BIG M

take the bait with the circut board bill and put a split shot on the belly hook and test it. If still not running true add two split shot. Should no take more than a couple of small weights to get that bait running right.

All those baits look great Ben, really like the littel wake bait. Personally I don't like suspending cranks and what a pain in the butt it is to build one. It's much easier to add suspend dots to finished crank.

Here is a small batch of shallow runners and a lone top water. Pretty basic shad patterns on the cranks.

First pic is a batch of flat sides with a small coffin bill, very nice wobble on this style. 2nd pic are some small semi round baits with a single knocker rattle.

Great looking paint Marc, glad to see you still have that special touch.

I have not seen any baits posted here that were cut with duplicator. I know most of the builders if not all that post regularly here and all of them are hand carving baits.

Here is a small batch of square bills I just finished.

Look at the Ark state parks web site, might be some smaller sized lakes in that area for good bank fishing. Also city parks may have ponds as well. I live about 3 hrs south of that area so I'm not much help.

3 day license is 10.50 (I think). The Buffalo is a real easy wading stream with lots of access. Ul gear is best as most fish will be 10-14 inches. teeny brush hogs, small craw cranks, small tubes, and spinner baits will work. Right now the water is pretty low so you won't have to worry about a lot of floaters on the upper end.

Good looking bait Marc. Craw patterns where made for splatter on the back. On the next bait try black splatter on the back and down the sides instead of the hard lines.

Crank baits made by me

Nice work Bob.

Top water is a killer looking pattern but I'm just not a fan of the red splatter.

Same method that I use, a little messy but effective. I find it's hard to control the splatter, fine line between too much paint and not enough.

Same factory made baits but he's looking for a certain action from each style of bait. If you buy 100 2.5 SK cranks and run them in a swimming pool there will differences in action between a number of those baits. He is looking for those subtle differences in action. Out of a 100 he may find 5 that are more bouyant and have that unique jumpy action the fish just love. Rick Clunn use to talk about having A, B, and C cranks for fishing tournys. He would swim all his baits in a pool to figure out which baits had the best action. KVD is smart and willing to put the extra time in to find the baits that suit his style of fishing.

I'm sure that KVD weeds thru 1000's of cranks in the off season to find his winning baits. He's not running down to Wal-mart and fishing off shelf baits. Now every pro has a stash of secret baits for those special situations.

Glad to see you are back to painting, sorry to hear you were in poor health. I really like the first bait, flo yellow over black is cool. I'm not a fan of the second pattern. I would rather see the red splattered over the back but not heavy. How are you doing the splatter?

Jig, I did not take a pic of the scrap pile and it took me 4 tries to get the weight correct. Those baits are 2.25 long from 1/2 stock, weight is on the heavy side of 3/8oz. My early prop baits were bigger and heavier but the action kind of just sucked. These are little more jumpy in the water and the fish seem to like it. Thanks guys for the kind words.

Double prop baits and a couple of mag divers.

Both patterns look good and will catch fish.

Those are sweet

Very nice baits and good to see you back in action.

Try a local auto parts store and see if there is clear coat in a spray can.

I finished a few baits. A mix of flat sides, Charlie-O clones, Mag Charlie clones, and a top water.

jann's, barlow's, and lureparts online.