How to Powder Coat Spinner components with a Powder Spray Gun

Powder painting Spinner Parts with the Badger 260 gun

More lessons updated Post - Hot Drop Powder Coating

Spinner sales for this season are winding down, schools back in session and retailers are starting to think about hunting seasons.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and checkout it's new format and many of these paint jobs!

I decided to invest in some new assets and start building some new skills, so... I bought a Badger 260 powder spray gun, it's a simple little thing. It was designed for spraying abrasives to etch glass, but does a good job with the powder paint. Guess I could even use it to sand blast my old trucks nasty fouled Number 1 spark plug. I also bought some powder paint by the pound and some vinyl paints.

First off, I needed an air compressor and regulator to provide the spray power. I did quite a lot of Googling  and learned a bit about air compressors - PSI and CFM, Regulators, Filters with bayonet bleeds, Piston or Diaphram stuff. Trust me, I'd opened a blast furnace door.

Yikes! I asked questions on forums, The tool guys got quiet. I even asked the paint people, I thought they would know. No help to be found and that was disappointing. The specs listed with the spray gun were not matching up with specs on compressors. All sorts of paint and no air. Luckily, I called Badger and they were helpful straightening out the misleading PSIspecs on the Powder painting documentation.

I rolled the dice and chose a SparMax TC-2000 to run the PSG and any other airbrush painting applications that Ben might have for his hand-carved lures.

With the right accessory tools, this baby will spray you tan. It will decorate cakes. It will run a tattoo gun. Even sand-blast. Finally, in practice, the TC-2000 and Badger 260 will paint spinner parts.


Problem Statement - lumpy bodies

If you've been to the blog before, you know I've been dipping the muskie bodies. Heat, dip in powder paint, and cure. Got my process together in that space. Tried and True.

But I've experienced some amount of difficulty getting the coverage right and ruined a few too many paint jobs coming out of the oven (they drip and end up with lumps). Lumpy bodies, not good. Frustrating waste and time-consuming rework.

It seemed to me that batches of powder paint, coming from the factory, had different properties. Inconsistent mix ratios, milling or something causes different sensitivity to heat and different paint adherence behaviors.

Yeah right, anyways, for me, the differences showed up when I changed to a new color. Either that or this was a liveware problem of mine!

Even though I strove to be consistent with heat, fluffed the paint and whisked the part, some colors coated too thick and others didn't.

Whew, long winded right? Get back to the Pink Parts and Hard bodies. Ok, here's some pictures.

First Hard bodies - brass and nickel

Hard bodies - brass and nickel - various types and weights

Dip painted ancestors

So, now a look at the new Assets

Badger 260 Powder Spray Gun (PSG) - eloquent in its simplicity

Badger 260 Powder Spray Gun

R2D2 - I mean, SparMax TC-2000 compressor

Ok, back to the skills.

My tried and true process needed to evolve to accommodate the new tools. This meant I'd get to solve new problems and hit a few ditches (unfortunately, my learning strategy and the way I learn).

The first was catching the over spray. I did several iterations on this and it's a secret. Let me just say that necessity, is the mother of invention.

Pink and mustard colored clouds coming out of the garage and a mustard colored CRV were frowned on by Marie, so we put our best minds to work and stumbled on a solution.

Pro-Tec Pink Cloud maker

Next was batching the parts. I have plenty of stainless wire, so I strung the hard bodies on 8 inch wires, making some cool spinner kabob looking rigs. I sized these to accommodate the oven and also the makeshift spray booth.

Spinner body kabobs ready for the oven

Paint station - notice the leather glove - kabobs are HOT! 

So there you have it - Heat the kabobs in the oven - take em out with a leather glove - spray on the paint while rolling the wire, using those holes in the base like an axle to rotate the hot parts and let the spray evenly cover them. I had to crank up the oven and let them sit awhile in order to get them hot enough. You'll know they're good, when the paint stops blasting past the parts and adheres.

I found 30 PSI worked best, not the 5-8 PSI the paint doc stated. So I set the regulator to that PSI and concentrated on not breathing for 20 minutes. Just kidding!

You'll need a Respirator... or you'll tie dye your kleenex tissues -  Yuk...

Here's some finished parts

Bodies galore - Dinner Bells, AngleIrons, Metal Armadillos and Fireant wings

Here's a couple Dinnerbells with the pink parts! Fun, Fun, Fun! 

Hopefully, someone fishing Pink Salmon on the West Coast will want to get some FCS wet! 

I know the mustard AngleIrons are wanted for Smallies in North Carolina. Propeller FireAnts will find a home in New Jersey!

Time to replenish some low inventory!

Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome and look forward to doing better more frequent small batches as I need them. 

Feel free to comment with your experiences or offer suggestions. My process was kind of a shoot from the hip response and I'll be refining it with iteration and trying more paints.

Copper Harbor - UP Agates

Here's a couple shots from a trip Marie and I took across the northern border of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior's Southern Shore at Copper Harbor.

Copper Harbor sunset -

Copper Harbor Cruiser and Loon Guard

And a closeup of the South shore agates by the millions. Got a batch in the rock tumbler in the basement right now.

Lake Superior South Shore Agates

Copper Harbor, Michigan

It's a Beautiful isolated and relaxing place.

Forever Fishin Doug - Washington Tiger Muskie on Hula Girl

Doug Porter author of the Forever Fishing Washington State blog (and a persistent FCS slinger), caught this 41.5 inch tiger at Merwin Reservoir in Eastern Washington on a Fish Creek Hula Girl spinner.

Thanks for sharing the pictures Doug!

Don't it make you want to go Muskie FishIN?

Muskie In ... the Net!

Muskie In ... the Boat!

Muskie In ... the Hand. Ouch!

Muskie Back in ... the Water!

This Tiger Muskie was caught on a black and brass Hula girl spinner like this one.

Here's another Washington Muskie caught early this year with a similar Hula spinner on the West side of Washington by Dean Pratt, fishing with Yankin Jaw Guide Service.

This one with Nickel Colorado blades



1oz Black and Silver Hula Spinner that caught the western Washington Tiger Muskie

Get em' in the water and they bring back fish! My thanks to both anglers for sharing their successes.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and checkout it's new format!

Dressing up Spinnerbaits

Once upon a time, I added a stinger to a zonker spinnerbait and good things happened. The outcome took me by surprise and ever since, I've been contemplating other ways to change things up and add flexibility.

I believe my spinnerbait success with big trout in fast water chutes were because the stinger had a white pvc tube that had an enticing side to side motion while the spinnerbait's weight and action hovered in the strong current.

Big fish lurking in the oxygen rich current took notice and came out to get it. This started me thinking deep thoughts.

Although that example was with 1oz zonker bait, I wanted something that could work on the big guns - the 2oz+ closed loop spinnerbaits - suitable for Muskie and Saltwater species. Also the bigger muskie and Salmon spinners that used the same silicon skirts.

I came up with a 35# cable attached bucktail and then decided to pimp it out with a spinner blade and a couple beads. Here's a few lined up for inspection.

Bucktail Skirt Chasers

The first adaptations were cable connected with pressed sleeves and were there to stay. That seemed like a decent idea, until I wanted to swap out a skirt.

The same dilema occurred on the big spinners. I needed a way to swap skirts - either by preference or because of wear. Big fish teeth are tough on silicon. I had to make the stingers removable in order to change a skirt. Eureka! If they were removable, they became accessories you could remove, change or swap out.

To make them removable I had two choices - splitrings or something else. Splitrings were the most apparent choice, but splitrings can be a pain, literally - when using them with sharp hooks in cramped quarters, you can pierce a finger or thumb. I opted for duolock clasps.

I've started using them for hook attachments on the big spinners as well.

This has several advantages. First you can swap out hooks based on your preference. Next, you can remove the duolock and now change silicon skirts on the big spinners and spinnerbaits with little difficulty. Finally, if you need to cut loose a hook on a stressed out fish, you can easily cut the duolock.

Removing a hook from a splitring or cutting a big treble is tricky, cutting a duolock is less hectic.

Notice the example above went a step further and uses a .041in short shaft wire between the duolock and treble. The wire connector can be cut and avoid messing with the duolock.

The juries still out on their performance but I'm pretty stoked with the improvement and its resulting flexibility. Suddenly, you can easily accessorize and tranform both the spinners and spinnerbaits with changible extensions using duolock clasps. Open, Swap, Close. Fresh new look.

Granted these are big baits for big species and at the moment I haven't tried to adapt the idea on smaller tackle, but stay tuned.

Here's a few pictures. Mix and match parts scattered around the table. 1oz Double blade spinner in the center. Skirts, hooks, blades, bucktails and skirt chasers ring the center.

Because the spinner didn't have a permanent hook attachment, I was able to slide a new skirt over the tail loop and skirt mount without any problem.

Now added the duolock clasp to finish hooking the spinner up.

Added a #2/0 treble and a skirt chaser and closed the duolock.

Changed my mind and put a different stinger on it.

Here's a video using a spinnerbait in a similar build and transform operation.

Pretty easy to interchange parts to get new interesting looking creations - FrankenSpinners!

Ben and I will be fishing these to get the kinks out of them, but I expect I'll put a few out in the webstore afterwards.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and checkout it's new format!

I'm interested in your comments and observations if using duolock clasps for other purposes. Feel free to comment to blog or drop me an email to fishcreekspinners@gmail.com

Strikes n Spares

Lately, I've been thinking about all the joys of fishing, the outdoors, and mostly fish. Maybe its all the runoff that's delayed my canyon fishing.

Anyway, as I was exercising my brain, I started thinking about the ways we anglers interact with our esteemed favorite species and had to pause.

We net them. We bait them on hooks. We imitate their food with elaborate feathers, hair and plastic on hooks while fly fishing. We imitate their prey on hooks - spinners, lures, flatfish, spinnerbaits and spoon fishing. Lets not forget we snag and spear them.

So being a sensitive guy, I decided to try to think of some other form of interaction. Something fun for me and the fish. So I built this custom spinner called the XRStrike.

This is a work in progress, but I intend to test it out as soon as I can.

I'll use XRStrike in a game I just invented called Strikes n Spares. Maybe Fish Bowling or Fish Tag? Guess there's still time to figure that part out. Catching on? Oops, I meant Catching off?

Anyway, here's how Strikes n Spares works.

As you can see the hooks been replaced with a large split ring. Why you ask? The splitring gives the fish something to chomp into, without getting hooked. Will they spit it out or run with it? Game on!

I get a point for each sighted strike and two points for more than one sighted strike in the same hole. 5 points for a confirmed same fish 2nd strike. No catch and keep. No catch and release. No catch, just Strike.

My money says the large splitring ought to make a strike recognizable. Sound right?

I get to wade and walk my favorite streams and rivers, improving my casting while enticing reaction strikes without the stress and time consuming landings of catch and release. What's the score going to end up at?

I know it sounds radical, almost comical. Oh alright, comical.

In any case, I know the fish will Strike and I'll get that enticing jolt and I expect with practice, we'll both enjoy the Spare part too.

As the game catches off, with practice, they might improve their strike and run durations, and get in better shape. No photo ops, but oh well.

I'm anxious to test whether I get multiple strikes from the same fish or not. What ya think?

Spoof or Proof? Should I bring XRStrike along next trip to the water, or put a treble on it?

If I form a pro Strikes n Spares team, guess what we'll call the team?


How about the 'Fish Creek Spinners' LOL.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and check out it's new format!

Tying Bucktails on trebles

Misery loves company, so I thought I would put together a post with a few of the tripwires I've encountered tying bucktails.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and check out some of this handiwork and it's new format!

I've always got to test the ditches before I learn to drive and since blogs end up searchable, maybe somebody can avoid problem rediscovery and mitigate some of these risks I'm mentioning. If not, I still needed to make these, might as well post something, right?

Tying bucktails is not all aggravation and trouble, it has it's benefit too. Here's a few I thought of

You have them available to replace a cut hook on your favorite spinner
 - use a split ring or duolock to attach them
You can make a lot of custom color combinations you wouldn't be able to find or buy
You get the satisfaction of creating something yourself or showing someone you do have skills!

The downside is that it can be a tedious and frustrating project, with several risks and pitfalls in the timeline. Add contingency, mitigate risk, and start planning Bucktail Version 2.

You earn extra points for tenacity and persistence on this task. Also remember, in their finest hour, these bucktails will end up in a Muskie or Pikes mouth, (now that's a scary place). Primitive counts too. In my case, primitive counts a lot!

I wanted to tye some custom multi-colors to match the painted body bullets I had available on Muskie spinners I was imagining. I tyed #1/0 and #2/0 trebles.

Back to the pitfalls and trip wires.

Obstacle one - Adjust or change out the jaws on your vise

Muskie trebles are big and burly and the jaws on your fly tying vice need to factor the extra bulk. I switched to a different set of jaws and adjusted them to grab the 2/0 treble securely. I grab a single barb to hide its cutting edge if possible, but still the jaws need to open wide for these guys to be held and gripped. Wrapping a loose treble is not a fun job.

Trebles do provide convenient channels between the hooks for laying the hair, but they're positioned for catching fish, not wrapping silk thread or feathers. The three sharp barbs are excellent cutters for silk thread.

Obstacle two - Buy tough string

Tying trebles requires heavy thread for the job. I'm a wire twister these days, and I don't tye often. My eye hand coordination hasn't improved with age either. I found the #8 thread I had on a bobbin didn't tolerate a barb snag very well, and having a couple of these cutters lurking around the hook didn't help the job at all.

You have a few hundred wraps to get a decent sized bucktail and a lot of half hitches to get to end of job. Buy tough thread for this job, broken silk slows you down and its no fun.  I've found 6/0 silk works pretty good, but there are likely other thread materials, better for the job, Feel free to comment.

Suggestion - Take your time with the wraps

After a few (bucktails that is!), I found myself doing the dipsy doddle around the barbs while wrapping. If I slowed down, I could weave around the barbs and wrap further back on the shaft, leaving more room for finishing the head.

Suggestion - Wrap and glue in stages.

Bucktail is bulky. The hair is hollow and buoyant which is great in practice, but that bulk compounds after six sets have been wrapped and stacked up on the shaft. Tying a set of three further back on the shaft, avoids a big knot of hair to be trimmed and finished when you're calling it done.

I was doing two color bucktails and found I was able to tye them quicker and better if I did a three channel round, did a quick finish and a few drops of head cement on that round before adding the second color.

In my case, I cut the thread at this stage and removed the hook to let the cement dry. Then continued to tie a few more through this point before adding the second colors and finishing them off. 

By tying the first round further back on the shaft, the final finish had more room and wrapped easier.

I found I liked the outcome better if I put a lighter color on top and ended up using more white hair, but to each their own.

Matched up the custom bucktail with my painted bullets and will call it a good job, well done! 

This Dinnerbell prism ought to look great in the water. Looks good, sounds nasty.

I'm a fish, I'm gonna STRIKE! It's my DNA!

Trail Ridge Parkway to Grand Lake

OBN has solicited a writing prompt on Summer traditions. Here's mine.

Each summer I renew our annual National Parks Pass at one of Rocky Mountain National Park's Ranger Stations, usually in July after the 4th holiday. I guess its become a summer tradition!

Marie and I got Sable and Eli out of bed early and into the car headed into Rocky Mountain National Park, over Trail Ridge to enjoy a Grand Lake lunch (and sell a few spinners).

It's a beautiful time in the Rockies. There's still lots of snow and the runoff leaves big white snow fields. Each beautifully bordered with gray rocks and emerging wild flowers and multi-colored green tundra.



Snow fields and blue Colorado skies

 The runoff was everywhere

But still a lot of work to do!

Rocky Mountain ice cream sandwich anyone?

Many a happy survivor was out to greet the Colorado sun and the stream of visitors on Trail Ridge Parkway.

We saw and heard pika

and many a relaxing marmot,

Elk are back on top in numbers, silhouetted against snow fields (my favorite!)  

and even a cow moose headed across a far side meadow, before the Kawaneche Visitor Center.

Had lunch in Grand Lake and even sold a batch spinners to a new customer at a bait shop in Grand Lake

Made it back to Estes valley in time to watch the sunset over the Divide.

Walleye's from Lake of the Woods - Minnesota

I started promoting and offering our products in Minnesota on the HotSpots forum, also known as FishingMN.com.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and checkout it's new format!

The noisy Armadillo's catch walleye around here from the bank, but I added a couple of options to them to bridge the gap for larger waters where trolling bait is the norm. We rig them with crawler harnesses or 2 hook minnow rigs.

Interested parties in SD and MN are fishing them and providing feedback. Here's the pictures of some nice walleyes that were caught in northern Minnesota in Lake of the Woods. These were caught on trolled Armadillo's with the crawler harness.

Pretty good feedback and amazing what a hook change can do for a noisyArmadillo trout spinner.

Thanks for getting them in the water and the pictures Jeff!

Noise on the Line!

Discount Fishing - Denver, CO.

This was going to be an interview, but changed my mind.

If you're ever in a place called Denver, a little run down on your luck.

I'll tell about a place to go,  where you can buy flies for less then a buck. Then fish like heck to cheer up.

The place is called Discount Fishing on a street called Sante Fe.

He owns and works the place, his name is Mike Gray.

I guess that's enough with the Jerry Jeff Walker "Charlie Dunn" lyric knockoffs. Ha Ha.


Mike doesn't work alone, he's surrounded by guides and guys with knowlege about fishing and the shop. They can help you find your sought after gear stashed in all the tackle shops inventory. The kind of hand's on service you'll find is remarkable when you need it. Otherwise, join the starstruck crowd milling around in awe and enjoy the sights.

I've been in the place a number of times (not as many as I'd like) and I've only brushed the surface. It's the kind of place that any outdoors person can get inspiration and stand wide-eyed surrounded (got it? I mean like a bubble surrounded) with boo koo tackle and all the tools of the trade.

There's tackle on the ceiling, it's on the floor, the walls are covered with hinged racks full of spinners, jigs, hooks, sinkers, plugs, flatfish, jerkbaits, flies, rods, reels, creels, tackleboxes, hats, jackets, minnows, leeches, hair, feathers, thread, bobbins, hackels, maps, shoes, waders, boots, raingear, blades, rod blanks, leaders, line, rudders and swivels.

If you've ever been to a flea market searching for a specific item, its kind of the same feeling of being pleasantly overwhelmed.

Tackle thrills!

About a year ago, I decided to try to get some Fish Creek Spinners on the wall at Discount Fishing. I called Mike and asked if he had any tackle components he might swap for spinners. He said he probably had some in the backroom and I should come down with some spinners and we'd look around to see if I could find something I could use in trade.

I'm happy as a clam in the chaos and disarrary of tens of thousands of components. Going into a tackle shop's  backroom to dig around for tackle components ( the stuff thats assembled to make tackle) sure sounded like fun. It was an invitation I couldn't refuse.

When I finally made the trip, it was a hot August day, maybe even some Colorado humidity in the air. I wandered around waiting for a break in customer activity, checking out a new rod and reel for Sable. Mike finished with a customer at the register and said "Let's check  back here" and headed to the back of the shop. My head was still off imagining what I should buy, but I mananged to come to and line up behind him as he came around from behind the register fo'c'sle headed for the back.

Now as a fishermen, looking around Discount Fishing,  it was hard to imagine the place had a hidden underbelly. To me, it looked like everything must be out and displayed in plain view. The backroom door was hidden in a far corner, behind the minnow tanks.
 When that backroom door creaked open, I swear, I saw white light. Maybe I'm spreading it a little thick, but the anticipation of what might be found was certain, even if the outcome was uncertain!

Mike headed back into the dark and found a light. The backroom had the smell of old cardboard. Storage shelves lined the walls and old boxes filled the shelves. Mike started handing them to me and I maneuvered back out, and began arranging potential swag and booty on the floor.

He found raw lead spinnerbaits, he found boxes of lead jigs, he found boxes with trolling cowbell rudders, lots of boxes of blades, treble hooks, beads, and some mystery boxes stacked deep. My favorite.

We both ended up happy, Mike moved some stagnant components and I got some space in a place I enjoy being part of. Denver fishermen can now opt to buy Fish Creek Spinners, and I started filling the blanks with purchased components to begin using the boxes of parts and pieces and enter new species markets.

We're painting spinnerbaits and skirting them. Building Muskie and Pike spinners and trolling cowbells that will go back into Discount Fishing and fuel our business relationship.

Here's Mike pricing some of our trolling cowbells.

Mike Pricing FCS trolling cowbells (in front of the Fish Creek Spinner rack)

While I was here, I asked Mike where the BUDZ rudders I'm using on the cowbells came from. He said he bought them from a tackle guy like me that was getting out of the business due to an illness. He's finally getting some money out of the deal selling our cowbells, and BUDZ rudders made it out of the back room, on their way out into the countries water where any respectable piece of well made US tackle belongs.

Still need Mike to take interest in some of the finished spinnerbaits , lol!

Finally, if you're ever in Denver, be SURE to stop by Discount Fishing. It's an ADVENTURE you'll not forget!