The Rooster

I see you already applied but I was going to say that you can just use your SSN as your tax I.D. if you are a sole proprietor business and not incorporated. I also suggest getting a CPA to handle the taxes on any of this. I thought it was going to be expensive but it wasn't, and it was worth every penny to not have the hassle and worry of researching tax laws and proper filing of everything at the end of the year. Just keep a record of income vs. expenses, and receipts to back it up. CPA handles the rest. I do not sell online, but I do run a contracting business, and besides just services, I also sell an actual product in the continuous gutter that I do. I also have an interest in online sales of hand made goods such as fishing lures or wood craft items made in my shop. I'd set this business up just as I have done with my contracting, books and all, and use the same CPA.

I love fishing from the back of my brother-in-law's boat. He's the trolling guy, and...I...just...fish! Now, what really sucks is when someone else fishes from the back of my boat. I have to troll and fight current and wind, and also deal with their errant casts into my space, and frequent snags that need getting undone. And it never fails when I'm turning the boat 180 to go the opposite way, there will be a cast go flying across right in front of me that I'm coming around into, and it'll get caught all over the prop on the motor. IDIOTS! I'll fish on other boats, but for me I'd rather fish alone on my boat.

I've never gotten one stuck in while fishing, but once while sitting on the couch at home I pulled a bait out of my box and it got caught on the box itself and then somehow jumped to the soft flesh on the side of my kneecap and the rear treble went in passed the barb. The front treble then dug into my thumb and this effectively had my hand hooked to my knee. The front treble didn't bury passed the barb so I just backed it out. The rear one had to be rotated to push the tip on through and out so I could cut it off and then pull it out backwards after that. Then, while fishing, I had a treble bury passed the barb under the skin on the top side of my thumb nail, where the skin meets the nail. I saw it go in and it freaked me out, but it didn't stick. It came right back out without hanging up at all, which is why I say it didn't get stuck. There was no pain or blood. Once I hooked my brother in the side of the knee with a light wire hook on my ultra light rod. I didn't know it and kept jerking it and pulling, with him squalling like a banshee. I stopped after a second or so when I realized what happened. Somehow it didn't penetrate either. Then my stepson hooked my wife in the top of the head with a blue fox spinner lure, passed the barb. I wanted to go to the doctor on that one but she insisted I just rip it out. I suggested pushing through and cutting since it didn't look real deep and probably would have been less painful, but she still wanted to just rip it out. So, I grabbed it with pliers and pulled HARD until it popped out. She cried hard, but never made a sound. She didn't want him to hear it and be discouraged with fishing. It turns out he just doesn't like fishing after all though, so it done no good her suffering in silence.

What, no skydiving or swimming with sharks? That's hilarious, LM.

I sort of observe the first cast, first fish thing. Seems if one hits on the first cast then the rest of the day sucks. Lucky shirts or rods I don't get into, but I do make sure I'm not wearing bright red to fish in. Spooks fish, or so I think. I try to wear blues and grays if on the boat and browns, greens, or camo if on shore. My avatar shows a gray shirt from shore but we were fishing a spillway with lots of rip rap up the bank behind us.

I used to be heavily into car audio. Even moderated a forum for it, but I finally gave it up. I don't think fishing displaced it, more like I just grew out of it. But towards the end I found myself having to decide between things like new reels or new speakers, and new reels usually won. Then there's my woodworking. Now, it seems to take top priority during cold weather, but once the weather gets warm enough to get out on the water, then I seem to lose interest in running routers and saws. That might even change further now that I'm beginning to get into lure making. Woodworking might be at a distant 3rd place by next winter. All other hobbies I used to do have been long forgotten for awhile now.

I would go crazy. In KY we can fish year round, there is no season on it.

Whenever I catch a fish on the first cast, especially if it's a good one, the rest of the day goes just like yours did. Nothing!

I got to try my little cobbled together lure today. It spins pretty well, quite easily actually. At times it seemed like it might have just a bit of wobble to it, though. Like if I reel it in too fast. Also, when I stop reeling for just a second it sinks like a rock. There's no flutter or shimmy in the fall at all, just a dead drop. I think I'll try a 3/16 oz. weight on the next one. This one was a 1/4 oz. weight. But overall, for my first attempt at making a bait, I'm pretty pleased. At just a moderate reeling pace it spun well, and went in a straight line, and generally did about everything I'd ask of an inline spinner.

Thank you soooo much.

I've not seen clear ones. Just white, chartreuse, black, and amber. Sorry.

Thanks guys. I do have a propane torch I could use. Never thought about using it. I used to have a heat gun but my wife mostly used it stripping paint on wood trim. She gave it away. I can always get another cheaply at Harbor Freight. What about using a hair dryer? Not enough heat? I'm just trying to think of ways to experiment further. I told my wife I wish I'd kept the two toaster ovens my stepdaughter was selling in last year's yard sale. She told me we'd just buy a new one, a nice one large enough to bake lots of jigs and weights in. She knows it has to be a dedicated oven just for this, too. She's very supportive of my hobbies. I'm definitely building a fluid bed, too. I suppose it's only used for full cover coating, right? Seems like any partial coating done with one might leave too much room for error with the second color going on, like I might accidentally get too much paint on it the second time. I just put that ten minutes into it because I had a little break time there and wanted to try something, just anything, to get started learning. Now that I've had the experience, I will be going in with some idea next time of what worked and what didn't as opposed to knowing nothing at all like the first time. I know I'll be dipping a lot of worm weights before I get good at it. I have a huge amount of home made egg sinkers here I could practice on. Hundreds and hundreds, truth be told it's probably 50 pounds or more. I wish they were worm weights. I could get a mold and melt them down and recast them but I have nothing at all in the way of lead molding tools so that would be more expense on top of what I'm doing now. But in the future I may do that so I could make what I want and not have to just buy them. One thing I'm confused on, Cadman, what did you mean by heating through? Is that the baking process that cures the paint after it's applied? Also, I've read where some guys use their ovens to preheat the jigs for painting. If you do this, would you heat them at the same temperature, and for the same length of time, as you would for the final baking of the paint? I wonder how long they would stay hot enough to paint once they're ready for dipping? I would think they'd cool off fairly fast once out of the oven.

I did. It's what got me into wanting to make my own lures. Got one coming from lure parts online also. Might check into Mudhole, Barlow's, and a couple more, too.

I tried some powder coating today for the first time. I took two 1/4 oz. worm weights to the shop to experiment with. Here's what I learned: First, stir your paint (these things I learned will seem mundane to those who already know, but maybe you can offer some guidance or explanations for what I learned). Before starting, I stirred up the white paint to loosen it up. Then I unrolled a paper clip and put a worm weight on it, and bent the wire some so it wouldn't fall off or move around a lot. Then I heated the weight using a lighter for about 20 seconds. Afterwards I just did a quick swish through the paint. WOW! It came out fully coated, glossy looking, and dry within seconds! If I had quit there it would have been a success. But I was inspired, so I opened the red paint and tapped the container on the counter to loosen it up. I was just going to dip the tip of the weight to basically make it mostly white with a red tip. I heated the end of the weight with the lighter for just a few seconds, not wanting to blacken the white paint, and then plunged the weight into the red powder. That was mistake number two, as I had already made mistake number one but didn't know it until then. I didn't think stirring the paint was needed since I had shook and tapped the red powder prior to use. The lead weight just stuck into the powder much like it might have if just plunged into dirt in the ground outside. Afterwards I stirred the paint, and tried again. This time it was loose, but I wasn't getting the same nice, glossy results with the red. It was drying flat and grainy looking on the end of the sinker, and also leaving pinkish looking areas from where the red powder had not fully coated the white below it. So I followed this with a whole series of mistakes. I heated and reheated the sinker repeatedly, and plunged it several times. I was trying to get a very distinct white to red edge on it. But I would get a powdery looking transition from one color to the other instead, and not evenly coated either. It was always grainy looking each time as well, and I figured it was because I hadn't gotten the tip hot enough to fully activate the paint to melt and bond well. I was afraid to hold it in or over the flame too long or it would ruin the white paint by browning or graying it, which it did in some places. I also noticed the sinker's conical tip was getting fatter from all the dipping and having paint build up. It was changing the overall taper of the weight which was something I did not want. Finally I decided to just dip the whole thing and make it all red. That worked but only moderately well. It was flat and grainy finished so I started heating and rolling the weight over the flame to smooth it out. It did get glossier as I did this but not like that white had been before. So I laid it aside and tried the second weight. I simply repeated my first attempt at just making an all white weight. It came out not so well since my lighter was low on fluid by now so I didn't heat the weight more than a few seconds and the paint left places that were thin and I could see a darkened spot on one side as the lead showed through. So I attempted to reheated it for a second swish. This worked but also caked the paint on and left a grainy look (again, not enough heat?), so I began rolling the weight over the flame to smooth it out. This worked with limited success. It seemed the paint would begin to run slightly and form heavier spots leaving a lumpy look to the finished surface, like yogurt in a cup. Also, the paint had hardened on the tip and bonded the weight to the wire shaft. When I twisted it on the shaft to remove it I got paint chips on the tip. Not knowing what to expect at all before this, I'm trying to not let this discourage me. My first swish was flawless and I think it's because I stirred the paint, heated the weight nice and hot, and just made a quick 1/2 second long pass through the loosened paint. Where I went wrong was not knowing how to reapply enough heat to the already painted weight the second time in order to add more color without scorching occurring. Also, not stirring the red paint before use, and all the dipping and redipping again and again that built up paint and actually changed the look and shape of the worm weight. The second weight didn't go as planned due to not enough heat even for the first pass and then repeating this again without enough heat so paint just caked on (wouldn't tap off either, I tried), and then trying to fix it by rolling it over the low flame. I read Cadman's tutorial on applying secondary colors using a brush to just tap and let the paint fall onto the heated surface. I did not try this as I had thought it would leave a sprinkled on appearance and I had wanted a very distinct white and red field on the weight with no transition, just two solid colors meeting in the middle. Was there any good way to achieve this? I plan to keep trying. I only spent about ten minutes to do all this as it was. It's all the time I had for it at the moment, so I just wanted to squeeze it in. Also, a fluid bed is in my future. I'll likely mess up a lot of sinkers learning this though. As of now, I have no way to bake them after painting, but I'm just trying to get the coating part right for now. The paint seems hard when dried but I know it's brittle because of the chipping I got when it bonded both lead weight and wire together and I twisted them apart and got chip out. I think next time I try this, it will be just to do some solid coats on one pass so I build confidence. I feel I can do that fairly well based on my very first dip. I might also try mixing some colors, as I have now bought all four of Harbor Freight's colors they have available, white, red, yellow, and matte black. I think I should be able to make gray, pink, and orange with these also. I need to find some blue from somewhere to mix any other colors.

I'm looking for price. Where do you buy it for that?

Have you tried Pendry Powder Coatings? I was just on their site and they have a lot of colors, sold in 1 pound volumes for $12 - $15 in most cases. That's cheap!

Cashin' checks is my favorite. They all look good though.

Between Ford and Chevy, I prefer Dodge, and y'all can have your Toyotas (got nuttin against 'em but also got nuttin for 'em either). On reels, $130 - $150 is nice, does every thing you'll ever need in fishing, and also completely unnecessary to spend that much. For me, $100 is my target range, and if I need or want to go above it (the word need is used loosely here) then I will, but if I can score a reel for less that does the job to my standards then that's even better. One of the better reels out there right now is one you won't even find on Tackle Warehouse. It's the Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier, for $100 retail, sometimes as low as $70 on sale, and it compares in every way to a lot of $130 - $150 reels. I won't argue what is or isn't a good reel as far as specific models, but I will tell you that you'll be worlds ahead to make sure you buy a baitcaster with a metal frame. Aluminum is the most common metal, but there are others. Once you identify a few metal framed reels in your price range, then check around for reputation or any known problems in specific models. That gives you a rough idea what's good and what isn't. Getting hung up in other details such as how many bearings they have or how many pounds of drag they have isn't as necessary to do with black bass fishing reels, but I'm not saying don't go there. I did, and still do, but it's a personal thing for me. I want bearings in specific locations, or at least the ability to buy and add them if they aren't there now. That's just my thing. I turn 7 bearing reels into 9 bearing models, or more if they'll take it, but it fishes just fine with 7 anyway. On drag, any reel with 10 pounds is fine. A Revo with 20+ pounds of drag might be awesome, and maybe needed for some fishing, like striper fishing, but in largemouth bass fishing you can get by with a lot less. Most reputable reels have plenty of drag even if they're several pounds apart from other reels. I also pay attention to the different ratios of line intake depending on what I'm throwing with the reel. Inches per turn is what to look at, not just the raw ratio number. One reel's 6.4:1 might not be the same as another's. Also overall weight is an issue for some. I like reels in the 7 ounce range, but also don't mind 9 ounce weighted reels either. Getting up to 10 ounces is getting a little heavy, for me. I also don't like a featherweight reel either. 5 and 6 ounce reels feel fragile to me. They probably aren't, but I don't care. They're usually very expensive anyway so it's a non issue for me. The Carbonlite from Bass Pro might be an exception, but to me it's ugly so it's not even considered anyway. That's another thing I watch. Ugliness is not a feature I want to pay for in a reel. Totally personal there, but I wouldn't fish with an ugly reel if I got it for free, so I definitely ain't payin' for it!

Are you airbrushing those or hand brushing them?

Thank you. I've used the epoxy before on other things so I know how strong it is. Don't know why I didn't think of it first. I guess it's because super glue in its little tube would be much easier to apply. I'll have to smear the epoxy on with something disposable, but that's doable. Maybe I can just dip the end of the wire, slide the weight on and clean off the excess behind the weight before it dries.

You said the hook was still in the plastic when reeled back. Did the hook point come out of the plastic at all on the hookset from where you had it skin hooked? Obviously you didn't get penetration. Did you try tossing it with it not skin hooked? Any way you can use a trailer hook? Maybe try a different plastic where the hook is better exposed. What kind of hook was it, offset worm, EWG, or what? Is the hook point sharp enough? What about rod power and action, was the rod too weak? What type of line, is there much stretch? There's a lot that could have affected this.

Well, actually I can sort of "right click and open a new tab". I just touch the link and hold it down, then a pop up gives me the option to open a new tab, which I do most of the time. Occasionally, my finger slips and instead of getting the pop up, it just goes on and opens up in that current tab, and then I lose the ability to go back.

I once, just once and probably never again, made three last, hard and fast casts to tighten up my line on my reel. I caught three decent white bass on back to back casts when I did that. That will never happen again. Of course, those didn't end up being my last casts, haha, but after about fifteen more unsuccessful "last casts", I finally packed it in. What made it worse was I had been fishing with my nephew who had not done nearly as well as I had and he was ready to leave when I told him I just needed one more maintenance cast to tighten my line. My eleven fish lead was instantly upped to fourteen, and he was not happy.

I almost voted for it because I do like the idea of being able to just browse posts relating to, say, just jig fishing only. I could learn a lot very quick without having to search repeatedly. When I search now, and click any of the results, that's as far as I can go. I cannot simply hit the back button to see more of those same results. I have to return to that specific forum and do the same search again first. This may be due to using an iPad to access the site. However, having sub forums here, I'd find it annoying to use on my iPad also since it seems that whenever I open any forum now, and especially the main forum page, I have to wait for things to resize a few times before finally settling down so I can read. On technique specific, it sounds like I'd go to a forum, then have to enter another sub forum before getting to any posts. I'd avoid it since it would take too long to fully stabilize each time, and be frustrating. I don't search as often as I just click and read, so I'll just stick with the lesser of the frustrations. Also, on other sites where they have them, it seems they see very little actual posts. The general areas seem to get it all. It seems my vote was the tie breaker for the moment, 7 to 6, in favor of leaving things alone.

Is there any real place for super glue in lure making besides maybe temporarily gluing feathers onto a hook shaft before tying them in place? It just seems like super glue bonds on lures might not last long term. I ask because one of my potential lure designs calls for a worm weight fixed to a shaft, as a spinnerbait or buzzbait head, and due to color schemes on it, I don't want the head to spin on the shaft. Super glue on the shaft and then the weight slid on over it so it goes inside of the hole is the only solution I can think of aside from just pouring my own or buying them premade, neither of which I want to do mostly due to costs. Worm weights glued to wire is cheaper and gives me the look I want. EDIT: Did a search and found that the gel type glue can be used on lures. Gel is what I was thinking of using anyway, unless I needed to pour some down the hole from the concave side of the weight to make sure it got plenty inside the hole. Mostly I read it being used for weed guards glued into jig heads. In that case the glue is just holding something light weight glued to lead. What about cases where the lead is glued to something else? Would throwing it around and having its weight pulling against the bond make it work loose over time?