Jerkbait question

[Kickerfish]

Just finished painting and clearcoating a Rapala XRap in a custom color for a body of water I fish. Will the Devcon 2 Ton affect the action of the bait(sink instead of suspend) or is the weight minimal and won't affect it?

[fatfingers]

It's been my experience that with smaller baits, you have to use a little caution as to how much of clear coating you apply with Devcon.

I've had smaller cranks lose their action with excess clear. I use four coats of Devcon2 on my musky class foil baits, three coats on most of the other musky baits.

For pike sized baits, I use only two or and three on the larger ones, and I use only one on bass and walleye size baits.

Of course, those are general terms; it depends on the bait body shape, the weighting, if any, lip choice, and a few other variables, such as where in the water column the bait was built to run.

I would think that envirotex would be a better choice for bass type baits, as it seems to work better in thinner coats.

[dampeoples]

I've applied devcon to smaller bass baits and completely killed the action of them, it was a wee wart, though!

[doomdart]

It is definitely possible to kill the action. And it is possible to not do so with Devcon. You'll probably find out tomorrow, right, Kicker?

[Vodkaman]

Kill the action yes.

As for floater/sinker, my opinion is that it will only have a small effect. The epoxy is slightly heavier than water. The effective sinking effect will be the difference between the weight of the devcon and the weight of the same volume of water.

As for the reason why the action is killed, I think it is mainly down to distributing extra weight throughout the lure, rather than having the ballast centrally located.

I would be interested to read other opinions.

[Tally]

if it was a suspending bait to start with...I am betting that it will sink with devcon......tell us your findings.......unless you put a very thin coat on it!

[MaddoxBay]

I agree with Tally.

If its a suspending bait you have to watch what you are doing or it WILL SINK.

[Lure--Prof]

Water temperature will make a big difference. Suspending lures are best geared towards a specific temperature range, if you're making them yourself. Your Devcon X-Rap may suspend nicely hot water, only to sink faster than you want in winter's much colder water.

Dean

[doomdart]

Yes, I agree with what the others have said. Furthermore, if you have a bait that you want to experiment with making only slightly heavier....you can increase hook size or split ring size, etc. Or put on a coat of Devcon and hope it doesn't kill the other action properties. Best applied thin if you don't want to risk ruining an otherwise good bait.

I consider the floation/sink/suspend to be one major part of the "action."

To further Dean's comment on temperature....I am not the type to use scales and micrometers. Usually arrive at the bait after a few attempts (when it is a prototype attempt). When making a suspender I found that testing the bait in a sink filled with tapwater roughly approximated the water temperature in the lake. Colder weather = colder tapwater.