Baitmaker

Bait making has led into some unusual requests for other projects. Lately I've been asked to do this Rice Krispie fish base for a cake topper, and a walking stick that I painted in a copperhead pattern. Who knows what I will get into next.

Nice job! They turned out great.

Those are fantastic! You must have skipped ahead on the training manual and started out in pro level. Excellent work!

Much appreciated, and welcome to the site!

Awesome! Any pictures?

Thanks a lot! And yes, I use them. After making so many baits, it doesn't hurt as bad when I lose one here and there. Plus, it gives me a good excuse to make another one.

Thanks Crypt! How have yours been doing for you?

Decided to do a larger bait in that foiled perch pattern. This is a 6 inch version, again done in cedar. It will have fins when finished, but I paint in stages between coats of epoxy. That way, any mistakes can be wiped off with alcohol like a dry erase board, and you can start over without painting the entire bait again. For this one, I carved gill plates and used a mesh material under the foil for scaling. It's highlighted in transparent green, which turns a cool antifreeze/Mountain Dew color over the gold leaf. Pics before and after paint.

Very cool and unique. I like them!

Currently working on some foiled squarebill baits. This is a foiled perch and a new craw I just finished.

Very kind of you Crypt. Glad you like them. Looks aside, they really shine best on the water. I will look forward to seeing your catches.

Boy, can I relate Munkin. If you guys ever saw my work areas, you would never know how anything comes out alive. Whatever the opposite of OCD is, I have it.

Thanks everyone for the interest and nice comments on my baits. Here are some new ones I recently finished for a member.

A lite coat or 2 shouldn't effect it enough to make a huge difference. Unless you are adding it to an already suspending bait, it won't matter much on most wood floaters.

Getting a perfectly smooth edge can be achieved by using multiple coats of epoxy. Do not apply any paint until you have built the epoxy up enough to hide it. Also, you may want to try using leafing foil as it is extremely thin.

A few more pics of the squarebills in action. Sent to me by a customer. Pink has been hot.

Here is a 14 inch cedar musky bait that was a nice change from all the small bass cranks I have been building. The eyes are mirrored opal stones I pulled off of a costume jewelry bracelet. They made pretty cool walleye eyes.

Thank You and that's hilarious!!! You have got my mind running now. I'm picturing a van with an airbrushed painting of Eddie from Iron Maiden fishing in a stream with waders on.

A few pics from a customer of my squarebills in action today.

A dirty craw pattern I just finished. 1.5 cedar squarebill

Beautiful work!

Agree with the others. That is a very cool pattern. Nice work!