LURE AND BUG DRYING FIXTURE

"You can't have DRIPS on your bugs! No way! They need a smooth, even finish!!"
That's the mantra among those who make their own fishing poppers, bugs, and other hard baits.
To make sure you don't commit the sin of drips and sags, it's a big thing in the world of luremaking to have a rotating device on which one’s creations can dry/cure.

You see, to get a smooth finish on these fishing lures, a number of materials are used to complete them. These can be anything from sealers, cements, or paints, to the King of Lure Finishes - EPOXY.

But unless the lures are kept rotating as the finish dries, you end up with runs, drips and sags. So, what is needed is an automatic way to keep 
the lure turning as it dries. 

The Usual Way

The most popular thing for this job is usually some kind of rotating wheel.
Think of the rotating wheel onto which circus knife throwers strap their female assistants.
That kind of idea, but without the knives and girls.

Actually, it's something like this....

or this..

Many people make their own, and traditionally, these were made using a rotisserie, or disco ball, motor... minus the barbeque grill, or disco ball. 
But the free market prevails, and I’ve shown some of the commercially available wheels you might find, these days.

Well, we here at the Palmetto Fly n Fish Operations Center needed a curing fixture, too. 

But, we are not sponsored, and our coffee mugs and T-shirt sales aren't breaking any records.

This means spending $50-$100 for something like a wheel is out of the question.
Instead, we went the route of an easy, DIY project.

The Inspiration
Several types of lure drying fixtures have been made, and most of the alternatives utilize a rotating shaft design, instead of the wheel.
Basically, they are an axle, and the lures are mounted to that.
As it happens, the PFnF resource library contains the book, “Bug Making,” by C. Boyd Pfeiffer.
In that book was found just such an axial device, in the form of a picture - just what the doctor ordered.

You can see it below, and it inspired us to go that route.
And so, another project was born...

The Inspirational Picture

The Book
ISBN 1-55821-414-3

The Components

MOTOR
The heart of the fixture is a 3 rpm, geared motor. These are available from eBay, or one of the Asia-direct sellers, for reasonable cost.
However, we ran into a hiccup, right out of the gate:

Powering a motor from a wall receptacle makes good sense, BUT, 110 vac motors are more expensive, and there are fewer of them available.
 

During the search, however, our design staff (yours truly), found that 12vdc, geared, stepper motors were both plentiful, and inexpensive. They are also somewhat safer than fooling around with 110 VAC power.
These were obviously the choice for our construction budget.
Even so, to use these motors, we had to make a power conversion from regular 110VAC to 12VDC.

Luckily, 12vdc is one of the most common conversions made in the world of electrical power, and there are a zillion plug-in power adapters around.
In fact, the ubiquitous wall-wart receptacle types are easily obtained, and most thrift stores will have a box with such things. 

You might even have one hanging around your junk drawers at home.

Scrounging around the PFnF workshop, in fact, three or four were turned up.
It seems our engineering design staff (yours truly) has been collecting them over the years, so it was a cinch to get going. 

The final addition to the  motor was an inline toggle switch for control, like you see in the pictures.
This was something else our engineering team (me, again) keeps on hand for such projects.
What could be simpler?

FRAME

Next, a frame was needed, and we followed the Pfeiffer picture.
In that example, you can see that metal bookends are used to mount the components, so our chief designer (yes, me) used that idea. 

The thrift store came to the rescue here, and a couple bookends were obtained.

On one of the bookends, the motor/gearbox was mounted with some small screws. That was super easy and took our engineering tech (guess who?) about 15 minutes to complete. 

CARRIER ROD
The “axle,” or carrier rod, was next.
This item came from a toy golf set.
The PFnF Grandkids broke the golf toys about 10 minutes after getting them, and while our groundskeeper (yours truly) was picking 'em up from the yard, he had a flash of inspiration.

The golf club shafts are a firm plastic tube about 1/2" in diameter, and he figured they would be just right for this project.
He was right; a small plastic bushing was all that was needed to mate the carrier rod to the motor shaft.
We listen to everyone's ideas here at Palmetto Fly N Fish.

Moving to the other end, a carrier rod support was developed.
The second bookend provided the structure, and an, "axial support bushing" was fitted to accept the carrier rod.
Once again, our engineering group (me, of course) stepped up to the plate, with a brilliantly simple set up:

A piece of wood, with a hole bored through, takes the end of the carrier rod.

This was attached to the bookend with some screws, and voila! We have a carrier rod support.
Yes, it is wood with a hole in it - but, we're still calling it an 'axial support block,’ because that sounds pretty cool.

What Comes Next?
At this point we have a well-supported motor, and shaft, turning at 3 rpm.

But the flies, or lure bodies, well, they have to be held by something so they can turn with the carrier shaft, and not fall off.
For that, a plain pool noodle was used.
This was in the Pfeiffer book, too, and they are so common that it was a no-brainer to stick with that.
Some adhesive backed, soft foam strips were glued to the carrier shaft, and the pool noodle pushed over them.
A firm fit was the result, but, should the pool noodle need to be replaced, it can be slid back off.

Storing the Fixture

A much desired feature for this item is that it can be disassembled for storage.
The Palmetto Fly n Fish Operations Center is not large, and it doesn't have a lot of space for storing bulky gadgets. Thus, we wanted this curing fixture to break down into a smaller package that can be stowed.
But, it also must go together quickly, without tools or hardware. 

That was achieved - it easily disassembles and goes back together by hand.
It can be kept in a cabinet until needed. 

I tell ya, our design team (you know who….), they're on the ball.

The Future
While this fixture will surely do the job intended for it, an improvement or two is being examined.
For example, it may need to be adapted to handle really large lures, so some ideas to address this are on the table. 

But like all designs, the current model will first be field tested, to see what happens.
You'll note in our inspiration picture, nothing more was done for fly poppers like we expect to be churning out. 

So odds are good it wont need much else.

The Pictures - Job Done

Finished Fixture
Paper towel "flag" to enhance rotating effect (see end video)

Carrier Rod Bushing Block

Motor Install

Broken down for storage

The Video
Its not nearly as noisy as in this video - camera mics are sensitive

In summary, this is a pretty simple project, and I hope it gives YOU some ideas.
Give it a whirl and let me know how you get on with it.

If you liked this post, please share it with all your friends and acquaintances.

Thanks and Tight Lines,

David
Come visit us at: Palmetto Fly N Fish

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, David Hutton and Palmetto Fly N Fish, 2022 

THE STEALH BOMBER - A GO-TO PATTERN

 A Fleet of Stealth Bombers

I recently made a post on Palmetto Fly n Fish, talking about Stealth Bombers, again…. Yeah, once again. This is noteworthy, because until a couple years ago, I didn't give this pattern much notice. More like, I didn't give it ANY notice. Nevertheless, fast forward to now and, while I'm no expert Stealth Bomber pilot, I think of them as a must have pattern. Reasons to Have Stealth Bombers So what happened? Why do I like them now? According to Georgia's Kent Edmonds*, the creator of the pattern, the Stealth Bomber is a foam-based derivative of the "Turck’s Tarantula." 

Being a foam diver/slider, it duplicates the Tarantula’s diving motion and the resulting bubble trail made when the fly is stripped hard. * I once met Kent Edmunds, and had no clue who he was. I feel kinda bad about that, now. Sorry, Kent. Okay, fine. But what is special about the Stealth Bomber? Well, the Stealth Bomber..... ... features foam, hair, legs, and flashy stuff. The only thing missing is hackle, I guess, and there's probably some way to work that in, too. Otherwise, the Stealth Bomber has it all.

... floats in the surface film, not above it. This mimics what most real critters do; they float and swim half submerged. Many experts claim this increases hook-ups, and I'll take their word for that. .... marries a slider with a popper....but mostly a slider, since there's no popping face.

.... makes that desirable, but elusive, “quiet noise.” It doesn't 'pop' and 'kersploosh,' so it's less likely to scare away pressured fish. But it dips and dives seductively, which is likely to entice them.

.... leaves a good bubble trail in it's wake. This is a visual thing the result of that big, open foam loop at the rear. Your garden-variety popper doesn't manage this feature all that well.

With all this going for it, how can you go wrong? Looking back... I don't think I’ve ever cast one out, that failed to get attention from the fish. At The Vise The Stealth Bomber is also just enough of a challenge at the vise to be interesting. First off, it requires a precise shape for the foam. To make this shape consistent, you want either a purpose-made cutter, or a template. Either will do the job and allow you to knock out the correct shape, time after time. But, since I'm too cheap to spend $20 apiece for each different size foam cutter, I made a tracing template out of some old countertop micarta. Fortunately, Kent Edmonds makes the template available in .pdf, on his webpage. So that’s a good thing. You download the .pdf, print, and make a tracing template like the one seen below....

Tracing Template, size 6

You can find a link to the templates in the end notes.

What else? Well, the pattern is a bit of busy work, but not overly fiddly. It is a bit complex, too, but only enough to keep you honest and make you pay attention.

The Stealth Bomber is not a fast tie, but not painfully long, either.

And if you screw something up, it’s not a big deal to step backwards and correct it.

Take my word for that.

So, I like to keep in practice tying them. I’ve got them down to size 8, and probably wont go smaller. 

Between 8 and 6, you're right in the zone for bass and panfish.

Variations Unlimited Here's the another good thing about the Stealth Bomber - its flexible. The theme for this session was red…. because the foam I used was red. And people, they like red.

Fish, on the other hand,...well, I don’t think they care much about color.

But people, they like red. However any color will do, as long as you like it. Blue has some appeal to it, in my experience. I believe chartreuse is the most popular color. And certainly the old standards of black, green, white, yellow, orange, all these are bound to have some fans. And why not pink? Or Fire Tiger? Why not indeed?

I included lotsa legs, too, because I’m a leg man. I don't suppose it hurts to make it look "buggy" this way.

As you can see, the variations are probably only limited to what you have available. The construction is standardized, which lends itself to infinite subtle - and not so subtle - variations.

That also suits my FTADD*….. I’ve tied no two Stealth Bombers the same way, twice. Those shown here are no different. They are all within the theme, but each is a variation on the one before. * Fly Tyers Attention Deficit Disorder Fishing Notes This is what Kent says about the fishing the Stealth Bomber The originals were basic, and tied in black. But for bass and big bream, I often tie some in bright color combinations and add flash wings and rubber legs. The "stealth" name hardly applies to their appearance..., but its action can still be quite stealthy. With soft little strips it will wiggle and maybe "bloop" slightly. Strip with a just a little bit more vigor and it will dive and bubble, but still stay in the target zone (the strip here should be very quick, but very short). Give it a longer, harder strip and it will dive hard and create a major commotion. To learn more, go to the links at the end and get the template. It's all there.

So, yeah…. Stealth Bombers. Get you some.

Materials - recommended Hook - sizes 4-10, straight shank Thread - strong, because were working with foam Foam - 2 mm craft foam Tail - bucktail, synthetic poly "hair," Krystal Flash Underbody - dubbing, peacock herl, yarn, etc

Wing - bucktail, synthetic hair, Krystal Flash

Legs - rubber, silicone, stretchy legs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it, and will share it with your friends. David
Visit Palmetto Fly n Fish, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/flyfishingsouthcarolina © All rights reserved, 2022 End Notes 1. Kents page about the Stealth Bomber: http://www.flyfishga.com/stealth.htm 2. Downloadable template: http://www.flyfishga.com/The%20Stealth%20Bomber%20Fly.pdf