Top Coat Failure

[Joe]

I have seen where some of you mentioned your hand carved baits took on water and were ruined by swelling and top coat cracking. I have not had a problem with that happening to my baits, but I was very close. I coat all my baits with Devcon and my balsa baits all have two coats of devcon, one as a sealer and one as a top coat. The reason I mention this is a few nights ago, I was showing some baits to a friend. I keep my baits in a regular Plano clear plastic box with adjustable compartments. Two or three baits fit in each compartment. What I found, was the hook from one bait penetrated the topcoat of another bait and was about 1/8 in. into the bait. I guess this happened from bouncing around in my boat. If I had not noticed this, the hook could just as easily come out leaving a small hole in the bait for water to enter and ruin the lure. I'm just wondering if some of you may have had the same thing happen and not realize it and that, not the type of top coat or the application of the top coat was the reason for damaged lures. I now put only one bait per section in the boxes. Joe

[SpoRoller]

For reasons like that I prefer to use the Falcon boxes for my custom painted lures. They don't work well for all types of lures but will for most.

If I am not using the Falcon boxes due to lure size I try to organize them in my Plano's so they don't beat each other up.

Thanks for sharing your observations!

[Skeeter]

I only put one bait per section. But I have never had hook rash that bad. Get some hook protectors from Bass Pro Shops. They are very cheap.

Skeeter

[fatfingers]

For what its worth...

I spend a ton of money on fishing gear each year and for that reason alone I try to make my gear last, especially the lures, and I'm sure that we all do

When I fished for other species, I also used Plano compartmental plastic boxes. When I moved on to musky fishing, I purchased and still use the standard tackle box which hangs the baits vertically. You might try fabricating a box to hang your best baits; it is much kinder to the finish because there is far less horizontal friction to the baits and they tend to hold up a lot better.

Also I tend to think that the sun passing through the clear plastic takes its toll because the solar effect raises the temp within the box a lot more than you might imagine; that may have been what caused the envirotex finish to soften up and allow the hook from one bait to easily penetrate the damaged lure.