mnflyfisher

I like your split tail design there, it's very similar to some I have been working on. I would use a much smaller lip still if that's the size you currently have. It should work even better.

I have looked in all local hardware stores for screw eyes like - menards, home depot, ace, etc... The only place I can get the correct ones is ordering them online. At the hardware stores, if you want a longer screw - the eye is going to be bigger, and the gauge of screw eye is going to be a lot thicker too. Only other place I would think you might find them is at a specialty shop / bait shop that sells other lure building and tackle building supplies. I really like the idea of the through-wire and am very impressed with the final results I have seen here in the gallery. I'm looking forward to giving this a try. Does anyone know of good local suppliers of wire for this? I am thinking of just getting a 1/4 lb coil of stainless steel from stamina in the .045" size for pike and muskie baits. Would prefer to get it at the store though...

Once you have painted your lure, before you put your topcoat on, you use some sort of heat to 'heatset' your paint job. You can thank Swede for this tip, you can do this simply with a hairdryer.

This is excellent info guys! Thanks!

Make sure it's a slower drying epoxy and have it on a rotating wheel. To get the air bubbles out, take a lighter and wave it back and forth under the bait on all sides/areas. You may need to pause the rotation each time you do this. This will make the epoxy a little for fluid again and it will also get rid of any air bubbles. Don't wave too fast and too far away that it doesn't have any effect. But not so close you just char it. You should be able to see the epoxy start to sag a little bit - then it's enough. I think some guys might even do this a little quicker with a torch. I'd be careful though. I use the same technique with a lighter for rod building once I have applied flex coat lite to my wraps. It gets the bubbles out - you can take a mixing stick and even dab off some of the excess as it starts to sag while the rod is rotating, and you get a very nice bubble-free crystal clear finish.

That's perfect fatfingers! Great instructions One question though, where do you get your netting? I picked some up in the craft/fabric section at Walmart - looks like it will work just fine.

Okay gotcha. I'm finding most of this stuff is just personal preference. Guess I will just have to start digging in to come up with my own favorites.

I have spent some time looking through the member submitted tutorial section. It looks like most of the pictures along with the tutorials have gone missing - I'm assuming this has something to do with the crash? Anyway, it would be nice to get more tutorials up / back up along with pictures! The ones that are there are great and I look forward to reading more! I would particularly like to see one on some different foiling techniques - how do you burnish the foil? Say you are using a netting/mesh material - do you glue this material to the lure, and then foil over that? or do you glue/tape the foil to the lure and burnish the mesh over the foil to imprint the pattern? Thanks everyone and keep up the amazing work!

Why can't it be used as a finish coat? I thought that's what it WAS used for?

Hey RJ, How do you make your stamp that you have on the belly of those lures? Very professional!