Navin_R_Johnson

@21xdc, I tried that on some cheep hooks but they didn't look quite right. I'll still stick with bending wire if I don't find produced counterparts. @BigEpp, Should have mentioned, those aren't mine. I grabbed that pic off the net somewhere. I am going for that vintage look though, gotta get on my wife to carve them out for me, she's the wood worker. @Mark, The little farts seem love them. Just wait till you get them in the boat and they want to play with them while your trying to fish. Great times! Anyone else have some fun alternative uses for their lures since were on the subject? Great idea for bath toys, I'll need to pass a couple over to the new fisherman we have in the family!

I always have a few/bunch lures hanging from our X-mas tree and was going to make a few for the rest of my fishing family this year. Some of the family has smaller kids or pets around though so, I don't want to use real treble hooks. Before I resort to bending wire and soldering, anyone happen to know if I can find similar pre-made as the picture?

Not just you. I bought a pack of Createx airbrush colors as everybody seems to like them. They are however about the consistency of honey and need close to 50/50 reduction. They also need much more thorough mixing than my other brands or I get chunks that clog the tip. They are still usable, just need a little more attention compared to other brands I'm using. I wonder if I just got a pack that sat on a shelf for years and evaporated some of the solvents. They were sealed with the paper top but, I'm sure there's still a shelf life?

Thanks for the input. I have already added external weights to a finished lure to know how much and where I need the weight. My problem with shot would be how to keep it in place in the hollow body for balance. Any tricks on how to glue it in place though a 2mm hole? I need to add just under 0.2oz.

Seems ballast topics are the rage this week, so I'll add another. Anyone tried adding ballast to hollow molded blanks? I recently received some 3" square bills (look identical to wLure model) and they shoot up like a cork in a bucket test. Would be nice if I could add a bit of weight to slow it or even suspend just below surface. My first though was to drill a small hole and add some sort of fluid to displace some air but, maybe one of you has a better trick up your sleeve?

Thanks for the input all and I think I've figured out the issue. My son painted a few lures and was complaining about how paint wasn't sticking to the silver undercoat we were using. After a few tests we figured out the silver is for some reason reacting with the other paints and not allowing the top layers to cure properly. It's an old bottle and chances are good myself or one of my boys contaminated it with something. I've also read up on the KBS recommended and have a quart on the way to try out, sounds like good stuff. I'll save the poly I have to resurface our work bench this spring.

Going for ease of finish, I tried water based Minwax "Polycrylic" dip on a lure and it made the acrylic paint run terribly. The lure dried for 2 days before dip and using a few different brands of paint that all look to have runs. (pic attached) Any ideas on where I went wrong here? Wrong Poly? Are there any other options for an easy "dip and forget" finish? I've got 2 kids, the wife and the occasional tag along friend. Between 4-5 of us fishing a few days a week we lose a lot of lures every summer so, long term durability is less of a concern than how much time I spend on paint and finish.