Show Off Your Work!

[Mbirdsley]

i’m kinda excited about these.  First my jig making business has been outstanding this spring.  I originally wasn’t going to make jigs to sell this spring due to my wife being pregnant with twins.  but, due to very mild winter every ones been walleye fishing.  i started getting texts mid february with people looking for jigs. 

 

anyhow the point of this post.  here is pro-tech matte black and matte water melon. Along with the do-it gamakatsu ball head mold. i now can pretty much replicate the jig heads that great lakes finnesse are selling.  These matte powder colors are going to do a number on the smallies up here in our ultra clear water. 

 

in this picture are matte coated poison tail jigs.  ready for weed guard and skirts. 

 

here some of the walleye jigs 

 

in the 4th photo is blue flash.  it’s a very cool color.  every one should try that color.  my photo does not do it justice. 

 

5th photo is what i call Saginaw Special. 

[Bdnoble84]

15 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

i’m kinda excited about these.  First my jig making business has been outstanding this spring.  I originally wasn’t going to make jigs to sell this spring due to my wife being pregnant with twins.  but, due to very mild winter every ones been walleye fishing.  i started getting texts mid february with people looking for jigs. 

 

anyhow the point of this post.  here is pro-tech matte black and matte water melon. Along with the do-it gamakatsu ball head mold. i now can pretty much replicate the jig heads that great lakes finnesse are selling.  These matte powder colors are going to do a number on the smallies up here in our ultra clear water. 

 

in this picture are matte coated poison tail jigs.  ready for weed guard and skirts. 

 

here some of the walleye jigs 

 

in the 4th photo is blue flash.  it’s a very cool color.  every one should try that color.  my photo does not do it justice. 

 

5th photo is what i call Saginaw Special. 

Digging the paint on those walleye heads. What did you use? 

[Mbirdsley]

19 minutes ago, Bdnoble84 said:

Digging the paint on those walleye heads. What did you use? 

it’s all pro tech paint except the black which is stamina. 

 

top one is blue ice which is disco blue and disco silver 

2nd flash purple chartreuse 

3rd flash orange

4th flash blue 

5th saginaw special.  black and disco blue 

6th sherbert., flo green, and pink 

7th dirty money. black and disco green 

[Munkin]

Latest Sunfish spinnerbait.

 

Allen

[12poundbass]

That’s a nice looking spinnerbait 

[ButchA]

Incredible posts on here... Incredible, jaw dropping, photos of lures...  Wow!!!

 

Confession:  I started out in the 70's with Jann's Netcraft.  Fast forward all these decades, and I'm still buying supplies from them!  I take their stock, OEM, products, but then put my own little twist on it, in order to call it my own, and not just a "generic assembly".

 

 

[detroit1]

I think TR46 could catch a bass on that.......

[Munkin]

Some Titanium framed baits I made for someone recently.

 

Allen

[12poundbass]

Nice work!

[Baitmaker]

Here are a couple of my latest cedar swimbaits. These ones are 6 and 7 inches long. I've been painting all of them in different color schemes so no 2 are the same. 

[GreenPig]

29 minutes ago, Baitmaker said:

Here are a couple of my latest cedar swimbaits. These ones are 6 and 7 inches long. I've been painting all of them in different color schemes so no 2 are the same. 

Very nice.

[Baitmaker]

Here is another 7" crankbait that I recently finished. Shown before and after epoxy top coats. 

 

 

[ButchA]

I made this Firetiger colored spinnerbait yesterday.  The two different size willow leaf spinners work pretty good too.

 

[LrgmouthShad]

I forgot that I still had some Bango Blade blank frames and living rubber lying around. Made three of these as a larger bait to fish higher in the water column. The blades and components are from

my personal stash. 
 

I use old braid for thread and I dont Care to make it super pretty.

[Bdnoble84]

Been back at making glides. The 130 is oak is a sinker but has a great roll and s action when fished fast, the 168 is poplar with a very heavy float and a nice little s-action barely on top. Still learning but im taking notes. The 168 was painted with krylon spray bombs. Silver crome, a metallic red and silver, black gold and purple glitter paints.

[Munkin]

Experimenting with painting crackle pattern on this one.

 

Allen

[Jeff Zurawski]

Awhile back on this thread I posted about little finesse spinnerbaits I made starting with what LureParts calls its "Finesse C-Spin" frame.  They've been working very well on a small River I fish often when water is clear to slightly stained.  Smallmouth from 4" to 18" and all sizes in-between have been crushing them burned through fast, shallow water in the evenings 6:30 until dark. 

 

The 1/4 oz size has a 7/8" long body arm and 1 9/16" blade arm.  Size 3.5 blade behind a size 3 is excellent combo for high speed retrieves in the riffles.  Skirts are made from fine cut silicon I got at LivingRubber.  These baits are a kinda fragile.  The wire is thin and needs bent back into shape after releasing all but the little ones.  The skirt material looks tore up after about 50 fish.  For right close to $3 per finished bait, I won't complain.  I'd like it if they had a bit bigger hook on them though. 

 

 

A few of the nicer fish from this week...

 

 

 

On 5/18/2024 at 11:22 PM, Munkin said:

Experimenting with painting crackle pattern on this one.

 

Allen

 

 

That bait is too pretty to fish with.  😃

 

[AJ Hauser]

On 4/1/2024 at 6:53 PM, Munkin said:

Latest Sunfish spinnerbait.

 

Allen

 

DUDE. I am not a huge spinnerbait guy, but I would throw this without question. This is one of the coolest finishes I've ever seen - would love to try it on a weedless spoon as well... 

 

Very nice. 

Also, @Jeff Zurawski I really appreciate you adding notes on the application of your baits. In the river you fish for those smallies, how much visibility are you talking? Like a foot or less, or 5 feet, etc?

 

I'm very excited to get into the creeks here but we've had so much rain they have been very chocolatey all spring 😕

[Weekend_Angler]

On 3/25/2024 at 5:55 PM, Mbirdsley said:

anyhow the point of this post.  here is pro-tech matte black and matte water melon. Along with the do-it gamakatsu ball head mold. i now can pretty much replicate the jig heads that great lakes finnesse are selling.  These matte powder colors are going to do a number on the smallies up here in our ultra clear water. 

 

in this picture are matte coated poison tail jigs.  ready for weed guard and skirts.

 

Silly question, but why is matte color better for clear water situations? Is it considered more natural? But isn't most bait fishing shinny?

[Mbirdsley]

1 hour ago, Weekend_Angler said:

 

Silly question, but why is matte color better for clear water situations? Is it considered more natural? But isn't most bait fishing shinny?

it probably dosent matter 80% of the time or to averages sized fish 

 

Matte colors are going to matter more up here in the great lakes where it is gin clear and can see the bottom in 20-25 ft of water. big small mouth have gotten that big for a reason and not falling for everything that looks like food.

 

 some bait fish are shiny but, everything else that they eat are rather dull colored.  some days it going to matters other days it doesn’t.  

[PaulVE64]

I'm sold on matte black

[Jeff Zurawski]

On 5/26/2024 at 6:55 AM, AJ Hauser said:

 

Also, @Jeff Zurawski I really appreciate you adding notes on the application of your baits. In the river you fish for those smallies, how much visibility are you talking? Like a foot or less, or 5 feet, etc?

 

I'm very excited to get into the creeks here but we've had so much rain they have been very chocolatey all spring 😕

 

From clear like crystal to stained like maybe 3 ft visibility.  In dirtier water I more often use bigger baits with bigger blades and skirts that have solid (instead of clear-ish transparent) colors. 

[Weekend_Angler]

17 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

it probably dosent matter 80% of the time or to averages sized fish 

 

Matte colors are going to matter more up here in the great lakes where it is gin clear and can see the bottom in 20-25 ft of water. big small mouth have gotten that big for a reason and not falling for everything that looks like food.

 

 some bait fish are shiny but, everything else that they eat are rather dull colored.  some days it going to matters other days it doesn’t.  

Interesting perspective! I will have to add matte colors as things to try.

 

14 hours ago, PaulVE64 said:

I'm sold on matte black

That would be my first choice of colors to try.

 

Thanks both! The bait monkey approves of your support! 

[Baitmaker]

Here is a new glide bait that I recently finished and painted in a bluegill pattern. It is made from Cherry and has a slow suspending sink rate. I got this quick video of it in a pool but was holding the phone with my left hand and dragging the bait around with my right, so I couldn't work it very well. 🙂

 

[IcatchDinks]

@Baitmaker, that looks very nice! Awesome work! And even with one hand it looks like it's got great action.