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JRammit

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Everything posted by JRammit

  1. Dip and hang.. just be mindful of the drip, i clamp mine hook down so i dont get cone head jigs
  2. Here's where i got it https://www.jannsnetcraft.com/fishing-lure-paint/023025000527.aspx
  3. No UV tank needed, its not UV cure its just supposed to reflect UV light when finished.. i havnt noticed a difference, may just be a gimic, but it was only $2 more than the regular seal coat dip, so im not complaining
  4. Ive always brushed my jig heads and worm weights with thinned devcon, but thats alot of work and maybe a little overkill.... so i recently got some of that UV blast seal coat, just dip it and forget it.... so far so good
  5. JRammit

    Poppers

    Carved from poplar dowel rod, finished with bright green scales over pearl white, black back and hot pink mouth... D2T topcoat... i like these!
  6. The amazing white resin from alumilite is said to be beginner friendly compared to other brands... i used it with absolutely no prior resin casting experience and had fine results with no problems Others like the smoothe on featherlight stuff, but i havnt tried it so i cant comment As for RTV silicone, ive used alumilite (the pink stuff) in the past, no complaints... but now i order the blue RTV 45 from Spike-It/Lureworks simply because i order other stuff there too... it works fine as well
  7. These are poured in a do-it ballhead jig mold, i modified the 3/8 oz cavity to accept an o'shaughnessy hook and just ran the wire out the sprue hole and carefully cut the sprue away from the wire... r-bend is from a wire bending jig i made from a 2x4 and some nails...... cool trick, if you smash a ball head in a vice it becomes kind of an asprin head, on which you can apply stick on eyes, then coat in epoxy
  8. JRammit

    The "J-shad"

    This design is based off one of my oldest successful crankbait designs, with a few tweaks... i thinned it down to 1/2" (from 5/8"), shortened the body length to 2 1/2" vs 2 3/4", elongated the belly to more closely match a shad profile, and changed the lip thickness to 1/16" vs the 1/8" which was all i had at the time i built the original...... the main design aspect i kept was the tail of the body being slightly higher (1/8") than the nose, this kinda makes the whole bait "lean" into the lip angle, and pushes the curvature of the back further to the rear..... the original dove up to 8' deep and had a desirable mix of "x" and "y" rotation, but was lacking in vibration and "thump".... This model is slimmer (less body mass) but also shorter (less diving surface) so id expect it to dive to a similar depth, and in pool tests it has plenty of the "thump" lacking from the original.......... this seems to be a solid design, meaning that every prototype i built (4 total) ran true with the same lip/tow point formula... lip 1/2 the length of the body, tow point 1/4" out from the nose... this allowed me to fine tune for the action i wanted instead of just trying to get the thing to swim............ finish is foil under pearl silver belly and black/gold pearl back with yellow "vein"
  9. Ive always heard the only difference between an alcoholic and a drunk is that alcoholics go to meetings.... not sure if this site counts as a meeting, but here we are Im not a fan of Nike anymore, but just do it... knowlege is great, experience is super great.... and the good thing about soft baits is the fish dont notice when you screw them up.... not so when you get hooked on hard liquor, i mean baits.... too many lures too little time (that should be somebodys signature post)
  10. JRammit

    Foiled Floaters

    I also tested with one 1/32 oz weight in front of the hook hanger, it swam with a more x action, looked ok but not what i wanted... you get more flash from the foil with a y action Finally got to real world test today at the lake... perfect day for it!... cloudy, dead calm, 60 degrees outside, water temp in the low 50's... caught 3 largies and 1 abnormally large spotted bass (batteries died in my scale, id estimate about 3 lbs on the spot)
  11. JRammit

    Foiled Floaters

    Its a toss up between the floater and the trusty texas rigged worm, not sure which ive caught more fish on, but the two combined account for the vast majority of bass in my fishing life
  12. JRammit

    Worms

    Stocking up my bass worm box... these are 9" hook tail hand poured worms... pumpkin seed/chartreuse and watermelon/black
  13. The only time my passion for fishing wanes is when i pick up a new hobby.... like the summer before last i got interested in gardening, which was nice for two reasons, one always having fresh vegis around the house, and two finally a hobby i can share with the wife.... i didnt fish much that year, think i only went 3 times the whole year.... but at the end of this summer i finally got a real boat!.. so my mind is back on fishing non stop...... and if i ever do actually get tired of fishing, there is always another species to target to make it interesting again
  14. Thats awesome!... im jealous My neighbor is retired, he has 4 broken down boats rotting in his yard... i asked him why he isnt fishing every day and he had the nerve to tell me he got tired of fishing.... im not easily offended, but that comment ate a hole in my soul.... i work 70 hours a week and im lucky if i can fish once a month while this guy sits on a gold mine of leisure time and hasnt wet a line in years........... but, nobody ever said life is fair.... my time will come some day.... hope you thoroughly enjoy yours
  15. JRammit

    Foiled Floaters

    My all time favorite hard bait by far is the Rapala original floater... ive made several versions in the past, and they all worked and caught plenty of fish, but all had minute flaws... i spent more time testing and getting this design right......... they are 4" long, 3/8" wide carved from PVC trim board with #4 VMC hooks and 1 gram of ballast weight spread along the belly with #5 lead pellets from a small game shot shell, 0.6 grams in front of the hook hanger 0.4 grams behind..... the action is perfect with a ton of "Y"/roll giving off a great flash
  16. JRammit

    Chart/Plum popper

    3" long, carved from 3/4" poplar dowel... only my 3rd paint job with an airbrush, think im getting the hang of it.... light black scales over white base coat, chartreuse over that, pearl plum around the eyes and on the back with neon pink mouth and a little over spray on the throat.... the yellow buck tail doesnt match, might replace that with some chart synthetic maribou i have
  17. I keep a bag of every size split shot sinkers hanging on my wall for ballast weights... 1/32 oz, 1/16 oz, and 1/8 oz... ive weighed them and they are within a few 100ths of a gram from sinker to sinker, an insignificant difference If you know where you need the weight, you can install it before carving and then sand the weight almost seemlessly into the body.... if you have to float test and place the weight after the body is carved, just cover it in super glue and baking soda, then sand that down flush with the body
  18. Dug this old mold off the shelf and poured these baits to target hybrid stripers I wasnt happy with this bait when i originally made it and tested on a 1/4 oz jig head... but today i gave it another test swim on a 1/2 oz head and it made all the difference..... has a fast subtle wiggle at a medium/fast retrieve (no good for slow retrieves)
  19. JRammit

    The Dead Stick

    Specifically designed for dead sticking hybrid stripers later this winter... 4 1/2" long forked tail worm, custom fitted to a 1/2 oz ball head jig...... most use a fluke for this application, but i wanted somthing tailored, and i have that power as a lure designer.... slender worm style body for a drop shot like action, and a pronounced forked tail for a shad like profile Strait chartreuse and clear with heavy silver glitter
  20. Someome, a non fisherman, once asked me how i come up with the ideas for all my lures... i didn't have a good answer to give him, because every lure has its own story... then later i realized that IS the answer When i go fishing im simultaneously designing lures in my head... im thinking to myself what would be the perfect bait/rig/presentation/thing for these exact circumstances/conditions and indeed sometimes the specific spot im fishing... ive even designed and made a lure tailored to one cast i wanted to make Thats the power we have as lure designers... we don't have to pace the fishing isle at Walmart making compromises, wishing they made this bait in a smaller size or that bait in a different color or this tail on that body or that lip on this profile or what have you Lure design to me is filling a specific need without compromise... sometimes its a new idea, sometimes its a tweak on an old idea, sometimes its a triumphant success, sometimes its a spectacular failure.... either way its what makes me tick... ive transformed fishing from a sport into a puzzle its human nature to always strive for incremental improvements in all aspects of life, and this hobby is no exception... it took me 2 years to completely fill my tackle box with homemade lures that all work, and in the process my building skills have improved to the point that im now pulling old lures out to be replaced with the new...... in my shop i have a "wall of shame" with all my failed designs and screw ups hanging proudly on display... my next project will be a "wall of fame" next to the former where ill retire all my successful lures that caught alot of fish but no longer meet my asthetic standards
  21. Weight centered in one spot creates kind of a pivot point that a lure can easily rotate around... spread the weight out and it reduces the pivot point A great analogy for this was posted here some years back.... imagine holding a broom stick with a weight attatched to the center and spinning it back n forth... then imagine spinning the same broom stick back n forth with a weight attatched to each end
  22. Epoxy used for hardware ill handle gently after an hour... epoxy used for top coat i put it away somewhere safe and wont touch it until the following day... even if its set in an hour its still soft and sometimes still sticky
  23. JRammit

    Mini Rat-L-Trap

    Im completely satisfied with the action, and it didnt take any tuning to get it that way surprisingly ....... it has a tight subtle vibration, enough to clearly feel down the rod, but not as heavy a vibration as a real rat-l-trap, likely because i did not flatten the leading edge of the nose
  24. I did however find a good use for the bad tube... since i also make soft baits, i used it to seal my masters... doesn't matter if theyre cloudy, as long as theyre smoothe and shiny I use alot of devcon too, so getting the one bad tube is not indicitive of the quality of the product... theres no telling how many good tubes i went thru before and after that one... I always say D2T is like the Franks Red Hotsauce of my shop.... i put that sh*t on everything
  25. Yup... i got a bad tube once before, but only once.... also i run into difficulty in cold weather (unless i preheat the epoxy and everything it touches)... and the last bit in the tube never mixes right and can be cloudy sometimes
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