JD_mudbug

This holder is set up for 2 lures. The lure in the picture is a 6 inch popper. Swivel snap wired to the L bracket on the left. Eye bolt with rubber band and snap on the right. 1 inch by 3 inch scrap wood. You can also put an eye screw on the side of one the ends to hang it vertically for drying. I recommend setting it up for 2 lures at the most as would be hard to paint lures in the middle. If the lure is 8-12 inches I only put one lure on it at a time.

I took a piece of scrap wood that was 1” thick by 3” wide. Make the board around 3-4 inches longer than the lures you will be painting. I screwed an L bracket at each end of the board, down the center of the end. I got 4 L brackets with screws for $2.60 at Walmart. The backside of the board will lay flat on a table. The L brackets will stick up on the top side at the ends. I wired a swivel snap to the top hole in one L bracket that was sticking up. I put a small eye bolt held with a nut through the top screw hole in the opposite L bracket with the eye towards the middle. I threaded the nut on tight but making sure the bolt would still spin. I got the eye bolt for 50 cents at a local hardware store. To paint a lure, I clip the lure’s nose to the swivel snap. I put a regular snap or paper clip bent into an S on a rubber band. I run the rubber band through the eye bolt and then back through the rubber band. I attach that snap to the tail hook hanger. The rubber band will hold the lure tight, even if it is jointed. You can rotate the lure by spinning the threaded end of the bolt and the swivel snap on the other end will allow the lure to rotate. I am sure there are better things to use. But, this was cheap enough to make a few of them. You could use almost anything like flexible wire and an alligator clip to re-MacGyver the rubber band and snap. Sorry, I am having phone issues and can't get a pic posted.

I am guessing you don’t hear more about the banana style lures is that they don’t sell well in the US. Those baits look a bit funky and ‘old-fashioned’. They typically don’t have the better paint jobs that other baits have. I still use the Heddon Magnum Tadpolly and Clatter Tad (rattling model). They have a very strong thumping action, great for murky water. It comes through cover well because the belly hook is shielded by the curve of the lure. It backs out of most snags because the rear is bulbous and the whole back (top-side) of the lure has a smooth curve to it. The lip is part of the body which also reduces the chance of snagging. Once stopped, the bait floats up slightly away from the caster freeing itself. Unfortunately, it was discontinued. There are some banana style baits around like the Lindy River Rocker, Rapala Tail Dancer, Reef Runner, and Flatfish. I think the key to making one would be to weight the lure so it floats rear-end up at around a 45 degree angle. With the smooth slope of the back and weighted properly, it should back out of many snags.

I still use this mod on occasion in deep water where I am trying to get a bait to suspend/sink and run deeper than normal. As better suspending and deep diving baits have come on the market in recent years, I use it less and less. I have also also drilled holes in the back (top) of crankbaits to add or remove rattles and replug the hole. I have heard people call it the crankbait ‘drill and fill’. Some crankbaits from the 70s-80s came with holes in the bodies and a small cylindrical sponge. You would soak the sponge in attractant and put the sponge in the hole in the lure.

If you are going to use a pool to test lures, you could hang paper clips or some wire on the split rings instead of hooks. If you have a good scale that weighs fractions of an ounce, you could exactly match the weights of the hooks.

I have found a few spots that never seem to freeze even when the lake ice is over 2 feet thick: winding rivers, a channel that connects 2 lakes, pools below dams, town docks/marinas that use bubblers to prevent freezing. If the winter is a brutal one, those openings do shrink some. But, I can usually get in a decent cast. Some rivers only get a skim coat of ice right along the bank. You have to be careful when there is snow on the ground because you can't tell where the land ends and the river begins. I usually break up this thin ice with a stick and walk out a couple of feet in knee high boots to make my casts. There are probably some areas like that near you. It's just a question of finding them. If there is a bait shop in your area that sells live shiners for ice fishing, you may want to ask them. There is a bait shop in my area that keeps shiner traps out in the local rivers in the winter. I am not expecting to catch bass in these areas. I am just looking to see a lure's action and how it runs. A pike or pickerel is possible, maybe a river smallie.

I normally paint 5-10 baits at a time. I use rattle can Rustoleum 2X Primer in white for a base coat. I have had no issues. It seems to work well and is cheap. I mostly use D2T for my top coat. I sometimes use Rustoleum 2X clear. Last winter, I ran out of primer and did not want to run out to buy more. I used the 96 cent generic Walmart spray paint in flat white for a base coat. Those baits also turned out well and the paint jobs have held up so far. I like that this paint goes on very thin. The generic glossy paint does not work well as a primer. I primed a few baits with this and got paint interactions. It took me a minute to figure out the problem. I had one can of flat and one can of glossy. The cans were identical except for the small bar code sticky where it says gloss white or flat white.

The Arbogast Mudbug, Megabait Yabby and Excalibur Xcs are painted in the ‘correct’ fleeing position with the crawfish tail painted toward the bill of the crankbait. The “Seein’s Believin” Mudbug colors have the crawfish tail fins painted right on the bill. The Yabby has attached free-swinging hard plastic claws at the rear of the bait and ridges on the body to simulate the different shell sections of a real crawfish similar to those on Hughsey’s lure. I also agree the claw position doesn’t matter. Most of the crankbaits of that type have such a tight wiggle that I think the bass get fooled by the action, vibration and general color scheme. When the bait is moving, a bass would have trouble seeing specific details. Instinct will dictate a strike or not. If the bait is being retrieved slowly or is stopped, and the bass could see the claw detail, and the bass could mentally process which end should be where, I can still reason claw position wouldn’t matter. A real crawfish can move forward and backward at a slow pace. I have watched crawfish slowly back away from the light of a flashlight. My best craw cranks, in order, are the Mudbug (correct), Bomber 6A (incorrect), Excalibur Xcs (correct). I cannot catch a bass on the Yabby which appears to be the ‘most correct’.

Shelt's Fishing Tackle sells that blank. It's 6 inches/ 150 mm. http://www.sheltfishingtackle.com/shelts-5-pcs-muskie-pike-suspending-jerk-baits-blanks-p-3.html The picture you posted looks exactly like the picture on the Shelt's site.

I believe ethanol and denatured alcohol are basically the same thing. The difference is that denatured alcohol has additives that make it undrinkable. How about trying methyl hydrate or crossing the border for some shopping?

Your welcome. Were you able to open the clips on the Hot n Tots? or are you just going to buy new ones?

Jann's Netcraft has something similar. They are called fish finder connecting links. You would have to take off the plastic slider. There are also some on Ebay under fish finder connecting links or just fishing connector links. Sea Striker and Tide Rite are a couple of the companies that make them. Have you tried using pliers to slide the metal piece on the middle on the connector? Usually, you can move the middle piece just enough to open the clip. When you put it back on and slide the middle piece back into position, use pliers to squeeze the middle piece just a little bit to keep it from moving when in use.

Thanks Chuck. I think you are right. I found one brand of deck board that gave their product's tensile strength. It was 35 MPa for their solid board which converts to around 5000 PSI. Their hollow board was 750 Psi . The rod's strength is so much higher I don't see how it could have any air or floatation.

There is no description as to what those rods would be used for. A 4 foot rod has a tensile strength of 9000 PSI. Impact strength is .80 lbs. I don’t know if that would be sufficient for an 8 to 10 inch swimbait. Minimum temperature is 32 degrees, max is 140 degrees. I wasn’t planning on using it for ice fishing. The above info is all the site says about it. I will have to see how the rod’s specs compare to a pvc deck board. A 4 foot long by 1 and ¼ inch diameter rod sells for $19.56. Not a big loss if it doesn’t work, unless a piece breaks off in a bass. https://www.grainger.com/product/POLYMERSHAPES-Rod-Stock-22JM41?breadcrumbCatId=16471&functionCode=P2IDP2PCP

Thank you for replying. I had never heard of them either until I stumbled across them at Grainger.com. I was purchasing some 1/8th inch wide masking tape for painting fine lines on lures. Somehow, I stumbled across their PVC rods and was curious if they would work.

I was wondering if anyone has tried using a solid PVC rod as the body for a bait. I have seen threads on PVC trim boards vs. PVC deck boards. It looks like using a rod would be well suited for a MS Slammer type bait, assuming the rod would be strong enough. Hopefully, Mr. Pouslon will chime in. His tips on PVC have been very useful.

I use a razor knife (box cutter) to score the epoxy at the base of eyes (line tie and hook hangers). By the base of the eye, I mean the near the lure's body. When I take my clips off, any epoxy that breaks off the eye stops at where I scored it. I mostly use Devcon 2 Ton. On lipless baits, I sometimes use 3 coats of spray clear lacquer.

I have tried the LPO snakeskin in gold and electric blue, chameleon in green pumpkin blue, and the plasma in gold and crystal trout. I like them all. The snakeskin gold and plasma gold both throw off more flash than the baitfish gold. Those 2 materials make a good replacement for the sil-a-chrome clear/gold that LPO stopped carrying. I personally think the new materials look better. But, I don't think they have caught me more fish than the standard material I use. The added flash would seem to better for spinnerbaits and bladed jigs. I have not caught a fish yet on the chameleon green pumpkin blue on a jig yet. Sometimes the strands can be a bit sticky after trimming the ends off. A few seconds to separate them and the bait is good to go.