cedar squarebills

Awesome! Love your style. I can learn from these pictures, mind if I ask a couple questions?.... is your belly weight behind the front hook hanger? Is the lip wider than the lure body? What paint colors did you use for the bait on top? I need to invest in some more green and blue paints. Your pictures give me much motivation. Thanks, Mark 

Thanks a lot for the kind words Mark!

The weighting in these is done in 2 spots. One behind the front hook hanger, and a smaller one in the throat.  If I remember right, there is close to 4 grams total in these, which are 2 1/4" cedar bodies (minus the lips). I've played around a lot with weighting and prefer this over one belly weight for these type of baits. They sit slightly head down in the water. The lips are a bit wider than the bait at the front edge and taper back more narrow at the slot.  There are 8 colors in this bluegill pattern, not including the white base coat.  Fluorescent orange and yellow, black,  transparent green, brown, yellow, Caribbean blue,  and Flamingo pink.  

Thanks for the tips. I'm working on a pattern for a small shallow crankbait now. I've been carving duck decoys for 20 yrs so working in such a small scale on lures feels weird but it's fun! Love those colors on your bluegill. Mark 

6 hours ago, MarkNY said:

Thanks for the tips. I'm working on a pattern for a small shallow crankbait now. I've been carving duck decoys for 20 yrs so working in such a small scale on lures feels weird but it's fun! Love those colors on your bluegill. Mark 

Thanks again Mark.

Here is a picture of that pattern shown in mid stage that may help you see the underlying color better. I begin by painting the sides a dark color (black or other high contrast) Then shoot it white through mesh screen for scales. I then unwrap it and fade the belly and scales with more white. Then its a bit of transparent Carribean Blue Createx on the back side, and transparent Flamingo pink on the front.  I then use a stencil and paint the gill and head white. That's where it's at in the picture. More of the same blue goes on the bottom edge throat area using the gill template. I then mix transparent green with a few drops of transparent brown, and paint the rest of the gill plate, head, and back. The stripes are done by adding one drop of black to that same mix. I also use this blend of green/brown/black to darken the back a bit more and create the shading around the eyes and gill. Belly is flouro orange and yellow, with opaque red trim for bleeding gill.

Also, pics of the simple paper templates I made to paint these. I rarely ever use the same ones twice.

Hope any of this helps! 

 

Edited January 31, 2017 by All Eyes

Also a quick sketch showing the approximate placement of weighting that I used on these. They are mid rising floaters. 

 

8 hours ago, MarkNY said:

Thanks for the tips. I'm working on a pattern for a small shallow crankbait now. I've been carving duck decoys for 20 yrs so working in such a small scale on lures feels weird but it's fun! Love those colors on your bluegill. Mark 

You do very nice work on your baits. also. Would love to see your decoys. 

Thanks so much for the tips! Very helpful. Was wondering how you did the scales with the darker color. Makes perfect sense now. Looks like you might have the eyes masked off? Do you install eyes before painting? I've been doing that after painting but I'm always open to different ways.... here's a mallard decoy. Hollow white pine, painted with tube oils. No airbrush on my decoys! Every decoy I make is used for hunting. Mark

That's beautiful! Glad I asked. Decoys of both fish and ducks are still on my to-do list. I have 2 ducks rough cut and have never got back to them. 

The eyes on that bait were masked only because it's a repaint.  Epoxied the eyes on a bit prematurely. Normally, I always apply them after painting. 

Thanks man. If you need any help with decoy carving, let me know. Be happy to help.....