Bois d'Arc

Larger needle sizes work best. I use a Paasche TG Talon airbrush with a .66mm air-cap, tip, and needle for spraying glitter paint. This setup works pretty well but requires frequent and thorough cleaning. I use FolkArt brand glitter paint mostly because its readily available and inexpensive.

Iwata airbrushes are hard to beat...might invest in an extra needle. Senko makes a model PC1010 compressor that is awesome for airbrushing...and other stuff. Use the correct thinner with each different brand of paint....Createx use Illustration base....Wicked use High Performance Reducer...they just spray better that way. Don't spend too much $$ on colors. There are some good posts on this site with color selection for lure painting...do the search save the $$. Don't buy cheap blanks...they're cheap...for a reason. Get a few vendors who do you right and a few blank styles you like to paint and stick with them. Use the blue painters tape to cover the diving bills on your blanks. Take the time to tape them up cleanly...looks much better when done right. Sometimes it helps to stick the tape to your jeans once before putting it on your lure blank...gets some of the glue off. Lots of opinions on clear coating lures. Most folks start with epoxy ...Devcon 2 part 30 minute handling time is a good place to begin....search and read up on this subject in order to save yourself infinite amounts of grief. Lure Layouts sells stencils...lots of stencils...mostly flat...not vacuum formed 1/2 shells. Making stencils is a whole nuther subject...yes I know nuther isn't a real word...but it fits well. Search and read up on stencil making, it's a necessary skill for most of us. If you have questions this is the BEST place to find answers. Good luck and keep thinking good thoughts.

Best place you can go for information on any tackle related anything!!!

A few thoughts on D2T....use the 30 minute handling time for lure finishing. Home or Industrial??? Marketing stuff...both work the same way. Thin it with a little denatured alcohol... careful not too much.... causes fish eyes and sticky lures. Mix the two parts together first then stir well...next add a few drops of alcohol and re-stir. If you get bubbles in the mix when stirring just cup your hand over the mix cup and exhale into it a few times...presto... no more bubbles. Mix small amounts and do two or three lures at a time...when the epoxy gets stiff you can cut it with a little alcohol and stir it up until it thins out again. (see: careful not too much) Use a lure turner to avoid sags and runs. If you can get your hands on a dehydrator hang you D2T coated lures in it, after turning them for 15-20 minutes, and set it on 95-105 degrees and cook for an hour or so....lures come out dry and hard as a nail.

Heat guns work great if used properly...use it wrong and your blanks will blow up like a dead toad in the hot sun. Be sure to keep the gun moving across the lure and don't hold it on any one spot...also keep it a safe distance from the blank (Ben's post is right on). I use a heat gun with Createx paints because it seems to set and dry the paint better. With Wicked paints a hair dryer works nicely or just let the paint air dry ... works great either way.

I have several of their stencils in different sizes. I use them a lot to get individual spots, stripes and misc. shapes on painted patterns. Good designs and very useful.

Yep...mostly in the Bois 'd Arc unit of the Caddo-LBJ Grasslands. Lots of good fishing in two small lakes make it well worth the drive.

I fish a lot of small lakes also. Some of the same ones JRammit mentioned. If there's a line of junk moss....the stuff that grows off the shoreline out into the water, usually only a few yards out into the water that can be a gold mine. It may be under water after a heavy rain but it grows to the surface very fast. You may have to cover a lot of it but when you find a spot it can hold a lot more good fish than you would imagine. Pay attention to pockets and points in the junk, particularly along wind swept shorelines.

Very light braid in the 8-10 lb, range makes a great spinning reel line. Super small and very sensitive...you'll feel every tap. No need to set the hook hard just a quick snap is all it takes. The stuff lasts for years. Its available in hi vis (mostly yellowish) and I've used it for a while now and love it. Now that spinning reels are using larger spool diameters even on smaller lightweight reels wind knots aren't a big problem. Downside is the small braid tends to be a little $$.

Opaque white, black and yellow. White for a base, blk/yellow for shades of green. Makes a very nice range of olive green for back & side color. Transparent yellow, blue, green, brown, grey, orange. Black and white for tint and shade when mixing colors. Pearl white, silver, black and gold....maybe copper Iridescent blue, yellow, and green. Probably missed a few transparent colors but not a bad place to start out. Good luck painting...just know that if you start you can't stop

Barlow's sells Mustad (TG76) short wide triple grip and VMC (9651bn) short wide hooks both in black nickel. Great hooks...use them on all my lures.