Leaderboard

Here is the way I see it. You just have to worry about yourself. You cannot stop what you are talking about. So you just need to do it better than everyone else. It is not an easy thing to do. Being the best never is. Bottom line is.....How bad you want it? Skeeter

LOL! Paint patterns or schemes cannot be owned by any one person or company. I find it ironic that a custom painter is complaining about someone ripping off his paint scheme, when he is putting that scheme on knock-off lures ripped off from other manufacturers.

The perfect topcoat is fish saliva..

Maybe this will help out a little... These are ones I have tested and found the fit acceptable.

I don't want to start a thread about complaints, I'm giving an update on BTS and this is what has happened to me and its current status. On January 1st 2017 I placed a order for $740 worth of molds, which I never received....... Unlike some I did not try and recoup my money but hoped that someday Bob would be back on his feet and honour this order. 2 weeks ago Bob answered a email and stated that he and his family had went through "life changing" issues.He apologized for not responding and wanted to know if the original order should be filled or did I want to change it. After receiving help from forum members here, I had been able to acquire the required molds ( Big thanks to this forum and its members who I have dealt with and received molds from!) I changed my order to reflect my current needs, Bob stated he would start right away on the molds, in 5 days I received shipping confirmation and picked up my molds yesterday. They are excellent and I would like to thank Bob for fulfilling the order. I hope that this helps some who have been hesitant of placing a order. I will be dealing with him again in the near future and hope that his mold business continues. I am posting this simply to inform everyone of what has happened and that it is fully resolved and has a happy ending.

A few tips that are strictly from a hand pour perspective: 1) Flakes: I rarely use them but when I do I adhere to the idea of 'less is best'. This helps with issues such as, arching, even flake dispersal and less stirring. I've never had a fish stick it's head up out of the water and tell me the watermelon was perfect but they didn't bite because I didn't have enough flake or wrong color flake. You can always add but you can't subtract and don't get in the habit of adding flakes in reheats, you'll become reliant on the flakes. If you have to in order to achieve the finished bait know that you are because you've curled what you originally put in. The result is usually a "cat turd" rolled in flakes. 2) I use 900W micros on full power, higher wattage micros I have to turn down the power in order to use the same heating sequences. 3) I always stir from the center out in order to disperse the heat as quickly and evenly as possible. 4) Decide how your goal in a finished bait is to be accomplished color wise, meaning either directly with colorant or the influence of flakes. 5) From the start don't do what I did and believe that you're going to remember recipes...you can't. Date each recipe & photo it so you can correspond. 6) Strive for consistency..after all it doesn't serve you to make the immaculate conception if you can't duplicate it. A) Don't question your recipe unless you've changed a colorant supplier, b) don't trust artificial lighting, take the time to walk outside and see it in natural light, it's where the bait is going to be used. 7) "If a fish can see these bubbles it already has a hook in it's mouth", a philosophy I accepted. I wear 4 power glasses to pour as a result I probably see more bubbles than the average bear. I was terribly anal about bubbles when I first started pouring because I was comparing what I made to a machine made. 8 Never forget your humanity, you're not a machine which is why you've chosen to make your own baits to begin with. Individualism, creation & ownership are an extension of your mind, you will have failures and learn from them...you will never be perfect and there's always a next time. 9) No where is it written that you cannot make something, anything is possible until you prove to yourself it isn't. 10) Color is what you say it is, no two people see color alike and is irrelevant because the color only matters to a finned creature with the brain the size of a walnut.

This is how I fix the Abrupt 90ﾟ angle in the tail portion of the mold

When it comes to dumb mistakes you’re not alone

I put the non pin side on some 1500 grit paper. I had colored it like suggested. All parts sanded so no apparent warp here. i took the pins out of the other side and put the 2sides together. PERFECT FIT. Put the pins back in and bad fit. I remembered Thai the pin had come out and I had put a dab of super glue on it. Who’a thunk that would be thick enough to make the pin too long. NOT ME. So I sanded off the glue and the “warped mold is fixed”. Sometimes I hate being a READY FIRE AIM guy.

And the basketball courts are a joke with all of the players out there. Just like the golf course, the football fields, and the baseball diamonds. But the cream always rises to the top doesn't it? Most of us recognize true tallent, don't we? "How bad you want it?" Skeeter

I think the bigger question is...."How much work are you willing to get into?" If your stuff is good and the orders come in, then remember you are going to have to come home from work and get to work. Then remember that you have to be there for your customers. I played the pro game for years. But it was the BFL guys that really beat me up. It just got to be too much. So much so that I became to hate making a bait. The enjoyment was gone. Then you have to deal with "Butt Heads" that want to complain about your prices, don't want to pay you after you finished their order, complain that the shade of red you used wasn't right or the guy that wants you to sponsor him. I am starting to get back into making baits again. I have a different approach. I make baits when I feel like it and when I enjoy it. If someone wants to buy one then he can pick from what I have done. No real pressure there. Always remember that in this business your name and reputation are as important as your work. Mess any of those up and you are done. Skeeter

Hello, I don’t post near as much as I used to, but am still here every couple days. I saw the new thread about the JR Hopkins DVD and I started thinking about the past of TU. I wonder if we shouldn’t have a “Lost and Found” sticky for formerly active members? More to let us know they’re okay, and just not into building, or having a difficult time, or whatever. Similarly, perhaps we should have a “In Memoriam” sticky. I know we unfortunately have had multiple threads in the past about Members who have passed, but they’re hard to find if you don’t know to look. Maybe each could have a link to the thread (if there was one), a link to their posts (as a way of honoring their contribution to the hobby) and a comments section. Craig

I grew up in a small business family. As an adult, I chose a different career, mostly because of the hard business lessons I learned at my Dad’s knee. Some guys are interested in building baits as a business. Some of them can build great baits consistently in single or small batches. But very few are able to scale up their production, keep the quality as good as it was as a hobby, and most importantly, run the operation as a profitable business. And if they manage to do it, many find that being an 80 hour a week slave to production schedules and dealing with feckless suppliers and irrational customers is not the dream they envisioned. If you can cheerfully do that, I salute your guts and initiative and wish you the best of luck.

No offence but painting is just that painting. I respect the talent with an airbrush but in the end it’s just decorating a lure that someone else made. There is only so many combinations and if you are matching natural feed things are even more limited Maybe I just don’t get it because my focus is on building and action more than painting. In the end if painting is what you base your business on and competition is hurting you it’s time to find something that makes you stand out from the others. It’s just how business goes Good luck

With small lures, members discovered that very thin fiber/circuit board lips were more effective than thicker Lexan lips in creating waggle action. The thinner the lip, the better the action. The reason for this has not been discussed much, if at all. It is all about the sharp edge. Water can flow around a round object with minimum 'peeling off' of the flow, thus minimum disturbance of the water. Conversely, flow cannot negotiate a sharp corner; it cannot change direction that quickly. This causes a low pressure area behind the edge of the lip. Water gets sucked back into this low pressure area and thus the vortex is born. At very slow speeds, the shape of the water flow is symmetrical, the same both sides of the lure. But, as the lure speed increases, a certain speed is reached were the vortices start to interact. There is not enough room for the vortices to exist independently so they take turns. The vortices start to alternate, forming one side then the other. This effect is called ‘vortex shedding’, a ‘vortex street’ or ‘Kármán vortex street’. This alternating vortex is the engine that drives the lure, causing the desirable ‘waggle’ or action of the lure. This also explains why a lure has a minimum speed before the action starts. The sharper the edge is, the stronger the low pressure area, the stronger the vortex and therefore the stronger the action. Larger lures in the range of 8” and larger will require a thicker lip in order to survive bouncing off rocks with all that body weight behind. But the thicker lip is not going to produce as much action as the knife edge lip of the 3” lure. The solution is to cut a chamfer behind the lip face. This reintroduces the knife edge and improves the vortex strength and thus the action. Another way to improve action is to make the face of the lip concave. This causes pressure to build up in front of the lip which further increases the strength of the vortex. Here is a video that shows vortex shedding, and the start transition explaining the minimum speed. Dave

I cataloged all mine in a spreadsheet, printed out a list, had them closed on shelves with the number on the end of the wood handle showing so I could find it on my list, then looked for the number of handle. I had the shelves with numbers so I had location numbers on my list and still couldn't find what I was looking for when I needed a mold. so I put them on peg board .The pic of my molds takes up a lot of room but at least if can find what I am looking for. and while looking for a mold i'll see one that i forgot i had, so that is helpful.

Or you could be like me. Add hardener, then find out it's too hard, then add softener, then too soft, repeat......

I have started receiving complaints from TU members about business owners, tackle supply retailers, lure parts companies and others spending time here in the forums with a single motive; selling TU members their goods or services. This message serves as notice to everyone that this will STOP here and now! TU is not a venue for ANYONE to spend time hanging out here, trying to sell their products to people. It is a place where people come to learn from other lure makers. Any company who has people here and is actively soliciting TU members, be forewarned that your accounts are in danger of being permanently banned! I don't take this lightly and you shouldn't either! So if you happen to be one of those people who has been becoming more active here for the sole purpose of trying to reel in new customers, put an end to it now. If you want to share your knowledge with others without mentioning your company and without offering to "help" them with their problem by offering to sell them something, then feel free to continue to to participate here. I will be keeping a close eye on this and TU members will also be watching and if they see anything going on that is outside of these guidelines, it will be passed along to me. Once again, accounts of guilty parties will be permanently banned if this continues after today!

If I had a nickel for how many times I've seen "new lure finish" in the last 18 years........... Well lets just say I wouldnt be making $8 fishing lures

The only thing I can add is that I read somewhere (can't remember where) that using wooden stir sticks can introduce bubbles into your epoxy when mixing. I use a metal rod bent into a shepherds stick shape and seem to have a lot lot less problems with my epoxy than a lot of guys do. Ben

UL Spybait Challenge I got an email from a buddy who asked if I could make a UL version of a spinbait for trout fishing in the mountain streams of North Carolina. It seems that Duo Realis discontinued the spinbait 60 and now only makes an 80 and 90mm version. I couldn't even find a 60 but I remembered that I had one. I am a jig and spinnerbait guy, I've never made a hard bodied bait before. I took on the challenge because I felt if I was successful, I'd have a hell of a bluegill/bass bait for my own pond on my property in NC and the rivers I fish here in Florida. How I went about it: I'm not ashamed to admit I made a 1pc mold of the 60 and cut it down to the length I wanted and sanded it to the necessary profile I was looking for. I made both a 1 5/8" and a 2" body. But with that came the issue of properly weighting it so that it would fall flat horizontally with that sexy little shimmy. I needed to add weight to a solid body, not a bait I could assemble from two halves with spots for the weights molded in place. I molded about a dozen bodies and then had to experiment with weighting the baits. I needed the bait to do two things........swim straight without wobble and fall perfectly horizontal with that sexy shimy like a Senko. I drilled a series of small holes ahead of and behind the belly hook and filled them with tungsten powder. I got really lucky and pretty much nailed it with the first two baits I made. Next I mocked up a bait with the screws and hardware I would use to complete the bait to test it. I swam some of the baits in the pool and found that they blew out and rolled if fished too fast. I simply bent the paddles of the lead prop the opposite of the tail prop and this was instantly corrected. The bait fell exactly as I wanted it to and it swam great. I would decide to use Decoy single hook's on the 1 5/8" bait and Gammy trebles on the 2". At about the time I was knee deep in the project, I read on Tackle Tour that Duo made the Tetra Works mini prop which is a ul version of the Spinbait. Despite the bait being rather difficult to acquire, I managed to get one and here is a comparison photo with the 1 5/8" bait I made. Here a few smaller ones @ 1/8oz ready for clear coat. I used my copic air brush to paint them. 2" baits are about 3/16oz. I was going for small in the sense of length and profile. A slightly heavier bait in moving water or deeper water like the quarry pits I fish could be a good thing. These are essentially the finished baits in both 2" and 1 5/8". A couple were also specifically made for deep water. Here is a family tree of the 90mm, 80mm, 60mm and 48mm baits from Duo and a couple of mine.

Walk the walk, Then talk the talk....put up or shut up, pick any saying you want and insert here.

when you find your flat surface you can lay it on there and see if it rocks back and forth. if not then use a flash lite to shine between mold and flat surface , with lights in room turned down . Then you will have an idea where the highs and lows are . Also use a black sharpie to coat the surface of the mold to be sanded , after a couple swipes on the sand paper this will show where the highs and lows are for sure .

The perfect top coat only exists where Rainbow farting Unicorns exist ..Nathan

And we both know that in reality, the fish don't care near as much as we do... LOL

If you have a blank body and a fully assembled body with all hardware attached, and a gram scale, then it is possible to calculate the weight of micro-balloons required to add to the resin mix in order to achieve neutral density. a gram scale with 0.01g increment would be nice, but 0.1g would definitely get you close. The solution is complicated and so I have written a spreadsheet to make it simple. You will need to read up the post on Archimedes dunk test but it is really not difficult, as others who have tried it will tell you. If you or anyone would like to try the spreadsheet then PM me your email address and I will send it. Dave

Above is all good info and let me add my 2ct worth with some colors such as chartreuse or florescence you need to cook the plastic with the colorant added to cold plastic or some color tend to chaulk and not be as vivid as it should be. Me personally I use a thermometer for gauging the temp it guarantees my consistency .With that said you can judge it by looks with time under your belt but , it is best practice to use a thermometer . You can get close by judging but you don’t want to find out the hard way you were 10 degrees under target temp and your baits start doing weird things and you waste your hard earned money and time on baits that end up in the trash . Also welcome to the fold ! There’s a lot of good info here and it will save you a lot of foible in the long run. tight lines!

Here’s my latest jig Build. Robster Craw I’d love to know what everyone thinks.

Maybe you are pulling too hard on the first wrap? I make two turns around the bucktail clump, then add tension by pulling the bobbin from under , while holding the hair. After I can let go of the hair and make harder wraps.

I put mine in a toaster oven set at like 150-200 degrees. I only leave it in for a couple minutes and also pre-heat my molds that way to. Work awesome in the winter when the garage is in the 30s-40s.

Yeah, brain tumors and hurricanes will do that to you. You guys are unreal sometimes...

When you paint a jig with it and you see all one color, don't get excited. The first time I used gold veined paint I was disappointed as the jigs looked like plain gold. I figured they were painted so I'll cure them and maybe add some GP or watermelon and make roadkill out of it. Well after I took them out of the oven they looked great, and so don't judge your jig until after it is cured, that is when the veins really come out.

Only thing I have to add to this is those baits look great. Allen

It's like the perfect husband. All my ex-wives said it doesn't exist, but they love it at first, till they found out about the handling issues. Hahaha

I use this one http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Mold-Insert-Components/Wire-Weedguard.html https://www.barlowstackle.com/Wire-Weed-Guard-P3836.aspx

I have been playing with a stencil project for the baits that I make and for repaint purposes. first test prints so I am getting close, gotta thin the shell down and make the alignment tabs a bit thicker. What baits are you wanting to make stencils for?? K/O baits or for your own baits?

I'm gonna some this up for everyone really quick. People expected the cheapest ass product they could and still wanted to complain. So we started degassing pre shipping. It is exactly the same plastic. this allowed us when people cried about bubbles to say, you should have bought degassed then. Most every plastic is mixed under a vacuum, science says if you don't do this your going to whip air into it. Now this also has many dependencies on viscosity. Aka lurecraft to my knowledge does not degass, but there product being a good product for most, don't misinterpret my words, has a very thin viscosity, aka settles fast. So it can mix easily without degassing. same goes for lureworks, it to has a thin viscocity. reason they can sell it under injectasol easily not degassed... There suspendasol, now is like mayonnaise, Reason you guys cant use it effectively as you cant mix it without whipping in air very easily. Now you have moisture, looks just like air, acts like air etc. Degasser will also extract moisture, I sure hope this clears some air without any feelings being hurt.

were you find degassing a advantage, is the ability to mix the hell out of it, and post degass. It is science and it is a chemical, it is going to settle, and it is going to aerate at it current viscosity. a thinner material dont aerate as badly if at all. But...... Thinner material also has other drawbacks. Like it ability to suspend.

I dont use chunk style trailers often but saw a tip by Randal Tharp that I think could help with the plastic ripping. Take a toothpick and run it laterally just in front of where you plan to put the hook through. On a short bite the bait pulls on the toothpick instead of ripping through the front of the bait. Just clip off the ends so they dont stick out.

Here is the color that the stuff I use from smooth on is.

The joy of this hobby is there are no rules when making what you want.

Looks like a laminate to me. Clear plastic with some glitter on one side, light watermelon and a light brown on the other.

Try these... https://www.cncmolds.com/webstore/ http://www.pouritmold.com/

I wish to suggest to take what you have from this thread and move out on your own path and perfect a new process using the bits of information. Post your process here and asses any received critiques. You maybe very surprised at the final results. Yes it it is too bad that we tend to lose great information from history but I am only seeing great improvement in equipment and techniques all brought to us by guys and gals with a vision, the how to, and no fear of failure. Good luck and let the imagination run!

This is a video from Toxic Baits. There is a small section of his paint set-up and he's a rattle can guy. While he is doing larger baits, maybe there's some techniques or tips that can work for you. His swimbaits are the hottest ticket in town right now. Guys will give almost anything for a Toxic Baits Wade Hoggs and he can't make them fast enough. I can see he uses mesh in a hoop to create his scale pattern and he does a lot of splatter on the backs. I would encourage you to try to figure out your airbrush, it's so much more versatile. I had trouble with my first brushes and it was frustrating. Then I bought a decent brush, dedicated myself to keeping it impeccably clean and not using cheap paints or reducers. The most trouble I figured out, was because of dirty airbrushes, I thought I was cleaning it well, but I wasn't getting it clean enough. It amazing how much trouble a tiny spec of dried paint can cause. I bought a bottle of Auto-air restorer and use a tall, skinny tarter sauce jar to store it in. When the brush starts acting up, a night soaking and a quick cleaning and she's good to go for a while again. Good luck whichever route you take