Quote:
Originally Posted by numbskull
<<snip>> WOW, you've just rocked my world bigtime.
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Well, in essence, that's what I was up to.
I'll expound briefly on what I did later, but I have something else in mind first. Please don't take what I'm going to say for anything more than my humble opinion, because that's all it is.
Maybe it was the caffine jolt, who knows, but TT's statement about getting skunked for weeks was the trigger. Some of us have been building for a long time, others are relatively new to the game. But we're all constantly sharing, honing and improving (hopefully) our skills and techniques. We all have this quest for the "Holy Grail" of lure making: the perfect paint job and bullet-proof finish on our lure offerings. And that's great... really. Learn how to make eye candy, by all means; they're great for lots of things: to barter, trade and sell, and even your ego. But, in the case of fishing to catch fish, I have seen enough to know the finned bastages aren't really impressed. ((Winch will be proud, that I said that.))
Our common quarry, stripers and most assuredly bluefish, could care less, it seems, about most of what we invest our efforts in. When they're hungry, they're looking to eat something familar. Sure, sometimes they get finicky, but they're not custom-wood connoisseurs bound and determined to hold out for the prettiest plug in your bag, although some days/nights they'll make you wonder. Nah, the right profile or wiggle or color-de-jour is enough to fool them into a taste-test. Then, if you're quick enough to set the hook, you're in.
So, to conclude my first rant of 2007, I just wanted to show that once you figure what's got their eye today -- even if you don't have it handy -- it can be made in one tide cycle. Will it last forever? Nope. All season? Possibily, but that's not the objective either. I want to catch now, and maybe you do, too. So, what's stopping you from trying?
About the sennet needle... to make it (actually, it took 5 hours, not 8; I got up late today, simply because I could, and didn't start until 10 AM) I abandoned a lot of the good things we do to our "usual high standards". But it still looks presentable. Again, this was just an experiment. Hopefully the fish (and regretably, the rocks) are going to beat it up anyway. I took a similar profile plug template, that I'm familar with (so, I wasn't starting from scratch, "designing") and tweaked it to look more like the sennet that the bass were chasing. Rather than tail load it -- I'm assuming that if Vic could see "spilled yahoo" in the water, then he wouldn't have had to cast very far -- I spread the weight across the belly, so the lure will slowly sink level if I stop the retrieve... in case I need to get down in the water column a bit. That took an hour, waiting for the hole filler to harden. Then I turned and sanded it, but didn't do the usual seal job... you know why; time for that later... I just primed it with rattle cans, hair-dried for several minutes, then airbrushed the 3-4 colors paint and blow-dried some more to remove the tackiness. Then I baked it in my mancave-dedicated toaster oven -- don't use your wife's (or mom's) if you value your life -- at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, took it out and immediately dipped in a water-based clear acrylic topcoat. It hung for 10-15 minutes or so while I had a smoke, then I re-dipped and flipped the lure end-to-end twice more, so that it's triple coated and -- at least temporarily -- sealed inside and out. I didn't even waste time signing it, or I'd miss the tide.
