clemmy

Thanks all for the advice! I guess I need to start taking pictures and inventory, lol.

Quick question: How does one ship colorant? I have a ton of colorant, almost all unused. I never was able to set up my shop due to health, and looks like now it won’t be possible. Anyway, I have about a 30 gallon tubs worth, mostly from MF, LC and Bears, but no clue what the shipping legalities are at this point. Has anyone looked into this? Thanks, Craig

Hey Guys, I haven’t been on in ages, unfortunately health curtailed my baitmaking. I got rid of all my soft plastic stuff, but am going up north on a fishing trip to LotW in Minnesota in a month, and I had a simple dipped tube color idea I wanted to try, and was wondering if anyone knew of any company still custom dipping tubes instead of molding? Thanks, Craig

Hello All, I was thinking on making some bladed Chatterbait style baits for a trip to Minnesota. I was just wondering if anyone has ever compared the hunting action of a 90 degree jighead vs. a 60 or 30 degree like is normally used? Just wondering what if any action change happens for a given blade setup. Thanks, Craig

We don’t need no stink’n badges!

As Travis said, Swede was the one that used to provide the pellets before he passed. His source was the same as Rapala. I remember that there was different characteristics of propionate, so yo using the correct one was important. If any can read Finnish, I’m sure the info is common knowledge on their luremaking forum.

Hello, Just wondering if ProTec”s Orange glow powder paint actually glows orange? I know some products are colored but still glow green. Thanks, Craig

Monte is correct

Jeff is spot on. Think of it in terms of fine art. You can try to make a version of DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, but it would look horrible in comparison to a master. There is also so much you can do with finishes/technique in terms of basecoats, layering, foils, candies, textures, effects, fades, etc. And there is research on why you are painting in this pattern/manner. Have you researched vision, color transmission, strike triggers, various types of contrast? You need to know the depth a certain bait is used at, and what way it is fished and at what time of year. Even clearcoating can give you an edge in clarity, scratch resistance, impact resistance, etc. If you’ve put the years of practice, research, etc. in, I think it will show compared a fly by night person that thinks it’s easy. Craig

Are you looking for color change paint or interference, as you mention both. Not sure what’s wrong with Createx or Golden? Many airbrush paints offer interference colors, including taxidermy airbrush paints, and even acrylic inks. For color change you could try the FolkArt craft paints, I’ve read here that folks like them thinned with a .5 airbrush tip. Another option would be buying the powder and adding to your clear. A limiting factor on any would be your airbrush tip size. Most would likely not work well with a .2 or .18 tip.

Not tried a Spike it, but JJ’s Magic dyes silicone skirting well. It crinkles up at first, but then relaxes again as the dye dries. Craig

Dave, Don’t forget it’s not just the COG, but the distribution. 20 grams at each end of a bait (or in whatever axis) would be a lot different than 40 grams near the COG. Craig

It wouldn’t be too hard if you know someone that scubas. That’s essentially what M. Romanack did for the precision trolling/casting. Had divers with poles marked every foot and watched what level the bait went buy at. F. Prokop in Australia used a universities flume tank for his book, Don’t forget unless you are taking about trolling the castability of a bait will have a major effect on the running depth. Craig

Dave, The original question was what would you do if a big company wanted 10k baits a month. Nice problem to have I guess, but the only option for most of us would be either: A) Outsource to someplace with cheap labor like China, Vietnam or in your case Indonesia. Your plan sounds like essentially you are outsourcing to yourself. Nice thing about that would be you would be there for quality control. B ) Sell your bait to an established company. I believe RAD lures actually did both with the Chatterbait. They got more orders than they could handle, so outsourced to Vietnam (GLC if I remember correctly), then eventually sold out to Z Man. Of course they had a patent which helped. The marketing, etc. issues are very real, as is distribution, etc. but the premise was you already have a 10k/Month order. Now if one were independently wealthy, or slowly built up the business, one might ramp up production and tooling. But this wouldn’t help with sudden large orders like if your bait won a major tournament. Craig

Just an idea for dipping/sealing if your lures are that long, you might try a pasta jar off eBay. Many of them have airtight seals.

The perfect topcoat is fish saliva..

I don’t have as much experience with them as some on here, but most commonly Polytranspar and Lifetone are used I believe. McKensie Taxidermy carries them all. Be aware that they come in both lacquer and water-based versions.

Auto Air makes a semi opaque cream. 4221 Otherwise for ready made I’d look at taxidermy paints for bone, or even bass belly white if you wanted a light cream. Createx Illustration has a bone in their bloodline series. Bob put you on the right track if you are going to mix it.

I think there is room for everything. The idea of “custom” varies by individual, and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that. I think the difficulty comes when it marketed a a “custom bait” rather than a “custom painted” bait. I do think painters that copy should list the color as the color listed. For example, chartreuse with purple back should be “table rock shad” or “Hughsey TR Shad, or similar, not some random made up name. I think that would show a bit of respect or tip of the hat to the originator, even if you don’t know who it was). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a bait painted in a color not normally offered in that bait, like asking someone to paint a “Missouri Craw” on a Fat Rap. If you do it better, or cheaper than others, more power to you. If a fisherman has a belief that a custom paint job will catch him more fish, then it will. He’ll be expecting to get bit, pay better attention, use it more, etc. I personally believe that color can be important, but according to my research, fine detail doesn’t matter to most fish like bass on a moving bait, but depending on water clarity and color, light, depth and what the fish are keyed in on, color can matter. The exception would be slow moving baits like jerkbaits, suspending baits, etc. then they can get a longer look. To my mind, order of importance is depth>action>size>color. But I could well be wrong. My wife certainly tells me I am often enough, lol. out of curiosity Bassmaster, what kind of lure did you paint?

Hello, I don’t post near as much as I used to, but am still here every couple days. I saw the new thread about the JR Hopkins DVD and I started thinking about the past of TU. I wonder if we shouldn’t have a “Lost and Found” sticky for formerly active members? More to let us know they’re okay, and just not into building, or having a difficult time, or whatever. Similarly, perhaps we should have a “In Memoriam” sticky. I know we unfortunately have had multiple threads in the past about Members who have passed, but they’re hard to find if you don’t know to look. Maybe each could have a link to the thread (if there was one), a link to their posts (as a way of honoring their contribution to the hobby) and a comments section. Craig

I recently got a Grex Tritium TS. Well thought out and user friendly. Maybe just a hair under the quality of my Iwatas. What I’d love to try would be a nice Harder and Steenbeck. I would consider several things if considering putting money into a good airbrush: 1) Am I using it just for lures? If doing paintings or things like helmets, a higher end brush with a finer tip needle might be needed. 2) Do I paint lures freehand? If you mainly doing large portions of a lure, or mainly using stencils, then you’d be better off with something other than a Micron, irregardless of price. On the other hand, if you are hand spraying in the rays of the pectoral fins, a Micron might be perfect. 3) What kind of paint do I use? If you use Apple Barrel paint from Walmart, or even straight Createx, Something like a Micron would be frustrating. If you are using thinned Wicked or Illustration, or illustration inks, a Micron level would be great. It would also matter if you are doing production vs a single bait

Paw Paw Weedless Wow would be another vintage one

Not sure if you mean 6mm long or wide. BPS has black nickel, on size 5.6 wide and one 5.6 long. owner makes black stainless but not sure of actual measurements

You’d have to decide if you are talking about green chartreuse or yellow chartreuse. Technically there’s not just a “chartreuse” as a color, as both are named after the respective French Liquer. But in reality in fishing people seem to call either type “chartreuse”. For paint though I would choose a bright, cool yellow, such as lemon yellow and add a little bright green or bright greenish blue. When you still have yellow but it appears to you as a greenish yellow, to me that is yellow chartreuse. If you keep adding a little more so it appears to be halfway between bright yellow and bright green, that’s what I think of of as green chartreuse.

Interesting thoughts. Though Dave you could also say it’s all based on drag ;) If you are interested, look up TRIZ. Really interesting research on inventing and design innovation. As for business, I’ve never sold a lure, but of course have thought about it. I decided that if I ever did it would have to be based on quality. The lure itself would have some sort of intrinsic value that brings pleasure to the owner, beyond just action, etcetera. If you look up some of the Japanese boutique top water “Surface Game” craftsman like Budd & Joey. It becomes about the enjoyment of fishing with a fine instrument, not just the catching. clemmy