fishnart

Welllll once I was cleaning my boat and had taken my plano boxes of baits out and put them on the sidewalk in the hot sun. They were there for several hours and when I opened them up I had one bait that had done the same thing. The finish had cracked and was peeling. The bait itself was warped. The bait was a plastic bait (Cordell I think) that I had repainted with acrylics and topcoated with DK2. Not wood. Any thoughts on that? Not had it happen keeping baits in my hot compartments during the summer??

I've not seen them before but they actually look dang good...

Thanks for responding Mark, and thanks for the compliment!

ok I'm gonna ask a really stupid question.First I've been painting baits for a few years and when I learned I didn't know about this site and just learned on my own. I never learned that I had to heat set at all. So over the years, I've never heat set any baits. On rare occasions I spray my paint pretty heavy and it drips and runs, but thats not often. I just felt that was my fault because I added a little too much thinner (water) in my paint and/or sprayed it too heavy. Most of the time I spray thin coats that, at least I thought, were dry by the time I clean my cup and switch colors. So, my question is, and I apologize because it might be obvious therefore a dumb question, but why do we heat set them either during or after? So far I've never had an issue with any of my baits...

I use a two part epoxie that I use in taxidermy. Put two parts together into a puddy consistancy. Then put it on the bait and mash it down into a small circle, or eye. Experiemet with the amounts of epoxy to determine how big your eyes, once its dry I paint it

I use a two part epoxy clay that I use for taxidermy and make my own eyes and then paint them. You can paint them any color you want.

I just take all the hardware off, tape the bill and spray it with white primer. Never been an issue with it.

Well I expected different opinions and I appreciate everyone taking the time to offer thiers. Like I said, so far I haven't heard of any of the baits I sell not performing. While I expect it will happen from time to time, heck, I've had new namebrand baits not perform. So it happens. As well as knockoffs I do repaints and offer to put my paint jobs on thier baits that they provide to me. And I do have a lot of repeat clients so, so far-so good for me. Thanks again

Well I do sell knock offs as knock offs. I never misrepresent my baits, so the client knows what they're getting when they get them. And so far, I haven't heard anything but good reports. And in my opinion they're still getting a good deal, I only get $13 for a bait for my most detailed bait and I typically spend several hours on one bait getting all the detail. So by the time I buy it, paint it and finish it, and ship it the customers getting a heck of a deal, I feel I'm the one getting the short end of the stick as I'm sure most of us on here do. I can say at this point I don't sell them to make money, I just like doing it for people and I enjoy seeing them happy, so for now the money isn't the big deal.

Hey Ben, yeah I agree. I am honest and make sure I tell everyone that they're knock offs or repaints. I do look for deals and wear ebay out haha. So I do both, but bottem line if I'm selling a knockoff, the client knows its a knockoff.

We've discussed this in another topic but I thought I'd give it it's own topic. I'm seeing more and more people not liking knockoff baits? I'm curious what baits you guys buy? Who still buys knock offs and if you don't, what baits do you paint. This of course doesn't apply to those of you that make your own...'m not that good. Its kind of expensive to buy brand name baits and repaint them unless they're for your own use. If you're buying them to sell, it's not cost effective in my opinion. So what do you guys do?

Well so far I've only had one incident where a bait didn't run well, the rest have??? Now I'm sure I just jinxed myself. I also had an incident when I tried to tune one, the rapala crankbait knockoff, and the lip started cracking right a way so I didn't continue. So what to do?? If you don't buy these knockoffs what unpainted baits do you buy? Maybe I should start a new topic and ask that question.

Gbass, you mentioned academy h2o...can you get unpainted baits there? I did a quick chk and didn't find any???