eastman03

Routers are unforgiving tools! Especially when working in close quarters with a small piece or wood. I suggest make some sort of jig that removes your fingers from the danger zone. Here is a few ideas and past conversations for jigs when using the router. I see no reason to get my fingers anywhere near there. www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/21991-using-a-table-router-to-make-lures/

Welcome here first of all! Bait making is a fun and addictive hobby! With a small propbait, you might not need any weight at all? Might be a trial and error thing. The hardware and hooks might give it enough ballast to remain in an upright position. Tough to know without some trial and error. Lots of information on wood density and weight needed if you look up Archimedes dunk test here on the forum. That probably gets a bit more technical than what you need at the moment Decals would probably last depending on the topcoats strength. Many of us use foil (like aluminum foil tape from a hardware store for duct work), or you can buy holographic sticker material. So as long as you have a good topcoat, whatever is under it should be protected. That being said, depending on the fish you are catching, might also depend on how long the topcoat lasts! Lots of great info and help on this site. What I usually do when I'm making a new to me style lure, make a few of them. Whip out a few kinda quicker prototypes (mine usually don't even have paint). Experiment with different weights, in your case maybe prop blades, or body sizes/shapes. Just don't change too many variables at once! Have fun with it. Keep asking questions here if you are stuck.

I really like the Engineered Angler channel on YouTube! Great ideas from him. I also have started using a mid coat for several applications and it really preps the paint for the final smooth epoxy finish! I dilute Minwax polycrylic with water and shoot it thru my airbrush to give a nice smooth mid coat for the final epoxy. I have also used it between painting and stencil layers where I want to tape a stencil or something like that to the bait. I clean out my airbrush immediately after spraying the polycrylic and haven't had any issues with it clogging up or doing any damage. If you let it harden in there I could see it being tough to remove. But airbrush restorer would probably take it off as it seems to dislodge everything (love that stuff).

Superglue was my first thought too. Liquid superglue. Or you could spray polycrylic. Love that stuff now. Probably wouldn’t penetrate as well as superglue. But you could just dip it in polycrylic too. It is thin enough it would clog the hole.

I'm with Mark on this one. I found some ammonia free window cleaner (it wasn't windex brand), and/or soapy water back flushes for between colors. And Airbrush restorer for a deep clean once in a while or if the performance drops. Lots of questions on airbrushes not spraying right on the other FB forums, but most of them are not doing the deep clean. Airbrush restorer works wonders for cleaning out the tight spaces. I haven't experimented with sonic cleaners, but I don't paint enough to warrant one of those. Restorer isn't really cheap either (or easy to find for me), but just soak the components and pour the solution back into the bottle. I've been using a 4 oz bottle now for quite a while lol.

As far as the width, I'm not sure it is a huge factor in the trolling game. We have taken a lot of footage in the last three years of our trolling lures with Spydro cameras, and see tons of followers or followers then biters and they all are behind or to the side of the lure and often nuzzle up to the lure basically letting it hit them in the face, it's crazy.

Most of the muskie trolling baits we use on LOTW in the fall range from 10-14". As far as depth, when the water temps are 40+ degrees, we get most of our bites from 10-20 feet. Cranks like 10-14" grandmas/jakes are popular. Trolled at 3-5mph. Once the water temp gets in the low 40's and into the 30's some of the real big girls can be caught deeper. We tend to move a bit slower as well 2-3.5mph. Lures like a legend plow are popular. Trolling in 20-30 feet off a deeper breakline. Lures hitting bottom in 20-25. But this is a small window before lakes start to ice up, so as much as I love these lures (and love making lures like them), they don't see a ton a use, but have caught some of my biggest fish. Anyway, just my little bit of experience as a musky fisherman on a shield lake. As far as construction, I would stay away from hardwoods like maple. I cant seem to find it, but I remember reading an article about how a lure kicks in the water, and the cedar lures outperformed, and out fished almost every hardwood lure. Tough to really tell though honestly. Send one over! I'll give it a good test lol.

I'm glad this was brought back to the top! I had an aha moment reading the Archimede's post from Dave. Not that I've really put it to practice, it finally made sense! (sorta). Could I get that calculator too? Thanks for all the work. Trevor t_froese@hotmail.com

Amazing work! Love seeing all the entries, congrats to the winners!

Hmmm an assortment of small jawed vice grips would be a bit more expensive, but very capable of clamping onto the wire hanger. That would allow me to hold the lure while clear coating, and just clamp the small vice grips to the turner (I have seen Marling Baits do this). Not a great solution if you have 100 baits to do, but I rarely make more than 12, and most of mine have lips. I apply my epoxy when I'm holding the bait by hand, which ironically I often use vice grips to hold the lure. But they are larger ones, with tapped up jaws so I don't mar the wire or bill. I like to hold the lure, so I can get a good look at it, hold it up to the light and make sure I don't miss anything obvious, then throw it on the turner.

I make mostly (ok all) large musky/pike lures. And I had made myself a wheel style drying rack, but I found the same thing. It was a struggle to get multiple heavy lures mounted securely across the wheel. I this is my solution so far, I have searched like you have for a better one, but for large lures without a crankbait lip I still don’t have a great answer. This is my solution so far. I have two Flat boards across my bbq rotisserie, real simple. Then I clamp or screw those metal spring style clamps in place to hold the lure. It works great for crankbait as you can just clamp the lip down on the boards. And I can turn at least 12, 10” lures

Sounds like a physics question. @Vodkaman will probably have a great answer haha. Or put this in the wire baits forum? It probably has to do with elastic deformation? I think I used some piano wire once and it will bend and vibrate, but spring back more than SS wire. I'm just guessing. I've had large spinnerbaits with SS wire and if a fish thrashes on it and it bends, it stays bent (plastic deformation) When you bend it back it seems to weaken that part. I've had several large muskie ones break at the middle bend because they don't handle 'tuning'. Perhaps Piano wire can handle this better as well?

That is a LOADED question! It very much depends on a number of circumstances, and even then there are no clear cut winners. If you are just making/painting the occasional lure for yourself, then cost and storage can be a limiting factor. What kind of fish you are going for can matter? Toothy pike and muskies can chew up some types of finish. Size of lure can matter. And what country you are in can be a limiting factor. Here in Canada, to import some of the products is huge money. Here are the basic categories anyway. Lots of guys will swear by KBS ( https://www.classicindustries.com/product/kb8404.html ). You can dip and hang, very nice for finishing small lures in bulk. Storage can be a problem and it is expensive. Good for high volume lure maker/painter with smaller bass/walleye type lures. UV cure like Alumalite UV or Solarez is very popular these days. It seems like a good product. I've heard Solarez has a very toxic smell (just hearsay), not sure about other UV products. You need UV cure lamps that match the correct wavelength for this to cure. Storage and cost are relatively cheap, but you need to have the lamps. Like DGagner mentioned, you can buy nail polish UV lights for cheap. I think this would be tough for larger lures as well? Not totally sure. Then there is slow cure epoxy. Envirotex is a popular one, BSI (bob smith industries), Devcon 30 min, west systems, TruCoat, Alumillite clear cast (there are many others in this category). I personally use these. I like them for the large lures. I like the cost, storage and useage of epoxy. I can put on a few layers and it looks great and protects the lure well. You will probably need a lure turner (like a bbq rotisserie) to let the epoxy level out correctly. So that is something to think about. There are other options like 2K I think it's called. 2 part automotive spray. Very hard finish, looks amazing, expensive, need ventilation and specific spray equipment. That isn't something I have any experience with. The polyurethane, or the clear gloss spray's like you mentioned are a tempting cheap option. But they really don't give you all that great finish. Probably good enough to slap on some personal lures and test them out when you first start. I don't think they are really 'waterproof', and I have heard the rustoleum stuff can 'melt' or kind of bind with other lures if stored together. Not totally sure. Those are just some of my thoughts from what is a very popular question on all the forums. There are absolute DIEHARDS who believe each one of these is the best lol. But each one has its pros and cons. And whichever one you choose, get good at it. They all have a learning curve.