# Poppers



## goolies (Jun 28, 2007)

I just finished some bass poppers. It was my 1st attempt at making poppers and my 1st experience with an airbrush. The airbrush is going to take some getting use to. The tail hooks are dressed with some spare rubber spinner skirts. Round beads and BB's were inserted in the faces for rattles. It was cool having 6 lures on the drying wheel at one time.

I learned a few things making these lures. I may need stronger reading glasses  and I definitely need better lighting in my paint area. I learned an airbrush puts paint on in very thin layers and is very sensitive to handling even after its dry (had to repaint 1 lure). Because of this I will take a technique shared by Vince and start clearcoating between paint layers. I also learned that I need larger split rings when using heavy screw eyes. The smaller split rings were a pain in the @$$! to get on.


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## peple of the perch (Sep 13, 2004)

Those look great. Are u shure it was you first time with a air brush. . Now i know what u were making with that "drill lathe".


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## RiverRunner88 (Jun 15, 2006)

wow andy those are amazing!!!


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

Those are beautiful baits! 

Great work.


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## Rowhunter (Jun 21, 2007)

Great job!

Look's like someone had a small assembly line set up in their shop!!! There is good consistancy from lure to lure and paint job's are all very nice. I love getting a prototype dialed in so I can set up for a production run of small quantity. One thing I did learn with multiples was that wood was my main variable. Even though my shaping and weighting process was as tight as I could get , the individual piece of wood had it's own "personality" , that had to be fine tuned. This is very noticeable in suspending , or slow sinking lure styles.
Keep up the great work!
Douglas


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## rjbass (Aug 1, 2007)

Man, you catch on fast!!!....those are great. It really does not look like a first attempt at airbrushing....love the rattles.

Here is a hint, you can make screw eyes out of stainless steel wire and you won't have the problem of getting the smaller split rings on. I use .032 size for bass lures and they hold as good if not better than the commercial screw eyes. You can either use 5 minute epoxy or Gorilla Glue to hold them in and they become part of the bait.

Easy to make....cut a length of wire a little better than double what you need. Double it over and grab the tag ends with a strong pair of pliers. Set your hand drill up with a "cup hanger" in the chuck put the loop end over the hanger pull back hard with the pliers and turn your drill. The wire will form a perfect screw and depending on how tight you turn it will make various sized loops. If you check out the last baits I posted you can see that all the line ties and hook hangers are made from SS wire.

Rod


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## chappy (Aug 16, 2006)

Nice paint job. what kind of airbrush do you have ?


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## goolies (Jun 28, 2007)

Thanks for the compliments fellas. I'm happy with the paint job for my 1st attempt. If I would have zoomed in the camera you would see I have a long way to go. The drill lathe was used to shape the bodies.

Chappy - I bought the Iwata HP-C Plus online from Dixieart and a compressor from Harbor Freight.

Rod - Thanks for the tip on the screw eyes.


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## Buckeye Mike (Jan 4, 2007)

Goolies
Your poppers look sweet, cant believe those are your first ones.
The only thing that i see that i dont like is the rubber skirt for the tail, i allways use white feathers for the tail, and i have had rubber melt on some lures making them a mess, and would hate to see a mess on those pretty things that you made. Grate Job


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## goolies (Jun 28, 2007)

Thanks for the tip Mike. I didn't think about the skirts melting. I used the skirts because I had some extras gathering dust. They are at least 20 years old.


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

Goolies, I have to tell you again, those are really beautiful. You're going to crank out some amazing work if you have those as a benchmark starting point.

Rod, do you have a source for you stainless wire or do you buy it locally?


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## rjbass (Aug 1, 2007)

Here is where I get mine...Malin co. is in Ohio somewhere??? It is actually aircraft safety wire. I get the stuff in the blue canister. I use .032 for bass and walleye baits and .041 and .051 for musky and salmon. It is cheap.

http://www.skygeek.com/malin-co.html

Rod


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## walleyevision (Aug 4, 2005)

Very,very, nice.


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## TIGGER (Jan 17, 2006)

Wow Andy those look great. What have we done to you! LOL You can never go back now. Welcome to the dark side! LOL

Smallies in 7 to 10 foot of water off Perry! Are you kidding me! That will be some fun!

Rod, neat link on the wire. Doug, Malin was the wire company that I was trying to get that thick wire from for the large musky baits. I contacted them but they blew me off a bit because of the small qty. I see Rod found a good link to their wire. Here is the main site link to Malin. They are right here in the Cleveland area. I will stop by one of these days.

http://www.malinco.com/


Here is another link to a screw eye place. This is where most of the musky bait people order and get their eyes from. I ordered 1000 of the .092 x 1-1/2" stainless eyes from them. I got the eyes for 9 cents apiece. I am going to give Rods idea a try.

http://www.hebmfg.com/


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## goolies (Jun 28, 2007)

Thanks John. These are going out as Xmas presents to some guys that I go bass fishing with every August in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Poppers have been successful there early in the morning around weed beds in 4-5 ft of water.


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## BigDaddy300 (Nov 1, 2004)

Those are awesome!!! I use to do alot of topwater bass fishing and loved it. I think next year I will get back into it. Keep up the good work and keep posting the pics.


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