VanderLaan

Making some wood musky baits. Hoping someone can give me a lead on paint prep (sealing, sanding, etc). Current efforts are ok, but I am wasting a lot of paint and dealing with raised grain, sanding, etc. Definitely a different process than painting plastic baits. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Starting to dabble in muskie baits and have been wondering about the best way to make loops on the nose and tail of the through wire. Is it as simple as twisting the wire with vice grips around a drill bit in a vise? Is there an easier, more consistent way to skin this cat? Please give me the skinny...

If I was going to use a router, I would put it in a table and construct a jig to hold the lure. That way, is thing go south, you will still have all of your fingers. Here a jig along tbe lines of what I would build. Should cost you less than $15 and a few hours in the shop building it. http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/jigcontest/brownA1.jpg

When I was carving decoys, I used a bow sander to round over heads and bodies. Pretty simple to make and quite effective. You would need a vice to hold the lure.

+1 on the circle template and blue tape. On my chug bugs I have been free-handing the eye with an airbrush and then painting the irises with the template. Took me a few tries, but it works pretty well. I found a circle template at Hobby Lobby for $3. Make sure you put the template on the lure with the sticky side of the tape facing up.

Got a few blanks with what I assume are mold marks. Best way to get rid of them? Small grit sandpaper? Steel wool?

Dipped 11 J-Plugs today and 9 wrinkled almost immediately. Did some research and think that it was probably the result of a too heavy base coat. I will likely hold the blow dryer on the plugs when heat setting the paint as well. Is there anything else that I should consider doing to avoid winkled paint?

UV paint is huge in the Great Lakes salmon fishing circles. As I understand it, UV light penetrates water far deeper than you would ever fish. Often, in deep water UV is the only light available. The UV paint ''glows'' as long as there is daylight. Glow paint glows as long as there is light stored in the particles in the paint. Long story short, you have to charge glow paint, but not UV.

Thanks guys. I found some plastic shot glasses at WalMart. Bag of 250 for less than $3.00.

When mixing colors of paint, what do you mix it in? Dixie cups? Does that not leave a lot of paint in the cup? Hate to admit it, but I am clueless on a good way to mix the paint and get it in the cup of the AB. Thanks-

Never usd the stuff, but what about putting their powder in something like epoxy, lacquer or add it to air brush paint and then apply multiple coats? Would that address the uneven coating issue while still allowing the accumulation of GITD particles? Just thinking out loud.

My name is Bill VanderLaan and I will fish for anything that is willing to bite a hook. Love chasing steelhead in the tribs, kings on the big water or pulling bull gills through the ice. Fear that I may soon be bitten bythe muskie bug. Currently restoring a 22' Starcraft for the big water. I came to this site wanting to learn to make my own salmon spoons and have become totally fascinated with the concept of painting my own crankbaits. I am in the process of acquring equipment and supplies. Like everyone else, money is a bit tight, so I appreciate everyone's willingness to share their knowledge with the newbies. Hopefully, the day will come where I can help someone down the learning curve.

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it.

Spent way too much time at Hobby Lobby today looking at paint. They sell createx in pearl, opaque and transparent. They also sell the ''hobby paint'' in the 2 oz bottles. My confusion lies in what type of paint I need to buy for crankbaits and trolling plugs. Would I use the opaque as a base coat and then layer the details with transparent? Do you just apply the transparent more heavily to get the opaque finish? I suspect that you can use transparent to get opaque, but not vice versa. My first project is to give a couple dozen j-plugs a fresh coat of paint. Given that they are trolling plugs with simple paint schemes, could I just thin the acrylic hobby paints? Would I be able to get the blended edge with the acrylic hobby paints? Is there a situation where you would use pearl? What about metallics? Would love to use them on the j-plugs. Thanks-

Thanks guys. Looking for plastic. Cougar - I live in Petersburg. Small world.