BIG M

I keep telling myself to take a class on taking pictures. You will love that bait out in the sun.

If I could do that, you would never get a bait

The body is pearl grey with iridescent blue, payn's grey scales with hookers green back and red orange throat. This was a big mistake on a bait last year that filled the boat up when my little honey hole was the color of chocolate milk. I think it's going to be a good color for your muddy lake.

Here are three big round baits I finished last night. Gman you should pay close attention to the dark one. That's what happens when you give me the freedom to paint what I feel ;D The pic doesn't show the color very well.

thanks Kb

on the deep divers I alway try to paint a shad looking pattern. Pearl white body with silver or blue on the shoulders, dark scales and black or purple back. Throw a little Chartruse on the tail and red on throat. You can't go wrong with that pattern, catches fishermen too

I think I'm going to try a dirty looking light green over the sliver with a dark stripe down the back. May shoot some transparent yellow of the sliver to soften it up some. The transparent green was just to light on top of silver, that would look better over a light yellow. Throw those ideas out there, I can always use extra help with color combos.

Kb, that is a fine looking batch of baits, I really like the way you have them displayed.

10 feet is deep but just not as deep as 15-20 feet. I'm not happy with the green over silver, it didn't trun out like the pic in my head. But I'm on to something with that color combo, I just need a little more practice with it. Which I will get this weekend as I've got a bunch of baits to bait, Mike you wouldn't know anything about that would you

It was a long enough break to get some baits ready for paint. Now I'm ready for some serious painting sessions. Those two baits I've had a while but didn't have time to paint them. I made those just for me, I'm going to learn how to fish deep diving baits this year.

Ok it's been awhile since I posted pics these 2 baits are 2.5 inch long weigh 3/8oz and will run 8-10 feet deep.

Daniel is that bait made out of wood or plastic?

as long as the weight and hangers are centered then tuning should not be a problem. You also need to make sure the lip is lined up perfectly also.

If the hardware is put in the bait properly the only way to get it back out is to destroy the bait. I tested 1 of baits and the bait broke in half with the hardware still in place. Thru wire is still stronger but there is not enough difference to offset the extra 1-2 hrs of build time.

thru wire is a pain in the butt and the strongest way to build a crankbait. Take you blank and cut in half, now bend your wire to fourm the tail hanger, belly hanger and line tie. place inside of bait halfs and glue back together. That's it in a nutt shell, but there are more steps than that. You have to accout for your balast weight and lip. I don't use this method, it adds a load of time to the build. I've never had a hanger or line tie pull out of any baits that I've made (so far). Here is an example

Basscatcher, if you look real close I'm sure you will figure it out. I found this method much easier than dotting the eyes with a nail, I never could get the eyes right with that method.

Basscatche, I do make the eyes but that is a little secret of mine (like my rattles) I won't tell you how I do it. Sorry about that, but I will answer just about every other question.

Robby, I sell a few baits here and there. I just enjoy making the baits, the money I get goes right back into supplies and equipment. I could sell more and take short cuts to speed up the process, but then the baits I make would not be top of the line.

This is the last batch of cranks from for a little while.

I fish spinning gear 99.5% of the time I'm on the water, I throw balsa wood cranks about the same % of time. IMHO Stren super braid 14/4 is by far the best line to fish shallow running cranks with spinning gear.

All these new baits is what gets me in trouble, after a while I can't remember what I've done. I catch a few bass on those little baits. I fish them on med light action spinning gear and power pro 10/2, you can chunck those baits a long way. Thanks for the nice words about the baits. Hi my name is Marty and I'm a crankaholic.

Built these for a trout fisherman, 1/16oz to 1/8oz in weight.

the first cedar deep diver from Kb's cedar

a little mix of flat sides, shallow runners, fat wobblers and deep diver.

A few more flat sides finished and 1 fat wobbler