ernel

Sweet. Like the bottom one and the 2nd one most of all. Looks like they would work well in the early spring ripping some grass . Eric

Definatly like the 3rd one down. That is a killer color on 3 of the lakes I fish. It is a very similar color to the one we were discussung in the p.m. board. Eric

Yeah, I have to agree with everyone else. That is definetley a sweet paint scheme. I could never do it free hand. I would have crooked lines all over the side of the lure. Eric

Nice color transition. Eric

Thanks. Got the idea from an old Norman that was black with red glitter on the back. It is a little harder to top coat than I would like. It takes three coats instead of two. Eric

Thanks for all the kind words everybody. Marty, the green is a little bit lighter than it looks in the pic. The camera always seems to make the lures look darker. It is a light OD green. I normally use a bone underlay on the baby bass, but I may have to try the gold at your recommendation. Eric

Thanks Marty. Had to deal with a small case of burn out. But getting back into the swing of things at a much slower rate. Going for the hobby once again. Eric.

Looks alot darker in the picture than it actually is. Flash also overpowered the glitter effect along the back and shoulders. Eric

Slight variation to the tried and true pattern. Eric

New Pot belly body style for fishing in the dark. Eric

Sweet paint scheme. Like the eyes. That thing will either catch em or knock em out if it hits one in the head. I would call it a "night stick" Must be nice to live in a place where you have to have personal protection from the bass. Most fish around here would run from a lure that size. Eric

Here's the lure pic:

Very nice work to say the least. As a lure builder, I like to see other peoples work on the web site, but Marty was the first that I made a swap with. He and I swapped a shallow running lures last week and I finally had a chance to fish them over the last few days. I spent roughly two hours each with them in the test pond below the house. The test pond is roughly 3 acres in size and varies from 22' on the deep end to 18" on the shallow end. It has a few points that break off a lip into deeper water at a little over 45 degree angle. At this time all of the shallow lips are covered with bedding crappie and a few early bream. The bass are holding near these ledges and will go after the crappie that get spooked from there beds. However with so much "live" forage, the artificial bite is very tough. All of the upper end of the pond is loaded with actively spawning bass. Now that the stage is set I can better explain the overall results. The first lure I tested was the much awaited gill pattern. First off this thing looked great. I spent probably an hour the first day I got just looking at it from different angles and admiring the attention to detail that Marty had put into this lure. Very well made and very cosmetically pleasing to look at. Went to the pond and began throwing along the lower corner where some of the deeper water is located, but also one of the only pieces of timber in the whole pond as well. The top of the limbs are in almost 8 foot of water with the bank sloping quickly in both directions. I was unable to hit the limbs with the lure, but the back side of the base of the limb was easily hit in 6' of water. Came around the solid base very well without getting caught up and the lure would roll hard upon impact. Unfortunately there were no fish holding on the upper part of the limb. Tried to bring the lure in front of a few of the lips where the crappie are holding and after 12 - 15 cast caught the first bass in roughly 4 foot of water. Ticked the top of the grass and when the lure ripped free a small 15 incher nailed it. Unfortunately this would be the only strike on the lure from the bass on the lower end of the pond. Did however catch two crappie that were some fine slabs. Now for where this lure shines. Went to the "nursery" as I like to call the spawning flat on the upper end. Water depth is from <18" to 4 foot. There are probably 20- 30 active beds I am only casting to 10. The lures wide wobble and ability to float back and wiggle are a huge plus here. All I had to do was get near a bed and repeatedly twitch the rod tip and it was almost an automatic bass on every cast. These was the result I was looking for in this lure. I tried to use it as a slow wake bait across the a few of the beds and drew one strike from a bass that had been chasing other fish off his spot earlier. He came unbuttoned due to operator error. Caught 11 bass (1 I caught twice) in 15 cast before leaving them alone and nature work its course. Is the test pond the local lake? No but it gets hammered by people fishing it everyday. There are at least 5 to 10 people wetting a line everyday. The bass have been educated to artificial lures. The second lure Marty sprung on me by surprise. He wanted to show me some of his smaller lures. (Roughly 2 1/4" and 1/4 oz) I impressed by the way this smaller lure cast. It cast like a rocket. I was throwing it on the baitcaster (6'6" MH 12lb test) and it was throwing as well as any 3/8 oz lure I have. I see a lot of use coming from this lure in a TX on this Sat. It has a tighter wiggle than the "Gill" as the line tie is on the lip, and it also gets slightly deeper. I was able to hit the top of the tree limbs in the 8 foot range. (Rod tip down and a long cast.) Great action upon impact. Some of the smaller bass were in the weeds and were the primary targets I was hitting with this lure. I was able to hook up with 4 today that were between 10 & 14 inches. The real surprise was the 1 that broke 2 lbs. ( Never even knew it was there) It is not common to have an older fish on the lower end of the pond while the spawn is going on. It must have been moving up late or was hitting the outside weed edge to spawn in 4 foot of water as the tail was barely marked yet. I know this was a long post. I wanted to take the time let it be known that the lures that are posted on this section of the board are not just for show. They do catch fish. There is a lot of time placed into each lure, with attention to detail and action that is hard to beat on any store bought lure. Marty's lures have definitely got a spot in the my tackle box. ;D Thanks again Marty. Eric

Oh but h*ll yes. Definatly can not wait to throw that gill. 8-) The girls are moving up to meet with the bucks down in the test pond right now. Been watching the bucks run the gills from the shallows for the last 3 hours this evening. Can't wait untill they feel the gill bite back. Eric

Thanks Marty. I have seen your work and know whatever you send will do justice. The bottom one is a copy of Bandit's color scheme called "Mad Cow" I don't know if it will catch fish, but it sure did look cool. I called mine "Bezerk Bovine" I have had one customer claim to hit 24' on the cast with 6lb fluorocarbon with that design. I have never hit more than 18". (I don't throw anything less than 10lb mono) Most people get 16-18 feet. Eric

Hey Marty, can you guess which one is yours.

Top notch as always. The pearl with a gray back looks promising. Magic color combo = BREAM!!!!! ;D

I use wood putty to fill in any holes prior to sealing. It will soak up the 2 ton upon sealing and will be rock hard. I may have to try the spackeling. Eric

Cj, I know Whittler from TU. He does great work. When I made my post, I am referring to cranks that are smaller than the Rebel Wee-R. I am refferring to ones that like the pan fish cranks. If you have a suspending lure that is on the razors edge, that is what I am referring to, or one that is temperature specific. I use D2T on all my lures. I am not disputing your post, just giving another option. Eric

I think the way of thinking for not using Devcon on repaints came from using it on very small cranks and suspending baits. If it was used on a perfectly matched suspending lure, it would then sink. If you used a heavy top coat on a real small lure that had a small ballast, it could very well effect the action. With most bass cranks, this is not a problem. (IMHO) You can always thin the Devcon prior to application if you feel the added weight will hinder the action. Eric

Airbrush post: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1202267582 Painting lures post: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1204587847 For some it isn't hard at all. Others curse the day they started. Just like anything else, it gets easier the more you practice. Eric

You have asked a very broad question. There are many different answers depending on the type of lure you are working with and the type of scheme you wish to paint. Let's just use plastic cranks that you are going to paint a solid shad and not a ghost color: Strip old top coat Tape lip Paint lure body white Paint lure belly up through shoulders pearl white or pearl silver Use minnow net or tule for scaling and spray light coat of dark grey on shoulders and part of back Spray remaining back black. (Thin strip) Red throat Kill dot Eyes Sign Clear coat Top coat You just got a 6 months of trial and error in a few lines. Eric

Nice job! Both look nice, but I am partial to the root beer. Eric

If you are cleaning the brush with water and windex between colors, I do not know what would allow paint to dry on the interior part of the needle. Has your needle gotten bent at all? I make sure that I clean well between colors and spray a cup of windex and water. This normally is all I need to do to ensure the internal portion is clean while spraying. After all spraying is complete I tear the brush down and soak in water and Dawn dish detergent for 2 hours. Eric

Extender not reducer. Eric