Musky Glenn

Thanks Longhorn, I'll give that a try.

Those lures look great! The first bone colored lure I remember was a Wee R, man did it ever catch bass. I believe it had an orange belly. Congratulations Musky Glenn

I believe it is just some of the flexible bag material just stretched to that shape. Musky Glenn

I would agree with jdr418. But, with that lip, it could also be a custom painted "Carolina Killer" as Rick Haliburton (Ricks Baits) of Rutherford College, used to paint some in that color. Musky Glenn up 40 at Marion

Thank you, Musky Glenn

Would you happen to know if it is water based, lacquer based, enamel based, acrylic based, or some other base product. Thanks in advance. Musky Glenn

Does anyone know of a black substance that I can find locally to put dots on soft plastic swim baits? I know there is a paint made just for that, does anyone know what type paint that is? Couldn't find the type in the search section? Musky Glenn

I can make mine do that if I hold the line to one side of the reel, instead of in the center of the reel when winding line on to the reel. The hand that is creating the tension to make the line tight should be in the center of the reel. Musky Glenn

I have a great tip for working with the larger flakes, but it isn't what you may want to hear. I mix large flakes into my epoxy finish and then BRUSH it on watching for placement of the flakes to make sure they are arranged the way I like. I only do a few at a time but it doesn't clog tips. lol Musky Glenn

Try an auto body filler in a tube, can be applied to a small area, let dry and sands easily. NAPA sells it, don't remember the brand name. Musky Glenn

I mixed up two batches of the glue seen in the second photo. One from each glue bottle and both of them acted alike. I didn't put them on anything, just left them where I mixed them, side by side. Let them dry for a couple of hours and they never reached anywhere near a brittle stage. I couldn't leave a finger print or dent with finger nail but they remained very flexible.I placed them in a sink of water for a couple of hours and it didn't change them. I think I will wait and go back to d2t.

It is the weight of the head that holds it up right. The farther apart the blade and head are the more leverage the head has to stay on the bottom. The truth is that if you want to burn #7-8 blades, you will probably have to go to a heavier head or slow down a little. When you are up to that size spinner bait the head doesn't make the lure look much different. These are common sizes for Musky fishing. Check out some of the musky heads on www.lurepartsonline.com . Are you catching fish the way it is working? Musky Glenn

I had trouble until I bought a pair of "round nose" pliers. They sure made life easier for me. Musky Glenn

I have used a lot of different style bag material that work good. But, the easiest thing that I have used is a hair net. It stretches so you can change hole size as you like. By it being flexible, it fits any lure design. I stretch it over the top of the lure and fasten it on the bottom, then adjust the design as I like. Musky Glenn

A-Mac, I'm sure you will catch a boat load with that design. Great look. Musky Glenn

Rowhunter, Rayburn Guy, Lobina Fiend, Woodieb8, SamBennett and Bobv--- I really do appreciate all the ideas and thoughts. I will take your comments and I will give each a try. Now, if I can just remember which paints I used to come up with the red/orange lure Musky Glenn

Great looking lure, wish I had one. I do my dog walking with 40-50 # Spider Wire Stealth, it floats better. Just for me, if I bought the lure, I would cut the tail off. Still wish I had one, great looking head section. Musky Glenn

Rowhunter, The best of the lures was a Lucky Craft Sammy 100 that I scuffed up the factory clear coat with wet or dry sand paper. I never use primer over factory finishes. I just spray white Createx on enough to get a pure white base color. I dry every coat of paint with a hair dryer. I mixed three different batches of epoxy to do these few lures and all three batches of epoxy did the same. Sat. morning all the lures looked good and no wrinkles at all. This was after 13 hours drying time. But with 15 minutes of fishing the Sammy had started to peel at the head end and after 30 minutes you could see wrinkles all along the body. The separation did occur between the base and color coat, but how did the water get there to do that? The white Createx would smear because it had softened up so much. Lobina Fiend, Would you mind telling me the name of the auto spray paint you buy in a spray can at Walmart. I want to give that a try. Rayburn Guy, If you look closely at the wrinkling in the first photo you can tell that there is no pressure being applied from the inside of the paint. The wrinkles are to "loose", the clear coat expanded and softened up from what it had been earlier in the morning. The clear coat didn't feel right when I started fishing with it, you could tell it wasn't "hard" and "slick" like it should have been. My fingers would slide across the lure and not leave finger prints but I could tell it wasn't brittle. I went back and read the instructions and it didn't mention anything about this epoxy being water proof. Maybe I am trying to do something with this epoxy that it isn't meant to do. I will mix up some more and see if it happens again. Thanks to all of you for your comments. Musky Glenn

The color I was trying to copy, from memory, is called "ms red". This color has more yellow on the belly than my lure does. Musky Glenn

Rayburn Guy, I agree with you 100%, that it was a failure in the epoxy top coat. When I mixed the first batch of epoxy to finish these lures, I wasn't sure about the mixture because there was a small difference in the amount of each part because of air in one of the tubes. I mixed three different batches for these lures doing just a couple of lures out of each batch. On the second and third batches the amounts were right on. I couldn't tell any difference between first, second or third batch as they all reacted the same. Hillbilly1, I'm 65 and used to think that when I got this old, stuff like this wouldn't bother me, wrong. Being retired, I just have more time to correct it. If I can't pass anything else on to you guys, it is this. Copy that orange and red Sammy, it is a killer color ! They make a factory color, like that, that I was trying to copy. Musky Glenn

Most of my painting is just repaints of good quality lures. I have painted enough to basically know what to do, but some times "stuff happens" and I thought this would be a good time to show every one what happened to me. We don't see a lot of stuff that has gone wrong on this web site because of the quality of work you guys produce. I only paint for myself so that is why I don't pay more attention to the quality of some of the eyes. This was a rush job one night to have the lures ready for the next morning. All these lures were painted last Fri. and fished Sat. morning. I used a hair dryer to dry the white base coat and paint. Over night painting hasn't been a problem in the past. The problem may be in the epoxy I used as it seemed dry to the touch but couldn't stand up to the water. They looked fine until they got wet. In the two photos you can see two similar bottles of epoxy with the one on the right being the one I used on these lures. The one on the left is unopened and you can see a difference in color between the two packages. These lures are dry in the photo and the paint is loose on the lures in the first photo. In the second photo I have peeled back the loose paint to show how flexible it still is. There was water under the paint. Separation happened between the base coat and finished color. http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd58/muskyglenn/lures/badlures003.jpg http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd58/muskyglenn/lures/badlures005.jpg

Vodkaman, I'm certainly no authority on spinner baits but I do fish them a lot. I make a few for our local Muskie Club as well. I like to fish a spinner bait as slow as possible and still keep both or all blades spinning all the time. Just for me, if the blades don't spin, I won't throw it much, no confidence. I have seen a lot of muskies follow them back to the boat and if a blade stops turning in the figure eight, the muskies usually turn away. My best tactic for bass is a slow steady retrieve and twitch the rod to make the spinner bait skirt flair. Hard to beat a 1/4 oz. for small fish and 1 oz. for Northerns and Muskies. A good musky color in muddy water is all white, blades and skirt. Char/white with double gold willow leaf blades for small fish works good for me. Give one a try and hang on. I really like the spinner baits that the line tie is twisted instead of the "R bend" style. I tend to fish willow leaf blades 90 % of the time. Keep the blades shinny! Honestly you can't fish one wrong, just work with it until you find what works for you, they are a great lure. They come through rock and wood very well. Musky Glenn

Usually, on a retrieve the line of resistance is a straight line from rod through the section of the shaft that the blades spin on. Then the head of the lure hangs below that. I never liked the wire coming straight out of the head of the spinner bait. I always bend the wire up, somewhat, right where it comes out of the head so that the head rides more in line with the section that holds the blades. Back to your original question, they will never spin exactly the same just because of the way they spin. One on a swivel and one rotating around a shaft. You would think that the one on the ball bearing swivel would spin easier, and it usually does, but I have seen some that the shaft blade spins better. As long as they both spin freely, it doesn't seem to matter. The fact that they spin differently probably helps. Musky Glenn

The first boat I ever built was built in two hours with the help of my brother. We did remodeling and had some 1/2 in. cdx plywood left over. We used one full sheet for the bottom, made the sides 16 inches high. We didn't bend the front, just made a joint at the end of the bottom and slopped the front up at a 45 degree angle. The seats were plywood that just layed on top of the sides and we would move them front or back to balance out the load. We used 2x2's at all joints and SEALED IT WITH ROOFING CEMENT to keep it from leaking. Screwed it together with dry wall screws. No paint, just carried it to the river and floated that evening and caught white bass. That boat lasted three years before it rotted out. Never got around to painting that boat, great for floating for two people. Killed a lot of ducks out of it also. Ugly boat! Musky Glenn

Those are all good suggestions but I would disagree just a little. I used to use fiber glass sections but went to graphite because of their extra strength before you get to the wrapping part of the repair. When I was trying to find a good fit with the fiberglass, I was having trouble with the weaker fiberglass splitting length wise while trial fitting. The fiber glass also had more flex than the graphite rods I was repairing and it caused the rod to flex at each end of the splice and caused the thread finish to crack at the end of the splice and turn white. I went to making the graphite splice neat and square on the end and not wrapping down onto the rod and it stopped that problem. Never had one to break at the ends of the splice. They didn't look as good as wrapping down the rod, while new, but in a years time I liked it better. It will certainly work with fiberglass splices and wrapping onto the rod blank. Musky Glenn