Chuck Young

Most feather boas consist of feathers with a web tip. You can strip fibers off them. But that is about it.

Bobbins are useful for many materials: thread, floss, lead wire, ss wire for dubbing brushes (otherwise is unspools and makes a mess). They give you better control, nicer wings and heads, and save a lot of broken threads.

If you want to get into dubbing, synthetic wings, dubbing brush streamers or the like, I highly recommend Fly Tyer's Dungeon. They make all their own stuff and aim to provide quality materials at the best price. When you try to put together a $50 order, it takes a lot of line items (28 or so). Packs are larger than other sources also. They are always coming out with something new. They also put out a lot of instructional videos. If you choose to dye your own materials, read the book referenced above. Pool peroxide can be used to bleach materials before dying. But it must be handled properly as it is very caustic at that concentration (27%). An excellent source for acid dyes is Dharma Supply. They blend their own colors, have a larger range of colors, and more reasonable prices. Quality genetic hackle will set you back a pretty penny. But there is no substitute for good feathers for dry flies or streamers. A thin, flexible shaft is much easier to work with and performs much better. For many flies, game birds like partridge, pheasant, duck, goose, and turkey will create many patterns. Bucktail, deer hair, beaver pelts, rabbit, squirrel, skunk, woodchuck are readily available as well. I highly recommend mothballs for natural materials. If you have an old dresser, put a few in a sandwich bag in a couple of drawers.

2010 reducer, Transparent base, Airbrush restorer. Wicked: Det White, Det black, Det sepia, Det Moss green, Pearl gold, pearl silver Createx: Pearl blue, Pearl white, Iridescent Red, IR yellow, IR green, Transparent brite yellow, T Red oxide, T Dark Brown, Flo yellow, Flo Sunburst, Flo Violet, (flo white) Folkart: color shift red, green, and violet, titanium. The Wicked detail colors can be made transparent by adding T base and reducer. White then pearls make an excellent base. Transparent, iridescent, and Flo can be layered to achieve many colors. IR and color shift make excellent highlights. T bright yellow turns silver to gold. This list cuts out a lot of duplication, yet covers almost all your color wheel. Hope this helps.

Like Sonny said, Createx makes a "transparent base". It is actually a pigment free paint, so it is 100% compatible. It appears milky white in the bottle but dries crystal clear. This can be added to opaque (or any other Createx paint) to make it more transparent. It does not thin the paint, so viscosity is not affected. Use a reducer with the mixture for the right consistency. It is cheap and has many other uses. I also use it over foiled baits or epoxy to make a nice base for paint to stick to.

There is a razor saw / miter box combination specially made for Balsa and basswood. It is fast and clean, and I like working from a square cut.

I have some cedar to carve for some toothy critters, but have yet to try it. I have a basswood tree in my front yard and it puts out about 10 new shoots out of the base every year. This gives me plenty of knot free wood to carve. I love it!. it is so much more consistent than balsa, a bit denser, a bit tougher, and it sands great. But Raven is right about cedar. It is so much more durable.

W lure has a similar blank available in smaller quantities (WM600). I am not crazy about the insert style lure blanks. But they do swim well.

Any paint with a pearl, metallic or color-shift pigment has a greater chance of clogging. I reduce mine quite a bit an spray it at low pressure. You really don't need a lot of it to make a big difference - at least the way I use it. The size of the powder pigment may not be fine enough in that brand. I have had no problems with the folkart. Pearls tend to clump sooner than other paints (like transparent, opaque, detail). Don't thin your paints in advance then store them - esp pearls. They do weird thing in the bottle. One thing you may try is a little retarder mixed in with the paint.

Sometimes inaction is the trigger - like when a Muskie hits it on the pause. I have seen prey freeze when faced with a predator. Some fish attack a school, stunning or wounding prey. This might be another case where inaction triggers a strike.

I use Folkart colorshift paints all the time. They make three colors, Green / gold; Blue / violet; and Red / violet. I had my doubts about them at first, but the pigments are very fine and spray well once reduced. A little goes a long way - so apply it with a fine head. I have about 6 patterns that center on one or more of these. But they are also very useful for highlights. I use them on smelt, shiners, blue back herring, etc. I feel these shifting colors create confusion in predators, using up some of their discretionary brain power. "Eat it quick - before it does that again and I lose it!"

That looks AWESOME!

For every new blank that I buy, peghook tag. On it is recorded: weight, length of body, OAL, hook options, eye size, depth. When I pull off a blank to paint it, that info is right there. You can check different blank suppliers to see what size they recommend. If you are searching for great eyes at a great price, contact "Ed and Lisa's eyes".

I just posted pics of some completed foiled saltwater lures. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/21365-men-atl-f14-2jpg/ http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/21364-bbh-f14-6jpg/ http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/21363-mack-f14-pr1jpg/ http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/21362-mack-sil-bl2jpg/

First, get the right foil. I have had excellent results using (finger)nail art foil. It is very thin. You can buy it in bulk on approx 4cm x 120 meter long rolls. Holographic silver and silver are both very useful. You will need the following: Several sheets of craft foam (9x12 x 1/4") cut into four 9" strips, Long cure epoxy (E - tex or Dev 2t with DNA added to slow it down), 2-3 C clamps 6", Flat table to clamp to, Thin board to go atop the foam, scissors. Tape the bills on your lure. Cut two strips of the foil a little longer than your lure. Cut a slit in each where the lip is on your lure. The duller side of the tape goes toward the lure surface. Stack 3-5 layers of foam on your table depending on the thickness of your lure. I like to cut a slit in the first 2 for the lip to slide into. Align your first layer of foil on the bottom stack. Prep the top layers of foil and foam in the same manner. Now, turn your attention to the lure blank. Mix more than enough epoxy to coat your lure. If you use Devcon 2ton, use the 30 min cure time and thin with 2-4 drops Denatured Alcohol. Brush it on your lure and squeegee the excess off with your finger. This presses epoxy into scale details. You are looking to achieve a certain thickness of the epoxy - too dry and there will be blank spots, too thick and it will puddle excessively at the edge of the foil. There is a certain "feel" I go for - I need to definitely feel the texture of the lure detail when squeegeeing, but not too dry. Now you can lay the lure on the bottom stack - aligning the lip with slot. Now apply the foil, then foam, then board, then clamps. . Be careful that the foil does not shift. Apply a fair amount of tension to the clamps at least enough for the top and bottom layers to come together. The foam will compress the foil into the scale detail of the lure and the excess epoxy will be pushed to the edge of the foil. Gradually increase the tension on the clamps every few minutes, squeezing out more epoxy. Apply as much tension to the clamps as the lure will take. You will be amazed at how much pressure some blanks will take. Let the epoxy fully cure. Use they epoxy that is left in the mixing cup as a gauge. If the epoxy is a little tacky, that is fine. But you want it solid. The clamps can now be removed and your lure will be in a foil sandwich. The foil is actually 2 layers, the metallic side stays on the lure. The clear plastic backing can now be removed. Simply peel it off - peel it all off. Trim off any excess epoxy / foil with a razor knife. I have a tutorial on this site somewhere - but this is an updated process. If done correctly, the foil coating adds almost no weight to the lure. Sometimes you cannot even measure the difference on a digital scale. Before painting I spray a couple layers of Transparent Base (paint with no pigment in it).

My favorite metallic colors are: Wicked gold, Wicked silver, and Craftsmart metallic Titanium (if you can find it). But if you want true metallic shine, get some fingernail art foil in metallic silver and holographic silver. There are tutorials on this forum on how to do this. Metallic paints can be applied over a black or white base. The effects are quite different. A quick pass fine mist can also be sprayed over a completed paint job. It acts almost like glitter. Have fun

I have used Createx and wicked paint for a long time .They are an excellent choice. Use Createx / Wicked 4012 reducer to thin paint. Use Createx Transparent base to make paints more transparent - or as a base coat over foils and such. Use water between colors. Use Airbrush restorer then water as final cleanup. Those three products are absolutely necessary. As for clear coats, I have used several. Devcon 2 ton 30 min epoxy is available in small or med quantities. It can be thinned with Denatured alcohol to increase the cure time. It should be rotated - a lure turner is recommended. It cures hard and chips easily. Envirotex (table top epoxy) Takes 12 hours between coats and 24 hours to cure completely. Cure time can be extended and it can be thinned with Denatured Alcohol. It is clearer than Devcon, more flexible, and does not chip as easily. Lure turner is necessary. Art Resin: I have not used this. But from my understanding it is the clearest, brings out the best color. and takes longer to cure than E-Tex. Many swear by this product. I will let others elaborate. Lure turner is necessary. Dick Nite's concrete sealer - I have not used. I heard it is very durable. Lures can be dipped and hung. Others can elaborate. Moisture cured urethane - Lures can be hung. 3Three coats are required. it is hard, yet durable. If you are not careful - or sometimes even if you are careful - the whole supply can cure on you. This is not very economical. I hope this gets you started. Moisture cured urethane - Lures can be dipped and hung. But it takes 3 coats to give a good finish. And if you do not store it properly - sometimes even if you do - the whole jar can harden on you.

My worst casting failure happened when I was night fishing for bass. A jumbo size Jitterbug makes an excellent earing.

There is no paper backing. Just pure foil. But the foil is not metal. It is mylar, I believe. The duller part goes next to the lure. The clear plastic backing (which gets removed) goes to the outside allows you to handle it. This gets removed after the epoxy sets. The shine you see through the clear plastic is the shine you get after the plastic is removed. Excess epoxy can cause some wrinkling on the edges in some (fatter) lures. but this can be trimmed or sanded. The foil can also be applied to tacky resin which is set. But details such as scales would be lost. The actual thickness of the foil material applied to the lure is approx 1/50th the thickness of Renolds aluminum foil.

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