Top Water Making question.

[Fishing Iowa]

So i recently got into making my own top water lures. I have the things i have been using and i have a question about one of them. I feel the others are fine but my sealer is what im curious about.

After painting i have been using a Gloss Urethane spray to seal my top water. It seems like it is doing its job just fine but the outside of the Lure is sticky. Not the smooth texture you would normally think of on a lure.

I was just wonder what everyone uses to seal the lure from water damage?

Thanks,
-Fishing Iowa

[bigjim5589]

I've never made any such lures, but have made 100's of fly rod topwaters. I've made them out of balsa wood, basswood, cork, and foam, plus I've used preformed bodies. The same techniques are used that you might be using. Whenever I've had such an issue, it was usually a compatibility problem with the paints I used, or a mixing/proportioning issue, usually with the epoxy I use to top coat them.

I've never used the spray that you're using, but that would be the first place I would look, it may be reacting with some of the paint. I'm sorry to say, I don't know much about urethane sprays.

When I make balsa wood topwaters, I seal the wood first with a marine type wood sealer. (Don't know what it is, I buy it at a local hardware.) I then paint them with a few coats of paint, and the final gloss coat is 2 ton, Devcon epoxy. Everything I use is brushed on, and I've never had any problems with them.

I have had sticky epoxy, that just didn't set properly, but I know it was a mixing issue, or I didn't get the proportions correct at 50/50 for each part.

You could try to coat them with a clear fingernail polish, like Sally Hansens Hard As Nails. A lot of fly tiers use the nail polish and it will work over top of epoxy that is sticky. I don't know how it would work over the urethane however. Only way to ind out is try it!