Mattlures

Thanks guys. TW will get them in a couple days. I just brought the boxes to the post office today. I recomend using a weighted falcon hook. The 4/0 1/8th or 1/4ounce are perfect. BTW they are called the Mattlures Minnows not shad, but you guys can call them what ever you want as long as your fishing them. and NO I would not use them with out weight, unless your splashing them accross the surface, or your going to dropshot. If you want to swim them they will need the weighted hook or leadhead etc.

Basswestusa all the othetr mags seem to be a little behind

That guy in the boat is not just any angler. He is arguably one of the best sight fisherman in the world. His name is John Kerr and he is Best friends with Mike Long. Friends of mine, they know thier stuff. I have known the techniques they use in that article for years. you guys should read it a few more times. BTW that little 3lber in my avitar came from that lake

It sounds like the problem is not with the epoxy. As you stated the epoxy ealer coat is good and intact, soooooooo...... lets back track. Is the primer that is over the first epoxy caot still good? If not than the primer is not bonding with the epoxy. If the primer is still good than its the paint. Either its not bonding to the primer or the finished epoxy is not bonding to the paint. My guess is, somehow its the paint. I might also let the bait cure for a week before I realy tried to fish it. I am not a paint/clearcoat expert soo I do recomend going on to the harbait section of tackleundergrouns and posting your question. You should have came down to the show with Matt!

I am going

Fourbizzle you might want to save a little bait money for a ring.

I wanna see pics of the finger!!!

what an awsome fish. I think it would be SOOOO UNCOOL to sell it. First off it doesnt belong to the fisherman. It is most likely a private pond. Second off catching that thing and releasing it ir worth more than $500. Good job on that beautiful koi!

Cart is just being funny, or at least trying to I am sure they will invite the Trew's. After all she released that WR after her one picture. I know it only looked 15lbs even after it had a 5lb weight in its gut but I'll who am I to judge! ;D

Oh I am sure mr Zimmerlee will not be invited, especialy since several fisherman reported seeing him scoop the already dead fish out of the water with a net. Strange how no big fish have been reported from him before or after that 20 :

Randall you have knowledge of big bass. You would have to adjust but I think you could. Plus more than likely you would be doing something a little diferent than the rest of the field wich could either give you no chance at all or it could be an edge. I do know one thing, the regulare tournament guys who think they have a chance at getting lucky are in for a reality check. I could probably still get in but that lake is LOOOOONG drive for me and I have never fished it before. who knows maybe if I can make the time.

Just so you know I always have a rod in my boat rigged with a jig. They work and they work well but it is a diferent aplication. I dont throw thwm nearly as much as my swimbaits but I do throw them. I NEVER throw spinnerbaits or cranks. I will dropshot but only when I have previously decided that I am going fun fishing for a change of pace. I probably own 100 spinnerbaits and 300 verious cranks and jerk baits etc. I have giant boxes full of stuff but when it comes down to it I realy only fish a very small percenatge of. I am sure this sounds familiar

Matt, Ken Huddleston is the major sponsor. You can get all the info of of his website.

Raul I agree with your whole statement but..............I believe the swimbait has proven to be the #1 big bass catcher and the jig has been dethrowned. Granted the jig has been around forever so it would have a larger overall number of big bass but if you just looked at the last 5 years I think swimbaits would be out catching the jig by 5-1 on bass over 10. Now of cource I have no way of proving this but I believe I am pretty close. As far as USACP proshops and basstrix go. they did the tackle matching thing to keep the ebay scalpers from getting rediculous prices. I understand why they are doing it. I dont think its perfect but I dont think its bad either.

Yeah something is not rightm Maybe you had your jigs right next to the heat sorce instead of the center of the oven? I also use my kitchen oven and have never had a problem. I believe I baked them for about 20 minutes. MY LEAD NEVER MELTED!!!! I properly cured jig shouldnt drip at all. When it cures the powder coat gets a super shinny gloss to it . Something definatly went wrong in your oven

Ok they are putting together a trophy hunting tournament trail just for guys who catch big bass. The first event will be held at lake Casitas in Ca. its a $200 entry 100% payback and winner take all, one big fish Tourny!!! How cool is that. To even make it better they have limited the amount of anglers to 50 with 25 spots reserved for invite only. Those spots will be the who's who of the big bass world!!! This is going to be awsome. The other 25 spots will be filled up at the Bass-a-thon. The funny thing is you should hear all the regular tournament guys whinning about how they should be on thelist because of there previous tournament wins, when very few of them have ever caught a big bass and if they have its an extreme rarety. I have also heard how anybody could win with one "lucky" big bite. Man are those poor guys oblivious. If they actualy get in they think they have a chance against 25 of the best big bass fisherman in the world. This should be an eye opener. I dont know who is on the list, but I am sure Fish Chris and SuperMat got an invite and if I would have got involved earlier I would have pleaded my case for Randall. I was not invited :'( and rightfully so, there are some increadble sticks that will be there. I sure would love to see KVD or any of those guys show up and donate. Ha Ha. Now Ike on the other hand is a diferent storry. He has come out to Casitas and thrown big swimbaits and killed them. I bet he got an invite to. I am sure some of you arent that impressed and thats ok its your opinion. This T just suits my kind of fishing so for me its the best one ever!! Any chance this wont be won on a swimbait

Brokejew the reason I guessed high is because I dont normaly see bass that small. I mean it looks just like a bass....only smaller!! I was definatley out of my element in guessing the weight of that fingerling. I just assumed that all bass caught are a least 4.75. I mean why even bother catching them if they arent. CERTAINLY nobody would ever take an embarrasing picture of it. Now you understand my reasoning? 8-)

I am good. Fires all around my area but I am safe. My eyes burn and my throat is soar but I got a lot of work done becuase I was off work for 4 days. The sky is ugly!

4.75

No way Biz, I got you all beat! When you have to have a seperate builiding just for your fishing gear becasue the spare bedroom that used to be your designated fishing room is now too small. When all you do all year long is make more baits but hardley ever fish them. And my favorite.. when you own probably 10,000 diferent baits but you only fish 15 of those with any regularity!

I wouldnt get a machined mold until after you have tested the bait and there is a demand. Carve your master, and then get a kit from Smooth-on to make a silicon mold. If you have questions about how to make a mold ask their tech's If the bait works and you believe it will be a hit then invest in some aluminum molds. There is a real easy way to not get sued over patents....DONT STEAL ANYBODY ELSES DESIGN!!!!!!!! that way you wont need to worry about it. Come up with your own original idea and you will be fine. Also you get much more satisfaction out of designing your own succesful creation then copying sombody elses hard work. Carve your own. I am sure it will be similar to other things but it will still be yours. You have a better chance of succeding with your own designs then with copied baits. The only way to make money selling copies is to to sell them soo cheap your margin is very small soo you will need to sell alot just to make a little. Plus you will be competing with the thousands of other little guys doing the samething and making the same baits.

David I corrected myself. It is not the easiest thing. However is was very easy for me. I just bought some parts and started wrapping. It was easy. Now I did get some basic tips and a quick rundown from the guys at the store where I bought everything. There are a bunch of little trcks that make things easyer. Most of these thing you only need to be shown once. Looking for the spline takes about a minute. Guide placement is simple and most of the other steps are to. I am not trying to insult you or your work. I just looked at your threads and your rods are beauitiful. Very impresive. The reason I said they are so easy is sombody asked how hard they are to do and IMO it is not dificult. Time consuming yes. Now Of cource I am only talking about basic wrapping. The diamond wraps and weaves are not basic. Matching componets to specific action or a specif customer need requires a lot of knowledge. Did you look at the pics I posted? those diamond wraps and some of the guides were put on using phone books. Once I bought a rod wrapper the guids became super fast and effortless. The diamond wraps were still done by phone book. I have no desire to build any more. If I was going to do that I would just have you do it for me. I like your work. After reading my post again I might have came off a little arogant. I apologize, thats not what I was going for. I was just trying to encourage the beginners to give it a try. It doesnt cost to much to get started and it can be a lot of fun.

Ok here are some pics. The pics suck but you get the idea. The date is wrong on them also, I was too lazy to reset my camera. I am showing these not to brag or discredit anybody, but to show you that it can be done with minimal equipment and experiance. However It can be time consuming and because of the cost of components, I never realy saved much money. if those didnt work here is the links http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2713.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2720.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2721.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2724.jpg these all took a while but to do simple wrap its prety easy. Maybe I shouldnt have said its the easiest thing because its not but.... anybody who wants to try it, should. Start by taking an old rod and rewrap it. If you screw up no big deal

Well let me explain why it is easy. You can do it without any special tools. My first rods I used a drill and a couple blocks of wood as a drying setup. I used two phonebooks, as my rod wrapper. It is easyer with a wrapping machine( I had one of those too) but to make a few rods you dont need it. My rods came out perfect the first time, there was nothing dificult. I will psot pictures later. All my wrapped rods are at least 7 years old but you will get the picture. I think I put maybe 8hrs at most into each one but I got faster as I went. When I say easy I mean, ANYBODY can do a basic wrap. There is nothing dificult about epoxing the real seat and grips , and wrapping some guides on. For me it is just not worth it to do anymore. I might make a repair but even then most quality components cost almost as much as a finished rod so I didnt save any money. I do have some baddass looking rods but I dont have the time or desire to do anymore. If I had to have custom I would probably pay for it know.

Building rods is about the easyest thing you can do. You dont need any fancy tools. Youl need a drying motor and a couple phone books along with your rod components. I have made a bunch of rods a long time ago. I would just watch tv with my thread going through one phone book and the other one on top of it for added pressure and just turn the rod by hand. I made some awsome complex diamond wraps this way. The hardest part was was getting a good clean clearcoat but even that wasnt that hard. There are a lot of little tips that I am sure the guys here can help you with like Always check the spline.