Anglinarcher

Not for lure making, but have used it for work some time ago. It is not what I would say was fun, but it worked for sure for highly contaminated areas.

Yes, Krylon Fusion is good stuff. Can you still get it? I could not find it when I looked last, so had to go with their newer stuff. I use to use it as a base coat a lot.

I have no issues with Krylon primers followed with Createx white. I do mist the first Createx, and prefer to use the water based within the first hour after pulling the Krylon primed parts from the mold, or painting with Krylon. No additive added. I suspect that it is all a matter of personal technique, things harder to explain then we can put into words.

Ditto on the brownish, so I always prime. But, I have painted directly with no problems.

Sure, when it is mixed, even when it is poured into the containers, it forms air in the mix. The more you mix it, the more are gets in. When you pour the clear mix into a mold, the air forms bubbles that hurt the clarity, if if bad enough, the strength. There are two ways to combat the air. One is to degass, the other to crush the bubbles. To degass the mix you put it into a vacuum chamber, draw out the air pressure to near zero, let the air bubble out. Depending on the material, it can take 60 seconds to three minutes. To crush the bubbles, you can put the mix into your molds, then put the molds in a pressure chamber and pressure to 60 PSI or more and let the mix cure. I tend to go with the vacuum chamber, let it degass, then pour into the mold slowly so it does not add air back in. I have a video (pretty shaky but OK) that I can email you, but it is to big to attach here. PM me your email and I can send it to you.

Welcome to the site, and we all hope things turn around for you.

Me too.

Funny thing is that I think you get slapped on the hand if you smuggle drugs into the US, but get sent to prison for life times 2 for Polar Bear Hair. LOL

Still, no synthetic seems to match the shimmer and translucent properties of "baby seal fur" or "polar bear hair". Having used both, I can compare. If you have never used either, then you can be fooled by advertising, etc. This is not a comment on the ethical, moral, legal, etc., issue, just a statement of fact. And yes, they do collect baby seal fur from shore lines now and sell it as dubbing, and it helps some for those of us old-timers, but ...........

Lots of great ideas for eyes on soft plastics, and everyone above is good. But, the question was regarding the new(er) fisheye eyes, which in my mind links to a specific type of eye. http://www.jettsonlures.com/product-category/lure-eyes/fish-eyes/ or maybe the following: http://lisaandedseyes.ipage.com/lure_eyes.htm or even http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Lure-Eyes/ These are not so easy to attach, with any glue form my experience, which is what I thought the question was about. But, several things are for sure, uttexas is dead on with the rattle, and you can paint the plastic to increase an "eye effect". MonteSS shows a beautiful option for soft plastics.

Funny how that works. I have some soft baits of my own creation that I vary the amount of salt or the hardness of the plastic for specific purposes. That is a benefit of pouring your own. Far too often we think there there is only one way to do it but in reality it is a matter of personal preference.

I lived in Spokane for many years, 17 or so, but moved to Louisiana with a Job and later moved to Utah to help family. Wife kind of wants to move back to Spokane area, but ...... I don't remember the show name anymore, I know it was not the Bighorn show, but one of the fishing shows they use to put on. I think it was at the fairgrounds, but it might have been at the convention center. You had a booth in it, but that was several years ago. I have not seen a real fishing show in quite some time. We got into a minor debate on the "fish-n-fool knot", but it was nothing that big. Strangely enough, I am not on facebook. I leave that for my wife. Kind of hard to complain about her being on it all the time if I was on it also. ROFLOL We can PM on this site, and when I visit my son to fish Rock Lake or Roosevelt, maybe we could meet up and I could help you if you have specific questions. Take care, Steve

Ya, outlawed to bring into US many years ago. Got my But# hammered pretty bad as a kid when I used up my Dad's supply on some frivolous streamer fly. I deserved that one I think.

I don't know if we are talking again, I know we were not at the last fishing show we both attended in Spokane. LOL Jokes aside, I can help some here. Because you are good at making masters, you are ahead of the curve. Best two sources I know of are Alumilite and Smooth-On. I prefer Alumilite myself but while both are similar, both have differences. Yes, I do clear baits, but they ARE NOT FOR BEGINNERS. We can discuss them later. The two ways are to make the hollow sides in two pieces and attach them, like most commercial baits, or to mold them hollow using rotomolding. As for a clear that is strong, I am a fan of Amazing Clear Cast (longer working time and 80D Shore Hardness) or Water Clear, 72D, but a shorter pot life. Both require degassing for a clear lure and/or bill. Yes, a clear bait does need to be hollow to float, but how much depends the hook hardware, ballast, etc. Like I said, it is NOT for beginners. Yes, you can mold clear bills, and yes, you can pour another material around them. SUDD can talk about how he uses a pre-made bill and inserts it into the bait after it is made. I actually pour around the clear lip. But, again, making your own bill still requires degassing ability and some experience. Speaking for the Alumilite materials, I have poured the clear, the white, and the foams, all layered, and they adhere so well I cannot break them apart. In fact the Alumifoam is so strong that a hammer does not easily break it, but it is the density of cedar wood. Hope this helps some. I will include the Alumilite and Makelure tutorial links to help. I sure wish we had a good video storage link on this site, but YouTube also has most of this, just not in one place. Good luck, Steve https://www.alumilite.com/store/pg/21-How-To-Videos-Alumilite-Mold-Making-Casting-Materials.aspx http://www.makelure.com/store/pg/54-How-To-Videos.aspx PS, remember that for the most part, what works for Alumilite will work for Smooth-On; just the products change.

Paint is toast, toss it and get new. Createx and almost all other water based paints cannot be kept in freezing conditions. I have encountered only one paint that is water based and freeze stable, and I don't remember what it was (expensive). I guess they just assume we know that, but it would help a lot of new people if they did a better job of saying it on the bottle instead of just on their web site.

A stencil is the easy way to go, and I usually do that myself. But, if you take your time and just practice on a plain piece of paper, you can get it down and it will look great. Once had a class with an airbrush and they started with us just painting smaller and smaller dots. Then moved to smaller and smaller lines. Funny, it seemed soooooooo boring, but it worked.......for a while. I don't airbush often enough to keep my touch, so back to the stencils. LOL

Only problem is that, for example, AlumiUV and Solarez also grey and they are not solvent based and cure using UV light. Both are clear, AlumiUV being much better (no wax haze), but they still grey the silver coats. I do agree though that "The best metal looking paints usually have their pigment particles "leaf"; meaning they lay flat with the largest reflective surfaces all facing one direction. If that orientation is altered they get dull in a hurry." I have tried the water based clears first and had not improvement. But, perhaps if we keep this thread alive long enough someone can come up with something. There must be a way.

Look forward to trying it in the future.

If you are looking for glue, etc., for the fisheye eyes, nope, no easy way that I know of. Larry Dahlberg has/had a video showing how he made his Mr. Wigleys before they went commercial. He used an eye with a post on it, poured a tube in the Muskie Bait that went from left eye to right eye location, then inserted the post with some superglue. That works well and I have done the same with fisheye eye styles. I glue a little wooden dowel to the back of the eye, insert the dowel into the embedded tube with some glue (normally epoxy for me). Perhaps that will give you some hints that might help. http://www.makelure.com/store/pg/54-How-To-Videos.aspx Go to about 1:06 on the video below. MakeLure - Advanced Mr Whiggley fishing lure - make your own

Looks great.

Looks good, and you are correct, a little less pressure for the gills. Issue was probably my "internet explorer". Loaded with Chrome today and both show up.

Now for the real question, does it stick, does it stay on the lure?

ugggg, I cannot get the image to load. Can you try it again? I want to see it. Steve

Welcome Glen, good to have you on the site. First thing I suggest is posting this in the Wire Baits section. Those guys take care of the jigs and there is a large following there that are experts. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/forum/21-wire-baits/ Second, hover your mouse over the top right of the screen where it says Activity. You will get a menu that has search at the bottom. Click on search and enter your question and years of data will come up. Last, those are heavy jigs, so be careful. Big heating pots will be necessary, larger molds then I have seen. Lots of issues, BUT it is doable and is a great idea. HAVE FUN!

I have family in the area, and in the south, and they never tell the truth. ROFLOL Guess it just makes me question anything coming out of Cali. HEHE