Fishaholic

Yep, the Indiana portion of the Kankakee does hold quite a few smallies, but they run on the small side...I fish the Kankakee over a hundred times-a-year and have to say that it's a great fishery for pike, walleyes and largemouth - especially largemouth! LaSalle, Grand Kankankee Marsh, 10 mile road (near English Lake) are all great areas for largemouth - I took my personal best at the Grand Kankakee Marsh on a Bettencourt Baits Assassin, a hefty 8.5 pounder. If you want to fish smallies though, my recommendations are for the Tippiecanoe River near the Little Monon and the section near the islands close to Buffalo, the Yellow River (underrated, but in the Fall you can get 30-a-day), the Southern tip of Lake Michigan, Wolf Lake (Hammond), the Kankakee River (in Illinois), the DesPlaines River (ILL), the Grand Calumet River (ILL). I generally down-size for smallies, but plenty are caught while fishing for largemouth too. My bait of preference are 2 choices: a 1/8 oz. round head jig with a 3" Lindy grub and any of the 2.5 - 4" tubes T-rigged with an oversized or wide-gap hook.

the link I gave you with the colors also had prices, but you could just use your search engine to find additional sources for ComArt paints, just look under: Medea+ComArt

There's plenty of links out there for ComArt paints, here's one http://www.arttalk.com/medea/acc-com.htm But all you have to do, is go to your SEARCH engine and type in the following: ComArt+airbrush+paint I think you're going to get excited when you see what's available.

Badger 150 was my first airbrush and gave me fits for the first year I owned it...too touchy for beginner airbrush artist in my estimation...switched to an Iwata, and I'll never use anything else now...My first Iwata had a small gravity feed cup, and the new one has a larger cup to hold more pigment...which really isn't necessary in your case, but I'm not only using my airbrush to put finishes on some of my baits, but I'm also a fine artist working on larg airbrushed pieces for gallery and museum competitions. The Iwata comes with a dual tip setup...without changing the psi on my compressor, with both tips attached, I can spray from 1/8" to approximately 3"; by removing the primary nozzle, I can spray from 1/50" to 1/4"; and by removing the secondary nozzle, I can spatter and change the size of the spatter by regulating how much pigment I allow to flow through the brush (dual action brush). Side note: I'm also sold on the Badger Silent II compressors...you can whisper to someone in the room and still be understood while the compressor is running...I had my first one for around 12 years, and bought the second one 4 years ago. The other method I like to employ is using bottled mixture...nitrogen and O2 mix, but then you have to own a bottle, which isn't always a lot of fun, especially when it's time to get it refilled...besides the regulators for bottles are more expensive, but then, you don't need a moisture trap on the bottled air mixture.

sound to me like you have a damaged needle...doesn't take much to cause damage to the needle...overly aggressive cleaning can do it. I've always taken my Iwata completely apart to clean it, and used Rapidograph nib cleaner and Windex to clean it...usually when the trigger seems sticky, it's either because there's a miniscule piece of pigment on the needle, or the needle is bent or worn...I generally keep 2 or 3 extra needles around, they're pretty inexpensive and when you're ready to rock, it takes less time to replace the needle than it does to mess with trying to figure out precisely why your trigger is sticking. Time is a valuable commodity.

I know being a "newbie" here I probably shouldn't stick my 2 cents in here, but having been an airbrush artist for over 20 years, I'm gonna give you my opinion anyway. Createx is the type of airbrush paint that is most easily acquired through craft stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby, etc. but the colors don't really mix all that well, and the range of colors is pretty limiting. ComArt paint comes as opaque or transparent colors, all the colors mix very well, and, if you're looking for a translucent color, you simply mix the transparent and the opaque colors together. Also, ComArt paints come in an extensive range of colors for both the opaque colors and the transparent colors. Another pigment that you can add to your airbrush colors comes from Liquitex or Grumbacher it's a line of paints referred to as interference colors...I think these colors would have a great impact on lure finishes, because, e.g., I have one that when the light hits it in one direction, it's got an orange cast to it, but when the light hits it in another direction, the cast of color is closer to lavendar...on a wobble type bait, the color would have an eerie irridescent quality to it because it would be in a constant state of color shifting. OK those are just a few thoughts from the peanut gallery.

Is it possible to heat the plastics with a craft warmer? My thought was that I could maintain an accurate temperature to keep the plastic at a constant pouring state. I realize this may or may not be a good idea, but I'm new to pouring plastics and always looking for an edge that allows me to simplify or improve any lure making technique. Currently, I'm using the 2 piece injection molds from Janns Netcraft...and I'm quite happy with the end result, but I'd sure like to figure out how to speed up the production end a bit. Any help or thoughts on this subject would be greatly appreciated.