Have you ever heard the saying if it looks like an unbelievable deal it's probably a scam?

 

I'm looking at a site in China selling what look like real deal jerkbait blanks.  Megabass, Rapala, LC, Duo Relais, Jackall etc.  Choice of chrome, clear or holographic.  No eyes, rings or hooks attached...but they sell them.  A vision oneten blank sells for only $0.99!!!! 

 

If I bought 50 blanks, 100 eyes (yep identical to the real ones), good rings and hooks I trust, I would only spend about $70 for 50 unpainted Onetens.

 

Too good to be true?

They're legit chinease objects.  You're not getting a Megabass ect but something that looks like them.  You'd have to buy and try to see if they are worth your time.  I have a number of complete chinease baits that outwardly, look identical to Megabass products.  The will look the part but the action, durability and sounds won't be identical to the real bait.  

It may be that easy.  I wouldn't think that all these bait companies are manufacturing in-house.  If you can find a Chinese factory that is making those blanks, you may have found the factory that a bait company is using.  No real way to confirm it but it is possible.

Those work but will never work as well as most original baits. They are good to use in warmer water and around toothy fish.

 

Allen 

FWIW - Any quality painter worth his weight is probably going to charge you $10-20 per bait.

2 hours ago, fishballer06 said:

FWIW - Any quality painter worth his weight is probably going to charge you $10-20 per bait.

Was thinking of doing a non quality paint job myself.  I really admire the paint schemes Megabass puts on their art series.  I have 3 or 4.  Not hoping to replicate factory paint.

 

For effectiveness, I think bass respond more to action and general color patterns than a da Vinci like attention to detail.  A bold solid color, a natural color, a clearish, and opaque matt and I feel like I have my bases covered.

 

Anyone have a beginner's airbrush recommendation? 

I have tried some of the old styles available through netcraft or lpo and most of them ran pretty good. Even with my paintjobs lol.

On 6/23/2025 at 11:41 AM, Gnarwhal said:

Was thinking of doing a non quality paint job myself.  I really admire the paint schemes Megabass puts on their art series.  I have 3 or 4.  Not hoping to replicate factory paint.

 

For effectiveness, I think bass respond more to action and general color patterns than a da Vinci like attention to detail.  A bold solid color, a natural color, a clearish, and opaque matt and I feel like I have my bases covered.

 

Anyone have a beginner's airbrush recommendation? 

 

Lurebuild.com has a ton of blanks and stencils for painting your own.  Get a $20 Master airbrush from Ebay and a Harbor Freight airbrush compressor. Or just rattle can them as the crankbait I painted that has caught the most fish.

 

Allen 

1 minute ago, Munkin said:

Get a $20 Master airbrush

Get the kit for $40 from Amazon - includes 3 different needle sizes. I have two of them and they perform well above the price point.

17 minutes ago, Munkin said:

 

Lurebuild.com has a ton of blanks and stencils for painting your own.  Get a $20 Master airbrush from Ebay 

 

15 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Get the kit for $40 from Amazon

Thanks for the airbrush suggestions.  Are there any lure painting YouTube channels you subscribe to?

2 hours ago, Gnarwhal said:

 

Thanks for the airbrush suggestions.  Are there any lure painting YouTube channels you subscribe to?

Baker Builds has some good tutorials - all he does is lures

Having gone the cheap Master Airbrush route, I can recommend this as a very significant upgrade.

 

https://www.amazon.com/NEO-Gravity-Feed-Action-Airbrush/dp/B004INERK4

 

You will also go through a lot of canned air, so a compressor is a worthwhile investment.  If you already have one for nailguns etc. you can just add a moisture trap inline for the airbrush.

 

 

 

 

The MB 110 KOs on LPO's website are certainly not anywhere near the action of the OG MB products.  

 

Predator blanks are close, but still a little off from the OG ones too.  

 

I catch a lot of fish on my wiggle wart knock offs and the 1.5 sized squarebills from LPO so thats not to say these knockoffs don't catch fish, because they most certainly do.  

On 6/18/2025 at 12:44 PM, Doug Grotke said:

It may be that easy.  I wouldn't think that all these bait companies are manufacturing in-house.  If you can find a Chinese factory that is making those blanks, you may have found the factory that a bait company is using.  No real way to confirm it but it is possible.

 

With pricey JDM baits you're paying for quality control and consistency in addition to paint, that includes the ones made in china. Its very easy to make or acquire ABS molds, shoot plastic into them and pay slave wages for people to assemble them, its hard to set up a system that ensures every one you ship works great out of the box. Especially with suspending jerkbaits. 

On 6/28/2025 at 1:58 PM, Munkin said:

rattle can them as the crankbait I painted that has caught the most fish

Tips to do this? 

 

I just bought 4 cans to spray some blanks i got from Sugartit custom lures and I think backwater lures or something. 

 

Do i need to "seal" these plastic blanks? Or top coat the spray paint? 

On 6/17/2025 at 5:44 PM, Bigbox99 said:

They're legit chinease objects.  You're not getting a Megabass ect but something that looks like them.  You'd have to buy and try to see if they are worth your time.  I have a number of complete chinease baits that outwardly, look identical to Megabass products.  The will look the part but the action, durability and sounds won't be identical to the real bait.  

I think real deal megabass baits are made in China. Is it possible that these are from the same manufacturer that makes the vision 110?

That's what I'm thinking.

21 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

I think real deal megabass baits are made in China. Is it possible that these are from the same manufacturer that makes the vision 110?

Highly unlikely.  It almost 100% some operation making cheap look alikes with a cheaper brittle plastic and without the fancy weight transfer systems that use a magnet or soft tungsten ball.  If you get one with a weight transfer it will be a steel ball rolling around inside the bait. 

 

You're better off just buying a Bearking jerkbait from Aliexpress for a few bucks than trying to buy a bunch of blanks to paint to save money.  You should paint baits because you want to because you enjoy it or have a super special color you can only get by painting it yourself.

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1102515286?