[jklett]

My nephew Matt want's to try plugging for pike and asked if I could make him a firetiger shad/minnow. It still needs another coat of epoxy, but it'll have to wait until the next go-around(hopefully this weekend). I made it the same as another hand carved that swam really sweet(nice tight wiggle and dives down deep if you crank it quick, but can still work up top if you want) and this one is the same. The only difference is the first one was homemade screw eyes, and this one's through wired. It's a shade under 5" nose to tail, and weighs somewhere about 1 1/2 oz. I cheated and used a stencil for the stripes, but I really like the improvement in paint control with that VL over the old single action I was using! The eyeshadowing didn't blow out all over the place this time! I still need more practice before I trust myself with freehand work, but it's coming along finally. I was starting to get frustrated with airbrushing but now I like it again!