blackjack

Volp, Micarta is the same thing as computer circuit board. It is a hard durable material that has been used as lip material by mant guys in Tenn. & Kent. for many years. I use it in my shallow baits but to be honest with you I have not really seen a difference between lexan and the circuit board as far as deflection off of objects. One thing about the circuit board that I do not like is that when you crank around rocks the circuit boad will wear down. One of my customers sent me his favorite bait back and the bill was completly rounded off(it started off as a coffin bill) The other draw backs are it is more difficult to work with ie cutting, drilling and shaping. There are several different grades available as well as a bunch of different thicknesses and different colors. The color I like is a translucent whiteish/green(when it gets wet you can almost see thru it. some of the other colors are not so desireable as they add a larger profile to the bait

I started out back in 1996 doing repaint work for friends and the guys in my club. Word of mouth led to getting in local tackle shops. Then came the internet boom and I put together a web page and started advertising online. In 1998 I started out playing around with making lures from scratch. I used to give one of the baits that I made to some of my repaint customers. I now do not have time to do the repaint work as I'm concentrating on full scale bait production. I would say that the majority of my sucess comes from word of mouth. I have also given away about 800 lures over the past 2 years to get my foot in the door. This business is very competitive and many customers are brand(manufacturer) loyal. One avenue that helped me was to give away baits at Tournaments. Two years ago I gave away 100 lures at a Bullet Boat owners tourney. Try to find charity Tournaments and tell the people that are running the tourney that you wish to contribute to the winnings with baits. This has worked for me but every business should develop their own Business plan. Hope this helps

Chip, After reading your original post about you using the scale to measure your epoxy I figured I give it a try with the stuff I'm using. The epoxy I'm using says to mix equal volumes not equal weights and I measured equal volumes in 2 seperate containers, the weights were dramatically different. the Hardener was alot lighter than the epoxy. What type of epoxy are you using that youcan do that???

Thanks Dave, Figured it was time and the extra money is helping to fund my other habit Fishing. Spence Brunson is a great Guy and I have been dealing with him for about 6 years now. I used to have my repaint services thru his store so when he asked if I wanted to sell my baits thru him I figured that I might as well and it has been great ever sence!! Havent sold any of the Gateway pattern yet but I'm sure it will catch on

Cody you have it right. The 2nd red line form the front of the bait is for the weight and hook hanger.When I came up with this type of diagram I did it so I could use it to duplicate a bait exactly. Alot of trial and error went into the making of the diagram. Experimentation is key when you are trying something new. Basically if you use a similar diagram for your baits. They will all be as consistent as a hand crafted bait can be. Here is another trick I use. When I have designed (or copied as in this case) a winner I take the diagram and laminate it and cut it out. I then can use it over and over for the template of the bait and to mark where everything is supposed to be(ie lip slot belly weight hook hangers, etc) I have a whole drawer full of the templates for all kinds of baits. It is also useful to aid in making stencils for spraying your patterns

Cody the second red line is the spot. It is not to late though just remove the screw eye and screw it into the weight(predrill of course and that will do it. Like I said you did a great job shaping the bait!!!!

Cody leave the back part of the bait flat, no need to round it over. The bait looks great. Only problem I see is that the belly hook hanger seems to be set to far back towards the tail. I would move it to the lowest part of the belly

Jed, I don't know what to tell ya about the angle of the hook hangers other than I have made about 60 of those baits and have done extensive testing of the different angle configurations. I made 15 with the wire drilled straight in the body, 15 with the wire drilled towards the belly, 15 drilled towards the backand 15 with regular screw eyes. I gave all of these baits to the guys that I fish with. They are hardcore fisherman and are kinda my guinea-pig club. All of the baits that had the wire configuration that I posted caught more fish. That is the bottom line for me more fish!!. Several of those baits were also hunters. I have duplicated this same result with several other baits. Making a bait that hunts is not something that can be duplicated everytime but thru testing I have found that with the line tie and rear hook hanger drilled out this way the baits are more appealing to fish. If you take apart a D-Bait the wire follows the contour of the top of the bait, as do many other thru wire baits

Tally, It is not a thru wire bait it is meant to shortcut all of the work that goes into a thru-wire bait. You will cut down your time tremendously and still have a chance at getting a bait to hunt!!

If you run the wire along the backside (like the diagram) it increases the chance that the bait will hunt

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all you have to do is make a loop in a piece of wire twist the ends into a screw and insert with glue into the drilled holes

Guys the original plans were done in Microsoft Photodraw(part of the Microsoft Office 2000 software pack). It is a vector based program that is incompatable with almost every other drawing program. If you have this program I can email you the original schematics(the originals are balls on accurate) otherwise I have to send it as a jpeg file (hence the resizing issue)

guys the lip is just a hair longer than 1.25" and at its widest point it is just shy of 3/4"

mike here is how you use the lines

The bait is 3/8" thick and I usually start with about 4 gms of lead although I have gone up to 6.25 gms on a couple of baits when I made some suspenders and sinkers. Alot of guys overlook a sinking bait but it can be a very effective tool to fill up that livewell. I like to take a sinker and cast it along a steep drop or bluff and count it down to 10 or 12' and crank parallel to the shore. I have caught some monster smallies and largemouth throwing small sinking baits using this technique. So if you guys ever end up with a sinking bait dont throw that baby away put it in the tacklebox and give it a try when nothing else is working. I promise you will be surprised!!!!

I have not seen any difference between the my d bait and the original as to how they run. They both run great and both catch fish mine is more simple to build enjoy guys and lets see some of the finished baits here is a lip pattern to fool around with also!!

Since everyone seems to want this pattern I'll post it here!! The original bait is a thru wire bait, but I have modified it as to make it a no brainer. You can resize to whatever size you would like the different color lines are for: Blue line= angle of the lip slot first red line = the depth of the lip slot cut second red line = the location of the bellyweight the green lines = are used to drill the line tie and the rear hook hanger the green lines are perpindiculars (right angles so that when you place the bait in a vise to drill the line tie and rear hook hanger are placed perfectly

anyone wanting the dbait schematic let me know and I will send it to you via a PDF. file. I have taken a bunch apart

Markell, This does workas I have seen the results in the livewell!! I moderate that particular board on the BBC and have quite a few Bandits and wigglewarts that I have boiled to change the shape. It is a trial and error type thing though depends upon the thickness of the baits

I have been using an O'Haus Triple beam scale since my college organic and inorganic chemistry days it has served me exceptionally well and have never had a problem with it. http://www.balances.com/triple.html

Zoom baits can be seen at: http://www.bubbajackstackle.com/WEC_crank_baits.htm Tom, try an exacto knife but be careful of 2 things slicing your hand and slicing the bait

Well finally something that i can help someone out with the. Zoom baits are the reason I started to do repaint work because they were very limited in colors. I literally cut my teeth on the Zoom Tapp repaints. They are one of my favorite baits to repaint I probably have done close to a 1000 of these baits over the past 6 years. Skeeter is right about the eyes, they are done with latex. When I am going to repaint a Zoom I remove the clearcoat, tape off the bill and use a rag with denatured alcohol to remove the existing paint job. I don't think that Ed Chambers is using laquer because the paint jobs come off rather easily with the denatured alcohol.I'm not real familiar with laquer because I don't use it (the denatured alcohol also will not damage the lexan lip)once the I'm down to the whit undercoat I sand with 800 grit sandpaper and reprime the bait. I then spray out my pattern and clearcoat. They are awesome baits.

I may waste alot of electricity but anytime I use an epoxy clear coat I spin the baits a minimum of 5.5 to 6 hours. Never had an issue with drips or runs. Usually I clear coat right before I go to bed then when I get up I turn off the wheel

Guys, The only reason I posted my lure pics is to show you all what can be accomplished with sharing of info. If it was not for this site and a few others(mainly this one) the art of lure making would be a forgotten thing. Just think of the guys like Lee Sisson, Jim Bagley, Perry Shockley, and Fred Young. If they had not shared and collaborated info we would all be throwing bobby pin spinners to catch fish. I recently had an extensive conversation with Lee Sisson. I wish I had recorded the conversation, very enlightening. He told me to this day he and several other bait manufacturers talk on a weekly basis and share info. Lee also told me he started out like all of us in our basements making a few baits for friends and it has led to a lifelong career. Keep up the great work guys and keep the pictures coming. Thanks Red, Hughesy and all the others that make this site what it is!! Happy New Year