BIG M

I see more good looking balsa bait in that batch. I know you got more of those to paint and a couple others just left this morning

I've been using the gravity feed eclipse for 4yrs and no complaints. I will never own another brand of airbrush.

You need to go visit some striper forums. It's called a tail wrap and the striper guys do them on all their baits. I have never done that so I can't explain it. If you twist your wire into screw eyes, those do not come out unless the bait comes apart. I've done my hangers and ties that way for yrs and never had a failure.

All the baits look great but I can pick two favs. Both are made of balsa wood and by someone very dear to me

The tip is clogged. Hold it up to a light and see if you can see the light. I have 26gage wire that I use to clean out the tip on my Iwata .35mm. If it will not shoot cleaner then it's a bad clog. Try soaking the tip in thinner over night and then use a small dia wire to clean it out. Do not drop the tip or you will have to buy a new one.

John have you been spending all your time fishing? Good to see that you have not lost your touch with the cranks.

What is the brand of the brush and is it gravity feed? How are you cleaning the brush?

You should not need to thin c-tex, most of the colors shoot pretty easy. Some of the thicker pearls can be a pain. Try uping the pressure to 25-30psi and see if that helps. What size is the tip on your brush?

If it will not shoot plain tap water then it's clogged. Stay away from the thick paints and buy good airbrush ready paint to save on problems like this.

C-tex paints can be a pain to shoot at times. Pearls are usually pretty thick and the pearls like to clog up the tip. After shooting a pearl color clean the brush and put fresh water in the cup and you will see the fine pearl floating, a little extra cleaning after those colors will help.

Soak the bottle in some hot water and it's good as new. I have to do this a couple of times per yr because I buy the stuff in 32oz bottles.

Flex coat and e-tex are very similar clear coats. I normally mix 4cc and I can coat 6 med sized cranks from that batch. The trick with either flex coat or e-tex is to let the mixed batch set up for about 10 min to start the curing process. This also helps let the bubbles rise and pop. Do not try to brush these on thick, nice thin coat is all that is needed. Let cure over night and do a 2nd coat. Give the bait about 48hrs to fully cure.

How does the bait swim at a steady pace? I thought you might have made a jitter bug type bait. Very cool.

Most likely kill the action. You will put the line tie too close to the end of the lip.

The baits are bigger than most of the bass I catch. Those will be used to target big pike. John the baits look fantastic.

Flex coat ultra V high build is my clear coat of choice.

The baits look good but what is that bait in pic #2.

That does not sound like tackle building to me but it does sound nasty.

Cannot give you specifics about the lake but there are good bass in it. Read about some small tourny's early in the spring that needed 20+ to place in the money.

Flex Coat ultra v high build, 2 or 3 coats depending on the bait.

Muskyguy, I punch the eyes and shad dots out of vinyle with different sized hole punches. Fish, I mix glitter in the first clear coat then add the eyes with the second clear coat.

Here are a few more shallow runners I just finished. Give me some opinions on the color pattern on the last 2 baits. It's my take on LC tablerock/shad.

I found devcon made suspending baits sink slowly, but 1 coat of flex coat did not cause the bait to sink. 1 coat of flex coat is much thinner than devcon and that may be the difference. Sorry I can't throw out all the numbers like the V man.

Here is a new batch that I just finished.

I want to see ole Tater Hog pull that off with a brush. John is one of the best artist that builds lures I've seen. If you do not have one of his baits, you need to make the investment. You will not be sorry for the purchase.