[Sonny.Barile]

A few months ago I started posting here and made a bunch of lures. When it came time to topcoat I ended up using polyacrylic. Most of you regulars that got involved in the conversations were dead set against using this stuff because of hook rash and durability. I aquired some and tried it anyway because it was so darn easy to use I just couldnt help myself. I have been busy with work and was also in the proccess of replacing my boat...so I didnt get to do any fishing until last week. I took my tackle box full of lures out on the bay for the day. I had a great day boating over 2 dozen 2 foot long bluefish. Every one of my lures worked well but got shredded easily. For you guys that dont know what a bluefish is....the only way I can describe it is.....take the jumping and running ability of the largemouth bass and the teeth of a big pike, put'em together, and multiply by 10. Even just running on the sandy bottom takes this stuff right off. All in all as a learning experience I would say this was a great day. My lures swim good and catch fish. I also learned alot about topcoats. It is epoxy from now on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be spending saturday bandsawing as many blanks as I can to stock up, building a drying wheel, and shopping for some epoxy.................

[fish devil]

Nothing but metal will survive bluefish.

[bombadier]

A blue will take the finish off just about anything with their razor teeth. They also fight like the devil with no let up. Get a 15+lber on the line and it will work you over pretty good. If you're target is blues, don't even waste time sealing your lures. It's a waste of money and time since the blue is going to tear it up easily. Make the lure a quick shot of paint and then fish it. If the lure isn't too bad just reshoot it with paint for the next trip.

[Sonny.Barile]

Well......I used a variety of wood for my lures. Pine, poplar, white oak, and hickory. The pine and poplar came back with chunks gouged out of it. The white oak faired a little better. The hickory only got scrapes in the top coat and paint. If the top coat were epoxy I think they would have come out unscathed....................

[Vodkaman]

Just a thought, but you might do better with a resin body (alumilite). I think the wood compresses slightly with the teeth and this allows more penetration into your top coat. With a very hard resin body, the top coat might have a better chance of survival. It's another option available.

Congrats with the fishing success.

[hazmail]

Nothing wrong with trying something new, at least you know it does not work, unlike me who is usually just speculating. If you never try it, you will never know. pete

[woodieb8]

wow. first off your lures got you tgreat fishing. congrats to that for sure

[boomah21]

Ive never fished for blue fish but I agree you may want to try the alumilite even when gouged with teeth water has no real effect to it. It also can be made very hard.

[mark poulson]

I'm a carpenter, so I always think of lures in terms of wood, which I can work with.
The harder the wood, the better it will stand up to teeth. That's why white oak worked for you. But oak doesn't really like water. So, unless you're going to soak your lures in an oil based sealer, and then let them hang for two weeks to get rid of the volatile in the sealer before you paint, I'd look for a wood that's water resistant from the start.
Cypress, cedar, redwood, and teak come to mind.
I haven't worked with cypress, so all I have is second hand info that it is water resistant. In New Orleans, my neighbor, another carpenter, said they used cypress for it's water resistant qualities before they had pressure treated lumber.
And redwood and cedar are softer woods.
So that leaves teak, and other teak-like imports.
If I were making lures for barracuda and bonita, two toothy inshore fish here in SoCal, I'd use a teak-type wood because they have enough oil to be water resistant even if the finish fails. And they're really heavy and hard.
If bluefish are anything like 'cudas and bonita, it's not if, it's when the finish fails.
I might try Abatung, a Malaysian hardwood that's almost as heavy and oily as teak, but a heck of a lot cheaper! We use it here for decking.
I sure wouldn't sweat an airbrush finish on those lures. Rattle can paints only, and oil based. And a clear gloss rattle can topcoat. I'd know I was going to repaint them after each trip, so I wouldn't worry about perfection, or durability, when it came to the finish.
Let us know how you finally solve this riddle.

[captsully18]

Just my .02, if you are looking for a HARD topcoat, use Dick Nites. It is a lot harder than D2T and is very easy to apply and work with. I can't say that blues won't hurt it, but I do know that you can't hurt it by bouncing a bait off rocks, and hooks leave no rash at all. I would urge you to try the Dick Nites before you buy the D2T.

David