Tacklejunky

Nice curves! A weedless version of number 3 as Vodkaman suggested would be quite useful! Good ideas.

In my short experience in coating baits, I've found that heating after applying my clear coating to the balsa (urethane in my case) creates tons of bubbles. I hand turn my baits (for now) and have dried them in front of my space heater with horrible bubbly results that I end up sanding out. I like to dry them with no heat now. I can also agree that blowing on the bubbles will pop them, but you have to be careful not to accidentally fling a drop of spit and ruin the finish all together I've also successfully use a lighter for about 1/2 a second to pop some bubbles out of my urethane finishes. This doesn't work so well because you can't really control the heat direction coming off the lighter. I prefer the breath method.

Looks good! Reminds me I have to try turning up a lure one of these days. I have a "Clisby micro lathe" that I ordered from Australia a while back that would work excellent on some small turned up lures.

Woo! Deimai! Look at that big ol fish! Congrats, caught on the home made lure too! I have never fished pike or musky before. In fact I don't even know where I could fish for such a creature. They look like they have a big duck bill! Very cool buddy. Thanks for the pictures and explination on how you built the tow eye. Also, Vodkaman represents a very good idea to test lures. I believe a gallon of water is something like 8lbs..

Nice lures there diemai! I like the single hook weedless idea I believe here in the states we use something similar to cast light objects. I'm not positive, but I think they are called " cast - a - bubble " or something like that. They are basically the same as what you have pictured.. a clear bubble that you can fill with water. One thing about this minnow lure is it weighs 1/4oz! I can cast this lure a good distance on 12lb line (although not meant for such heavy line rating!) I used an entire mojo sinker on it, thinking the balsa would be buoyant enough to float it, but as I find now, I was wrong. The good thing about the weight of the lure is that it will cast very far on it's own. Also, thank you "Pizza" for the tips. I definitely need to use a lighter weight on the next one. What I did was made two of them, but I only tested one before paint so I can change the second one to my needs. Also, I don't think I will add a bill on the second one. I want to see if I can use the angled nose of the lure to let it sink, and act as a riser when you jerk it because the angle of the nose will force water underneath the bait making it rise? I'll give it a shot.. it's drying now from clear coat. The next minnows I make will be designed with your tips in mind on rising and suspending baits. I appreciate all the input I am getting on my newfound hobby. Thanks for making me feel like one of the team guys. I'm new to this and I'm sure my lures are quite under par from some of the neat stuff I have seen on this website.

Yes. The photo does not show the tag ends. I will take another photo of that bait tonight from the bottom to show the tag ends. (ok, I'll take picture now ) I basically just slipped the U shaped paper clip through and bent the end over on the other side. Just as simple as it sounds. I didn't even glue them or anything. The holes I drilled for the paper clip were just barely smaller than the diameter of the wire. That way, I had to press fit the U shape in before bending the tag ends. I realize you are trying to mount the eye on a thinner bill. I thought I would through this idea out there for you anyways in case you can gain something from it. That lake WAS known as Anglers' Little Lake, in Hemet, Ca. (20 minutes east of lake perris). They just shut the place down due to eminent domain . That was the best local bass fishery I have ever been to and now it's gone. I caught my first topwater fish there along with my 3 personal best bass. (two 8's and a 7) Side view.. red dashes show wire routing Bottom view.. shows bent tag ends. Believe it or not, that paper clip held an 8lb who'm I reeled in from 50 yards out and jumped 5-6 times fighting VERY hard. Best fight of my life! After which, I decided to start making my own crankbaits!

I modified a crankbait a while back.. cut off some of the bill to make it run shallower and added a tow eye further back on the bait. All I did was use a paper clip bent in a "U" shape. Then drilled holes in the bill, inserted the paper clip tow eye, and bent the tag ends over 90*. I thought it wouldn't hold up too good on a fatty.. that is.. until I landed my personal best 8lb bass on it.. BTW.. this is how I got started on making my own baits

Very nice shape! Great action as well. Good work!

Caught 2 dinks (8-10" or so) and a 2lber from the south end on shore with the drop shot rofish: I'll probably use single size 10 mosquito hooks with filed down barbs on this bait. I want to be able to use it when I go wild brown trout hunting at the Owens river later this year. They have artificial barbless only regulations in that river for the wild trout section. I'll let you know if I have any problems with tangled up hooks. The rear hook eye isn't very round, as I made this bait before I learned how to bend a round hook eye. Hopefully that doesn't effect the rear hook in any way.. such as sticking or hangup at funny angles. I ran in to that problem on my first failed crankbait.. and learned how to fix it on the second successful crankbait.

I believe the mesh is used for things like building mountain structures for model railroads, sculpture structure.. etc. They show pictures of shaping the mesh, then covering it with clay, foam, plaster and the likes on the packaging. The mesh is very thin and flexible. The only problem I really had with it is obvious. It's metal! You have to be very careful when bending the mesh around the bait so you do not scratch your undercoat. What I did was bend the mesh around a second unpainted bait first, then slipped it right on to the bait I was gonna paint like a glove. this way I did not scratch my white undercoat applying the mesh mask. The pictures do the paintjob no justice. It changes colors a bit when you flex it around. the top looks horrible in the photos, but in person it looks great! It looks like it is all pitted, but that is really the fine coat of silver over the purple refracting light in a funny manner. I'm pretty satisfied.. the paint only took an hour or so.

Very nice. I bet they'll work on bass too. Nice lures man!

Well, I was shooting for either a 6" dive or suspending, but looks like I ended up with a countdown. She'll dive about 1fps. (feet per second) Materials: Balsa, paper clips, polycarbonate plastic and "googley eyes" Action: It has a fairly wide wobble to it and it pivots right around the center. Jerk it a few times for random surprises. (tested it out at Lake Perris a few days ago) Colors: (in order of application) 4 x Minwax gloss clear urethane coats (dipped and HAND SPUN, sanded with 320 grit between each coat) Createx Opaque White 3 layer base coat Createx Pearlized Copper for the scales Createx Pearlized Purple for the back/top Createx Pearlized Silver for the bottom, and a very light spritz on top. 4 more coats of Urethane to top it off. The scales were made with some metal mesh net I picked up at Michaels. Enjoy the pics. I'll slap some hooks on it and test it out in the trout streams and on some small bass soon. I'm about 100% positive it'll work just fine on multi-species.

I don't think I can be of any help there. I don't know ANYTHING about these airbrush things. I bought this Badger Anthem 155 airbrush on sale at Michaels craft shop last year for about $60-80 on sale or something like that. I bought it for painting remote control helicopter canopies, but it's come in handy for many things since. One thing I would like to know is what kind of airbrush I need for super fine detailing. Or if that can be achieved with my badger 155.. I just use the airbrush like a rattle can, but sometimes I'll use some finger control and do some light detailing. It's a blast to go to town on a piece of paper and see what you can really do with it. But doing so seems to make me think I need another brush for fine detailing.

Sorry to keep lifting the thread to the top.. Here's a picture. Works great! Bit noisy but that doesn't bug me. Could use a quick disconnect and maybe an air filter to complete the system. Turn the red knob to air up the brush!

It's working! This is the one I have now. Harbor freight 3 gal, $60. Click link below to see it. Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices Built in regulator. Running airhose off a 1/4" adaptor. Works great! Just applied a coat of some very thick opaque white createx paint no problems. I set the regulator to 50lbs, and it drops to about 42lbs when I start spraying. ( I can set the regulator to 100psi if needed) The compressor turns on and off automatically, but it's somewhat loud. (not a problem for me). Hope someone finds this useful. this seems to be a great solution for less than my budget range. Please note: If anyone gets one of these, you will need a 1/4" to 1/4" male to male adapter and a 1/4" female to male airbrush hose adaptor. (an extra $4)