flyonline

Something not often considered in this kind of discussion is the confidence of the user. Some people swear by spinnerbaits, I swear at them and have never caught a fish on one. If you have confidence in the lure then you'll fish it longer, harder, better, whatever than just a run of the mill lure and that goes for plastic, wood, fly etc. Personally I don't have a lot of experience with solid plastic lures, but have plenty with wood and hollow plastic lures and I'd have to say that the timber ones are much more resilient than plastic and have wrecked plenty of plastic ones but very few timber. And I fish them HARD, if they're not smashing into rocks or timber on the cast or retrieve I'm not getting it close enough. I have a number of timber lures that have been stripped of a lot of the paint over the years and still swim fine. Dave I've considered playing around with rotomolding plastic lures in the mold to get the low density but strength of the plastic. Steve

I know the feeling! Gun shops should have it, they use it to clean their shells prior to re-loading - not cheap though! Seriously, if you want to muck around with some I still owe you for those couple of slabs of board you sent me (use the same name on LL). Just had a thought then, what about poraver? Small expanded glass balls used in concreting which I seem to remember had a quite rough texture.

Pete the big green shed place have 25L drums with a wide mouth screw on lid, reckon it would be perfect for what you're looking for: http://www.bunnings.com.au/venture-bmw-25l-blue-tint-wide-mouth-water-storage-drum-with-bung_p3240533. Also, I seem to remember someone mentioning walnut shells? Let me know if you're interested, I've got truckloads of them floating around and can send you some (some full ones too if you like ). Steve

Dave try a vet, I've picked up 100mL syringes from one if that's big enough for you. This was a country based vet, but you might get lucky and find an elephant vet locally in Indonesia

It's not that difficult to lay up your own board using epoxy, fibreglass, carbon fibre, kevlar or other fabrics. You can make it to your own thickness and strength that way as well as using pigments to make different coloured bibs. I've laid up laminates for other projects, but never for bibs. Personally, I use a jigsaw with a laminate blade then touch up with a dremel, file, sander etc. afterwards.

Some dye in the glue also works well, food colouring works in PVA wood glue, or specific epoxy pigments if you're so inclined. Personally, I just hold a fine felt tipped pen/textar in my hand and use one finger as the stop but I'm not after super repeatability.

We use gloves down under in Oz for handing fish all the time - especially murray cod, they have mouths like razor sharp sandpaper for gripping their prey. Getting covered by a bit of claret is a badge of honour. There are many gloves available here specifically for fishing, but I've found that the cheapo womens gardening gloves work just as well and are half the price. Latex/rubber/silicon palm and fingers, but mesh on the back. I just put it on once I've got the fish under control rather than wear it all the time. Anything like these http://www.savingwithshellie.com/womens-garden-gloves-6pk-11-50/ (though it's usually harder to get 'manly' coloured ones - unless you want to stop your buddies stealing them ). I have also just cut the thumb off a glove in the past to grip the bottom jaw, but the fish I catch are so big that I have to put my whole hand in the mouth to release the hook

I've used perlite and cellulose powder before. It's a slightly larger molecule than microballoons (especially the cellulose), but I found it caused the resin to foam slightly and could never get consistent results. Thinking about it now, it could well have been extra/less moisture in the powder each time causing the variations in expansion. We use it by the ton at work, so I can easily grab a cupful or two if I want some. Steve

I've done the same thing with different colours a couple of times, hadn't considered different densities. I like the idea of pouring foaming PU over the top of solid PU - gives the hook hangers something strong to hang onto! http://s456.photobucket.com/user/flyonline_2008/media/P9210001_zps7e8b1978.jpg.html http://s456.photobucket.com/user/flyonline_2008/media/P9270001_zpsb30556f8.jpg.html Steve

Have a look at this thread, all hand painted and look superb .http://www.lurelovers.com/forum/bassfukasand-topfukas_topic12240.html?KW=dots Here's a sneak peak. Steve

Here's a link to the book you should have recieved [edit - it's only got 12 not 24 templates]. It is freely available on the web (plus a lot of the other stuff you probably should have recieved???), so I'm sorry you forked out some money for a pretty ordinary experience. There is also another PDF somewhere with another 3 from the same guy somewhere around. http://www.makewoodenlures.com/tempscollect.pdf Steve

Here's a PDF with a dozen different templates, including bib and directions. http://www.makewoodenlures.com/tempscollect.pdf This search also has a list of 20 odd templates and a build page for each. You'll have to go through them all as they're not readily recognisable by the name of the file. https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&as_q=templates&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=www.makewoodenlures.com&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=pdf&as_rights=#as_qdr=all&hl=en&lr=&q=site:www.makewoodenlures.com+filetype:pdf&start=0 Steve

I'm not sure what it's like for you guys, but down here I get a very high percentage of hookups on the front hook only or a combination of front and back (75%+ at a guess). Some guys even upsize the front hook and/or split ring to compensate for this. I've often seen a fish come up from below a lure and aim for the chin of the body around the front treble. If anything I'd be removing the back hook to limit the chance of being pinned by a shaking head. Pete have you seen many of these front towed lures around our part of the world, or indeed anywhere? Steve

Dieter a lot of our freshwater fish live in and around structure - fallen and standing timber, rocks, weed beds, clay banks and the like. Murray Cod in particular like to have something over their heads and I always reckon that if you're not actually hitting the structure with your lure as it splashes down often, you're not getting it close enough. The same can be said for underwater structure - if you're not hitting it, you're less likely to catch fish. These fish are ambush predators and lie in wait for the food to come to them rather than chasing it down. You're right on the snag proof-ness, both with regards to the bib and the buoyancy. Pausing the retrieve often can trigger a take as the lure floats back into the fishes face. Don't forget too that Australia is a very dry place, our rivers and dams are a lot smaller than those just about anywhere else so you don't have to cast far no matter where the fish are in the water Steve

Have a look at this lure if you're after a shallow diver with a strong vibration. At 120mm (just under 5") it's not a small lure! A bit of a description towards the bottom of this page - http://codonthecast.com/ive-got-the-bug/. I've not used or seen one, only going off the blog. A point to note though, casting with these kinds of lures chasing aussie fish (murray cod mostly) isn't distance orientated. Accuracy at snags is the aim of the game and 10m/30' would be a very long cast for me. Steve