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nemomark

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Everything posted by nemomark

  1. I have been painting crankbaits the old fashioned way and am thinking about upgrading to an airbrush. I have some questions, though, before I buy one. It's a little confusing, since I don't know anything about them. At this point I wouldn't be using it all that frequently, so I would like to get something that is affordable, and I can upgrade in the future if I want to. Any questions you can answer would be appreciated. Purchasing Where can I get a good airbrush for a beginner? What's a good brand/model? What size compressor do I need? Where can I get a compressor at a good price? I've seen some kits that use canned propellants. Are those any good? How long does one can last? Features Do any of these have a significant effect on the brush's usefulness for painting crankbaits? -Single action vs double action? -Internal mix vs external mix? -Gravity feed vs bottom feed? -Tip size? --Anything else that I may be unaware of?
  2. <p>I have a boat now and do fish some larger lakes, and it's easier to take chances when you recover most of your snagged lures. Like I said, I'm getting braver with my lures. The point I was making, though is that if you can't float out of a snag, or muscle out, you can be screwed, and sometimes that's the worst part. That sick feeling when a new lure gets caught, and you know there's nothing you can do except hope that it'll rip loose, and you're thinking, "I knew that was a bad idea." I am upgrading to braided lines, and trying Nanofil, but I'm curious about that 'o ring' method, and how do I pick out hooks that can be straightened if I'm caught on a log, but not if I've got my first 10 lb-er on the line? Any other methods you have for retrieving snagged lures from shore would be welcome. Keep in mind wading is not always an option, since most of these small lakes have mud bottoms.</p> <p> </p> <p>Has anyone had much luck skittering a crankbait along the bottom? I know a few people that like to do that while trolling, though I've learned to use plastic lures, esp. with metal lips, after ruining a couple balsa cranks that way. </p>
  3. A few points I'd like to make here. First, on the subject of running baits into things. As an angler who was confined to shore for most of my life, I can tell you that in that situation, anything with treble hooks that gets snagged is usually as good as lost, unless you have heavy enough line to muscle it out, assuming that's even possible. For years I had to avoid sinking cranks, and could only use deep divers in limited situations, so I can understand the reluctance people have to run their lures into stumps, especially with crankbaits climbing to $8-10 & more, or the amount of time spent making your own. I'm getting over it, but losing a crankbait is still irritating. I will certainly agree that what is most important is finding fish and getting them to see your bait. You also want to show them something that looks/sounds/feels somewhat real (i.e. not pink/chartreuse in clear water on a sunny day). But if it's that simple why don't I just fill my box with the cheapest off-brand lures and catch all kinds of fish (once I find them)? All predators have an instinct to chase prey and expect prey to run and react to their presence. It's the reason cats chase string, dogs chase tennis balls, and you don't want to run from a bear. A long time ago I read something that said to twitch a topwater as soon as it hits the water or a worm as soon as it hits the bottom, because fish hear the splash and swim to investigate, and bigger fish are used to baitfish reacting to their presence. That's what lures that 'hunt' or 'evade' are trying to trigger. The only "evading" lure I have experience with is the scatter rap. It works well for me, but the interesting thing is it seems to work when other lures don't, and not as well when they do. On one occasion, I had been casting cranks off a point with no luck, and finally I threw a scatter rap in the bluegill color and caught a crappie on the first cast, and a green sunfish a few casts later. On another occasion, I had spent 2 hours using cranks, topwaters, jerkbaits, and lizards, to produce 2 7" bass, in an area that I knew had more. On the first two casts with the same scatter crank I caught a 10" bass, and hooked a larger one that managed to spit it out, then over the next 90 min I caught a 10" bluegill and 6 more bass, 4 of which were over 14". After experiences like these, I tried throwing it more, and had the opposite experience. Catching nothing in familiar places with the scatter crank, and then switching to other baits and catching fish. I'm still not sure how much I like the scatter rap line, and some versions are definitely better than others, but I'll keep one or two will in my tacklebox. I also have to admit that I'm a bit of a lure 'nerd'. I like finding unusual lures, and baits with different actions, and not just for catching fish. Granted, I'm not going to spend $20 on a crankbait that doesn't work any better than your typical squarebill, but they do interest me. You can learn from these baits with exaggerated actions how lures move through the water and what caused them to do what we want them to do or don't want them to do, and apply that to your own lures. Stephen King gave this advice to aspiring writers (I'm paraphrasing, it's been a while)- "Read good books, read bad books, so you know what to avoid, read what you love, read things you would never read, read the classics and authors you've never heard of, read everything you can get your hands on." In the same way, it's good for lure makers to be familiar with different lure types.
  4. I've added spinners to the back too, usually inline spinners, and it definitely had an effect on balance. In one instance I tried putting a #0 spinner on a flatfish and trolling for walleye and it didn't work because the lure would kick out too wide and end up spinning. Some one told me that Japanese Bass fishermen have started taking the middle hook off of 3 treble lures, and replacing it with a spinner. That is possiby where someone got the idea for this. As for why everyone else isn't doing this? My 2 cents (and I'm way late, and restating a few things that others have stated)-It's not easy to get the balance right, so you can spend a lot of time and money to create something that will cost just as much and may or may not gain a foothold against the Waddle Bat. Or you can create a cheaper version that may just define your company as one that makes cheaper versions of better products. Why do that when you can sell plenty of cranks with name recognition, quality, endorsements, other gimmicks, etc?
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