The squarebills were hot again yesterday. Orange/chartreuse was the ticket. These are pics of a friend with some of the bass he caught including a 23" toad.  

 First of all you paint some gorgeous lures. You must have a fortune into stencils, or do you have a vacume box?  I personally free hand all my lures (one off's). I have a vacume box and occasionally make a clip on stencil but really enjoy the challenge of free handling them. Keep the pictures commuting. I enjoy seeing what others are doing.

4 hours ago, INEEDANEWSCREENNAME030718 said:

 First of all you paint some gorgeous lures. You must have a fortune into stencils, or do you have a vacume box?  I personally free hand all my lures (one off's). I have a vacume box and occasionally make a clip on stencil but really enjoy the challenge of free handling them. Keep the pictures commuting. I enjoy seeing what others are doing.

Thank you for the kind words. I free hand and cut my stencils for each bait out of heavy paper or thin plastic. No vacuum box but have considered making one. Rarely do I ever use the same stencil twice. Like you, I enjoy making one off baits that are unique to one another. 

Hey Baitmaker if this has been mentioned before I was unaware....but do you have a website where those cranks can be purchased?  I'd love to own a couple of those beauties!

19 minutes ago, New River Addiction said:

Hey Baitmaker if this has been mentioned before I was unaware....but do you have a website where those cranks can be purchased?  I'd love to own a couple of those beauties!

Thanks, but as of now I don't have a retail site for my baits. Sent you a PM

 

I dont know if this has been asked but how much does it cost to make one and how long does it take?

On 3/7/2018 at 9:47 PM, ratherbfishin1 said:

I dont know if this has been asked but how much does it cost to make one and how long does it take?

Tough question. I buy the materials and hardware in bulk, and each bait can use more or less of them. For example, I buy my epoxy in gallon jugs, which is enough to make a whole lot of baits. Wood, hooks, split rings, lead shot, eye screws and wire are the same way. I've never really averaged out material cost per bait, but it's quite minimal. Time spent building and painting them is another matter. Each one takes days to complete. Much of that is drying time for multiple coats of epoxy. Actual hands on time varies quite a bit from bait to bait. Cutting, carving and sanding a wood blank can take an hour or 5 hours. It all depends on size and how detailed you want to make them. I can shape and smooth a wood blank in little time. Carving gill plates or scales can get quite time consuming. 

Here are some of the baits I've recently painted and/or made. 

 

A 6" and 2 3/4" foiled perch. Both made from western red cedar. 

 

 

 

Some new musky baits. Foiled perch and a bluegill pattern. 

 

Today I was able to test and tune a bunch of my new creations. Especially some new walleye baits. These cedar shad style baits are something I've been working on for a while now. Getting them to suspend and yet perform like a floating bait has been difficult, but I was very happy with the results of them. They have that fast chatter action that walleye key on, and hang perfectly motionless on the pause. I'm getting anxious to see how the eyes feel about them on my local haunts. 

 

On 12/22/2017 at 12:55 AM, Baitmaker said:

I’m drooling!

beautiful as always..........they look good enough to eat.

It's been a little while since my last post but I'm still plugging away as usual. Here are a couple 3" cedar walleye baits that I recently finished. Happy Fishing everyone!!!

  

Here are a couple of musky baits I've been working on. These are 8" thru wire builds made from white cedar. 

 

That's awesome. How many hours did it take you to upload those pictures? ?

Another 8" musky bait made from white cedar, and a quick video of how it looks in the water. These have a nice action and get down pretty deep. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSRHETNNRGU&feature=youtu.be

 

Hope everyone is doing well. It's been a bit since I've posted anything new, but I'm still busy building and would love to see what others have been making as well. Lately I've been focused on larger baits in the 7-10" range and still consider them bass baits. They also work well for muskie, but have seen too many mid range bass eat them to know that they aren't too large for big lazy ones. These are once again made from cedar, and range from 6-10". 

 

Jointed tiger bait. 

A couple new 3 1/2" cedar baits.

 

Absolutely stunning. I bet you're real popular to your fishing friends around this time of the year. Talk about a homemade present!! 

That is some pretty sexy stuff. I’m so glad your not my next store neighbor. 

?Thanks guys! My fishing friends and family always know what I'm getting them for Christmas. Ha!

Here is a new jumbo perch bait that I recently finished. 

Work of art....very nice work.

5 hours ago, Oregon Native said:

Work of art....very nice work.

Thanks a lot! Here is a quick video of this perch bait in the water at trolling speed. It has a nice random hunting action at higher speeds.