YUT18

Nice work. I like using the poison tail mold for swim jigs.

I use both Wicked and regular Createx and do not see a difference in how they spray.

Are you stirring the paint after adding reducer? If not, some createx paints are really thick and do not spray well. So if you're not stirring in the reducer you will clog up the airbrush. I use Paasche Talon's and the only time I have this problem is when (1) I do not stir the paint/reducer well enough or (2) when I let the brush sit for more than 5 minutes. I do all of my painting in my garage and when it is hot outside I will get more clogs due to the paint drying. As long as you keep a brush handy and pull the needle our every now and then to clean it you should be good. In regards to thinning out the paint, I over reduce sometimes when fading colors and do not have an issue with paint drying, unless one of the situations listed above occurs.

I started out with a Paasche Talon and used my own pancake compressor. All I had to do was order a moisture trap to control the air pressure. I think personal preference plays a huge part in which brand is better than the other. Recently I bought a cheap airbrush just to use for all my base coats. I paid less than $30 for a master airbrush and to be honest it works better than my paasche for half the cost. The only difference between the two that I have is the paasche can paint thinner lines.

YouTube is your friend when it comes to learning how to paint cranks or any type of lure. Before I got started painting crankbaits I spent hours and hours watching youtube videos on how to use an airbrush, paint baits, etc. You can get a lot of great pointers and ideas from Lure Colour Studio or Lure Me In. If you already have the blanks it would be worth it to invest in a decent airbrush to start out with. You can get a Master Airbrush for under $30 and if you have an air compressor can get up and running for under $100.

Layering is where you paint a base coat then use a different color or colors to get the desired outcome you want. On the two baits attached below I coated the entire bait in yellow then painted the belly orange. On one of them I wrapped netting material around it and reduced the black paint for the fade down the side.

I get the depth by layering the colors or over reducing the paint.

Thanks.

I picked up my first airbrush this year and decided to try my luck and painting crankbait. Good thing fish don't care about how pretty they are.

Thanks smalljaw. I went back and looked at my order history and called the company. They said the same thing, half of my order was economy blades and the other was premium. Oh well, thanks to your help and Cadmans I know what to look for next time and know how to fix the current problem.

Cadman thank for the response. I bought the brass blades. I made a batch of 10 and used only one out of that batch. It air dried for a couple of days before I put it in my spinnerbait box. Now all 10 of the spinners that had the brass blades on are coated in rust.

I paint my own cranks as a hobby. If you send me pictures of what you are wanting I might be able to assist.

Where is the best place to purchase spinnerbait blades? I have bought blades from Barlows back in March and now they are starting to rust. Looking for suggestions on where to purchase a durable product.

After researching the pro's and con's of connecting the batteries together I decided against the original plan. I did install a battery switch in order to switch from Battery 1 and Battery 2. I also installed a rocker switch with voltage meter so I can monitor battery levels. I installed the switch to have a secondary means to monitor volts.

Thanks everyone for your input. All of you have provided valuable input and you are absolutely right. Testing the battery is very first step and basic troubleshooting of the issue. I've been troubleshooting this issue for several weeks now. Each time the battery has been fully charged and volts tested after at least 48 hours at rest. Every time the volts stayed at 12.7. I was thinking that maybe I had a cell going bad in the battery because every time I hit the auto circulate while running electronics the battery would die. So I bite the bullet and got a new battery. This time I upgraded to a 31. After getting the battery I got a hook on another 31 and at first was going to hook them up as a parallel 12v system and since decided against it. Last night I installed a battery switch at the console and installed a voltage meter that allows me to switch between batteries. This is probably an over kill since I could monitor voltage at the console or through my electronics but I tend to go a little overboard when fixing a problem. So while I was in overboard mode I replaced all electrical connectors and checked all the fuses. The last remaining item to troubleshoot is the auto circulate. I plan on filling up the livewell tonight and will run the auto circulate to see if am losing voltage. Again thanks for the input. Just hope the problem was due to the battery.

The cranking battery is not set on a 24v series. I will have it set as a 12v parallel (top picture). The TM is the only thing hooked up to the TM batteries (24v Left side of bottom picture) The problem I was having out the gate was I had 12+volts after coming off charge and anytime I turn the key my low voltage alarm would go off. Now I've owned this boat since 2004 and never had the issue of the voltage warning going off unless I was down below 11v. What I cannot figure out is whether I had a cell going bad in the battery or if I have a short somewhere in the livewell wiring. In my OP I mentioned that 3 out of 5 times the battery would die immediately after turning on the auto circulate. At first I thought I had a loose wire to the motor and after ruling that out I changed out the battery. Now I just have my fingers crossed that the problem is fixed and it is not a wiring problem.

This was the first steps I took in troubleshooting the issue. At first I thought I had a lose wire but the batteries had full charge.

The last 3 out of 5 trips out on the water has resulted in breaking out the jumper cables because the crank battery (27 Blue top) died. The battery was tested after the first incident and passed. The batteries are always hooked up to a bank charger when the boat is stored and since the TM batteries are not having the same problem I have ruled out the possibility of a bad bank charger. Here is what I know at this point (1) low voltage warning on both Humminbirds (898/Helix 9) was set on 11.5v, (2) volts fluctuated between 12.2 and 11.9v over a period of 2 hours (daylight) with electronics on, (3) every time I started the motor the low voltage warning displayed, and (4) once the auto circulate was turned on for the livewell the battery died within 10-30 minutes of use without low voltage warning going off. What I cannot figure out is why my electronics read 11.9v and low volt warning displays when starting, in addition, to not having enough juice to start after having the auto circulate on. I am puzzled at this point because I have started my motor with 10.5v before. The only thing that all 3 incidents have in common is the auto circulate being on. This past weekend I threw in the towel and took the battery to the graveyard. I upgraded to 2 31 blue tops and started to make room for the second battery. I plan on hooking the 31's up in 12v parallel (not displayed in photo) once my cables arrive. Hopefully this solves the problem and it does not turn out to be a wiring issue.

You have unlimited options in my opinion. If you do not pour your own lures and are trying to keep your cost down you could use old jigs or spinners. If you decided to re-use old lures all you would need is split rings, blades, and lock snaps. I get a majority of my parts from Barlow's and normally use a poison tail or archy head mold. If I make a poison tail (fixed hook or swing tail) version I will cut the wire and insert the blade. If making an archy head version I will use a single split ring to attach the blade. The only con with using split rings is it will eventually bind up on the eyelet causing the lure to lose its intended action.

I use bubble gum senkos all year long and depending on water clarity I will also use watermelon or white.

They were illegally introduced to a small pond (Ruffin's Pond ) located in Fredericksburg VA and slowly started infiltrating the tidal waters of the Potomac and Rappahannock River. Game and Fish tried to say that they used freshets to ride less dense fresh water over saltwater during storms as a dispersal mechanism. However, if that were true then there is a high possibility that would see snakeheads up and down the eastern seaboard instead of being isolated to VA.

The risk is minimal in my opinion. You may experience slight interference if hooking your finder up to one of the batteries. My personal preference is to wire electronics directly to the fuse panel (located under my console) which is powered by the deep cycle crank battery. I prefer this for two reasons (1) Saves time; If I pop a fuse while fishing it is easier to reach under the console and replace v. having to climb over all my gear just to dig around the rear compartment for an inline fuse, and (2) eliminates the risk of losing electronics; having navigation is important to me, especially, when I'm on a new body of water. By having it hooked up to the crank battery you will always have power to your electronics, unless you ignore the low voltage warning. I recently had a bonehead moment and had my low voltage warning turned off on both of my humminbirds. Needless to say I am glad I had jumper cables on the boat to save my 6.

A recommendation is simply a recommendation and is not omission of correct information. I know you can hook up to one of the batteries that is set for a 24v series, but I personally do not recommend doing so. Keep in mind that my post "recommends" not hooking up to one of the 12v that are part of the 24v series. I simply stated that hooking up to a breaker panel is one of many methods to use and adding another battery to the crank battery in parallel (not series my bad) is another option.

I would not recommend hooking up your depth finder to the batteries that are connected for 24v. Once you make the series 24v the thought of them still being 12v should be out of the question. Recommend hooking your depth finder up to your breaker panel and set your settings to display low voltage warning. Another option if you are worried about draining the crank battery would be to connect 2 batteries for a 12v series (connect + to + and - to -). This will give you enough power to run all of your electronics and still have enough juice to crank the main.

I have a Triton TR186 and had the issue you described. My problem was isolated to when the boat was covered for long periods of time. If you keep your rear storage compartment closed all time while the boat is covered the gas fumes have no where to go. So I keep my rear locker open in order for the fumes to escape. In addition to keeping the rear locker open I filled the opening along the back bulkhead with foam to seal the locker. Keep in mind that Tritons do not have fully enclosed rod lockers in order to accommodate 7-8 ft rods. On the backside of the bulkheads there is an opening that the wiring harness is pulled through. If you do not have to install more wires to the bow you can fill it with foam to mitigate the gas smell.