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Interesting topic. I agree with Super Ron that there is still more room for innovation in the realm of painting than most builders think there is. Firetiger was not a pattern in my father's time. Today it can be deadly pretty much across the globe. Think about that. A simple pattern that simply didn't exist until about 35 years ago. As to innovation in building....I am of the opinion that the multi-jointed swim bait is a true innovation and if I had to choose, I'd choose Hopkins as the inventor...and he was a member of this board at the time. I will never forget seeing a video clip of his prototype swimming through the water. I showed the video to my wife and she got this inquisitive look on her face and said, "That's not a lure, that's a fish, right?" But that type of innovation, true ground-breaking innovation in building, doesn't come along with any regularity what so ever. It is instead usually stumbled upon, and then capitalized upon. I posted on this board, the first ever foiled bait with mesh beneath the foiling....believe it or not. It created quite a stir. I think it was was around the year 2005, but I can't remember for sure...and no one on this board or any other had seen anything like. I even had a guy who was a musky guide and taxidermist contact me via email and offer me a guided musky trip if I'd show him how I did it. But.....here are the interesting facts surrounding that foiling method: 1. It was not my idea. It was the brainchild of a TU member named Husky. He had thought of the idea, but just didn't have the patience to execute it properly and asked me to try it. I pointed out that it wash HIS idea when I posted the pictures. 2. It was truly ground-breaking in the US at the time. I gave step by step details as to how to do it and today it is a commonplace method. 3. But, as Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story....It was a method that had been used by builders overseas LONG before Husky came up with the idea and I executed it, so to speak, and presented it as "new." I later found out that builders from other countries had been placing netting under foil for many years. How did I find that out? I have a blog called "Fired up the airbrush..." in the Tackle Making forum of Ohiogamefishing.com that I started in about 2005...on that blog, I eventually posted the work of builders from all over the country and the world and that is how it was brought to my attention. It was already happening...we in America simply just didn't know it. The Internet was still in its infancy, basically, and the language barrier precluded message boards from "sharing" with overseas builders. Today, of course, there are Facebook "groups" and translation is available at the push of a button. And I have to tell you that some of the work I see from overseas is nothing shy of amazing. I thoroughly enjoy looking at their work, even after looking at baits since the nineties when I began to build. This board has a long history and much of it is not known to many of its members. There are builders who cut their teeth here and quietly moved on. Their innovation and work is now commonly accepted as routine, but it is still THEIR work. There are too many names to mention, but some very impressive work was incubated and shared right here on TU. Today's newer builders can come out of the gate building and painting at a level that took us years to achieve because of the incredible amount of information that is so readily available today and wasn't available at all just 20 years ago. Innovation is still occurring. There is still more to be done. But it is usually something that you can't force, it just happens and usually over time. And it's why I am still a builder.

Interesting input.I've read this complete topic a couple times and how many times has the word" fun" been used?(I'll give you a hint-none) A lot of us just do it for fun.I don't have a problem with doing it for all the reasons mentioned previously but for me it's fun to do and being successful (catching fish) on a lure I made or repainted makes it all worth while.I don't know if the next great lure will come from someone on this site-lord knows that there has been a lot of discussions about physics and dynamics etc.What I will tell you is that information shared here has made it a lot easier for lure hacks like me to be able to be successful.So there is innovation within the process.Someone didn't wake up one day and invent the space shuttle it was a step by step evolution.How many times have we heard the story of two guys trolling with the same lure;same a amount of line out ;same line test,and one guy catches all the fish and the other guy doesn't catch a thing.Why?Was one a magic lure?Maybe that's the driving force for all of us-finding the magic.Good luck to all!

I prefer a fluid bed for all of my jigs. I have three mini sand blasters but only use them to add accent colors. I don't do spinnerbaits though just jigs. I also put my small jigs in racks to cure. That way excess paint if there is any will run down the hook shank where it is easier to remove. I buy the spray guns and racks from TJ's tackle. Best price I have found. I keep the colors in their own jars. Remove the jar shake out the tube then bow down the gun with the blower from my big shop air compressor when changing colors. I use a paasche compressor made for airbrushing used at ~1psi or so for my powder guns.

Mr. Moose, I like the mini sand blaster for all my wire baits. It gives nice even coverage and allows me to do multiple colors. I can give my jigs an couple extra shots on the chin where it drags on the bottom. If you miss a spot or the paint is too light on a spot simply heat that spot and shoot it again. If I get paint on the spinnerbait wire or the hook shank I just put the wire in to the groove of my pliers and give it a couple of twists before I bake it and that cleans it right up. Hope this helps.

Thanks Mark. Seems like that's the stuff Gary Y uses. I've licked a few Senkos and don't taste salt.

I use a wire to fill the lip slot completely with epoxy paste then push in the clean lip. The excess epoxy pushes out the back of the slot where it’s easy to wipe off. If I butter the lip before insertion it tends to get scraped off the lip at the front of the slot and onto the exposed lip, which is harder to clean. I’ve also read that there is a minimum film thickness for epoxy to form its best bond, so you don’t want the slot too tight. Using paste epoxy, it really doesn’t matter how loosely the lip fits the slot because the paste doesn’t run like a liquid will. The paste I use cures VERY slowly. It takes about 5 hours to begin forming a significant bond and 12 hrs before you should handle the bait again. But I like the stuff. Experience teaches patience. Wait for glue and finish to dry/cure or screw it up. Once screwed, it’s hard to recoup a mistake.

Raven, the issue with the gel or any other cyanoacrylic is that they need moisture to cure, or an accelerator. The Gel seems to work fine, but the thin cyanoacrylic like superglue, does not work for me. Bob, I agree, Lexan can be a pain, and I always use slow cure epoxy for them. I take my lips and drill a hole in the part that slips into the slot, fill it with epoxy, as well as coat the lip, then slip it in. Like you said, something to

You know, you have caused me to do some thinking. LOL It would be possible, in theory, to make an open pour mold of some tabs from Silicone like Alumilite HS3. Then, in theory, you could coat the mold with petroleum jelly or UMR. In theory you could them mix some HS3 (the softest pourable silicone I know of) with the appropriate dye, then, in theory, pour it into the molds. Now, once cured, you would need to cut the taps into strips. In theory, it could be done. Perhaps razor blades set parallel to each other in a jig? Lots of theory, but not one I intend on testing soon. Still, for home use, it should be possible. In this case, it is not a cost issue, but a trial and error issue. Ugggggggggg

First, I never use 5 min. epoxy for anything. You might notice that my username is Anglin - Archer. For a lot of years I was super competative as an amature in archery. We discovered that 5 minute epoxies would get brittle after one year, almost to the day, and yellow. Very vew in the archery world that are in the know would ever use it because we had so many failures. The last thing I want is a fish lost due to brittle crumbling 5 minute epoxy. As for Gorilla Glue, to me that is just a name. They produce superglues, expanding urethane glues, and epoxies. I do use their slower cure epoxy for some things. The one I use is not "clear and colorless" so it is relegated to screw eyes or eye attachment, but it seems to work just fine. I also use a 3M gel superglue as well. I moisten the threads to start the cure, then apply the gel, then insert. I hope this helps some.

I don’t know how BentonB does his, but as a hobby builder I keep a library of body and lip templates and a notebook recording measurements, weights of components, wood type and coating details on each new crankbait design I do. That lets me reproduce a successful crankbait and gives me a base line of detail from which to experiment to improve a design. If I want to cook up a batch I made 5 years ago, I just refer to my recipe instead of my faulty memory (which NEVER works).

Check with Captain Hooks Wholesale they carry most all hooks

VMC 9147 works great

Take a look, barlow’s List a few; https://www.barlowstackle.com/Do-It-Midwest-Finesse-Jig-Moldbrwith-Wire-Keeper-P3414.aspx