Musky Glenn

I am President of the Western North Carolina Muskie Club out of Asheville, NC. I have been a member for over thirty years and have seen a lot of improvement during that time. I have caught at least one musky for 22 years in a row. I believe they are the hardest fish in fresh water to catch. I am 71 years old now and don't put out as much effort as I used to. I find trolling taking more and more of my time. They are just a special fish and every one should have a true passion for some fish species.

Fish on-son, You are very correct, North Carolina is not a hot bed for muskies. Four in one day is the best I have ever done.

If that lure is giving you to much of a problem, I will gladly take it off your hands. lol A lure that works on Muskies is good regardless of what is wrong with it. Great Catch. Musky Glenn

A days worth of casting is approx 800-1000 cast so that would mean a musky per day. Actually a Musky is a fish of ten thousand cast, if your lucky. There are also multi fish days once in a while. Musky Glenn

I just use cheap round nose pliers and they have been used for 5-6 years. I only use them for my own spinners. Try building some before you sink a bunch of money into tools you may not need. Good luck. Musky Glenn

I wanted to make a copy of a commercially made lure, I bought one took measurements, cut it apart to see how much weight and where they spaced the weight. When I found out how much work it was to get all this right, I just bought more factory made lures. Good luck. Musky Glenn

Plastic musky lures are terrible for doing that. I don't even try to salvage them when that happens. That is another good thing about wood lures. Hate it when Sammy's swell.

A while back I had been having trouble with my Badger 200 and 200nh airbrushes. (3 total) The problem was a systematic spitting of air. It was constant and speed of the pulses depended on how much air pressure was applied. I saw a video on you tube that helped me solve the problem. They stated that the packing around the needle was letting air bypass. I removed the needle, disassembled the airbrushes, took a drill bit that fit the situation and applied pressure with the blunt end of the drill bit. I reinstalled everything and now all three are working fine. No more pulsing. Maybe this will help some of you.

famjr, If you wind fast enough it will stay on top, I don't believe you will have any trouble at all. Be careful the willow leaf doesn't hit the wire frame and block it from spinning. Sounds like a good idea that needs trying. Good luck.

Here are a few reasons no one has posted their wore out lures 1. People don't want to share lures that are that good, or 2. People don't get their lures bitten that often by toothy critters, or 3. People don't want others to know that their lures do wear out, or 4. We have repaired all our wore out lures

If you blow the lacquer thinner out good, you should be able to go straight into water based paint. Blowing the AB out after either lacquer or water based paint should leave the AB dry inside. Let me know when those Suddeth lures go on sale. I remember them well. Good luck

The Badger 200 is a very good single action air brush. Take the tip off and see if you can see light through it when you hold it to the light. Some times the tube from the bottle to the AB stops up. The difference between the 200 and the 200nh is the tip. Seems the 200 tip is more prone to clogging. My money is on it needing a good cleaning. Wish I could buy a new air brush when ever they clog up. Good luck.

I understand the draw of nostalgia, but what you will end up with is a new looking rod that is old school, heavy by any comparison and doesn't have the feel of todays rods and you will have more money in it than you could spend on a modern rod. But now with that said, everything you need to know is shown on the Mudhole website except where to find someone to do it for you. Half the labor cost will be the labor stripping down the old rod before you start building it back. 40-50 years ago Shakespeare made the Wonderrod which in that day was the top of the line fishing rod. I always wanted one but just never dropped the money for one. Recently I found one in a pawn shop, picked it up to look at it and it felt so awkward and heavy that I layed it back and considered that itch scratched. It just didn't measure up to my memories because of the quality of todays rods that it would be compared to. Good luck.

The best gold I have found is spraying Createx sunrise transparent over silver foil. When the hair dryer hits it and it starts drying there is a drastic change from yellow to a briliant gold color. Good luck.

I gave a presentation on making spinner baits to the local Musky Club and one of the members made that for me, works great. Wish I could take credit for it but I just own it. If I were to make one for myself I would eliminate the handle and just have a simple hook to hold it when I got it pulled back where I wanted it. This one sure does work nice. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy I seldom use collars because they just don't last long enough. I hand tie about all of mine.

Apdriver, I'm not sure what you call those handles, but you see them used on a lot of accessories for wood working where they use them on "hold downs". I have just never seen a catalogue that list them but am sure they are out there. As well as the hollow bolts that the rod slides through. Good luck.

I didn't want to hijack the other topic on collar expanders so here is a couple of photo's of a home made version. It was built from scrap parts but its only purpose is to pull the skirt apart enough to insert skirt tabe into the collar. The height of the two middle pins is approx. 1/8 inch. When open they are approx. 5/8 inch apart. Slide the collar onto the two pins and flip the lever on the right end and it opens so you can insert what ever tabs you need. slide the tabs in from the pointed end and the collar won't slide off the ends until you are ready. Works great but could be built less complicated. Use your own immagination. Good luck. This is not a commercially available model.

Mudhole.com has all kinds of eyes to match up with. Good luck

I would probably treat them like moving parts in a car engine and balance them to a set standard that works for you. Then they would all be the same. Good luck.

I did go buy another 7' fishing rod today. I'm a 72 year old kid that never got over a child hood of having to make do with one, half good fishing rod all the way through my teen years. Now that I can, kind of, afford a few extras, lures, reels and rods just make me sleep better at night.

There are 36, 7 inch pencil poppers on ebay. Already painted so you won't have to worry about weighting. Good luck. saltybugger.com has unpainted wood 9" for $3.79.

Mr. Prager, I apologize for my arrogant attitude and was mainly being sarcastic concerning buying another fishing rod. I hope your health improves so you can get back to those tournaments. Good luck.

I'm not sure those are caused by one action. At the top of the vertical white flash mark is a low spot that is usually caused by oil contamination, called "fish eye". I believe this is in the paint itself. In the middle of the horizontal white flash is a "crack". This may be caused by rough sanding or a scratch that wasn't sanded out flush. This could be in paint or clear coat. Paint just flowed into the bottom of the crack. Some of the stuff looks like dust has settled on it during the drying process. This is probably just in clear coat. If it is for you, just fish it. If it is for sale or learning experience sand with wet or dry 400 or finer sand paper using water. Repaint and make sure to get a full coverage coat of paint on it WITHOUT putting on so much you get a run. Good luck

I use water based paints and Bob Smith epoxy which have no odor, so I took the breath cool system money and bought another fishing rod. lol

And then you change from a 1/4 oz. lure to a 3/4 oz lure or 3/4 to 1 and 3/4 oz and it is entirely wrong action again. It seems to me to be to many varables to be able to calculate how much to sand off a rod blank to achieve an action that can't be defined. Good luck.