CatchingConcepts

ok someone enlighten me here, The manufacturer pays an excise tax on the product (lure) minus the components that were secured from sources that had already paid the excise tax (ie ordered from Janns, or Stamina, etc) those secondary and third party marketed items like hooks have had tax paid already thats why they are expensive, unless you find a source that requires you to file your FET number, and then you assume the resopnsibility for the tax on that said component. Components that come from outside tackle industry(ie wood, wire) are not deductable off the marketed value, and you absorb the costs. Ok here is where I really need to understand... PACKAGING ! NO way that packaging is taxed under FET is it? its not a part of the intent of taxing the lure manufactured, and a lot of packaging is even done by outside sources making that not even truly a part of the tackle munufacturers business. SO is the packaging aspect of the costs to the business also able to be deducted off the top of the actual value of product? and if this is so, heres my thought, I make a lure and have records showing costs to manufacture. I claim a market value of "X" per unit for the lure I have manufactured. I then package and sell the lure with a Tips and Techniques sheet included in the package, clearly marked 10.00 on the document. Is there any FET tax on providing such information to the consumer? If there was I would figure every form of media viewed by fishermen where the seller is profiting my be taxed by FET? Any comments?

Damn... just take all the fun outta it by mentioning taxes! IF this thing gets off the ground I will pay my share including the damn excise tax and all... Not worried about protecting anything trade wise... too many get caught up in that patent stuff and is not the productive direction to go when you are start up. For now, I am a hobbiest with aspirations, we shall see what becomes of all... like I said I may have plenty of crankbaits to fish with!

Well, I am in the middle of a experiment... Last year I sold enough cedar cranks to peak my interest in seeing if I could "really" produce a salable handmade crank and possibly actually make a living doing it. Mind you this is 20 years in the making as to reasearch, developement, and component sourcing. So in the past week I have put in nothing but time in on mass producing a flatsided cedar crank that I have been selling quite well with vith various diving lip configurations. I have in various stages over 800 units moving along the assembly line. Today I glued the belly weights in over 100 and will be sealing them and drying overnight. This leads me to ask, what is a fair price per lure to ask for a good quality handmade crank, and be able to sell them at the rate I can produce them? Taking in to mind I have just under 90 cents into each lure including package, brass hangers, various injection or die cut lips, oval split ring and premium hooks. Right now I sell them as fast as I can make them at 9.99 each. I am really not inclined to raise the price just to match the others making handmade cranks, and actually am considering lowering the price if production starts to far surpass demand. I really dont need anymore cranks in my boxes!

Here's a pair of split ring pliers used by Bagleys employees to attach who knows how many hooks, it was definately made from a regular needle nose pliers by drilling holes thru the tips and attaching a sharpened pin on one end. why this way? I find that you can pick up a ring from table, split it and place hook on, then use pliers jaws to turn hook and ring onto lure hanger all in one motion. much quicker and easier than any other I have used, and who would doubt Bagley ideas...

Travis, I absolutely agree with you, and you are exactly correct on your presumption: You must catch the fisherman before the fish... As I continue to sell more and more baits I realize the importance of catching the fishermans eye! The 'gill patern here was just an attempt to see what I could do with colors and pearls, most of my baits for sale online are much more simple color patterns, yet they still have attention to shading and contrast. In painting stuff for many anglers I now realize that if a guy has more confidence in a particular patern he will fish it more intensly and catch more fish, thus re-assuring his confidence. More importantly I feel is action and presence of the bait in the water, how it reacts to anglers retrieve and method for that given bait and fishing situation. Sight is only a small part of triggering a strike, but then again, I sell probably 10 times as many intricate baitfish paterns as I do basic color schemes... So first off I make a good quality crank, then paint it in colors that both sell well and hopefully catch the fishes eye too. I have had quite a few guys just buy my cranks to hang up, and that is ok, but I get much more satisfaction knowing they are being put to use as they were intended to be.

Heres a pic of the 'gill paterns, but it is nothing like how they look in natural light, the flash just sucks out all the subtleties of pearls and hues, plus you cant see any of the color change Harlequin pigment that makes these things just come alive.

Dean, you are on the right track! its all what shows through from underneath that gives the effects, just like a real baitfish with shimmering scales and distinct markings and tints, its a special blend. The plastic worm pouring guys have a lot to offer us, not only great metalics, micas and pearl powders, but also the liquid colors can also be used to tint or pigment your clear lacquer for an endless aray of transparent colors. The taxidermy effects in fishing lures I think can be best seen in what Bagley's did with their small fry series, they used the pearls and transparent colors blended with detail print brilliantly. Take a very close look at like the bream on chartruese color small fry crankbait. it is pearl chart shot over pearl base (all good paint jobs start with pearl white base) then they shot a stripe of copper pearl metalic down center of bait, then shot through a stencil of small squares the pearl white accent, then added green gold pearl shoulders and shot spots of pearl blue violet metalic, chartruese pearl and orange pearl on front of bait. finishing up with black stripe down back All those color steps were done with an airbrush, then they printed the fish patern over that for the detal. very much like what a taxidermist accomplishes. The only color printed is black detal scales and stripes, fin and gill, and touch of red in eye. this could be accomplished by water slide decal also. or even with good stencils if you are good at cutting out fine detail. all in all it is just a matter of using transparent effects with heavy pearls, and now there are the color changing pigments available to add even more dimension to the effects. Stuff like Harlequin pigments by PPG auto paints can create just unreal effects. They are rather expensive at about 20.00 or more an ounce, but that goes along way when mixed into the clear and the colors have to be seen to be believed!

Skeeter, I first started mixing the powdered pearls into clear semi gloss lacquer to shoot over solid colors to get desired effects, but found with some experimentation that I can get far better results by actually mixing the tinting color in the base lacquer with the pearl and metalic powders. I use just about anything as a tint, even cheap stuff from rattle cans. I stole these techniques from taxidermy books I bought off ebay and ordered from www.vandykestaxidermy.com then adapted the learnings to my own styles. As I better incorporate the layering effects and use of templates and stencels as the use in fish mounting my paint style has greatly improved. Just the knowlege of layering and how laying one paint over another and color change effects you get is worth buying the books. I believe depth is achieved not in paint build up, but in how you layer the colors so that pearls and metalics show thru from "under". which means re-learning some techinque, and actually laying down stencil detail first, then using transparents to tint over the details. I am far from the effects I know I can achieve. Thats the fun, always learning!

I suggest going to a discount store and paying a dollar from a pack of cheap small glass bowls, like sauce sized bowls, mixing in paper cups can have bad effects if you use waxed ones you can scrape small ammounts of wax into the mix, and I do think that the chemicals in the etex can also possibly react with the wax. if they are paper cups, if you pour one half in first and its soaks a little of that ammount into the paper it will distort the mixture ammounts and cause drying problems, as will stiring with a wooden stick. Use something plastic like a cheap pack of plastic utensils and use the handles, or if you throw away your used brushes with plastic handlesm cut them off. Looking at pictures of coated baits drying I would say I average just around 40 to 50 bass sized cranks before it is too thick to apply. I do differently than most and set my glass bowl on an simple frozen ice pack as mixture statrts to heat with reaction, this slows reaction in bowl and allows me more working time, then I apply heat while they are on the drying wheel to get good even coating as they turn. As the chemical reaction takes place they also heat on their own and epoxy flows and self levels, even an hour after it has been applied. Definately takes over 12 hours to be handlable, 24 hours to start finish assembly. Breathing and the torch both submit the etex to carbon dioxide, which pops the bubbles, no need to actually put the flame on the bait, if you are trying to actually heat the bait to move the etex around use a blow dryer.

Someone a while back was asking about gill paterns so I thought I would try and come up with something. Will try and take some better pics of the detail when these are done curing. Paint on these is done with thinned clear lacquer, then I add anything I can find to get correct pigment. In anything I mean anything! from pearl and metalic powders for worm pouring to rattle can paints to auto pigments and high tech color changing and chameleon pigments. I have found regardless of paint type or brand (enamel, lacquer, acrylic, etc..) it all "melts" into the lacquer clear base. This way I can control the opaqueness and get really good depth and transluscent effects. I havent had any problem with the mixtures drying if applied in thin even coats with airbrush. Taxadermy, worm pouring and auto paint suppliers all have a wide variety of pigments available in powder forms, with some experimentation the colors and effects are endless. Controling the variables has helped my technique and end result out greatly.

Jaime, The results of using the Krylon finish were very good, The results of fishing with the lures is still being experimented with. Many of the high end Japanese lures are now available in matt finishes, and a few american made. I fish mostly clear water, so I cant say that mat chartruese shows up better in off colored water that clear coated chart, but I have found that matt natural craw and darker colors on bright days seem to do well, will have to do much more fishing, especially sight fishing with matt colored jerkbaits where I can watch fishes reactions to pass a judgement on if and when they actually are more productive. anyone have any experiances to share on matt colored lures?

ok, on this latest batch I decided to make the eyes smaller and place them higher up, more on top of baits.. I see why it is done this way, It was much quicker and far less error in getting them symetrical. But, do they look ok? I think I like the more prominent one lower on sides? any comments? BTW, this batch puts me over 1000 cranks made for '04, first time I have done that in 25 years! thinking its getting to be more than a hobby?

Remember someone a while back was asking how to achieve a good matt finish, dont know if this was ever mentioned but... I have found that spraying Krylon frosted glass spray (walmart) over your choice of 2 part epoxy topcoat will give a excellent matt finish. is just enough to knock down the gloss and still allow the colors under to show through. I would bet this is very much same thing other companies are using. you want to make sure that you spray over epoxy topcoat for durability, product adheres very well to epoxy, and also lips / plastic. be light handed a little goes a long way! The mat finish underwater still allows the colors to come alive, and in reality, is much more realistic, you would be surprised how much of that beautiful gloss topcoat really mirrors the underwater suroundings and changes how the fish actually see the lure. That could be for the better or worse. to our eyes though, mat finish is dull, and for marketing purposes, doesnt sell well on the shelves next to those vibrant glossy finishes.

placement of eyes on top of cranks I think was first done because it was easier to keep eyes symetrical and make sure they were in a place that wasnt later in the way of various lip slot angles that could possibly be cut on that blank, as in Bagleys... as people coppied the lures that were popular it became stlye. I myself feel that a fish keys in very little on fine detail of a crankbait as it is being pulled thru the water. Basic solid colors are all that is really necessary, most of the rest is done to catch the fisherman, not the fish. with that said, I have seen instances in ultra clear cold water where realism and detail are important, but this comes in play more with suspending jerkbaits that hang motionless in the fishes face. eyes, gills and shad spots are found in placement all over the lures by various makers, mostly just as an attempt to catch the fisherman. I personally like the Bagley style little beady eyes on top, they were a trademark style for Bagleys when Bagley stood for quality balsa cranks... now those big stick on eyes Perry placed way back near midsection of bait... Guess it all comes down to makers preference and attention to detail. to each his own...

I have worked with and hung around a few greats in crankbait design, and overall what I think they strive for most in balance is correct placement of the main fixed balast weight to provide correct attitude of lure in water as skeeter outined above and also the most important factor of balance is achieving perfect harmony with size of lip (surface being effected by force of lure diving), mass of lure (bouyancy) and placement of weight in body of lure to create optimum ocilation factor when pulled through the water and all that physics takes place. The true masters of crankbait making know how to put a bait together and tweak these characteristics just enough to create a bait that not only dives and runs true with correct balance, but also displays an osilation factor that is most responsive to the fish (felt through their lateral line). Hot new baits sometimes (mostly by accident) strike apon a characteristic osilation or vibration that trigger more strikes, and old standbys drop by the way side because "the fish have seen that bait a lot" rather they have felt it, and are conditioned not to be as apt to strike it. Highly pressured lakes and tough conditions that the pro's face fishing tournaments usually is why you see them using unique handmades (secretly) or subtly modifying their sponsors lures. Best and most fun thing about making and playing with cranks is experimentation. After truly thousands of prototypes and plaing with every other crankbait ever designed, I think I know a little, yet still find myself trying someting a little different (many times by accident) and going "cool!" it just happens that way. As for cranks, below are some pics, I saw skeeter mention Calvin Johnson, so I dug through some boxes and found these in the first pic... Top bait is a Tapp? with unmarked lip off of a square lipped Poes, other two baits of unknow maker are of obvious same painter and have C Johnson engraved on Bagleys lip from '93 and '94 as seen in next pic, Last lure is definately a Perry's but also has the Bagleys lip and C Johnson signing. what can you tell me about these skeeter? Other picture is some other unknown maker handmades.. The top Tapp? has a bagley lip but no engraving, the little white one says Sweet P on hand cut lip, Green barfish one has Manns lip, chart one has circuit board lip, other two have pressed out lips, but are not Perry style eyes or paint scheme. anyone id any of them?

I really appreciate all the great words on my baits, I try and stay with what I would consider "old school" to the use of stencil and coloration effects, Guess its the appreciation of our roots from Heddon and the old timers, to the contemporary classic Bagley's paint work. I dont have a web site yet, am working on working on it! BTW nice site Jed, care to share what you used to set it up? I sell mostly via email and much of my stuff is sold as I make it, to bass guys who some will take whatever I have finished, A small ammount of my stuff finds its way onto Ebay, search under "handmade crankbait" , (remember to check the box [search title and description]), from time to time there is some real nice work sold there by several makers. BassinBob, try this link for scale netting, but also going into those fabric places (even walmart) can yeild some great netting. http://www.staminainc.com/paint/scale_netting.html

Skeeter, on my flat baits, I do stack them together (finished) and run them across a table saw in a jig that holds them all, with a thicker blade that cuts correct width for whichever injected lip I am using on that crank... for the semi round baits I found that just doing them one at a time on the bandsaw in a jig is the way to go, it is much slower, but to get the hands on precision, is the only method I am comfortable with at this time. I use use the guide on that bandsaw table and clamp stoppers on the table so I can only move the jig holding the lure tightly so far in the same angle and motion every time, then just keep chanhing out cranks till the pile is done... Key is taking the time to craft jigs and doccument all angles so you can reproduce same motion every set up.

Thanks for the great comments! Pictures just dont do them justice with my crappy digital cam either.. you just cant capture the subtle pearls and holographic glitter with a cam flash... Shawn, I dip them only one time in Etex lite... I think I have found a way to get a thicker coating by mixing in glass (pirex) and then actually keeping mixture on ice while dipping and curing in very cool environment till reaction starts to take place... of course turning the whole time on drying rack. The epoxy, being chilled makes its consistancy much thicker, yet is very workable for longer time to coat multiple lures. anyone else tried this? Herman

HI Skeeter, Never a dumb question... actually it took much trial and error in figuring the best way out. AND actually every once in a while you just do ruin one because of wood grain and how saw blade contacts it. But after learning just how many Bagley's tossed aside I dont feel so bad... You may still see these cast offs being sold on ebay from time to time, with big chunks missing from nose from self destruction at the saw blade... Here's what I do... First off I made a wooden jig that is lined with felt at critical spots so as not to scratch finish, and holds contoured lure perfectly sideways at a 90 degree angle quite securely. I then found the best time to cut the lip slot is within 24 hours after the epoxy has cured, but is not yet rock hard. too soon and you make marks in finish, too late and it chips and crack sometimes. Then the final thing I do to every bait is strech a piece of electrical tape over nose area where slot is being cut, and rub down. this very much eliminates any breakage and makes for a nice smooth cut. Yes I go through tape, but it is cheap... Now I am using a large high speed bandsaw with a very sharp blade I use just for cutting lips, I take it off for all other cutting, The blade must be real sharp to get desired effect. High tooth count and moderate set, and two passes using the guide with jig clamped in and I am ready to glue in the lips. Herman

In going through some of my older boxes of balsa cranks when writing the short blurb on the Bagley DB3 topic thread, I realized just how old some of my own balsa handmade cranks I still use were in the boxes. Though the hooks have been upgraded, these are originals I created long ago, but lures I still regularly use and just thought I would share them and how I got started creating crankbaits. Most of these lures are yellowing from age as they were coated with various types of urathane, tho one coated with a dupont product is still as clear as the day it was coated. How long ago was this? well I seem to remember the Pres was Carter, and Disco and rubix cubes were still hot... that really dates me! Though I fooled with "reworking" my Grandfathers classic wooden plugs to "improve them" years before, My true obsession with crankbaits began when I was 15 and I purchased an April 1979 issue of Fishing Facts Magazine. Inside was an article by Tom Seward called "A Hot Crankbait You Can Make Yourself". This is a must read for all crankbait making addicts! a true classic, and still probably the best written article ever on making traditional balsa alphabet cranks. Anyone with good skills may be able to locate the article somewhere on the net and link it? Or if you frequent Ebay watch for that issue of Fishing Facts, its very well written by Tom Seward, who went on to work for many companies, and designed numerous lures like the Natural Ike series, Hot Lips and Speed Trap, and most recently the Brush Baby and Timber Tiger series. I have now met Tom numerous times and consider him a friend, He currently works for Yakima Bait (Poes) and still writes frequently. So the pic below is some of my earliest attempts at luremaking that still find a home in my currently use box of crankbaits, unlike the uncountable number that have been sold, lost or just retired to dusty places... They are crude in finish compared to my efforts 25 years later, but still rival in action anything I can create, and most importantly still catch fish!

Coley, Nicely put together tutorial, I like the cotter pin use, has anyone found a good supplier for SS cotter pins in bulk? or how about a source/ vendor that does custom bending of stainless and brass wire for lips and hanger forms. below a picture of the latest fresh dipped "candy" and its mmmm Etex flavor...

Those old brass hanger Bagleys DB3 are special, but if the the lip is broken or stressed. without a doubt I would turn it into a BB3 with a few easy modifications. I think the action and qualities of the shallow running square lipped BB3 is much more sought after than the DB3 so I started going monster garage on my Bagley brass DBs that were no longer fishable in their deep diving form. Dont do this to collectible or good quality vintage DB's. First off I am talking about first generation Bagley balsa Bs, they have all brass hangers and the best ones are the early ones with fatter chunky body style and urathane coating (usually develope age lines) When I started modifying them, I would spend much time removing the old broken deep lip and filling slot, but found a quicker way that doesnt hurt the action what so ever of the shallow runner, and I even prefer to retain the original finish even if battle scarred and requiring a little epoxy sealing here and there.. Yes you can strip the whole thing down and completely refinish it, but for some reason it just loses a little of the Bagley magic when you do that. I even try to avoid completely re-sealing the topcoat as it adds weight and I want the lure to be as close to the fish killer it was in the 70's. As stated above, this proceedure produces a BB3 with a good chance at a hunting bait, but it wont be pretty. Again, I think action speaks louder than pretty finish. use a dremel or file and score and cut away the remaining deep diving lip off nose of DB, be careful to leave brass line tie intact. bend hanger down out of way and file the remaing lip flush with nose. cut off lead pill with a sidecutter and cut one end of the two strands of brass hanger as close to nose of bait as possible. straighten brass wire out and shorten brass wire to approx an inch and a half leaving the one end attached yet. then bend / double back the end of the brass over itself about an 1/8 of an inch on end. drill a small hole just below the old hanger deep enough to accept the inch of wire. mix epoxy and fill hole with epoxy using paper clip or thin wire. then using needle nose feed brass into hole and re-shape new bend for line attachment. brass bends easily and can be made rounder after epoxy dries, just leave enough to work with to make good loop about the same size as hook attachments. (original BBs had the line tine just below the tip of nose of bait, not on the nose, so going below the old lip and then bending a smooth loop will get you right where you need to be) use extra epoxy mixed to lightly seal old lip/ nose area and any other dings in bait, especially around old hook hangers. Now cut a new lip out of thin lexan (about 5/64 thick). original lip is 1 inch by 1 1/8 inch by 5/8 inch. original lip slot was cut at a 50 degree angle from centerline of bait 3/8 inch below line tie entry point. lip angle is critical, if you can make a jig to hold lure and use bandsaw with guide to get it perfect. Depth of lip is 5/16. lightly round radius of leading corners of cut lip and glue in place. I have a box of these little monsters and they fish every bit as well as a original brass BB3 which are now all hanging up for display. Pics below, hope I explained the operation well enough to make sense... Herman

I agree with skeeter copper wire in .040 (18 gauge) is quite usable for harness and line ties. key is to make small precise bends AND do not overstress wire or nick it in any way with pliers while bending or its strength will be greatly compromised. Brass wire can be a little more rigid than copper depending on the hardness of brass used (percent of copper in brass). The yellow brass wire is most prefered for luremaking if you are going for the traditional Bagley look. Here is a supplier of various sizes of brass, and some other interesting stuff including stainless. http://www.malinco.com/Craft/brass.html

The Bagleys with wobble settings were someones idea who had no idea what they were doing to a great classic bait! That lure is made in a foreign country, and from what I have seen in no way captures what Bagleys BB's are all about. Was just another step in destroying all that was special about the original BB's. Now if you look at the above mentioned "new" Bagley site, they have re-introduced the BB series with more true original specs including brass harness, which I am sure is not thru wire, as it never had been.. If you want a true representation of what made Bagleys famous, go on ebay and buy a few BB's. They must be the ones noting brass hangers and square lip, they can be pricey tho.

looking though multitudes of past creations, I found lures dated as early as 1992 that were coated with Etex and still had great NON yellowed lustre. I have used many products over the years and what I have found most important is what you use for a primer and base coat under the top coat. Epoxy based coatings yellow and get non desired effects when you use petro based paints or solvents under especially if they are not allowed to totally catalize before top coat (usually more than just "dry to touch"). also have found that certain plastics dont cover well with epoxy, especially ones that may be "hot" or contain unusual mixtures of solvents, or halves are glued together with acetone or solvent. I believe this is why the traps that Chip used for the test were a poor test subject. Also feel it would be a poor decision to rub with solvents between coatings, light fine grit sanding would be better idea... (JMO) Use of infra red lamp between any coatings of paint helps dry all solvents before next coating is applied. trapping non catalized paints or hot solvents under epoxy coatings will always lead to undesired effects in the future, no matter what favorite brand of epoxy coating you use. Herm...