Fishwhittler

Very nice! 8-)

Awesome baits Big M!

It was on the last page, the 14th thread from the bottom. There are a bunch of "Do you make your own lures" and similar threads on the first few pages.

Thanks guys. I used pine before I switched to PVC and pine is a denser wood than balsa, so there shouldn't be too much difference in the way my baits behaved before and now.

I finally got some PVC to try out, and so far I really like how it compares to wood. There aren't any issues with the PVC tearing out like there is with wood, and there isn't any wood grain to interfere with drilling straight. I did notice some minor problems that you don't have with wood, but none that would make me want to switch back to wood. Anyway here's my first PVC lure, shown with a completed wooden lure of the same style.

Great stuff! The second one is my favorite.

Awesome baits Big M! 8-)

^ X2, those are real slick! 8-)

I like it.

Awesome baits Z! 8-)

What is the best adhesive for installing hardware in PVC baits? Thanks in advance.

Those look real good.

It's a bit lengthy, but here goes: What you will need: Flex-Coat High Build Ultra-V finish Epoxy syringes Mixing bowl (preferably foil) with a lid or something to cover it with Mixing stick Heat gun (a hairdryer blows too hard and isn't hot enough) Epoxy brush Timer or stopwatch (this isn't necessary but it will make timing the mixing easier) Note: I find that this method works best with amounts of epoxy from 6cc's to 10cc's. Any larger and it may not get mixed thoroughly; any smaller and it really isn't worth the effort. 1. Wash your hands to remove any dust. 2. Wipe down the mixing bowl and stick with Isopropyl alcohol to remove any dust. Even the smallest speck of dust can ruin the finish. 3. Draw up equal amounts of resin and catalyst. It may help to heat the parts with the heat gun, as heating thins them slightly and makes the epoxy flow better. 4. Squirt the finish into your mixing bowl, heating each part as you do. Heating the epoxy makes it a little easier to mix as it makes it more liquid. 5. Start mixing. Mix for three minutes, heating it every once in a while to pop the bubbles that form. Make sure you scrape the sides of the mixing bowl with the stick. At the end of three minutes heat it again, but don't overheat it. Place the lid over the mixing bowl and let it sit for ten minutes. 6. While the epoxy is setting, wash your brush with soap and water. You don't want any dust in your finish, and washing the brush will remove most of the dust. 7. At the end of ten minutes, remove the lid and mix it again for one minute, heating it occasionally. Then heat it again and let it sit for five more minutes. 8. You are (finally ;D) ready to coat your baits. You can use the heat gun to pop bubbles on the baits, but make extremely sure not to overheat them. To much heat and the paint underneath the epoxy will bubble. Once your baits are coated, hang them to dry on whatever you normally use. 9. Clean up (I'm not very good about doing this part :-[). That's the technique I use, and if it is time-consuming, I haven't once had problems with the epoxy not curing fully since I started using it. Ben

Thanks all for the feedback. I've been using a new top-coating procedure, and I'm finally getting consistently good finishes.

Finished up some more. On the black one, I was trying to make a bait similar to the Mama Cat clone that Big M posted a while back. But then I thought, "It's called the 'Mama Cat', why not..." and this is the result.

Those are real nice, especially the bottom two! 8-)

Awesome stuff there! That wart knock-off is my favorite.

Sweet baits! I especially like 2, 4 and 5. 8-)

Cool! I like the second one and the popper.

Very nice! I like the black-eyed look it has. 8-)

I was asked to make some pumpkin colored catfish swimbaits and this is the closest color match I could find. They are more of a brown than orange in person. The photo below shows the baits colors better.

Very nice! I like the "ghost" scales on it.

Looks good. 8-)

Here's the rest of my latest batch of catfish swimbaits. The silver/black/purple swimbait is my "bullhead" swimbait. It's slightly larger than the others and has a tighter action, although that's probably because I mounted the line tie high on the nose. I'm going to lower the line tie on the next one I do to see if I can widen the action. Let me know what you think. Ben Note: The top swimbait in the first pic is the one I posted a few days ago.

Thanks for the feedback! I think I'll leave it as it is; I'll probably mess it up if I try to add a gill. :