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Well I finally finished my jig rod. SCIII 7' MH fast tip. Split grip no fore grip and spiral wrapped with 4J micros. First micro build and 3rd rod overall. Camera doesn't let me zoom in close enough to show detail due to the flash being too harsh. Eric

St. Croix SCIII 3C70MHF 7'0" MED-HVY FAST 10-20 lb test 3/8-1 0 oz lure .605 Butt 6.5 Tip 2.900 Oz blank weight $95.00 http://www.customtackle.com/cgi-bin/cts/ctstore.cgi?page=stcroixsc3.html&cart_id=6615130_13408&partner=cts Baston RX-7 IMB843 7'0" 10-17lb test 0.600 butt 5.5 Tip FAST MED/HVY $39.38 http://www.customtackle.com/cgi-bin/cts/ctstore.cgi?page=rainshadowim6.html&cart_id=6615130_13408&partner=cts Bob & Steve both build rods as well. They will answer any questions that you have. The St Croix blank is great. Eric

EJ, Now that Scott and his wife have bought Fishsticks, their store should just be "around the corner" from you. That could be dangerous to the wallet. Eric

I bought 2 of the dream reamers from Custom Tackle in TN. They were 12 a peice, but as a hobbiest, I will not have to buy any more for at least 5 years. I just bought the 2 smaller ones. The larger of the two will do almost any bass rod. Parafan wax.

I like the Kustom line from Iwata. A little more expensive, but they are very nice. I like the micro air adjust feature on the brush. As far as compressors go, if noise is not an issue you can get a noisy compressor from Lowe's or Home Depot for less than $200 bucks. They will hold up to 140 lbs of air, and normally have a a built in regulator. They will cycle on when pressure drops below 100 psi, and cycle off when pressure reaches 140 psi. I can fill the tank on my 2.5 gallon unit and shut off the power and paint a at least one lure completely before dropping below 40 psi. They will turn on when you least expect it sometimes. I sit less than 3 feet away from my Kohler out in the storage building and have jumped a few times when it cycled on. messed up a few lures, and that is why I turn mine off. If noise is an issue you will be hard pressed to beat the Iwata Jet Smart line. I use one in my kitchen and my wife can watch TV without complaints about noise less than 25 feet away. It gets too cold to paint in the metal building sometimes. Before I bought the Jet Smart, I was going to run an air line up through the bottom of one of my floor cabinets in the kitchen for when it got too cold. Eric

15 feet?? Your fish must have a sunburn being so shallow. 8-) Eric

If you leave the fore grip, you will only remove the threads that are showing between the front nut and the fore grip. That is only about a 1/2 inch or so. It will be pretty hard to shape that up I would think. It can be done, but extreme care will need to be used while removing the threads. With the fore grip still there, it may be harder to get a cutting tool at the correct angle to split/seam the threaded portion of the reel seat. You have done a good job on the back portion, so I think you will do fine on the front portion as well. Eric

You make a very valid point, but I was considering removing the foregrip as well. Though it will take a little more time to muster up the courage ;D After all I've got at least another 3 or 4 months before iceout :'( If you are using a b/c reel and palm the reel, removal of the forgrip can add more sensitivty than trimming more off the rear front grip. You can also remove a small portion of the threads from the front of the reel seat. This will place your finger(s) directly in contact with the blank as well. Just use colored epoxy or thread to build a ramp to transistion from the reel seat to the back to the blank. A split grip where the palm doesn't touch the blank behind the reel can be of use other than just looks. Weight reduction! Whenever you are building a rod, you can save a few grams here, and a few grams there. In doing so, you have a lighter rod that is more sensitive all togther, not to mention easier to throw all day. Frog rods and swimbait rods are prime examples. You may have 12-15 inches of cork behind the reel seat. If you can loose 9-11 inches of cork, you can change the overall weight of the rod and change the balance point for the reel seat. Eric

it doesnt matter what kind of material the bait is made out of. mine's made of PVC, but you still need to seal very well it to protect the paint. I think what Jbass is trying to say, is that on a wooden lure you have to be more careful with the lip area. The lexan lips do flex some what and this creates a "weaker" point where water can enter the lure not just mess with the paint. Water in a balsa lure equals swelling which equals dead lure. Not to mention cracked paint, hook hanger failure, and the lip being easliy pulled from the lure. Hence my post about a seam at the lip and lure also. Seam may not be the correct word, but the top coat is purposedly placed on the lip to aid in keeping water out of the lure. 1/16 -1/8 inch is all I am referring to. It can also aid in the appearance of a smooth transistion between lip and lure body. Some claim it aids in the lip holding strength to the lure also. Eric

I don't. I try to get a seam at the lip and nose of the lure, and another at the throat. Eric

Love the 2nd one. Eric

It will sound like I am being smart, but I do not mean it that way. But practice. PVC pipe is good to pratice on. With the airbrush the more you use it the easier it will get. The second color does cover the first color in a lot of instances. With translucent colors you get some cool looking color transistion as the to colors combine. With opaque colors then it is just a where the paint is very finely misted to gain the transistion. Start out by painting light to dark. This will allow a little of the "over spray" to fall back onto the lighter color creating begining to the transistion you seek. The exception is when making scale patterns, as sometimes you will spray a light opaque color over a darker color to achieve a desired look. You can use the scale pattern to help in the transistion also. Eric

I agree. Nice color schemes. Eric

Nice. I think the bottom may be for Marty to fish personally. Eric

Nice looking lures Marty. I think the schemes on the two square bills look very impressive. I also think I see new line tie setup on the two deep divers as well. Eric

You can put anything in the .22 shell to make it rattle. Some foks use a BB, and others will use variouse sizes of shot. Different size items and different composistion will make the rattle have a different tone. Eric

The top two look real nice. I was just looking at that bluegill pattern 'round lunch time yesterday. 8-)

Awwwwe shucks Marty. I here ya' about two holes. You could always look back under the boat as the lure comes up. Just find someone you trust to hold onto your feet. Don't forget your snorkel ;D "I've never thought about the line tie in those terms" I may be backwards in my position of the slip ring on the line tie though. :-[ I will have to check on that and repost. Head is all clouded up from a head cold so thinking is a little compromised now. Jbass, The angle would be to the front of the lure from the center line. When you cut the lip slot, you will cut along the angle line. I draw my lures on paper, so I can make the line as long as needed to get through the protractor. If you have time try one at 8, and try one Marty's way at 0 and one at 4 degrees. Without the larger belly like mine you may not need the increase in angle that I am using. I actually started with a 13.5 degree angle. Eric

Marty, The reason I stated 8-11 degrees, is because the particular body style he has posted is fairly close to my pot belly shad. Not as defined in the belly, but close. I have had very good results with my lures using that angle. (I settled for for 9 degrees using my laminate method) I turn the lure diagram upside down and then get my angle from the center line 13 mm from the nose of the lure. 13 mm from the nose is the end of my lip slot. (Prior to sanding and shaping) As far as the line tie issue, back about 1 1/2 years back I had tried a different line tie method. I was trying the single hole instead of drilling two holes. I had accidentally used used the wrong finish nail on my wire wrapping jig. It was slightly larger, and caused the line tie to ride slightly higher above the lip. I kept accidentally using the wrong nail even while moving the line tie 1 mm from the original position with poor results. The action just was not what it should have been and the lure seemed to blow out easier. So after trying for a little over 2 weeks of trial and error, I posted the question over on TU and got several different responses from one of the guys that had been building for years, and he explained that to me. I am trying to remember who it was, but I am drawing a blank. Their sight is running extremely slow so I can't log on and do a search. If you think about it, as your lure is retrieved back to the boat, the angle of the line changes. It changes as the lure starts to dive from 0 degrees as the lure is on top of the water, to almost 90 degrees as the lure is being pulled back up to the boat. (Probably closer to 75-80) As the angle of the line changes, the split ring has to move on the line tie. The lip keeps the lure trying to dive deeper, but it will only have a maximum angle a dive. Most of my lures are at there deepest point probably 30-40 feet from the boat so after that point, the split ring is closer to the top of the line tie than when they are beating the bottom. This goes along with the PM we were discussing when I was saying having a lure run true and then want to spiral as it is pulled out of deeper water. That is when it was taking me 2 pair of needle nose pliers to tune the lure. The front was tuned properly, but somehow I had managed to get the top out. If you watch your deep diving lure as you bring it up at the boat you will see your split ring is at or close to the twelve o'clock position. Your mag diver may even be beyond the the twelve o'clock position as you bring it up at the boat. (Not running beside the boat) Eric

Jbass, use a protractor and set the lip angle between 8 and 11 degrees down to start. You are also going to want to use a smaller diameter line tie that can be placed flush to the lip. With a larger line tie there will be more room for the split ring to move during the retrieve. This will make the lure do some crazy things not to mention be a pain to tune. You have multiple pull points during the retrieve with a deep diving crank. On a clock face you could say that the split ring will move from around the 10 o'clock position as the lure is at it's deepest point with a long line, to the twelve o'clock as the lure is coming up with a shorter line. With a high line tie and large diameter line tie you can be moving your pull point as much a 1 to 1.5 mm. Doesn't sound like much, but it is night and day to a small deep diving crank. I personally use a line tie that is 4 mm in diameter. I drill two holes in the lip instead of one. (4 mm apart) This keeps the widest part of the line tie flush to the lip, and every thing above that point is getting smaller. This keeps the split ring in close proximity to the same point during the retrieve, just changing angles. The one hole method will work, it is just not my way. Eric

Love the top one. It is definatly an original looking scheme! ;D

Looks good Marty. What depth are you getting out of that Magnum? Eric

Nice work Marty. Definately like the color scheme on the bottom 2. Do I see a laminate on the bottom? ;D Eric

What Marty said is normally the way I do glitter. However I am using a different type of glitter on this lure. It is ground very,very fine. It can be sprayed with a large needled airbrush if I choose to do so. I did not spray this time and the thick coat of epoxy actually is smooth without having to use a second coat of epoxy. I did add a coat of D/N to help protect the finish from hook rash. The Midnight Ruby craw pattern is done with the old larger style glitter and it took three coats to smooth out the raised craw pattern to my satification. Eric

On this lure I mixed it into the topcoat. I had two brushes and two pools of epoxy. One with glitter and one without. Used the glitter on the tops and shoulders, and the clear on the sides and belly. You just have to blend the clear in with the glitter at the end. Eric