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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/15/2016 in all areas

  1. Well, I fingered it out. As usual, operator error. In my zeal to have a nice, deep curve in my tail, I wound up with the part of the ballast that was behind the belly hanger above the center line of the bait. I should have known better, because I raise some of the ballast in my square billed cranks above the center line on purpose, to make them hunt because they are a little unstable. But, I was in such a hurry to try and copy Barry Sterud's balsa crank that I completely missed this goof. My solution was twofold. I wound up shortening the tail and raising the tail hanger about 1/4" and that helped, because it raised the center line of the bait. Then I removed the 3 grams of ballast behind the 3 gram belly hanger, and placed it forward of the belly hanger. Problem solved. This was with the 1/2" thick cranks. The thinner baits don't seem to have enough buoyant material to be able to overcome ballast that high above the center line. They are so sensitive! Hahaha The 3/4" thick cranks have more buoyancy, so I was able to put a 1 gram lead ball rattle directly above the belly hanger, and above the center line, along with 3 grams in front of the 3 gram belly hanger, and those cranks X really hard, but don't wobble. I'll post some pictures in the Hard Baits Gallery tomorrow. Right now, I'm waiting for the inside temp., 88 down from 90, to match the outside temp which is "only" 80, so I can take a shower and crash. Whoever invented AC forgot to invent free electricity. Here's a link to one of the two pictures I posted in the Hard Baits Gallery: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/15932-barry11/ It's too hot to just do nothing!
    2 points
  2. Here is a picture showing the internals that LakerTaker has sent me. That is a lot of ballast and more to the center than I would have expected
    1 point
  3. Another shad same as my previous post but with my now famous home made coffin bill. (thanks Mark Poulson) I enhanced my shad pattern and got the lower half shimmering with some Createx Wicked Aluminum, then to the bone colored belly. Also added pearl orange throat and tip of tail. Oh yeah, my dobbed eyes are getting better. I'm using the back end of a drill bit like before but now I am using the cheap acrylic paint, not air brush paint and I am able to get better painted eyes now.
    1 point
  4. Hey Mark! I tested my coffin flat side yesterday out west. My first and last bite on it was a 4 pounder. I went down to lip her and when I grabbed the line I watched her swim off with my bait. Dang! My snap was open. I inspected the snap and it looked perfect. A good wire snap with no distortion and fit up and locking bend looked great. I threw it away. I had a warning...after our tournament, showing the club the bait on my deck, Greg S. pointed out then that the snap was open. Other consideration is that I observed that she had inhaled the bait and it was sideways inside the front part of her mouth holding it open it looked like so maybe the way it got wedged in there may have squeezed the snap to get it open. I don't know how she is going to get it out but I wish her luck. I fished and checked the area for 45 minutes in case she came to the top but no such luck for her or me. Anyway if you're fishing Big Break, keep an eye out for my bait. It is the middle of the 3 baits I posted and it's out there in 'finders keepers' mode. Glad you solved your rolling issue. I only have a weight on mine on the belly hook hangar up thru the belly weight in thru wired mode. I need to see your new bait swim too. If you have the good Xing going, I am confident it will work and if you can do it with more weight it will be much better for casting around in this delta with the wind blowing all the time. I will be out Saturday and will probably see you at Cooch's Pro-Teen event registration since I think we are both boating for a kid on Sunday. Crankbait bite still on fire!
    1 point
  5. This will take forever,do the microwave thing,it will be good as new in under 10 minutes,done it several times
    1 point
  6. Ok, so I have taken notes on all of the above and I am going to give it a try later today. Will let you guys know the results. I did once change a light bulb so I should be ok
    1 point
  7. I don't use it for a topcoat so yellowing doesn't matter. I use it as an adhesive for gluing the baits together and setting the fins in the baits. just thought I would put that info out there in case someone was looking for some and DIDN'T WANT TO GET IT OFF EBAY !
    1 point
  8. maybe ask for 1 gal.containers at the 5 gal price.....you should just get a gal at a time unless your getting a big discount.
    1 point
  9. I have sourced most of my soft plastic materials from u-make-em Edgecrusher. I do have some glitter from them which is OK. I have red, but was sent a much larger size (approx 1.5mm) than the fine (0.008") that I ordered because they didn't have any at the time. It is of no use to me. I need 0.015" red for the lures I want to make and u-make-em don't stock this size. They only seem to carry a 'coarse' or 'fine'. I've just placed an order for some polyester glitter from The Glitter Shop in the UK. $11.39 AUS shipping. Much cheaper than US shipping costs and almost the same as shipping here at home.
    1 point
  10. I don't build a lot of wire baits, but have used quite a bit of epoxy over the last several years. There are usually only 3 things that can go wrong with epoxy. #1 You can get a bad batch which is highly unlikely. Not saying it doesn't happen, but this would be the last thing to consider. #2 Improper ratio. Epoxies, those that I know of anyway, are pretty forgiving when it comes to ratios. A wee bit one way or the other usually isn't going to cause the problem your having. #3 Which brings us to improper mixing. This is the likely culprit. Especially if your fairly new to using epoxy as a top coat. We can get the "I've only got a few minutes to get this mixed and applied" thought stuck in our heads and we end up rushing through the most important part of the process. I've been using BSI epoxy for a number of years now and have yet to get a bad batch or have problems with it curing. You have to learn how many baits you can comfortably cover in the time you have and not try to exceed that. Doing so is only going to cause problems of some sort. I mix the crap out of my epoxy and don't worry about how many bubbles I'm introducing into the mix. After it's thoroughly mixed I add a few drops of denatured alcohol to the mix and mix it again. Slightly thinning the epoxy with DA will allow the bubbles to dissipate much easier. Exhaling on the mix (notice I said exhaling and not blowing) for a few seconds helps rid the mix of these bubbles as well. It's a combination of the carbon dioxide and warmth in your breath that accomplishes this. I've also found that a fine haired brush will introduce fewer bubbles into the epoxy while your brushing it on and also helps to pop any bubbles that do remain. And like David said, if you do have this problem just mix up another batch and top coat the bait again. This usually solves the problem. Ben
    1 point
  11. I try not to use the terms "wiggle" and "waggle" as they are confusing. When speaking of a crankbaits action I try to use terms like X'ing when speaking of the side to side action of the head and tail and roll, or body roll, when talking about the movement of the back and belly. Not sure this is the exact lingo used in engineering circles, but it works for me. Ben
    1 point
  12. Heating will speed up the curing process. It's like any other chemical reaction, higher temp results in faster reaction. The rule of thumb is reaction rate doubles for every 10 deg C (18 deg F) increase in temperature. That rule depends on other things besides temperature but is not a bad guideline. A little heat to make the epoxy flow is fine. As it's spread out over the bait it will cool back down and the cure speed will go back to normal. If I want to speed up cure time I'll usually let the epoxy cure normally (without heat) until it's solid and then warm it up for the final cure. I just hang baits in a cardboard box and put the whole thing in the oven with just the light on (no burner heat). With a 60 watt bulb that gave me a 100 degF cure environment. I used to use a cardboard box/lightbulb setup for curing tung oil on gunstocks. Same principals apply. With that setup I reduced cure time from 3 days to less than a day and I could apply the next coat each evening after work and get a stock finished in a few days or a week.
    1 point
  13. A rare gem is what you have for a wife brother, I know cause my wife is my gem Love her forever and a day
    1 point
  14. Definitely a keeper. I too have back problems. I have to cut down on tournament time to a 6 hour tournament, because my back can't take all the standing. I am sure it will only get worse as I age. Oh well.
    1 point
  15. Sorry to hear about your back problems. I have to deal with it as well. Some days it's all I can do to carry the dog outside and then get back in the house so I know where your coming from. Sounds like you've got a great partner though. Not a lot of women will do the things you've described. You definitely need to carry that lady out to a nice restaurant. Ben
    1 point
  16. Straw is just to keep the hole open and feed the line through. I realized I could run an exposed point straight shank hook along and imbedded in the top of the bait as well as the #4 treble below. They look great in the water but (today at least) the bass want a small finesse DS worm at 30-40 feet, an unweighted white fluke around shady docks or a super-soft 4" GP & orange craw on bluff rock slides. Several weeks ago it was swim jigs or underpins with ringed paddletail Swimbaits. Once that thermocline gets set here the game changes. I'm going to need to use these Swimbaits with heavier weights or wait until fall and wake them. They swim real sexy so the guys on the dock all want some now.
    1 point
  17. Sorry to read of your chronic pain condition. What a lady, what a gem. Give her an extra hug from the guys at TU DAve
    1 point
  18. good stuff man!.... true love is when each others happiness is as important as in your story!
    1 point
  19. She is definitely a " KEEPER ". You can send her over to my house to help out ANYTIME
    1 point
  20. Carved this bait from basswood. Modeled similar to Lucky Craft BDS3. Twisted wire hook hangar thru belly weight. Long twisted wire hangars for line tie and rear hangar. Not thru wired. Each hangar secured with D2T. I'm not worried about thru wiring with bass wood but I do my hangar drill holes all the way thru, fill the entire hole up with D2T then D2T my twisted wire and insert. Home made circuit board lip from LPO circuit board sheet. I mark them out with a square, scribe, cut with band saw, then finish sand to the lines with a 1" belt sander. These are providing good action Createx paint same pattern as previous post. D2T'd. Action, compared to BDS3, it is a little wider wobble, a little slower and heavier. Haven't fished it yet.
    1 point
  21. Made this flatside balsa crankbait and used this pre made circuit board type lip from LPO. I have been making my own circuit board lips from the sheet purchased from LPO and they both work great. I used two 1/4" pieces of balsa to make the bait, epoxying them together after channeling them out for my weight and thru wire rig. For a weight I used a mojo weight which I cut in half length wise and had to drill out the center hole a little. Then I used the 19 gage ss wire, cut a long piece, put a twisted eye near the middle then ran both legs up thru my mojo weight, bending one forward tor another twisted line tie eye and the other aft to the rear hook hangar. Drilled 1/4" hole for the weight, seperated the halves and traced out the wires and hangars so I could channel out the balsa to accomodate the harness. Finished with Createx paints. I primer white then paint the bottom half gray and the upper half golden yellow. Scale mesh then paint bone on bottom, smoke the back with greatly reduced pearl black, then add some purple on the shoulder and remove the mesh. May have to enhance the golden yellow some after that but it is making a good shad pattern. Topped with D2T. Sized this similar to the coffin bill we used to get from Bustin Bass Baits or Evergreen on ebay but doesn't seem like we will be able to get them anymore. This works pretty well, even better than the coffin I think but it doesn't go quite as deep. About 5 feet.
    1 point
  22. I want to look into having tungsten weights made in bulk of a custom design of mine I have been working on for some time. The problem is I don't know where to start, there really is not much info at all on this topic online. I understand that one process used is compression forming tungsten powder in a mold then sintering it together. Where could I learn more about this process and the machines involved? Are there any lathe cutters that would be reliable for cutting pure tungsten rod sections down into a bullet weight? So another question is, who are companies such as tru-tungsten and river2seas using to manufacture their weights? Any information here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
    1 point
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