justwannafish

'monday, Lurk all you want. I've learned an awful lot just sitting back and watching what everyone else has to say. One of the things I've learned is Dave, aka Vodkaman (as well as several of the other members) spends quite a bit of time explaining theory and practice. I'm sure he doesn't need me to defend him but you seem to have an attitude. As a newer member, you should watch the forum for a while, search before you ask and read your own posts before you send them. Some of your comments and questions have me scratching my head. I can't tell if you're speaking in riddles or are just struggling to articulate your thoughts. Once the snow melts and can get out of the house I wish you tight lines, my friend.

vodkaman: See there, all you had to do was make it clear enough for a two year old to understand and it becomes clear to me. No matter how I pictured it, I couldn't make sense of centrifugal force induced by the turning wheel actually aiding in the smooth application of epoxy. If anyone is brave enough to spin a wheel fast enough to 'push the envelope" when testing a drying wheel let us know what you come up with. It may be more fun to hear what you find out is too fast

to vodkaman: Dave, I'm having a hard time with what you're writing. I try to read most of the posts here on TU forum and you've always come across as someone who knows what he's talking about:worship: so I hesitate to post this, but I thought what the heck, I might learn something. You mention centrifugal force as one of the important aspects of a drying wheel. I am of the opinion that the only thing a drying wheel does is keep the epoxy from sagging on the bottom a lure that is hanging stationary. How fast must a drying wheel have to turn for centrifugal force to become a factor? I can't help but thinking that a lure would have to move very fast to overcome the epoxy's viscosity not to mention the force of gravity. Additionally, if the velocity of the lure is such that centrifugal force is affecting the liquid epoxy, wouldn't it force it away from the center of the travel and gather on the lure in the same place until cured, giving it the same appearance as sagging epoxy? This is clear in my mind I just hope it's clear in writing. If not I blame over indulgence of chemical compounds and the science of fermentation . Dave

I've spinkled glitter on a couple lures before I remembered an article by Mepps about the color of "silver" under water. After reading the article I doubted that the "silver" glitter would really flash under water so I gave up on the glitter. This is an exerpt from the Mepps article: Sometime while you're retrieving a silver plated Mepps, have a friend retrieve a nickel or chrome plated lure next to it. You'll notice the flash from the silver blade looks almost white. The "flash" from the chrome or nickel blade is a tarnished brown. For what it's worth I sprinkled the glitter on first layer of D2T, heated with a hair dryer so it all laid pretty flat, let it cure and recoated later. It was pretty smooth and in the air it flashed as I expected it to. Dave

Reading Milia's thread about strangest things caught, I read several people hooked old rods that were at the bottom of the lake. It reminded me of my last trip to Canada. By the way great thread Milia. Last year while on Cedar Lake in Ontario I cast my brand new rig, maybe the third or fourth cast, the reel backlashed and the weight of the spinner jerked the rod right out of my hands. I watched my prize rig sink out of sight. I also had a new fishfinder/gps on board so I quickly marked the spot and "fished" around the area for the next hour or so no luck. I was embarrassed I let go of my rod:o and upset that I just lost a brand new Abu Garcia Record on a new St. Croix rod. The resort owner, trying to console me told me that the lake is full of rods belonging to fishermen who did exactly the same thing. It didn't make me feel any better. Three days later someone from my party said he would go out and help me find my rod and reel. He controlled the trolling motor and I drug a heavy spoon along the bottom and within less than a minute I had my rig back. Has anyone else ever let go of their rod and watched it sink into the water? Did you find it again?

Thanks Mark. After reading your detailed description your short, two sentance post makes sense. I paint with an airbrush but I'll try this out next time I'm experimenting with paints.

To Mark: HUH??

John, What is this "CA" you guys are talking about. I haven't used balsa up to now but I do have a couple ideas that require balsa. I searched for CA in this forum and came up empty. You guys are talking about it as if it was as obvious as the air we're breathing so I'm a bit embarrassed to ask. But I won't learn if I don't ask. Dave

I don't know if there is anything more buoyant than air that you would want to put in your baits. Helium is readily available and it is more buoyant than air but it's not practical to fill your cranks with helium. There are others here who will be able to boil every available material down to a specific gravity but I don't think you'll get anything lighter than air into a bait. Is there a reason you can't just leave the cavity empty? Is that not enough buoyancy? Dave

baitshop bill - I'm sure you could probably teach me a thing or two about tackle, tackle making, line tying, and fishing in general, but c'mon, give the guy a break. Fish_N_Fool presented a knot last year for us to look at. Personally, I like the polamar knot, I have way to many thumbs for the fish_n_fool knot and so far the polamar hasn't failed me. But it appeared Fish_N_Fool had a serious knot. The original post was read by a lot of readers and there were several comments. I don't remember anything negative. About a year went by and we hear that his knot was going to be on Knot Wars. Fish_N_Fool was as excited as if it was his kid in the Olympics. I totally understood his enthusiasm. When nobody jumped up to congratulate him he came back and basically said "Hey, what's up? Every time someone posts a new bait people come out of the woodwork to congratulate him/her." Fish_N_Fool made it to the big time and just wanted a little recognition. So you've tied his knot in the past, big deal. You've found a reference to your claim that Fish_N_Fool's knot was already in use somewhere, so what. Do you think that the first person to come up with the idea of the wheel is the guy that got credit for it? Who knows. The fact remains the wheel is a great invention. Nobody made any money on the concept but it's still a great concept. Fish_N_Fool isn't trying to make money on the knot and he even acknowledged that it was a variation of something already out there. It stands to reason that someone else may have been tying it. But did they share it with anyone? Maybe a fishing budy or two. Fish_N_Fool shared it with as many people as modern technology allowed. If it were me, I'd be just as excited. Give the guy a break. If you don't like the attention he's getting come back after his fifteen minutes is up. Sorry to rant but Fish_N_Fool deserves credit for bringing a great knot to the masses. Baitshop Bill, you sound like you're just trying to say, "Hey look at me, too." First you have to add something positive. Show us something we can use. Fish_N_Fool may even be among those patting you on the back. moderators - I hope this doesn't get me kicked off the forum. If it does, let me apologize before I'm gone and say thanks for all I've learned. I've enjoyed learning from some great teachers. Dave

Mark I have a set up similar to yours. I use a rotisserie motor but haven't timed the rotation, so I can't address specific speed, but I want to address the distance from the shaft vs speed lure is turning. I don't think it matters if your lure is right on the rotisserie motor shaft or 16" away from the shaft. If it is a direct drive set up the lure will still only turn 1 rpm if the motor is turning 1 rpm. It may be travelling a greater distance but it is still only turning over once a minute. I'm not lurking just to pounce on what I percieve as errors, as I have seen lately [see Fish_N_Fool knot ], it's just the original post questioned the speed of the lure dryer. By the way my dryer works great at rotisserie motor speed. Dave

deimai Your English was perfect. Unfortunately, I don't have a reliable router and table to use. I believe I can fix my dremel to my bench and use a similar method to your router method. Or possibly use the table saw idea Mark mentioned. Pete You're probably right about using a jig to mass produce these but I only make one or two of anything so that would make creating a jig not very practical. Thanks to all for the help. I will give this a whirl when I get back into the shop. I had a rough idea that I would have to do something similar to what was described but I just wasn't sure. It helps when someone else suggests the same thing. Santa Claus brought a new band saw and disk/belt sander. I promised Santa I wouldn't use them until a couple other projects are done around the house, though. I should be able to get started next week.

Does anybody know a good way to cut out the mouth on a Reef Hawg? It looks like it should be as simple as cutting a slot with a table saw before I shape it and filling in the "mouth" once I have the shape but I haven't tried. I think I would have trouble with symmetry if I try to freehand it after it's been shaped. Right now I'm at my desk thinking about it and hoped to hear someone had some success they could share. If not I'll just wing it and see what happens. I'll probably learn more that way anyway. I searched the forum and surprisingly didn't find anything about reef hawgs. Dave

Thanks for the replies. Diemai, great pics. One of the things I was wondering about was keeping it upright most of the lure out of water. I'll be spening a lot of time at the bath tub making this thing work. Dramone, thanks for the vid. Not exactly what I had envisioned but now I think I'll try that, too. I was thinking about just using a couple small spinner blades to mimic the feet movement but I was concerned they would interfere with the hooks. Diemai's paddles and the feet on your video have me thinking I'll try something like that. I have to admit until I saw the end of the video I kept hoping a huge muskie was going to jump out of the water and take that lure down. After seeing these ducklings and Thornwood's lures I'm sure what I make will look like a second grader's art project. If I don't completely humiliate myself with my creation I'll post a pic of what I make.

Has anyone ever made a bird lure? I saw an old thread by OHBlake that said he was trying to make a duckling lure. Blake had a picture of the duckling he was working on but I don't know what became of that. I think it would be cool to land a nice muskie on a top water bird lure. Who am I fooling, I think it would be cool to land a nice muskie on any lure. Any pictures of bird lures out there? I saw a web site for Thornwood Lures but I don't think he's in business any longer. I would love to build a lure like one of his. He had some beautiful birds. Now that college football season is over I think I will clean up the shop and start making lures again. If I manage to create something that resembles a bird I'll post it. Dave

This brings to mind many questions, but I'll only post a couple: Could you not tell the difference between your lure with clear coat and one without? Of the relatively few lures that I have clear coated the difference was like night and day. Secondly, have you heard from any of your customers that threw a painted lure and retreived a white one?

You guys probably know a lot more about this than I do but here's what I've always heard. The look of a lure catches fisherman, the action of the lure catches fish. If a lure looks like a fish we'll thow it. If it acts like a fish fish will go after it. Still, v-man's theory sounded pretty good. Dave

I've always wondered if there is some "formula" to use. Say I make a 4" lure would I use a 1/4" eye? Personally, I just buy a bunch and hold one up to the blank and if it doesn't look disproportionate I go with it. It's hit and miss but it's what I do. Does anybody do anything more scientific? Dave

I think you're right about that Mark. But every now and then when I spit I want that sucker to fly like none other.

I put a second coat on for a couple reasons, 1) After the first layer cured I noticed a couple spots that didn't get covered 2) This is my first lure and I don't know what I'm doing. I am going after muskie but, to be honest, that didn't factor into the second coat. Yake, I am going to pre-coat my next lure tonight with D2T. As you mentioned this will allow me to see how it swims before I spend much time painting it. It's been said before by a lot of other guys but I'll say it, too. Thanks to all for all the information that is posted at this site. I am amazed at how my first lure turned out. I couldn't have possibly done it without the all the wisdom I found on TU. My work doesn't come close to some of the stuff I see here but it's a lot more than I expected.

Thanks for the help. Last night I clear coated my first lure with the D2T and looked at it this morning and very happy with the results. The lure isn't the masterpiece that a lot of guys are able to produce but for my first lure I was happy with it. I'll put a second coat on tonight and next week I 'll see if it still floats like it did before I painted it. Who cares if this one catches fish - I'm just happy it resembles a fishing lure

I've searched and found a lot of information on Devcon 2T. A lot of what I read will really help. My question is: How forgiving is D2T in terms of mixing ratio? I use the twin syringe type dispenser and can tell that both sides do not dispense equally. If I put a teaspoon of each out to mix can I just trust the portions that come out of the syringes or do I have to be more exact?

Hey guys, I just wanted to jump in and say hi. Thanks for all the advise recently, I'm glad there are others with all the questions I haven't thought of yet. I'm going to clearcoat my first topwater lure this week end and until I saw Oscars first custom lure I thought mine turned out alright. Now I'm going to have to just keep at it before I post a pic of one of mine. The best I can say about mine is that it floats. Keep posting the pics so I can get some idea of what a lure is supposed to look like. I promise I won't ask how to put a plastic tail on. There are only two things I read front to back, one is the Sunday paper the other is this web site. The Sunday paper has the comics and this site has Rookie.