anamealreadyinuse Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 My son and I carve hard baits from basswood, attached are a few samples inspired from our antique tackle collection. The bottom left bait is inspired from a antique Florida tackle maker in the 50's. It is supposed to represent a juvenile snook minnow. We have had some good success with this bait and I was wondering if anyone can recommend the best eye (affordable) eye for a saltwater lure? I was on Barlow's site and there is all sorts of 3-D, flat etc. type eyes. I'd like to try one of these products but am not sure if there is some sort of clear winner/guidelines when picking out saltwater eyes for lures. We currently just paint them on but want to give those a shot. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassnbrad Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 As far as Suppliers, I only use 3deyesdirect, hes a bit pricey, but the eyes are all high quality and hard as glass. He is overseas though, so its about 2 weeks from paid to door. On the saltwater lures I would prefer to upsize my eyes. On a 3-4" crank I will use 6-7mm eyes where-as on the salts I would use 7-9mm depending on the bait bulkiness. I would also only use one of three colors, red prism, silver prism, or chartreuse prism all with a black pupil. If you could get a char/red/blk eye, I think that would be killer on most of your applications. If you want to try some larger eyes for your larger baits pm me. I have some 10-14or15mm that are way to big for my stuff. Hope this helps, bb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anamealreadyinuse Posted November 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 Awesome thanks, I was going to go with 8mm but was not sure on that or the color. I notice some have an offset pupil(up, down, behind, etc) for flight eye movement I guess? is that worth the extra cost? Is the 3d eye guy operating from an ebay store? The website won't come up...Thanks again for the reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crankpaint Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 you can make some 3d eyes with some 5 min epoxy,hole punch and some reflector tape(I use bumper stickers too)just punch out the back part of the eye add a pupil any color you want,then mix up some 5 min epoxy putting a small dab on the reflector tape dot you punched out just so it gos to the edge of the dot let it dry and you have a 3d eye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Crankpaint, What brand of 5 minute epoxy do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 (edited) you can make some 3d eyes with some 5 min epoxy,hole punch and some reflector tape(I use bumper stickers too)just punch out the back part of the eye add a pupil any color you want,then mix up some 5 min epoxy putting a small dab on the reflector tape dot you punched out just so it gos to the edge of the dot let it dry and you have a 3d eye If your using Devcon 5 minute epoxy I hope your top coating over the eyes after you put them on as the 5 minute Devcon is not waterproof. The 30 minute Devcon is waterproof and you can get the same results with it. Just takes a little longer to dry. Ben Edited November 18, 2011 by RayburnGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crankpaint Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 i use the devcon 5 min and e-tex over everything so it will be waterproof,also you can use foil as the back of the eyes and it gives it a diff look 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
