How Not To Foil A Bait, Airbrush it and apply Devcon

[squigster]

This is my first bait and it is a mess. I initially used the wrong epoxy (5 minute set) Lumpy, Lumpy, Lumpy! I did not apply enough coats of epoxy and the foil edge has shown through the paint and I airbrushed more than I wanted to and did not use a drying wheel. I spent hours sanding and tweaking it and it is a dissapontment. Just a suggestion to everyone making their first bait. Don't get to excited to make and hurry to get one done. Take your time and read alot on here amd think about what you are doing and why you are doing it or you will end up with a trainwreck. Click on the links to see the pics of the Neon Shad disaster. The other two are of a bait I am working on now. I do have to say one thing, I know why I paid twenty dollars and up for good handmades. There are alot of steps and alot of time in the process.

http://users.adelphia.net/~honuswagner/DSC00158.JPG

http://users.adelphia.net/~honuswagner/DSC00159.JPG

http://users.adelphia.net/~honuswagner/DSC00156.JPG

http://users.adelphia.net/~honuswagner/DSC00157.JPG

[squigster]

Any comments are welcome.... I know the good hand mades are around $20 - $30 so I will sell this one for 50% off if anyone is interested. I will discount it 50% because it will probably only track straight 50% of the time. He... He.. He.. It would make a nice floating keychain for your boat!!

[Coley]

Hey Squig, don't be so hard on yourself. Ok, so, you used the

wrong epoxy. Look at how much you learned by just doing

the first one. I promise you the next one will be much better.

After you put the foil on, use an xacto handle and burnish the

edge down real good. If it won't lay down, use a piece of sandpaper and cut it back a little sanding toward the wood. Apply epoxy over the

entire bait and sand it down and then paint it. Then clearcoat it

again.

It takes time and practice to learn.

Do a search on foiling, there is a lot of information in here about it.

Coley

[BobP]

I'm sure you learned some valuable stuff while producing your first bait - I've sure screwed up my share! I think good foiling is one of the most difficult techniques in crank building. I've built about a hundred now and still won't foil a bait unless it's UNAVOIDABLE. Good luck with it!

[RiverMan]

Foiling a bait is a breeze. Go buy yourself some of the aluminum tape that they use to wrap furnace pipes..it has an adhesive back. Lay your bait on the backside of the stuff and trace around it. Now cut just outise your line. Lay the foil on the bait and with your fingers start flattening it out toward the outside. Now get a round dowel of some type, a smook ink pen works even, and burnish down the edges, perfect every single time. Follow the same process for baits with scales only be a bit more gentle when you first start pressing it down.

If I had a suggestion for you it would be to make your foil a bit bigger so that it lays over the edges more. This will make it easier to hide with paint when you get to that stage. After you foil the bait then put on a coat of epoxy then pain it. Then come back with another coat of epoxy. It's 12:30 at night and I just finished painting some baits...I have to be to work at 6:30, it's a labor of love.

You have a great start, keep going.

Jed

[savacs]

It's looking good enough. As you may know by now, is that the action of the bait is the most important thing.

I'll show you my first foiled bait. When i finished it i couldn't believe my eyes. It was the most wonderful thing i've ever done till then.

I like the foiled ones more than anything. The next foild one will be a rainbow trout pattern with silvery pink foil. I'll show it when it'll be ready.

And another patern i'm gonna make with foil is a browh trout patern with golden foil.

I usually used 5 min epoxy on these ones, and it's done the trick for me. The first layer of epoxy that goes above the foil, i mix with aceton, and brush it over. It's as simple as that, and nothing will remain uncoovered with epoxy

[savacs]

The atachement does not work ! Don't know why.http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/download.php?id=1603

Hope this works. It's the first one in the image(pearch patern)

[kellure]

I think youre being too hard on yourself also. Lot of effort went into the lure and you probably learned even more. The mental approach I use is "dont leave a single imperfection"...devcon can hide a lot but you'll always know its there. Btw, the foiling may not have turned out perfect, but the lure shape, etc...look really nice.

KL

PS. One day I've gotta post some of the first losers I ever made from scratch, will make you feel much better :grin:

[benton B]

Get some hooks on that thing and see if the action is what you want from that design. My first bait was plain brown cedar with 3 black lines on each side of the tail and an orange belly. I slayed last spring on that ugly bait.

What we as humans see as ugly the fish may see as lunch.

[jaime]

Squister,

I think you did a pretty darn good job. I'd let this one be and save it don't modify it cuz down the line when you become an expert lure maker you can look back and reminisce about the first lure you made.

[squigster]

Hey Thanks Everyone for the comments and inspiration. I will be making many more in the future. I was really disappointed because I spent so much time sanding it and getting everything set up. I will fish it and hopefully them bass will eat it. I enjoy making my own because of the mystery behind handmades or even store boughts. I have crankbaits of the same weight, color and style and one of them will outfish the others 10 to 1. There is something that triggers them to bite it but I think it is next to impossible to duplicate. I have caught fish on a certain style/color bait and they were caught in the lips and tied on the same bait but the one I know has something magic about it and they try to swallow it. I guess thats the fun of all of this though... hoping you make the magic one!.