mark poulson

I threw my triple fish copy yesterday at Lake Castaic in SoCal, in a rainstorm, and caught my first fish on it, a 6.77 beauty. What a thrill! I've caught bigger fish, but this is the biggest on one of my home made lures, and the first on one of my jointed baits. I am waiting for my friend to email me the photo, and then I'll try to post it (no promises, you know I'm internet illiterate). The lure is a 7" had body, 4 section, with a 2" triple trout tail, painted in pearl silver/ med green back/misted with pink fuchsia, and larger black spots. It floats almost completely submerged, and doesn't roll, even on a fast retrieve. I was using a med. fast retrieve, throwing it tight to rock walls and points. I caught the fish on a wind blown point. I was fishing yesterday because I am the weighmaster for Mike Iljin's Angler's Choice Castaic Trial, and I fish for fun after launch and before weighin. I was stoked. Bill Siemental and Troy Lindner won the tournament. Bill said he was throwing swimbaits, and Troy was "doing other stuff". They won big fish with a 6.5 lb swimbait fish, so my fish was bigger. What a kick!

I only use round split rings for my hooks. I'd be afraid that the oval rings might bind if they get sideways during the cast. I use oval split rings on the line ties of my jerkbaits. I think it increases the action. I don't know why, but I always seem to hang my line on the split when I'm tying on, so I have to go really slowly. With regular split rings, I am in the habit of just turning them before I draw down the knot, but oval rings seem to reach out and grab my line. But I still use them.

Michael's sells some spray-on glitter in rattle cans that sticks when it's sprayed, and doesn't move when you clearcoat with Etex. Silver, gold, and mixed.

Maypo, You're a clever devil! Who'da thunk it? Hemostats and magnets! It's a great setup. If you make bigger baits, you can cut a couple of plywood wheels, mount them on your shaft, and suspend the baits between the wheels to dry them.

I think KcDano is right. Clear it with epoxy. The texture just adds to the lures footprint in the water, and makes it unique.

I did a mr max search and came up empty. Am I using the wrong bait? )

Room temp, 70 degrees+-, is what hobby epoxies, and that includes Devcon, were designed to cure out in. Colder than that slows them down. Much warmer than that can lead to other problems, like BobP said.

Take it to a local gym, and just tell the person at the desk that you want to take your 12 incher for a swim. Be sure no one else is in the pool. It's important to test with the hooks on. My son's friend is a lifeguard at the local YMCA, so I can do testing there if it's slow. All it costs me is a ton of food everytime he comes over. Bottomless pit!

If you screw up a lip slot, stop, cut a dutchman (a small, snug fitting piece of wood), and glue it in the bad slot. When the glue sets, it'll be ready to cut again. The exterior wood glues available today, like Gorilla Glue, or Tightbond 2, are so strong if you make a good fit, that the wood will fail before the glue. Remember, if it's made from wood, it can be fixed.

Always cut away from yourself, and make sure your hand tools are sharp. And don't rush. Just like life in general, it's the journey, not the destination.

I looked at the Barlow's springs, and I agree with Bruce. They look too small for larger plastics. You can make your own by wrapping some spinnerbait wire around a 3/8" lag screw. That makes a coarse spring that works well for swimbait tails.

I let my wheel turn all night. The Etex is still slightly tacky in the morning when I turn the wheel off. I don't really handle it until 24hrs have passed. I don't know the exact cure time. It probably varies, depending on temperature. Go to the Envirotex website, and email Hilary Stephens there. She's their tech person, and can answer any questions you have. hstephens@eti-usa.com

Do you paint the lure lying on a flat surface? How do you hold the frame in place?

Jed, I meant the relieved area immediately behind the rear hook. As soon as you mentioned tail action, I figured out it must be relieved to give the back hook more room to swing. Beautiful lures.

I use something like the blue part of the bobber stoppers Dinkmaster posted. After I screw my hitchhiker into the ribbit, and clip it onto the hook eye, I slip the bobber stopper onto the point, and push it around until it's just past the bend. Then I texpose the hook through the ribbit's bottom, and push the bobber stopper back down around the bend until it snugs up against the underside of the ribbits bottom. I push it up until the ribbit has a sway back a little. That seems to force the nose up so it swims right side up without adding any weight, and it also makes the legs a little more active, since they're forced up as well.

Clemmy, This is getting pretty deep. Better break the rubber boots. Next thing you'll tell me the motion causes morning sickness. )

Jed, How does the "scallop" of the bait behind the last hook hanger affect the bait?

Bruce, That's great! My older kids go out with me now when they're visiting (probably afraid to miss the chance before I croak), but my soon-to-be 13 year old daughter, who used to go, says she hates fishing, and will never set foot on the boat again. I guess I'll have to wait until she goes to college before she'll go out again.

I read somewhere that a short piece of the fiber optic cable is glued into a through hole, from one side of the bait to the other, to allow passage of light through it, creating a shifting eye flash. I read it, but I haven't done it.

I know this isn't a hardbait issue, exactly, but Lake Casitas in Ojai, CA., is probably the premier big bass lake in SoCal, and that's where I, and a lot of my fellow nutcases, throw big hardbaits for big bass. The Ventura County water department, in their infinite wisdom, are proposing to close Casitas to public boating to prevent the introduction of the invasive Quagga mussel. The mussel has turned up in some other SoCal lakes, and the Ventura people think this is the way to stop it from coming to Casitas. Here's an article from a local paper about it: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jan/20/quagga-mussel-threat-puts-focus-on-lake-casitas/ As the article points out, all of the other SoCal lakes are watching what happens at Casitas before they make their decisions concerning whether or not to close their lakes to stop the mussel's spread. There are only a handful of bass lakes available to fishermen in SoCal as it is, so the danger of having nowhere to fish is real. The guy mentioned in the article, Ron Cervanka, who has spearheaded the keep the lake open movement, such as it is, has been fishing for bass competitively for ever. He, Dick Trask, and Don Iovino (the godfathers of finesse fishing and sonar use) used to fish together. He's no alarmist. He's a cop. And if he says there's a real danger of the lakes all being closed, then the threat is real. He's started a "Clean and Dry" campaign with all the bass circuits in SoCal, to spread the word about our responsibility as anglers and boaters to help prevent the mussels' spread. But it may not be enough. The next public meeting of the water district, during which they may vote to close the lake, is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb.13th, at 4:30 pm. The site is not confirmed yet, due to the huge amount of attendance of local opposition people to the last meeting. They say they're trying to get a larger hall to accommodate everyone. But there's a chance that the water board members are going to have a private meeting before that, or at least one that's open to the public but announced with so little lead time that no organized opposition has time to present their case. They could well decide the lake's fate, and, with it, the fate of the local economies as well as boaters and anglers, without any meaningful input from the stakeholders, other than their own side. I don't think this is fair, or the right way to go about this. If you want to participate, you can email me at mpoulson47@sbcglobal.net and I will give you some contact info so you can make your feelings known.

Clemmy, I must have been confused with the 10" triple trout. Yeah, that's the ticket! ) I see some of the swim baits my friends and other guys out here in SoCal are throwing, and mine look small by comparison. )

Borderbass, I stand corrected. I just went out to the boat and measured it, and you're right, it's not 10", it's only 8 1/2". I guess I just don't know what 10" looks like. )

Great action. How deep does it run?

Geez, you're a tough crowd. All praise to John, too. I am not worthy. Alright, that's it. Now it's back to being the usual jerk!