5 nights of plug testing. etex vs mirrorcoat

[Diggin Jiggin]

I just got back from 5 nights of plugging with my dad, during which I threw nothing but my wooden plugs.

I brought one set of larger dannies that I finished w/ mirror coat and a set of smaller dannies that I finished with e-tex lite. I wanted to see how they would hold up and we fished them in all kinds of conditions.

The paint on all of my plugs is just spray paint, and it seems as though my biggest problem is still with the adhesion of metallic paints. I am using rustoleum paints.

Blue fish teeth were able to puncture both finishes as did the swing of the hooks. It seems to me that the systems 3 finish is a bit harder, but more brittle and prone to chipping. On the gold part of my black and gold swimmers I have chips taken out of the systems 3 that go right down to the primer.

The e-tex seems to be a little softer finish, but it may be a little more cohesive as it did not chip off the gold paint like the mirror coat did. It does looks like the e-tex got scratched up a little more.

On the pearl white, yellow and all black plugs I had no problems at all with paint adhesion, and both epoxies held up well so maybe the advantage with these ones went to systems 3...


ok, a couple of questions.

Is there anything I can do to make the gold paint adhere better to the primer ?

Are there any other non-hazardous epoxies that I should try ?

Also, for the guys using compressors and spray guns, do you have any problems with the mettalic paints? I'm trying to decide if it is worth taking the plunge.

Here's the black and gold plugs, the larger one is mirror coat, the smaller one is e-tex...