Sonny.Barile

Anyone ever try casting around a foam slug to obtain more bouyancy?

Gentlemen Thanks for the help. I will shape up a few more blanks today to try these methods. As I stated earlier I have used Pine before but it was #1 clear which I think is what is used for Pine furnature. This stuff I am trying to use now is just simple structural grade 2 x 6 I had lying around in the garge. It would be great to develope a working method as I have a few 5 foot lengths of it that would otherwise go to waste. Regards

I made a lure from some wood I had lying around. It was a length of old 2 by 6. I think it is pine or spruce and is prety grainy. I was able to shape out what I wanted relatively easy but the second I put paint on it it got some steps where the grain was prevalent. By the time I was done with it the grain really popped up good. Is there a way to stop this from happening? I have used #1 clear pine before but it didnt act like this........

Boat builders encapsulate foam in resin. Has anyone tried putting a foam slug in the mold to make it more bouyant? At first I thought maybe using wood, but the diferent thermal expansion properties would probably make it crack.....

Baits made entirely of metal or nonbouyant materials need to be retrieved quickly or they sink straight to the bottom. I use metal jigs and blade body baits for certain types , of fishing but they do not work when I need to finess a bite.

It is known that ethanol may cause some problems with built-in fiberglass gas tanks. Everything else you hear....like....."it will breaks down the fuel hose"....."it eats the above deck poly tank"......or my favorite.........."it takes 3 gallons of gasoline to make a gallon of ethanol"...is simply uneducated complaining and fear mongering that seems to be prevelant in todays society.

I am a New Jersy salt water guy..........the bait balls up and swims at the top of the water column on sunny days because the predators have a hard time seeing them that way. They need to hone in on a target. The predators will mostly target fish from the outside of the school. Fish that cant keep up or are injured will not be able to stay in the bait ball. This make sense to me based on the way I catch bluefish with live bunker. I will find a school of large bunker, snag one with a big weighted trebble hook. I then transfer him to a wire leader hook. I put one hook in his mouth and then I slip another leadered hook through his mout, out out of his gill, and hook him in the tail. I throw him back in crippled and bleeding. He falls to the outside of the schoool and bang. I got one on......... However, Im not sure if it is the same in fresh water. i think I have seen Bill Dance say that you can piss a bass off and get him to bite something.

Get yourself a sealable round container like a coffee can. Glue a peice of wood block to the outside bottom. Put a screw right in the center of the wood but dont sink it all the way. It needs to be strong enough to chuck in a variable speed drill. Chuck it. Cut sheet of soft craft foam and line the circumference of the can inside. Put your lure, about a 1/4 cup of water, and 5 or 6 tablespoons of playground sand in the can. run it at about 15 or 20 rpm for 3 or 4 minutes. (it needs to be run sideways) It is called tumbleing and is common practice in machine shops....along with liquid honing and bead blasting.

Try using Sculpey polymer clay. It isnt really clay.....it is a polymer plastic. If works like silly putty. You can press it into the cavity then pop it out. It needs to go in the oven at 285 for 20 minutes. It comes in all sorts of colors so you wouldnt have to paint them and it is real cheap in the craft stores. Also...I dont think it is toxic in any way.......I have used this stuff to make eyes for lures.......

It will be to brittle................

I build just for me. They are not nearly as pretty as most that I see on this site. Day one....... 1. pick out a plank from my pile. 2. Trace out lure. 3. Run through the ban saw. 4. Sand all faces (the old fashioned way......) 5. Radius edges on the router 6. Drill for weights and hookeyes 7. Sand again 8. Install weights and hookeys with glue and filler 9. Trace out lip on 1/8" lexan. 10. Cut lip out with coping saw. 11. Clean up edges of lip (file and sand) Day two...... 12. Sand filler and hookeye areas to remove excess material 13. Finish sand with fine grit. 14. Mask eyehooks and prime 2 coats. Day three...... 15. Paint with airbrush atleast 2 colors and painted eyes Day four....... 16. Clear coat (brush) atleast 3 coats. 17. Oven cure Day five...... 17. Snap rings and hooks 18. Admire (while drinking beer) First Saturday after completion...... 19. Take lure to the river 20. Tie onto line 21. Loose lure. 22. Say swear words

Haz I have a cheap portable unit from Humminbird. It is a Pirannahmax 10. I dont have a high speed boat so it reads great at full speed. (about 22mph) It came with a suctioncup to hold the transducer on the transom but using it that way means you are limited to slow trolling. I bought a clamp mount for the boat so it stays on at full speed. I primarily fish a saltwater river that has a deep enough channel for large barges and tugs to get through. It is tidal so at times the current can really flow fast and hard. The river is surrounded by swamp marsh for many miles so there is plenty of weeds and plant debris floating below the surface. This can make marking fish a difficult task with false readings. There is so much seaweed and mud at times it can appear that there are two bottoms for long stretches. I only use it to read depth, find droppoffs and structure (mostly humps and stationary weed beds) and to read temerature. Temp is important for migratory striper fishing. On occasion I fish in a large bay known here in Jersey as Raritan Bay. (It is the back side of the famous Sandy Hook) There I use the machine primarily for reading depth while navigating as there are plenty of sand bars that you wouldnt want to hit when at full throttle. That area is what prompted me get one. I was about 150 yards from the shore and travelling at full throttle when I decided to stop and take a look around. I looked down and saw my outboard skegg was about 2 inches off of the bottom. If I had hit a rock at speed it would have been awfully expensive. Most of my bay fishing is done in the shallows so depth and marking fish is not as important as temp while fishing there. Sonny

I got one thing to say....."MASTER CRAFTSMAN"!

Parrot I have already been down that road. Just from sitting in a tacklebox slot and getting shaken up a bit it chips off. Also, it isnt really water proof.....just water resistant. It isnt meant for submerged use. After a few casts into salt water you can feel it getting tacky. At that point just the friction of the water alone will break it down. If you are really bent on using something like that try the exterior polyurethane. It will surely amber your color scheme but atleast it will stay on................

Why not buy a spool of titanium wire from McMaster Carr or if cost is an issue try buying a spool of spring tempered stainless wire.....

there is a poly from the Plaid company sold under the brand FolkArt at places like AC Moore...........it is non yellowing and made for outdoor use which I guess means it is ok under UV. It is pretty cheap and not to stinky. I bought an 8 oz container a few weeks ago because it looked thin enough to spray in my badger air brush. Eventually when I get some free time I will experiment with it and post the results.

"Durometer" or "Shore hardness" is the number you are looking for. Elastomeric materials like common o-rings are a 60 to 70 durometer. Polyethylene milk containers are about 80 to 90. The epoxy manufacturer can provide you with the value for a particular resin/hardner combination if mixed to there specifications. This hardness value will clue you in to whether the epoxy is too soft or too brittle. Keep in mind that the harder it is the less surface grip strength it will have. This is why I posted earlier that to hard a coating will shatter and seperate from the surface of the lure easily. I was using polyacrylic on my lures and it is to gummy. It has a durometer of 60. A toothy fish can penetrate it easily. However, when I hit the rocks, it gets more of a rash (rough surface) as opposed to a chip.

I saw some trebles that were more circular in curvature on a website recently. They appear to have the points turned in more and the barb turned out. It may not be directly pointing where it can stick the lure body. It looks like this in itself will reduce hookrash but it also may reduce hook-ups. Anyone have any experience with these hooks?

Hazmail................my biggest blue was last year and 19 pounds...caught off the bottom with a live Bunker (Menhadden?) I pulled him up with 10 lb. PowerPro braid on a 7 foot bass rod. My heart still pounds when I think about it. When I got him up on the boatdeck he was thrashing and lunging like a rabid dog. I unhooked him with a very long pliers and rolled him back in the water with the butt end of my net......... I havent come back to update this post in a while.....My latest experiment is with lipped 7" stick baits. I want to have a few in my tackle box for the Fall Striper run.......As far as top-coating is concearned, I am still using up my poly supply as i have plenty. Considering that these are only in experimental stages I dont mind them getting chewed up............I did do a few with D2T and it isnt easy without a lure turning device. It seems to hold up better than the poly.....

I have tried ABS, PVC, and Acrylic Plexi-glass, but am now using lexan because everything else breaks to easy.

Poplar is way more boyant than oak or other dense hardwoods. You will need more weight to get it down and you will get more wobble out of the lure than as if made in oak. This can be good and bad. If you are using a lure design that is already rather lively in oak then the poplar may make it so lively it spooks the fish. However, it is my experience that it is great for neatral (suspending) or floating models. .............Just food for thought...............

Not to confuse the issue.....but....... harder can also mean more brittle and more likely to come off of the lure upon impact. Sometimes gummy is better ...it will absorb shock. Take for instance what they do for cameras. When they want impact resistance they dont coat it in Devcon...they coat it with rubber. However, when you add sharp hooks and teeth to the equation, gummy means tears and hook rash. I would assume there is no one type that is best for all. Maybe that is why tackle companies list specific species and duties for thier products. Just my two cents..... Sonny

I live in Secaucs. I have a West Marine and a Boaters World both within 30 minutes of my house. .......bt neither displays any of the models I am interested in. If I want to see the whole line-up I would have to drive over 2 hours to Cabelas or Bass Pro........

Yeah.......That was supposed to be to stop commercial businesses from taking up all the bandwidth with advertising. Only thing I can think of is....."They are all just jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"