Baitmaker

Thanks a lot Keith! Yes, I do spend quite a while on each one of them. The process of shaping and sanding a wood bait is a tedious process, but I enjoy it. Regarding my spoons, I have caught 13 different species so far on them. Mainly I use them for bass, walleye and saugeye, but they catch about everything else also. Fish hit them on the fall much like a blade bait. I cast them and let them hit bottom, then pump the rod tip and let them flutter down on the retrieve. They really shine in the fall when fished vertically through and over schools of bait fish. I will never understand why they aren't used by more fishermen. A lot of guys will tip them with live bait, but I generally fish them plain. Tipping them can slow their decent and take away from the darting action of a fleeing or wounded bait fish. If you've ever experienced a good spoon bite, you won't soon forget it. They can turn a bad day into a great one some times. There is a learning curve to master the right way to tap bottom without hanging them up all the time. The expense of losing $5 Hopkins spoons is what started my interest in making my own. Now I never go fishing without having some on my boat. Thanks again for the interest and kind words. John

These new flat sided cedar shad baits have a tight shimmy swimming action. (Say that 10 times) One has a circuit board lip, and the other is Lexan. This color scheme makes me hungry for a Granny Smith apple.

A couple SM bass caught by a customer on my Tennessee Shad squarebill cranks today. He said that color was working very well for him. Seeing the fish that people catch on my baits is as much fun to me as catching them myself...almost.

TY again guys. It is against the rules of this site to sell them, so I really can't talk price on the open forum.

Outside of a few family and friends, I have only sold a small handful of my baits. Planning on listing some on E-Bay soon. Just not sure what to ask for them. All I know is that I spend a lot of time making them.

Thanks! It helps knowing people enjoy what I love to do. It gives me great pleasure to catch fish on my own hand made creations, and it's always nice to hear positive comments. They really fuel my passion. I also welcome any negative comments or questions in general. My quest is aimed at building the best baits on the planet, and there will be no stone left un-turned along the way. Good, bad, and indifferent, I am interested in hearing and learning everything I can.

Thanks a lot Evan. Since I began doing this, it's been a dream of mine to start my own handcrafted lure business. They take quite some time to make, so not sure I could earn a living doing it. Still though, making money doing what you love would be a great job. Thanks again for the interest in my creations. Other than fishing, all I want to do is make more of them.

Thanks a lot!. This latest gill bait is one of a dozen of them I'm working on. Hard to have too many of them I say.

Tennessee shad.

It's hard to go wrong with fire tiger. I have made a lot of variations of them over the years with different stripes and colors on many body styles. Here is a new 2" one for bass.

Great question dwtaylor. There are lots of different opinions and discussion regarding sealing wood baits out there. You can soak a blank in a liquid wood sealer such as Minwax etc., Or dip them in acetone or virgin lacquer thinner mixed with plastic particulate. (some use cut up plastic cups) The method I started with and have gone back to after much trial and error is E-Tex epoxy thinned a bit with denatured alcohol. It's a pain in the butt and takes longer but I have found no better sealer/wood hardener as a pre-paint base coat than thinned epoxy. It's easy to drill and patch for placing weights after water testing.

Hate to sound biased, but there simply is no comparison to me between a wood blank vs. a plastic hollow body bait. The slight inclusions of the grain along with the other imperfections not only give a lure character, but also make for a unique action that can trigger strikes. When a bait bounces off a log and doesn't recover instantly, there is something in that second that flips a fish's trigger.

Another 2" rattle bait.

TY! Here is a belly shot

Thank you all for the kind words. I really appreciate it. And yes Buckeye Ron, they work very well. As long as the weighting and hook and line ties are perfectly centered they have no choice but to run true. My lip slots are also cut square to the blank while in block form, so there is no guess work involved. I tune them if needed but most don't require much if any. Here is a new pair of 2" squarebill rattle gills I just finished. This pattern was very good to me last year.

Very nice job! Looks awesome.

Thanks a lot skeet. I use EnviroTex Lite epoxy for my clear coats and Iwata Eclipse airbrushes with Createx, Auto Air, and Wicked water based paint.

X 2. There are some high dollar auto paints and techniques that may be close, but no paint that I've ever seen will match actual chrome. Foil is the next best thing. It requires at least two coats of epoxy for a perfect finish, but not necessary. One or more coats over the foiled bait let to dry prior to painting, and another to seal the paint. Doing it that way hides any edge lines and leaves a nice smooth transition.

A few new ones. These are 2 1/2" cedar rattlers.

Very nice work! They look great.

Ha! I've thought the same thing myself. They swim backwards using their tail. It still looks odd on a bait that's designed with a wider head than tail. I just painted a (backwards) craw on one of my homemade baits and actually considered flipping it around.

Thanks Darren Some of them are musky baits, and the ones I make are actually small compared to a lot of them. And no, I don't have gopher hands.