece of PVC water pipe (clean the pipe with acetone first though), I have tried this and gives a good indication of what's what, you can clean it off and use it over and over- . pete

Mmusser- sorry if I sounded critical it was not intended, I was probably thinking out aloud that basically the same fish species are completely different colours on our two continents, and also probably Europe, yet they come from the same stock - I suppose when you think about it, a lot of fish change in five minutes in a bucket, so a few hundred years in a certain coloured river bed is going to alter something. I have also noticed what you call Blue Fish there (we call Taylor) is also quite a different colour. Thanks again . I like that new avatar.pete

I don't think you will get 'Orange peel' when dipping, only spraying - It is probably the heat, I have had it happen with oil based and Prop and D2T, it's the air expanding in the wood etc, and exiting through small pin holes in the paint - try spraying a clear sealer before dipping, let the sealer dry first of course.pete

Sinyo- Hot cooking oil in a frying pan, Olive oil of course - thinking of your cholesterol level.pete

According to Wikipedia (sometimes notoriously incorrect), CD's ARE layers of Polycarbonate, Metal, lacquer and ink. I suggest the reason it is not the tough stuff we are accustomed to, is probably the tension + resonance (on impact) between the welded/glued layers, and the burned grooves cause it to break????? hummmmmm interesting possibilities here!! So John, we are on the trail - Pete:? Replicated CDs are mass-produced initially using a hydraulic press. Small granules of raw polycarbonate plastic are fed into the press while under heat. A screw forces the liquefied plastic into the mold cavity. The mold closes with a metal stamper in contact with the disc surface. The plastic is allowed to cool and harden. Once opened, the disc substrate is removed from the mold by a robotic arm, and a 15 mm diameter center hole (called a stacking ring) is removed. The cycle time, the time it takes to "stamp" one CD, is usually 2–3 seconds. This method produces the clear plastic blank part of the disc. After a metallic reflecting layer (usually aluminum, but sometimes gold or other metals) is applied to the clear blank substrate, the disc goes under a UV light for curing and it is ready to go to press. To prepare to press a CD, a glass master is made, using a high-powered laser on a device similar to a CD writer. The glass master is a positive image of the desired CD surface (with the desired microscopic pits and lands). After testing, it is used to make a die by pressing it against a metal disc. The die is a negative image of the glass master: several are typically made, depending on the number of pressing mills that are to be making the CD. The die then goes into a press and the physical image is imposed onto the blank CD, leaving a final positive image on the disc. A small amount of lacquer is then applied as a ring around the center of the disc, and fast spinning spreads it evenly over the surface. Edge protection lacquer is also applied before the disc is finished. The disc can then be printed and packed. Manufactured CDs that are sold in stores are sealed via a process called "polywrapping" or shrink wrapping. Diagram of CD layers. A. A polycarbonate disc layer has the data encoded by using bumps. B. A reflective layer reflects the laser back. C. A lacquer layer is used to prevent oxidation D. Artwork is screen printed on the top of the disc. E. A laser beam reads the polycarbonate disc, is reflected back, and read by the player.

Pardon my ignorance BUT I'm just wondering, what are what you call "minnows" there, small bass, walleye, bluegill, white bait, (shiners/glassies)?????. Here they would usually be small Mullet (Poddy Mullet) from about 2"- 5", we normally use various Perspex traps and PET juice bottles with bread crumbs ('whole meal' of course), some states allow throw nets, of course they are only in brackish salt water not fresh.pete

Good find Musser - maybe it's the different light here, it's Interesting that the Brook Trout looks like a brown here, the Brown looks like a sunburnt Rainbow!! Maybe it my colour settings on the monitor?? Good tool anyway, we can always add our own variations. Thanks for posting.pete