BIG M

Thanks guys I was not sure about the color patterns but the clear coat really made them pop.

Those are 100% hand made by me. Not a big bunch of money in the materials but tools are a pretty good investment. I have about 4-5 hrs in each one of the baits posted.

I was at it again this weekend and here are few pics.

When KVD is done he will be the best tourny angler of all time, hands down no one will be close. With that said he will not win every tourny but he will have more classic wins and AOY awards, that's what counts in the end. All the other pro anglers are very good fisherman but KVD just has that something extra special that sets him apart from the others.

The Tiger Woods of bass fishing, no body can beat him when he is on his A game.

You can use split shot, egg sinkers, or bullet sinkers. Depends on how wide the stock is and if you are doing a thru wire harness. 1/8oz bullet weights fit nice in a 1/4 hole. To make the hook hanger in the weight just make a U shape and run the tag ends up thru the weight and bend over the sides.

Here is a small batch of baits.

That's a really, really nice blue gill. Put more pale yellow along the belly and it's a really nice shell cracker. Two patterns in one.

Any water proof epoxy will work just fine. I like flex coat's rod builders epoxy because it has a decent pot life. Drying time is about 2hrs though, so there is a little trade off.

I like the hard baits and I must say you paint some nice patterns on those hard baits.

Those all came out very nice. Good job

Aerosol will not take you were you want to go. Save you cash and get a compressor. I got a 4 gal pancake compressor on sale at harbor freight for 50.00 bucks and it works fine. For paint, I only use water based paints and taxidermy paints are my favs. I still use some transparent colors from Createx. There are no rules for painting baits. Prime the bait and let you artistic skills flow. When you have more specific questions, come back here and you will get answers. Good luck and have fun.

It's not impossible to make a balsa jerk bait suspend but there is a lot of work to get it done. Jerk baits do not have a lot of room to add ballast weight. What you need to do is weight the bait as heavy as possible and then use suspend dots to finish the job. It would be eaiser to use a different type of wood like cedar or pine.

Great looking baits and the Mama Cat clone looks very nice.

They just keeping going and going. This turned out to be one heck of weekend.

Sorry guys I posted these in the wrong forum. Up too late working on baits, I guess. Mods, please move this thread to the tackle making section.

Your swim baits are looking great. It's not an easy bait build and you are taking it to the next level.

Thanks guys, I enjoy my job

Good looking bait Thad. The Charlie rocks

Still have a few more to show from the weekend.

Here are a few more from this weekend.

Wait till you get the last two baits wet, you are going to have some fun with those two. All the baits look great, you painting gets better with each batch.

It regular kitchen foil and I put a coat of epoxy on the baits before I paint.

Been working hard and here are a few that I've finished.

Leave it be and fish the crap out of it. Any more detail on that bait and it will start to like something Barry painted ;D