RiverMan

Brock, You have to test the weight of each wood, they are all different. The amount of lead to be used for walnut will maybe be 25% of what you use for western red cedar. Drill what you think will be the correct amount, add lead and test. If it's not enough you can drill the lead out, drill further, try again. Once you get it figured out for one take good notes, measure depths, and then do all of them similar. jed

Woodie, Did you write that you use two coats of lacquer as a sealer? Or are you using a sealer then two coats of lacquer? Thank you! Jed

I dip my baits in a product called polycrylic, let dry and then dip it in a primer/sealer paint. After that you can use an airbrush if you have one with createx paints or just buy a few rattle can colors at Wal-Mart and go to work. Go to the tutorial section to learn how to create scales on a bait. After that open up your latest issue of BASS or Cabelas, choose a simple pattern you like, and do your best to replicate it. Have fun. Jed

They swim fast through the window Tally as there is a strong current here so when the camera catches one he's there and gone! If you around about two hours from now take a look, you will likely see a bunch of them! jed

I live in Oregon and not far from me is the Columbia River. Right now spring chinook salmon are making their annual trek up the river and can be seen in the viewing windows of dams along the route. For those interested there is a webcam at the first dam they encounter, Bonneville Dam. The webcam is located in the fish ladder and refreshes about every 30 seconds. If you periodically check back at it you will without doubt so some "pure chrome" headed upriver. These fish are only about 3 days swim from the ocean. The fish can be seen in large numbers just before dark which is around 8:00 pacific time. Here is the link for the camera, enjoy. http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/op/b/fishcam/fishimage.jpg Jed

Holy Smokes Lapala....of course I wouldn't expect anything less from you. I lay mine on the scanner and hit "start", lol.

Fishnut, Be extremely careful with the nose cone on the front of that brush. After cleaning, take the back of the brush off, slide the needle in far enough so it's behind the cone, install the cone and front pieces, then gently slide the needle foward until it seats in the cone, tighten back set piece and reinstall back handle. It just cost me 36 bucks to learn this. jed

Much better to do that than to hurry some other part of the lure process. When I first started building baits I would get so excited that I was almost done that I wouldn't let things dry completely...take your time, be patient, otherwise you will most certainly end up being disappointed. Jed

That's cool Larry.

You hit it on the head Scoop, everything is a copy of something else. Lapala is right on too, baits today are only slight modifications to ideas that have been around forever. I do respect your comments tho Rockhopper as "technically", some patent attorneys may interpret the use of a lure shape for example differently than a builder like myself. Still tho, virtually every bait built today has its roots in ideas that were chopped out of a block of wood a hundred years or longer ago. jed

Savacs, while you are waiting for the Etex to show up, create several more lures, that's what I do to pass the time. Take your time on the lures, quality takes time. jed

Savacs, I drill and install all mine before sealing and priming. Drill a pilot hole a bit smaller than the drill bit and glue them in. The glue isn't necessary to hold the screw eye in but helps prevent air from escaping from this site later on. If you have any other problems feel free to come back and ask. Good luck. jed

Here is one of my first.......by the way, none of them would swim, lol.

Rockhopper, I don't claim to know anything about patents other than what I have gleaned from patent searches and personal observation. I acknowledge that I am likely niave in my interpretation of patent law. That being said, here is my take on things, right or wrong. I make musky baits and there are literally dozens and dozens of baits that look like mine, swim like mine and are finished like mine. These baits are here today, were here yesterday, a hundred years ago, and will be here tomorrow. What I make is not "unique", or possess or contain an attribute that could set it "apart from" thousands of others produced before it. I don't prescribe a builder on this site take a Lucky Craft lure body, paint it and sign his name to it. But, if you take the shape of a Lucky Craft, make it from wood, give it your method of weighting, paint, finish, etc., and sign it, I sincerely doubt anyone is going to try and take that to court...and that is essentially what all of us and thousands of others in the market (including Lucky Craft, Rapala, Heddon, etc.,) are doing. If you haven't done so already take a look at antique lures, there isn't an idea on the market today(with the exception of some high-tech rattles and weights maybe) that hasn't been around for 50 years or longer. I think too it depends some on the product you are talking about....there are probably some products on the market in which the patent ties are very tight and any production along similar lines would be unacceptable. But we are talking about fishing lures, lures that have been manufactured in the same way for a century or longer. The patents on these concepts have long since expired and thus open for production by all. Unless a builder is copying a very "unique", i.e. "one of a kind", feature of some lure or lure type held under a current patent, I think a company would be hard pressed to show infringement. How can you be infringing on something that has been made for a hundred years in every shape and form we currently use today? Now if you take a lucky craft bait and send it off to China and have them make you an injection mold for that bait identical in every way then I would agree you are likely violating a patent. Kind regards, Jed

Beautiful Lunge, that beast in the back is cool! Jed

Great looking bait! jed

Yep, what Skeeter said.

Lunge, Jim of HR baits is without doubt the finest painter I have ever seen. Jed

When I started building hard baits I wanted to "pave my own way" but after spending several hours looking at patents I realized it was impossible! I am suprised to be honest by what the patent office allows for patent. If I take a ford or chevy truck, remove the motor, put in a modified motor of some type, paint it a new color, put on different bumpers, tires, wheels, and seats, is it now a now a "unique concept"? I don't think so but the patent office sure allows that type of thing to happen all the time. I don't think it makes "good business sense" to patent a lure because someone will mod it slightly and use it anyway...save your money. Jed

That would be a good image to include in the tutorials section. jed

Lunge, I tried that method of weighting several times on baits and it did work altho I didn't find the results to be worth the additional work. Jim of "castor baits" has torn down HR baits in the couple years and found that he no longer uses this method of weighting.......maybe he also found it to be too cumbersome. I have only owned one HR (shaker) and wasn't at all impressed by the action altho the vast majority of musky fisherman think otherwise. I have personally found body shape which includes thickness, height, taper, roundness, etc., to play a larger role than any other factor in determining lure action and width of glide. Jed

Good point guys, interesting. jed

They aren't copies, you made them didn't you? I wouldn't feel right about blatantly copying another guys bait but it's almost impossible to not make something similar to something that has been done in the past. Every bait on the market today is a knock-off of another made decades ago. I love that top bait Lapala. You blended the scales with the paint perfectly. That is the finest bait I have seen you post. jed

That's the way I see it too. So....whether we use a light wood or a heavy wood, a bait of equal size and shape will be roughly the same weight, interesting. But, we have probably all noted the difference in action of some woods over others. I personally have found that light woods with lots of weight have more life to them than dense woods with a little weight.......despite the fact that both baits weigh about the same. Archimedes was one smart dude, bet he could have built some damn good baits. Jed

Great looking baits!!!! jed