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Gordon, I find I have hook rash on walking baits and cranks from the front treble swinging back and forth against the lure belly on the retrieve. Most of my baits are stored in plano boxes that are so full there's no room for the hooks to move. Hahaha

When we started out, I told my partners " when you own your own business, you only have to work 1/2 a day, just pick what 12 hours you want to work!!" We started with the same molds everybody else used and then after a few stores started carring our product, we designed our own bait. Bob Jones made our custom molds for us and it was off and running to tournaments, boat shows, tackle showes, and shops for seminars.Working 7 days a week plus our full time jobs, travel, meals, and hotels with no money comming in will put a strain on your body and mind. We went from 0 to 127 stores in a little over 4 years.It takes a lot of work but in my opinion, it is well worth it. We still don't make a "Killing" but we have fun and are close to retiring from our full time jobs.As long as you are willing to put in the work, you will be sucessfull and possibly get a good buy out from one of the big boys. Good Luck.

started banging out spoons when i was about 8 or 9 and never stopped making baits since... the worlds best hobby nothing beats catching fish on your own baits http://www.fiskesnack.com/fotoalbum/images/2231-329701790-liten.jpg

There is nothing wrong with the products available now. Yes, they are constantly being tweaked. You need to market your product. That's a full time job right there. JMO

It's a tough business with lots of competition. I went from part time to full time. It's do-able but most people are not willing to put in the amount of time or money that it takes to be successful, and that goes for any business. You need to be willing to make $0.00 a year and work your butt off day in and day out. No vacations, no sick days, no dream vacations, just hard work. If you plan on fishing everyday and making big $, stop dreaming because that's not going to happen. To be successful you need to plan on working 12-15 hours a day and fishing very, very little. As for being bought out, focus on step 1 first. Having a vision for success is great but you need to be able to focus on important tasks like getting up and running first. Jeff

While they do make a paint that cracks a lot of us just use Elmer's glue thinned with water and apply it to the lure and then paint over that. The difference in the rate that the paint and glue dry will create the cracked finish your talking about. There is also a "crackle medium" that can be found at hobby shops and art supply stores. I've had better luck with the Elmer's glue though. You might have to play with the glue/water mixture until you get the consistency you want. A little heat with a hair dryer or heat gun will help the paint crack after you've sprayed your top color over the glue. Do a search for "crackle paint" in the hard baits forum and you will find a wealth of info on this subject. There's also a bunch of videos on YouTube about crackle painting with Elmer's glue. Here's a link to some of them. http://www.youtube.c...0.0.g3vXYsyYDkk Ben