jbass

I would recommend Ross England's Clear Lake Guide Service. However I would make an appointment as soon as possible because his calendar does fill quickly! As far as bluegill fishing, the county park, the State park has areas that are fishable from the bank.... Have fun...

I normally install the lips after paint and when I brush on the finish I use a small brush to cut around the lip with the epoxy which helps hold the lip as well.

Drop shot, Carolina rig, and crankbaits will work too. Sonoma also has some great smallmouth as well.

Nice to see another Californian and so close too. Berryessa is a favorite of mine too as is Lake Sonoma. Good looking baits!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Nicely done!! Jerry

Here are a few more but without finish or diving bills The other three with finish

I purchase the PVC from Lowe's trim section. It is a brick molding. I cut the material to size on my table saw and with a template I made, I draw the shapes on the material and then them in to chunks. I buy the Lexan at H Depot and have a template for the diving bills and shape them on my sander, the stainless steel wire I pick up at an ACE Hardware not far from my house. I cut the ss wire into pieces aprox 3" long and use a pair of vice grips and a 1/8" shaft in my vice and twist the ss wire around the shaft for the hook hangers and line ties. The ballast for my baits are just egg sinkers with a hole and the hook hanger goes through the egg sinker. That's pretty much it...... Jerry

I carve them from a block of PVC, sand them down smooth, ballast them, make the hook hangers and the line ties from ss wire, cut the diving lips from Lexan then shape them to a template. Epoxy the hangers, ties ballast and then paint. Once the paint is finished, install the eyes, and diving bill, then cover the painted bodies with epoxy, let cure. After the epoxy is cured, install split rings, and hooks. From shaping to finish about 6 hours counting cure time for the epoxy for the line tie and hook hangers, etc.

Yep, ya caught me. LOL

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been back in the shop. I made the stencil for the craw pattern and a blue gill. Three others now have a finish on them but no pictures with finish just yet.

This is a site where you can get D2T in "bulk", 9oz. containers. Just click here. EPOXY Jerry

Love those baits Marty!!

Nice gills Big Bass Man, great work!!

Shooter here is a site you can check out that has KO's. What quality are the baits? I can't answer that question. They have KVD's, 110 pointers but again I do not know anything about them. Jerry

The amount of time you save by purchasing pre-made lures is incredible. I used to get mine from Jann's netcraft and Barlow's tackle. Jann's doesn't carry the particular type I like anymore, so I've gone to Barlow's. The price has gone up but 5 blanks for $9.26 comes out to $1.80 something per, not a bad price. The only thing I do to the plastics are sand off the mold lines, scuff up the bodies for primer and paint. Jerry