airbrushextreme

I use # 2 split rings and #4 vmc short shanks and the baits suspend right fine if you are having trouble try wrapping the front hook with a little fly tiers lead wire and put heat shrink over it I have been doing this to some of the k/o's as well as the true vision 110 high floater to make it suspend just because you cant get a few colors in the regular 110 right now

I have went swimming for a couple megabass crankbaits and have pulled up brushpiles to get several jerkbaits of various brands back I too cherish a certain color orbit 80 and a zip baits speed kid they stay in a locked waterproof storage box in the boat but I treat all of my japanese baits like fine jewelry they get more and better attention than my wife

the guys who think they are getting the real thing or getting away with paying a whole lot less for knockoffs when they buy knockoffs are usually the guys who are too tight to spend a little extra money and buy the real thing dont realize knockoffs may look exact in appearance but they dont fish the same I had a customer send me the first 110 knockoffs I ever seen about 2 years ago he gave me 20 to paint and 20 to keep for myself he also sent me 35 true 110's of odd and good colors still in the hard plastic box to paint and 10 true 110's for me to keep in colors I requested out of the 20 knockoffs I kept for myself 4 were really good the others a rogue or husky jerk would work as good as if not better I spent several thousand over the last couple years on some of the best japanese baits out there lucky craft megabass zipbait evergreen tiemco just to name a few I have had amateurs/nonboaters fish with me in several tournaments and say I will catch them with this such and such bait and by the middle of the day they are saying what is that bait called do you think the local tackle shop has any and a little later could I borrow one of those and my answer is always but you have to pay for it if you lose it

I use crackle finish quite often on crawfish and some otherslike black over firetiger etc I dont use regular crackle medium however I use elmers white glue it will give you better consistency and less timespent making sure the bait is coated correctly

I use either fluorescent yellow or neon yellow tgic special effects from columbia coatings the neon yellow does a great job for chartreuse craw type colors the fluorescent yellow does the same exact color on the SOB spinnerbait pictured above their translucent candy yellow does the same type color as their clown and money colors over a gold blade I put some time and money into trying most of the colors from columbia and have found nothing but great product from them in all their colors and they are a commercial/military grade powder paint so it wont chip off and will be harder than your pro tech ever could I have some jig heads that have been repetitively beat into docks and riprap that still have all the paint on them even though they have dents gouges and dings in them

I broke the two triple trouts saltwater striper fishing they had already been abused pretty bad from a few years of bass fishing and the stripers done the rest

it is a poor excuse for a BBZ but it is somewhere to start it does notswim the same and 3 of the 5 I bought were weighted lopsided and didnt swim at all I make my own triple trouts I took 2 broken ones and made a mold for them I put a feather tail on it and it works great

I use a simple stencil I used a piece of stencil material and copied a rapala DT series craw outline then cut it out 1/16 wide this gives you a basic craw outline what you do after you outline the craw marks is what makes the bait

I like VMC the short shank rapala and the spark point are my favorites they dont bend easy and very seldom lose fish they run $4.99-8.99 for a 25 pack

I have heat set with the netting on if there is any paint buildup on the netting it will pull your paint job apart I use a hairdryer briefly to aid in drying remove the netting then heat set my paint if necessary

I tried that type holo scales also it looks great I place my scales in a scale back pattern like LC does I settled for the solid nonscaled hologram tape instead the rhombus holepunch is an AC Moore store brand try gold copper or red scales on a golden orange bait it is phenomenal pearl scales on a gold bait won me money lake Okeechobee last year and is a potomac river staple purple scales on a tablerock shad blue scales on a parrot I done a shad rap with chart top scales and pearl lower scales over a simple smokey joe type color think outside the box sometimes

I have colored it with blade dye and sharpies

the biots look just like the bristles in that bait but they are much easier to use and replace I have several true bullshads and just modified what I already had the biots are the thick wingfeathers 1 piece makes several tails

Try epoxying them like you would the bristle if you use synthetic bristle it can be melted with a soldering iron at the base to form a tail fin I tried this but didnt like the way it looked in the water it didnt look natural the feathers/biots hold up really well I have caught 30some fish on my triple trout lookalike and just now replaced the tail

I used createx flourescents for several years now switched to auto air because I get better paint for a little better price and have yet to have any of my chartreuse colors to fade I dont do anything special to them either other than clearcoat them

I use feathers for a shad/herring bait similar to the bullshad and on a trout similar to the 3:16 real deal and a triple trout imitation

I use a scrapbook diamond/scale shaped hole punch and holographic either transparent pearl crushed pearl or white pearl I use asuper thin mixed clearcoat and only apply to the area to be scaled then I use a small pair of tweezers to apply these small diamonds in the same manner as you see on a LC bait after I am done I clear the bait completely with 2 coats applied 15 minutes apart you can use any color holgraphic material you want I have done many types not just the silver/pearl colors red orange blue purplechartreuse the possibilities are endless My wife just informed me the shape is a rhombus and I stole her $12 rhombus holepunch

are you wanting a tail similar to triton mikes bull shad? I use bleached/dyed turkey or goose feathers/biots they work better than bristle

I havent ever won any major tournaments on a knockoff bait I won a local open tournament on a k/o lipless bait and a DT 10 knock off but thats the only one I havent ever painted to sell on ebay I paint for some friends who tournament fish also but to paint to sell on ebay forget about it the ebay buyers only want the best paintjobs for the cheapest price and you better include hooks or somebody is gonna cry I sold some limited edition luckycraft sample/show colord a couple years ago and several buyers wanted me to send them hooks,split rings or a free bait because they didnt get hooks with them these baits were on a display ring with no hooks on them when I got them from the LC rep at a tackle show

I use some of the PPG DX series clearcoat it is the hardest most durable PPG makes its expensive and only has a 15 day shelf life on both parts once opened like rowhunter said you need a respirator and adequate ventilation the first time I used it I cleared over 100 baits and didnt think anything about a mask because it didnt seem very noxious but an hour or so after I noticed everything had an aurora-aura whatever you call it and I proceeded to take a two day trip and never left the couch I had to take breating treatments afterward as well as visit the Emergency room for being unconsious for over 4 hours

lurepartsonline.com has them the chrome plated and clear bodies they are called agile premium lure bodies they are out of stock right now I have been getting them from fishincomfort off of ebay 5 for $15 or so he has staysee k/o's also that work well also

I use the K/O 110's a good bit but they arent the real thing Iknow this I have boxes of jerkbaits 2 of which are megabass 110's 3 boxes of larger luckycraft jerkbaits 1 box of 78'sand bevy shad 1 box of evergreen and zenith (specialty tackle) and 2 others of norman smithwick bomber xraps spro and some knockoffs these are just jerkbaits I fish for a living and I have come to realize that there is no perfect jerkbait I was schooled by a kid at lake champlain who fished a rebel spoonbill hand painted with a brush it was guady and in no way a good paintjob it goes to show you $40000 worth of jerkbaits dont mean your gonna catch fish with it ITS THE ANGLER

a local machine shop with a computerized cnc milling machine

shortys hooks has several VMC hooks in #5 same with gamakatsu in #5