DawnBreaker

Yes, we've all gone through that stage and still do when adding new tricks or techniques. Painting a crank bait for most of us is a learning curve. There are a few out there that can pick it up and paint what they want when they want but they are rare. Airbrushing is no different than learning to play guitar, pitching a jig, or anything else that takes some skill to do. The longer you keep at it, the easier it will get and eventually some youngun will be looking at your baits and saying to himself" MAN! Those are awesome! I want to do that." Just keep at it. Createx washes off. And goes right back on. Trust me. I'm no artist. I usually need a ruler and help to draw a straight line. But I figured out how to paint my own cranks and they catch fish and you will too.

I never liked the Rage craws. They tore up too easily in my opinion. Zoom speed and Ultravibe craws in watermelon/red flake and watermelon seed were my go to baits until I started making my own. I bet you can't guess which two colors I learned to pour first.

I usually have four to six rods on my small two man Twin Troller. I fished tourneys for a few years as a co-angler and I learned to make do with several rods pulling double duty. All my bait casters are Abu Garcia low profile and round reels. 2 6'6" medium heavy action rods. These are my jig, worm, Carolina rig, medium to deep cranks and 1/2 oz lipless cranks rods 1 6'6" medium action rod. This is my shallow crank bait and light lipless (1/4 oz) cranking rod. 1 6'0" medium action rod. This is my top water popper, light rapala x- rap, etc rod. 1 6"0" medium spinning rod. This is my finesse rod and for all those lures too light to throw with a bait caster. I rarely pick it up though. Tackle, well that's a different story. I have a medium "Alice" pack U.S. Army ruck sack that is stuffed with just about anything I might need on the water. Funny enough what ends up within reach most often is my jig box and shallow crank box and a pack of my craw trailers. I don't even want to talk about what it weighs. About the only thing you won't find any or many of in my tackle "bag" are spinner baits and buzz baits. I pretty much never throw either for a few reasons. I suck with them. In 23 years of fishing for bass specifically, I can count the number of bass I have caught on either a spinner or a buzz bait on one hand. (this is mostly my fault for failing to learn the ins and outs of these baits and actually using them.) Come spring here in East-Central Illinois everybody and their brother has a spinner bait tied on in chartreuse or white or some combination of those colors and they are chucking and winding it all day. And well into summer and fall. I learned many years ago, during a club tourney in Georgia, the value of doing something different behind the guy on the front deck. This lesson is also easily applied to the 3-5 boats going down the same bank/area in front of me chucking and winding the aforementioned spinner or buzz baits. (I take great pleasure in following behind them with my jig, or a worm and sometimes a shallow crank and catching all those fish they didn't.) If I had more room I'd probably carry a few more rods as I like having spares.

I was a Zoom user until I bought my mud bug mold from Do-it/Caney Creek.

You'll hear a lot of these in East Central Illinois. Mostly depending on how much I or others want to pull the "aw shucks" routine on some jerk from Chicago and the like. "I'd like to buy him for what he's worth and sell him for what HE THINKS he's worth." Y'all, Crick, and a host of others. My dad's favorites were "Slicker than goose _ _ _ _ through a tin horn and "Goose drowner" and several not family friendly ones.

I haven't shot the Delmart craw. When I was looking for an upgrade to my craw baits I ended up choosing this mold http://www.caneycreekmolds.com/375-Mud-Bug_p_227.html It shoots great. And it works as a stand alone bait, or a jig trailer. I get the best of both worlds with the claw design as well. Flaps great on quick retrieves and still has some subtle wiggle to it on slow retrieves or if I'm just soaking it. If i need it a little smaller length a little pinch off the body takes care of that. If you'd like I could send you some pictures of some of the baits I've shot recently.

Glad to meet you John.

If you are talking about heat setting paint to dry it, with Createx and hobby acrylics you can use a regular hair dryer to set and help dry the paint. Also if you type your question into the search box you'll find many of the answers you are looking for. edited for thought clarity.

Nice to meet you too Ben and you're welcome.

I'd like to start with a big thank you to everyone that contributes here. I lurk and read a lot. Just about everything I know about this hobby addiction I learned here. I will answer questions if I'm sure I know what I'm talking about. But, often there are better replies from more knowledgeable members here and I don't see cluttering up a post with my $.02 just to say basically the same thing. With that out of the way. My name is Aaron Wildman. Yes, that is my real last name, and yes, I was born with it. (If you come up with one I haven't heard yet I'll buy you dinner.) I will be 45 in June, however my age is very inappropriate for how I act. (I'm fond of telling people I'm sixteen with 29 years of experience) I spent ten years in the Army and served in the Gulf War and Somalia and a couple of other nasty places nobody cares about.Since then I've become a jack-of-all-trades. My job got franchised out in October of last year so I spent the winter pushing snow and I decided to start my own mowing business this year. I'm married with two kids.The wife and kids got into bass fishing big time two years ago so I started making my own jigs, soft plastics and painting my own crank baits mostly to ease the burden on my wallet from lost lures, etcetera. That and I'm always looking for an edge even if I'm not fishing tournaments. I learn something new everytime I log in here and I'll give back when I can.

Great article. Thanks for sharing. I'm already turning a couple of ideas over in my head for my cranks.

I'm not Nathan but, I hang a paperclip from mine and twist it around a little bit a few minutes after dipping. Then the next day I take them off the rack and run a small drill bit through the rear hanger to clear it out. Haven't had any issues yet.