some questions

[slapshot]

I have had the opportunity to try out some of this past winter's creations. I have caught many fish on the pencil poppers, and a few on my needlefish.

I have run into a couple of problems.

I sealed the maple pencil poppers with linseed oil cut with turp. A couple of these pencils have split down the back. These plugs were sealed, primed, painted and then covered with Foamawood (a two part system similair to Enirotex, or so I thought). The ones that split have caught dozens of fish in the river for me, so I cannot be too upset. However I would like to solve the splitting issue for next year.

Any opinions on my chioce of sealer (linseed oil) and final coat (Foamawood)?

Also, I do not like the reults of using a barrel split ring to attach the hooks. I am finding that the siwash trailer hook is fouling. I am using closed eye hooks. Have any of you had good experiences with the open eye hooks, and just bending them onto the attachment points? I have heard stories of hooks opening on good fish....

Here's a pic of the very first fish caught on one of my own creations.

Thanks for your help,

Jon