Joe

Hey Coley, They all look great. I really like the black one on the bottom. The design sorta looks like a spider. That would make a fine logo to incorporate into your paint schemes. Joe

When I made my photo finishes, I primed the bait as if I were going to paint it. Then I used a glue stick ( one with water based glue in a tube with the sponge type applicator ) This worked great, as the glue moistened and softened the white bond paper to a point where it wrapped around curves with little wrinkling. Where I did have a few wrinkles, just dab the spots and lightly work them out with a damp wood dowl. After drying for two days, topcoat with Devcon II and paint. Joe

Enough Said, as they say, " Today is the first day of the rest of our lives". Let's move on and continue learning from one another. Thats what we are all here for. Welcome back. Joe

Coley. you were close. Both baits shown have the 340-108 bills. I don't have a pic of the bait that dives 7', but it has the340-109. I did make some of the baits in balsa, but only as prototypes. Have not fished them yet. The balsa baits needed 1/8 oz. of weight instead of the 1/16 used in the cedar baits. All lures have two $4 mustad hooks. Joe

Coley, I made several types of the D Bait. One has a bill of only 5/8 " long by 1/2" wide. I made the slot angle about 60 degrees. The line tie is right below the nose of the bait. What I was trying to accomplish was the action and diving depth of a footloose or baby 1- . The bait is carved from Spanish Cedar and weighted with a 1/16 oz. worm weight. the bait has a very tight wiggle. I made two others, one witha 15/16 " wide by 3/4" long bill with the line tie on the bill. This bait gets down about 2 1/2 ' and also has a tight wiggle. The other bait has a 1 1/4 " by 1" bill with the line tie on the bill. This bait also has a very tight wiggle and gets down to about 7'. The baits were carved and had slightly rounded sides, unlike a true flat sided crank. I did make several flat sided baits and the action of each of these was more of a wider wobble. Same wood, same bills, same 1/16 oz. weight, but a slightly different more streemlined shape on the carved lures vs. the flat sided baits. This pic shows the two baits with the line ties on the bills. Joe

Hey Chris, My major sponsor ia a self storage company. They offer storage not only for personal belongings, but boats and campers as well. You might check around and make some arrangement that if they have a promotion on site to drum up business, you could attend and have your boat on display and answer any questions their customers may have. I have also worked with a tackle shop and offered to take out their best customers on occation or they could sponsor a contest with the winning prize being a trip out with you. If you are able to pick up a little here and there, it adds up. I'm talking to a bottled water company right now and hope good things come from it. Think outside the box, a sponsor does not have to be a boat company or tackle company. Fisherman use everyday products and many companies who are not directly related to fishing could turn out to be your best bet. Good Luck, Joe

Hey Guys, Let me start off by saying, I know NOTHING about pouring soft plastics. A few weeks ago, a friend gave me some two part mold making material. At the time, I was trying to make a mold of a buzzbait head. The name of the stuff is Pour A mold and Pour A Cast. The mold making material stays fairly soft after curing, but the cast material is very hard and can be cut with a saw, sanded or carved. Not being one to follow the norm, I tried to make a mold of the bait using the casting material and it came out very smoothe and looked good. If any of you would like, I'll be happy to make a mold of a small grub and send it to one of you to see if this material will suite your purpose without having to buy it, not knowing if it would work. Let me know, Joe

Hi Guys, I had my visit from the IRS lady week before last. When selling your baits, if the excise tax is included in the price, such as $1.99 + local tax= total sale. Take the $1.99 divided by 1.1 This gives you your base price. Multiply the base price X .1 to get the amount of excise tax due. $1.99 divided by 1.1 = 1.80 x .1 = .18 So the amount of excise tax due is 18 cents per unit. Hope this helps, Joe

Nathan, Congratulations! That is about the most realistic bait I have ever seen. Don't see how fish could resist it. Good Job. Joe

Hi Guys, A while back, someone posted a pic of what they use to hold baits with through wire hangers. I have tried it and it works. You use the same 3/8" wood dowl that many of us use with a nail, but instead of the nail a length of light weight coat hanger wire is used. Attach 8" of wire to the end of your dowl. After the epoxy holding the wire in place dries, bend the wire in the shape of a C. At the top of the C make a small hook to accept the tail hanger of the bait.Attach a small screw to the side of the dowl about 1/2" from the end where you glued the wire in place. Take another small peice of wire and bend a loop at one end and attach it to the dowl with the screw., then bend a small hook in the other end to attach to the other end of your bait. The tenwion of the bend in your C shape wire will hold the bait straight and secure. Joe

Cody, Better late than never, I guess. Here are the pics you asked me to post. Took a little while for me to learn how to do it. Joe

Hi Guys, I have a customer who would like a special type of buzz bait head. He showed me one of his older baits and the head of the buzz bait is shaped like the body of a frog. It has small eyes moulded into the body and the part of the body in front of the skirt is 7/16" long and 3/8" wide. The weight is 1/4 oz. Does anyone here make this style body or know where I can get them? This customer says he can turn over all I am able to supply. Thanks, Joe

PaBasser, Thanks for the reply. I agree with you about the clacker, but the guys who are having me make these baits insist on the gold clacker. I was able to locate them at Lakeland Ph. # 320 676 3666. When putting the clacker on a pre bent frame, do you just straighten out the wire, insert the clacker and rebend the wire? Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, I could use some help. Some friends have asked me to make buzz baits for them. This is something new to me, but I'll try anything. I have many of the catalogs mentioned on the site, but I have not been able to locate gold clackers to match the gold blades. Also I was asked if some type of cone shaped bead could be placed at the front of the blade to help keep grass from wrapping around the shaft. Has anyone tried this? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe

Cody, I'll try to scan the baits so you can see them. The baits I discribed had shorter lips than the D Bait lip. I did this to try to get a shallow diving version of the lure. I do have others I made with 1 1/4"/x/1" round lips and these dive to around 5' - 6'. The size of that bill is pretty close to the size of the D Bait lip that was posted on the site. Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, Although I have been calling my crankbaits flat sided, they are not as per Skeeters description a while back. I have been carving all my baits and only a small portion of the sides are actually flat. I made some of the D Bait style lures using the true flat sided style as many of you do. While testing the baits today, I was not expecting to see what I did. I tested some of the D Bait style carved like I usually do and those ran with a tight wiggle and to a depth of about 2 1/2 ft. The true flat sided baits ran only about 18 inches deep and had a much wider slower wobble. The looked great, but I couldn't beleive the difference in the actions of the two styles. Both styles are 2 5/8 in. long 1 1/8 in . high, 3/8 in. wide. All are made from Cedar, weighted with a 1/16 oz. worm weight,fitted with 2 # 4 round bend hooks. The lip is a round lip with line tie attached. It's the smaller of that style lip from Jans 15/16 x 3/4. Is the action I described typical to that of a flat sided crankbait? This is my first attempt at making this style bait and really didn't know what to expect?The belly hook and rear hook are attached with 1 1/8 " brass screw eyes .062 dia. Thanks , Joe The action was exactly the same in seven baits of each design.

I like to use two new pencils with erasers. Use one as is for the large dot. Take the second eraser and sharpen it in a hand held pencil sharpener to the size you would like for the smaller dot. Joe

Coley, I remember an article about Tim Hughes in the Red Man magazine several years ago. With the article were pictures of his work shop and his drying wheel at that time was an old bicycle wheel with what I remember to be clothes pins to hold the lure in place. The wheel was mounted to the wall, so that it took up very little room in the shop. I would think with the wheel, the rotation in even through out, just like many of the dryers the rest of us are using. The only problem with the chain, if I follow your thought process, is that the rotation would not be 360 degrees and parts of the lures may not be rotating as many times as it should, not giving the lure even coverage. I'm not sure if that would make a big difference in the drying process or not. Joe

Dave made a good point about the compressors. If you are in the market for one, DO NOT buy the one I have. It was a gift from my wife for X Mas It works fine, but WAY too noisy. It is a Campbell Hausfield , or something like, Joe that from Home Depot.

Paache VL , about $59.00 at Harbour Freight or Dixie Art. It was recomended to me by the guys on this site. Duel action, can't beat the price. Joe

Skeeter, About the only woods I have ever used for lures is Spanish Cedar and Tupelo Gum. Both are very strong woods and can hold up to just about anything. When I first started thinking about using balsa, is about the time you and some others were talking about how the balsa baits may flex under pressure and if this were to happen, the clear coat would crack. At that time, I decided to stay with what I was comfortable with and put off trying the balsa. Recently I figured it was time to give it a try and I figured I should try to strengthen the bait somehow as well as have a means to attach the rear hook hanger and line tie. That was the reason for the wooden dowl. Maybe I was reading too much into what was being said about the flex issue. Like you said, were all guilty of overbuilding baits, but I would rather be guilty of that than not doing it properly. You and others have been a great help in explaining the ins and outs of lure making and I really appreciate that. Thanks, Joe

I got mine from Hilton Corporate Casuals. Ph # 1 888 725 7327 They have a web site look under the Speed Zone section. Joe

Skeeter, The post that had me concerned was one from you. As I said, I have not used balsa for my baits and wasn't sure how to handle the building process. I have taken apart old Bagleys and like you said, they use a length of dowl about 1" long for the rear hanger. The front line tie was in the bill. I guess sometimes I go overkill when I do things, but if I make something for someone I want to be sure it's the best I can do. I have always had something in the back of my mind since I started carving lures a long time ago. A long, long time ago when I was young, I remember one of the Three Stooges programs where one of them started making fishing lures. The bait was so popular, they could not keep up with production. As a marketing tool, they packaged the baits in old tobacco tins. Well as it turned out people were not buying the the lures for what the lure was, but purchased the lure to get the tobacco tin. I want people to buy my lures for what they are, not the package. I guess that is why I try to take the extra step hoping I have done all I could. Thanks, Joe

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the dowl is oak. They were just listed as hardwood dowls. Since the bait and dowl are only about 2 1/2" long I can't see it warping out of shape, but I may be wrong. That's why I'm asking for input. Thanks, Joe

Hi Guys, I have not worked much with balsa for my baits, but thought I would give it a try. I have seen several different ways posted on this site as far as giving the body a back bone for strength. I just tried something, don"t know if anyone else hhas tried this or not. I tried this with the d bait patern. I blocked out my balsa 1/2" thick, 1" High and 2 5/8" long. I traced the pattern to the wood block and drew a line from front to back from where the line tie and rear hook hanger would be placed. While still in block form, I drilled a 1/4" hole through the length of the bait, centered in the width of the bait. Then I took a length of 1/4" wood dowl, cut some grooves in it to give glue something to hold to and glued the dowl into the drilled hole. After cutting the bait on the band saw, I Had a blank ready to be carved with the solid dowl in place to attach the line tie and rear hook hanger. For the belly hook hanger, I cut a 1/4" length of 1/4 oz. mo jo weight and drilled a hole in the belly to install the weight. The screw eye was then epoxied into the hole in the weight. Sorry for going on and on, but wanted to fully explain the process. I tried the bait and it works great. My major concern is will the dowl give enough supprt for the bait to hold up over time? I would appreciate any comments or suggestions. Thanks, Joe