Matt Moreau

These reducers work well and are easy to use. If you want to try something a little cheaper you can make your own; 3 Parts Distilled Water 1 Part Denatured Alchohol 1 Part Amonia Free window Cleaner usually found in automotive section like in walmart a few drops glycerin I have been using this for years and works well for me. Hope someone else can find it useful!

You have to think about the purpose or what you are trying to achieve with every bait you throw. And that is exactly what i stated above that with diminishing returns. If your objective is to hit 1 stump in the exact spot to coax tht one bass out then by all means huck that baby in there a bunchof times to try and get a deflection and a strike. Sometimes that is the key no doubt. Like KVD I would much rather fish for active fish and huck my hunter in that same spot once or twice and have it hunt to create my action and strikes. Like Ray said you can still control it to a degree. It will still be boucing off things and making all kinds of rukus much more than a non hunter. I also do not feel they hang up more and I have no problem with hangups. If needed I just pause and the lure usually floats up a bit and I continue my assult.

I do this with Pearl white and sometimes pearl silver if I want a more dramatic silver. Base a bait in all black Paint the bottom white and fade up a little with the white. You want to make sure you have a decent fade about 1/4 up the side so that the black shows through a little at the 5 and 7 oclock position and a lot at the 4 and 8 oclock position. I usually paint the face and anything I dont want silver white at this point. Next spray a few light coats of white pearl down to the 5 and 7 oclock position or on the bottom to personaly flavor here. You will see that you have a nice transition from silver to white down the side and to the bottom of the bait. You can vary the darkness of the sides to get a trasition too but it will also give some different hues so thats a more refined technique.

Where are the pics.....isnt Havasu over Mark?

This or.... yellow and a few drops of blue make green. Then add brown until you get the color you want

Tap Plastics has Dyes but they are for specific resins they make. They may work you can check. You could always just buy Alumilite white resin. Its not my favorite but it works and its pure white when cured.

How dare you open the can of worms!!!! I also tried to copy a waddle bat with limited success. Since I have used a friends and I also think its kinda a gimmic. I could never get anything close to the videos action. I didnt try tuning or doing anything to it since it wasnt mine but I cant see anything would help. It is probably like the lures we build some hunt better than others! Skeeter I am not trying to discount what you said this is just my opinion...As for a hunting lure not getting as many strikes or the same amount of strikes I have to dissagree... If you are fishing same color same pattern same everything but one hunts and the othe doesnt you will get more strikes from the hunter hands down! This is exactly why people bump, bounce, hit and drag them trough the nastiest cover around... In open water thats why people pause, yoyo and rip them. In special application the hunting ability can be diminished like ripping out/through weeds or heavy cover but I will always reach for a hunter over a non hunter. Extra action is always better than less in my book! Bob I wish I had your success rate! I am lucky to get 1 in 5 to hunt. I have not figured out the secret yet I just try to build them on the brink of insanity....errr stability!

You can always buy non SS large diameter screw eyes. I dont because they rust but i have some old timers that want me to build baits with non SS just for that reason. They claim once they start rusting they make a much better noise that attracks fish. I can attest they do make a lot more noise and sqeaking though!

Dick Nites is probably my favorite finished product but the storage issues are too much for me to take so i do not buy it anymore. If they were ever fixed I would use it again. GST I havent tried but i tried a similar Concrete sealer and I really like it. The drawback is plastic/rubber worms and such react to it and pretty much disolve the top coat where they touch. I use Automotive clear... It is the clearest most glossy clear out of them all IMHO but it has its drawbacks too. Gotta spray it and very very toxic. Its not nearly as hard or tuff as DN either.

1. if im working on a 2 piece bait, could i put both pieces seperated, but in one mold? YES 2. what's the ideal ratio for microballoons/tungsten if you want a floating, suspending, sinking, and fast sinking lure? Too many variable to go over here... depends on size, shape etc. I find that 1-1 ratio of MB to resin usually makes a bait float with a little ballast for orentation. 3. what's the easiest way to balance these baits? Trial and error. I get a bucket and some rubber bands...add lead till u get desired effect. If you are making the same bait take notes and dupicate. 4. what is better? having two seperate pieces for a two piece bait or having one and just sawing it in half later? I prefer 2 pieces but takes more time to mold. 1 piece you can change where u cut but hard to duplicate exactly if you find the sweet spot.

Everytime the wife and I visit napa or do any wine tasting I always ask for corks. They are Free and work really good. I have used them whole, chopped with a knife and put in a food processor....Each way works just depends how fine u want them and how much time you want to spend.

Any of the lure making websites have diving lips pre made Janns Barlows Lure Parts Yes there is a video on youtube of a guy that casts each side then connects them. For me it looks more like a PITA more than anything! Just put a glass rattle in your baits!

Was the ETEX actually hard and fully cured when you cleared over it? ETEX is really tough to use and if you do not mix EXACT amounts for atleast 5 minutes and say 7 hail mary's then you could be asking for trouble!

I do this with my pearl powders that I put in clear and spray because they are just to big particle size otherwise. You may lay the white a little thick if you are using it for a base so just be careful.

Just a word of caution.....G10 does wear faster than lexan. If you are dredging the bottom or throwing it on rocks all day they will wear out. But like others have said you get a crisper action and deflection

Only downside for me was it reacts to plastic worms and melts the clear right off. If you keep them seperated I guess you are fine.

I have a scale I got for weighing food at Home Goods for $15. it weighs Grams and ounces up to 5lb

I have both brushes....Its like comparing a Honda to a Hyunda...you get what you pay for! Iwata's are just well made precision tools! My first brush was/is an eclipse. This has been my workhorse since day 1! I thought the talon would give me some versatility and for the price i jumped on it. it has seen a quarter the use of my Iwata and the inside of the bowl is already de-chromed bronzeish looking. while in the beggining i did make the mistake of using window cleaner to clean between colors it never hurt my iwatas and they saw much much more of it. the trigger has worn down on the sides of the talon to where is it really grainy and can be a PITA if trying intricate stuff. I have gone through 3 talon hoses the little rubber gromets are always connected bad and begin to decay and leak. Talon has a few advantages for beginners. 1. Has the adjustable pull thow so you can limit the amount of paint and dont have to rely on finger control 2. has a stopper on the needle so you cannot jam it in ruining the nozzle 3. Price and versitility with the 3 different setups is great! I am not bashing the talon and you could be happy with this brush for a long time. I have even reccomended it to some people that i knew would bennifit from its features. I have just found i rarely use it anymore. Its main use is pearls and large stuff with that huge #3 nozzle and needle.

Go buy 2 cheap and large picture frames and a couple small hinges. Hinge them together so they open like a hard shell book Strech scale material over each inner portion of picture frame so basically the mesh touches when closed. Glue or staple it down. Do not make very tight you want the material to go around the lure/s place lures on mesh and close the frames so they are in the middle Use magnets and place then around the baits so they stay in place and the mesh covers every where Now depending on how big you go with the picture frames you can essentially paint scales on a bunch of baits at once

Dunno if this has been said but i dont think your problem is thickness really. Do you use pantyhose or something to strain your paints? Blue paints are notoriously bad for large particles. I had all kinds of trouble in the beggining because of this and in the end thats what it boiled down to.....well that and not having good cleaning habbits for my brushes too!

I used to do the same thing but I didnt want to have to manipulate the baits to be able to put tension all the way through it like drilling the screw eye hole. Now i just use a rubber band wrapped a few times around the joint so it doesnt move and then use a pair of vice grips and clamp on the hose screw eye. Very secure and you can manipulate the bait in any direction you want. I also take a small paper clip or wire and wrap it around the screw on the end of the vice grips so i can hang them with the baits when changing colors and what not. This is just a pic i sent a buddy painting his 3:16 but its all i have on my phone...u can kinda get the idea

Why not just dip in a waterbased clear like minwax polycrylic or something like that first?

Hey Guys, I usually stay on the hard bait side and dont venture too far from home. But i have a question that is suited towards your talents over here. I searched and read up on plastisol hardner, ordered some and burnt/balled up my first attemp...LOL...but tried again with a 50/50 mixture heated 30 seconds at a time in microwave and got a workable product. Problem is its not hard enough for my needs. And i feel like if i add anymore hardner it would clump before the flash point. I am trying to get a somewhat hard tail fin for a large bait. I want the fin to collapse when a fish takes it but hard enough to where it doesnt move when its in the bait. It measure probably 2+ inches tall and 1.5 - 2 inches long. Should i try more hardner? I thought i read i cant just use hardner on a post somewhere and i am betting that if i go 3to1 hardner to plastisol it probably wouldnt work either. Please let me know your thoughts!

So I bought some Concrete Sealer like GST. Since I am in Kaliformia i had to buy a Low VOC similar product. I tested a few blocks of wood then i decided to make a bait using it as the top coat. I do not like how it sticks to everything and ultimately can compromise the top coat. I knew from reading posts here it would stick to plastics so i kept it in its onw container. Pulled it out to use this weekend and it was 85* out. Used hte bait and then put it down on the deck with my other rods. well 3 or 4 hours later i go to pick it up and it kinda stuck to the carpet. I though to myself hmmm thats weird so I put it back in the nonboater spot. somehow it popped off the hook hanger and was resting on the vinly seat for who knows how long and i went to put it back on the hook hanger but it was stuck to the seat!!! I like this bait so my question is.... Anyone try covering GST with another top coat like auto clear or MCU? I am gonna play with this and make a few more test pieces but ill have to wait 2-3 weeks for a full cure. Figured i would ask to see if anyone has done anything to counteract this problem?

I think you can buy holographic duct tape at wallyworld now! havent tried it....just sayin!!!