Not that anybody cares, but...

I finally got to test my first custom-painted lure: a lucky craft Wander 80.  My buddies made fun of me for "destroying" a $15 bait with my first shot at painting.  I used a pearl silver/pearl white combo for the body and purple color along the back, replaced the factory hooks with red VMC trebles and replaced the factory eyes with red eyes.  My sanding job was a little rough, but oh well.

so I epoxy'ed the dude and took it to Wisconsin on my annual smallmouth hunt.  We catch a lot of fish on Wanders, but this year we had no luck on them at all for the first day (water temp was mid-70's, kinda killed the jerkbait bite).  by the middle of day 2, I decided I would try my first custom painted lure.  No kidding, on the first cast, WHAMMO.  Something large and toothy hit it and bit clean through 15# braided line.  All I was was what looked like a tree swimming away from where I had cast my first creation.

No moral to the story - I only wanted to echo all the posts I've read on this forum that say "there's nothing quite as satisfying as catching that first fish on your own creation."

Too bad I didn't take a picture of the bait before surrendering it back to the bait monkey.  May my little guy rest in peace. :'(

Thanks for reading.

Welcome to muskey country. To bad you lost the lure. But it was a good story.