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I did a search to all your questions, but the search brought me back to a thread here telling me to search the answers to your question. So I did and I ended up on this thread again. lol

Hi I'm new to the site and I would like to start my own Custom Tackle company. I plan on buying cheap Chinese knock-off baits and putting my own paint job on them. I have a few questions for you guy's here who have put countless hours into your own efforts. It is a lot easier for me to just ask general questions than to search the great amount of information here, so. Where can I buy the cheapest baits? ( higher profit margin ) What kind of paint should I use, where can I buy it, and what colors should I get? What do you guy's use for a top coat, where can I buy it, and what is the procedure for application? How do you make a lure glide? How do you make a lure suspend? How can you estimate amount of ballast? Do I need to pay tax? That's it for now, I've got a bunch of orders to fill ! Thanks, Douglas Custom Sar cast-ic Bait Co.

Seems like I remember reading somewhere (maybe here at TU) that Mann's bait company sold unpainted bodies. Might be worth checking out. Ben

Buying blanks is a job in itself. I've never found any of the major factory lures in unpainted blanks. In order to find several different styles of KO's that are in stock, and decent quality, it's often necessary to make purchases from more than one vendor. The resellers mentioned in earlier posts are all good resources and worth looking at. From time to time you'll get a bad batch.....most of the better resellers will take returns. Find a vendor (or vendors) that carry lures you like to paint and start with them whenever you need blanks.

Lure Prats Online have unpainted lures and some are made in the USA worth taking a look.

As has been said, I like Predator Bass Baits blanks. Recently he has switched over a few "KO's" and had molds made from actual Lucky Craft baits. As far as getting blanks from the companies themselves (megabass, rapala, strike king etc) you won't get anywhere. They won't sell their blanks to anyone unless you plan on dropping $3,000 in one order.

It's like a lot of things - there are very good unpainted baits (KO's), some not so good, and some are terrible. You just have to try some and pick out the ones that work for you. Sellers like Predator, Bustin Bass Baits, and Dakota Tackle work to acquire better baits from overseas suppliers and the general quality of KO's has gotten better in the last few years. But if you want an actual unpainted version of a popular bait like a Megabass Ito Vision 110, you won't find one anywhere. Megabass Japan doesn't sell unpainted baits. The KO may be a good bait in its own right, but it won't be a Megabass. So if you want to paint a bait that's a "real whatever" you'll have to buy a real whatever and repaint it. A lot of guys on TU repaint KO's and if you have a specific lure type in mind, you can ask in the forum for advice and will probably receive good guidance.

Hey i'm new to the site also but no they are not the same. I got some from china and they are not as good as the ones I got from predator. So far Predator bass baits are top quality. You can't go wrong.

Don't buy Chinese crank baits... I heard the lips are sideways

Oh no I feel a great TAX debate starting again! Rowhunter most if not all of your questions have been answered here before. Do a search in this forum on your questions and you will have days of reading fun. If you don't get the answers you need or enough info on a particular questions feel free to ask them again.

This appears to be a cyclic event as I can recall having similar discussions (several times over the past 11 years) with guys about the new "lure" builder.

No they are not all the same you get good and bad with everything. I use dakota lakes if I want to buy blank body's I've had good luck with his stuff but I can't comment on the rest because his are the only ones I've tried.

It's definitely not that big. It's just slightly fatter and I do mean slight. I've wrecked em on this mold. They work every bit as good as a Yamamoto.

I found an electric knife at a local hobby shop. it looks similar to a soldering iron but has an exacto blade on the business end. Once it gets hot it cuts through like a hot knife in butter, almost. Good luck.

I started making my own baits because I was tired of spending my money on commercial and so called "custom" garbage. Except for a few small shallow crankbaits, I throw my own baits or baits that I have re-done (Poes and Bagley) exclusively. They just plain work. Nothing in my bag is stock. So for me, it is not a hard thing to do. A really good plug knocker also helps me hang on to the lures that I make. Skeeter

don't start you"ll be sorry

Gee Bob I thought we were the only people on the planet that paid $25-$30 for a plastic Jap lure , very surprised. Pete