Variegated,silver and gold leaf. Part 2

The second set of videos on using Leaf:

I am going to take a few lines here and explain a few things, I am not a guru or the man behind the curtain, 

I just enjoy making baits. The Blog, pictures and now video, is just what I do, Good, Bad, or Indifferent.

I make contradictory statements about what I do, because it is a learning experience for me like anyone else.
There are things that change as we progress through the learning curve. That is probably what keeps me going, learning, seeing something new or different that I want to try and make.

 OK, enough there.

If you have not already gone through the members list and looked at what everyone has to offer, you are missing out on an opportunity for information and to expand a bit. There are a lot of really cool lures and thoughts out there, enjoy.

This is the second set of videos on using leaf on lures.  

Back ground music is ( Jack Johnson )

I have done leaf baits a few times already, but like a lot of things, the more you do, the more you tend to understand the product,  limitations, and the process. On this batch I realized that the tack time is critical to the finish of the leaf. I have mentioned before that the gold leaf seemed to let the adhesive bleed through if it was not set. Well, the gold just shows it the worst. With this set of lures I did a silver first and it was still to wet, then one gold which was almost ready, then another silver. The third bait was set perfect, and the result was amazing .

The silver leaf looked exactly like a foil, very bright and laid on perfectly. There was a huge difference in the clarity of the leaf. 

Doing four at a time is not what you want to do. Glue one up, wait for it to get close to tack, then glue another one and let it tack up while you are working on the first one. This is of course if you want to work on more than one at a time.

Seems like I hear my Father a lot " Do as I Say, Not as I Do "

If you are going to try some pattens, put the bottom or belly leaf on first, wait a day or at least 5 hour's. Then put your pattern on, this will be an overlay in areas and new in others, but will eliminated blank spots and bleed through.

It really is about information, use it as you will, at your own risk and maybe some interesting results.

Using the leaf products, is rather simple, if you do not try it you are missing out on some great looking baits that are really easy to accomplish. Having fun at what you do, is what it's about. Catching fish on your creation is the perk! 

( Keep it in the Water )    

Gold,silver and varegated leaf baits. Bonus Video!

Well, coming to the end of the plastic baits that Frank and I had purchased over the winter. I opted to make the entire batch leaf and or aluminum foil. The video that is here, hopefully captures the idea of using gold and silver leaf. I will try an aluminum foil one next. The foil is not as forgiving as leaf and you do need to cut and fold with the foil, on a round lure. The flatter or more square a lure is the easier foil becomes.
                                                                 This is the batch
If you can zoom in on the picture, you can see spots in the silver foil. These are a result of spraying with the Mona Lisa brand acrylic and sanding. I sprayed Envirotech after sanding, and this did not blend back in or coat the same . I would definitely use the Mona Lisa Acrylic to coat the foil and leaf baits. It did not fog the finish like every thing else, and gives a coating you can scuff for paint, just a little pricey for the amount.
.   

So that is the batch ready for some Kandies. I hope the videos show how to do it.

This is my first attempt at a How To Video, so use the information you can extract and forget the presentation!

 

Back ground comments By Kathy.

Background music by A.A. Bondy

If you do have
questions, please comment and I will try to answer.

Keeping as much of the leaf and foil is my goal, the Kandie paint will be the back and belly. Maybe a fluorescent belly ? You can see the flash the metals give to the lure in the video. This is under fluorescent light, I hope that you are able to in vision what this really looks like in sunlight, it is a flash.
This is an easy way to give any lure some pizazz with a minimal amount of effort. Have fun!

( Keep it in the Water)

Hard Plastic for 2013

Well, it has been a while since anything new has happened here and I am sure that some of you picked up on the lack of post. Last year was a bust for me , as far as actual fishing. The only Muskie I saw was a floater. This is mainly due to very little Time on the Water. Which just so happens to be a very good book to read by Bill Gardner,

I have hundreds of lures, of which a couple hundred are ones I have made. The past few years I have been obsessed with the idea of only fishing with my bait's. This then spiraled into the need for different types of bait's. So I started making more, and different types of lures. Now I have even more bait's.

So, at the end of last year I decided that I would take the hand full of lures that did not run right, for what ever reasons and tweak them. This would minimize time working on baits and lend more time to actual fishing. These lures are mostly the small jerks and gliders from last year. This will entail some better weight positioning and line tie adjustments. I have my plan for 2013. More Fishing!

Then, Frank finds the hard plastic body blanks from Tackle Industries and Lure Parts on line. This is partially due to trying to save some time for fishing and yet still create something unique for yourself. I enjoy making the wood lures and the action that comes from the wood, but I think both Frank and I will enjoy a little more Time on the Water.
Now we both have about 24 hard plastic bodies, unpainted. Not fitting into my plan very well? I put a few together for our last outing and I really like the action on them. They are all proven baits to start with, just had to convince my self. So, in trying to figure out how I could minimize the time I put into these baits.
I decided to foil all of them. The pictures are a few all ready started. My thought is to use a very thin line of color on the backs, light candies for highlight and a thin line of color for the bellies. Most will probably be aluminum foil with a few Leaf and the candies used to change the tone. I should be able to have them all foiled and ready to paint by the time it's warm enough.

Note: we live in Illinois and build our lures in the garage. Weather is not our friend!

11" Mag Shad, 9" Nokken and 10"Jake

6-1/2" Super Cisco

11" Mag Shad

I picked up a small box of Amazing Clear Cast at Hobby Lobby ( original formula and probably old ) but I want to see if it will coat the foil without hazing it. This will also give a good protective coating to the foil, I hope!

Keep it in the Water

 

Last run of lures for 2012

Well we managed to get one more batch in. Frank felt he needed more baits, so I finished a couple more for myself. A couple of pictures of the same baits ,different angles to show the tape colors.

Lures and tail hook dressing

More of the same

Something different

More tail hook blades

Rear hook worm barb

Another rear blade

We have been fishing with dressed rear hooks from just about the beginning. I put a lot of confidence in the idea and have hooked quite a few muskie on the rear hook only. At the very least it  needs a worm, that's where the second to last picture comes in.
In the past I would bend a light gauge wire in half, run it through the eye of the treble, down the shank, bend the tag end back onto the shank and wrap it with thread. The free end, which is extending out a little further would then get a loop bent in it. I would then use the Hitch Hiker ( worm spring  ) to attach my worms.
I prefer this method rather than what is in the picture. To me the jointed connection gives the trailing worm it's own action separate of the bait and not just a squirmy flat piece of rubber.The picture is of what I came up with trying to eliminate wright. It is the same gauge wire but it is bent in half, ran through the eye, down the shank and then twisted, kind of like a haywire twist. Pick the length you want clip it off and bend the two tag ends back for the worm keeper.This eliminated the thread wrap and the Hitch Hiker, which will all play into letting me put some hair on the rear hooks. This is so simple and fast I can't believe I didn't think of it before.
The rear hooks with blades came from seeing the two tag ends and thinking, why not. This will probably be too much weight for my baits but I want to see how they work.
Things to consider:
Deer hair works with just about anything and doesn't absorb much water.
Marabou unless very fluffy looks like a worm when it's wet and soaks up water, also likes to stick to worms.
Flashabou, Mylar very light, no water retention, but will tie a worm up.
Chicken feathers,( hackle ) very light. very little water retention and you really only need a few.

Some 2012 all dressed up

This is the remainder with tails and a few bucktails rejuvenated, I wanted to take with. A couple of big tens and a few # 8 Fluted Colorado. With the exception of one double prop top water, everything is something I have made right down to my leaders. Goal accomplished, no store bought baits this year.

All dressed up

Same as above

A few old bucks turned into new ones

Same as above

( Keep it in the Water )

Third batch 2012 Muskie Baits

This is six pictures, three each of four baits. I kept all six to try and show the different look of the prism tape, hope you can get something from it. These are 10" thru wire.

I might be able to get one more batch done, which are a few of the 3/4" aspen. Then it is prep work to actually go use them!

( Keep it in the Water )

Second Batch 2012 Musky Baits

Well, this bunch is a little better than the first batch. If I was dipping these in Envirotech they would really look sharp. But I pushed the edge on weight, going for neutrally buoyant and can't afford to add any more.

I still haven't found the right edge to use when trimming the prism tape on the 3/4" baits. These are a full round over for the sides and I still don't care for the line it takes when cutting the tape.
The little gold guy in the first pic and the one walleye looking guy in the last pic are 3/4" baits. I had messed up the tape on the two walleye and just used some Kandy to put some life back into them.These were a couple of the first that I was clearing with Envirotech spray and sanding to loose the tape edge. The Envirotech spray has always been good to me, except this time. Could have just been the temperature and humidity but it wasn't getting clear, always left a haze. I will try some more later on. 
The coolest part about using the tape for me is, the ability to use a Kandy ( transparent paint ) to add, change, blend and enhance any color of tape you choose.
The top pic with the yellow looking bait and the second pic with two yellow looking baits is the chartreuse tape. It goes from solid chartreuse to yellow to a pearl green blue, very nice stuff.    
Hopefully I can get a another batch done this Sunday.

( Keep it in the Water )
 

The first finished Muskie baits for 2012

These are the first in my batch to get cleared out. I am still working on a set of stencils for gills and a fin, along with how to spray them. This batch I tried to detail the areas with a Sharpie, probably should have left them alone. I don't believe the detail catches more fish, but it is fun to play around with it and really helps to understand how to use the airbrush. By no means do I claim to know how, but I do enjoy doing it.

The last two are of the3/4" aspen and  pretty  rough, but the green one has the mirrored silver and the prism silver on the blue. I used a scale look tape ( clear scale tape ) from Moore's Lures to try and salvage the baits. I wasn't to happy about it when it showed up and was a pinkish pearl. The tape is like the hologram scale type, very thin and flexible. I wish I had bought more, it is pretty cool tape.  Even though it appeared to be pink, it takes on the colors of the bait. Now all I have to do is decide which baits will use the rest of it. This tape would work well over a paint job and have a very thin tape edge.

( Keep it in the Water )