How Did It All Start?

[HickoryHollow]

I would love to hear everyones story!

 

Do you have an actual lure business where you make all, or part of your income from lures?

 

Do you just do it as a hobby only?

 

Did it start as a hobby and grow into a business?

 

How many lures to you make in a year?

 

etc.

 

Nobody seems to talk about these things.....com'on guys.....let's have the down and dirty!

 

 

[gone2long]

Well I'm actually from the dark side (Soft Baits ) I have been doing that for 6 plus years stumbled upon TU and it all went downhill from there, I pour for myself but it's like heroin I've invested in the neighborhood of $3000 on the softies. Just started painting cranks this year but spent a year lurking and you-tubing my backside off so I got off to a very good start and find it a little more relaxing than injecting but I'll keep that going, no box store has what I can produce and I can whip it up on demand. Have no interest in small business I'll leave that to others, once it becomes a business it's no longer any fun! Also pour my own jigs/powder paint/skirts so now I can produce the entire bait/rig myself and as all will tell you it doesn't get any better than catching your first fish on your creation.

[mark poulson]

I'm a hobby builder.  I am also a carpenter.

I started when I wanted to replace a 9" Pupfish that I had borrowed from a friend and broken.

I figured I could make a replacement for him out of wood, and I did, out of some douglas fir I had in my garage.

I sealed it and painted it with rattle can paints I already had, and that worked, too, but I was very limited in my painting abilities, so I started experimenting with air brushing and Createx paints

Once I saw I could make baits that worked, I decided to try jointed baits, after the same friend lost a triple trout lure two weeks in a row.  Again, I was able to make lures that worked and caught fish.

But, because I was now using Createx and other water based paints, water intrusion at the hinge connections became an ongoing issue, and I posted here trying to find a wood sealer that would work.

JR Hopkins turned me on to AZEK PVC decking and trim board as a building material, and I finally had something I could make and sell and not have to worry about water intrusion failures.

So I began selling swimbaits.  I quickly found that what was a fun hobby quickly became work, with no fun, once I started selling, so I stopped selling.

I make lures now for me and my friends, and lure making is fun again.

[HickoryHollow]

Gon2long and Mark,

Interesting stories.....I hope lots more will join in. If is interesting hearing everyones stories!

[BobP]

I started with modifications to some wood baits.  Then tried repainting some really ugly wood baits I saw in the $2 gimme bin at Walmart.  Awhile later, I got disappointed with the quality and durability of some commercial balsa baits I was fishing - thought a  $15 bait should last longer than one day - so began building my own and got caught up in the idea that you could make any wood bait bait design you can imagine as long as you learn the skills and have the initiative and patience needed to do it right.  It took me a few years to develop the skill and patience aspects. Then I realized that I will never learn everything there is to know about building crankbaits - so it's a hobby that can challenge you for a lifetime - the best kind of hobby IMO.

 

I come from a family of retailers and know the pros/cons of business and dealing with customers.  Some guys get a kick (and income) out of selling their creations but to me, it would just ruin a treasured hobby.  The way I like to hand build baits is not translatable into a production environment where time is money.  So that aspect of building just doesn't interest me.

[joliepa]

I appreciate the sharing of backgrounds of our veteran and prolific regulars.   Along with a couple others I have been absolutely obsessing about your advice.

 

for myself, i think I'm an open book and have shared quite alot of why I'm interested in the know a good wobble / video measurements threads.

 

still, Hickory Hollow whats your story?  I know you intended to get a sense of what drives people to start a business doing lures- but hobbyist are interesting creatures yourself.  from my experiences I can tell that a great fishing lure is hours of work and years in the making.

 

what drove you to start doing your own lures?

[sonoman]

 I am a tournament bass guy who constantly has to tweak everything to make it better, what started as refining known lures has developed into a pile of jig and spinnerbait molds, which i sell to friends, we buy in bulk as often as possible so we cut our costs way down and make things exactly as we want rather than take what the mfg. gives us...a couple of years ago the wife gave me a small lathe for Christmas and I didn't realize it at the time how much I  would use this thing, since then I  have literally made hundreds of topwater lures, over this time I have finally got one tweaked to the point that I have a few guys that keep me hoppin making these things, I  enjoy making the lures and I  especially  like the success these guys and myself have had in competition using them...Its an awesome hobby and one you can take great pride in as your craft gets better and better...Its very satisfying having a bunch of competitors calling you up in secret needing your stuff...lol, have a great one           Bryan

[HickoryHollow]

I appreciate the sharing of backgrounds of our veteran and prolific regulars.   Along with a couple others I have been absolutely obsessing about your advice.

 

for myself, i think I'm an open book and have shared quite alot of why I'm interested in the know a good wobble / video measurements threads.

 

still, Hickory Hollow whats your story?  I know you intended to get a sense of what drives people to start a business doing lures- but hobbyist are interesting creatures yourself.  from my experiences I can tell that a great fishing lure is hours of work and years in the making.

 

what drove you to start doing your own lures?

joliepa,

Ok, here is my story.

I made my first lure over 40 years ago. It was a small hobby all through my teen years. Then life got in the road, a wife, two daughters, dogs, houses, pigs, horses, cows, chickens, gardens, on and on. The girls are grown now and the house is empty.

 

The last time I made lures, was way before the internet. Now, as I am looking for a little additional income to supplement my upcoming retirement, I thought I would get back in. Jump with both feet!   :-)

[toadfrog]

My lure making started with the first creepy crawler sets on the market and yanking the tail feathers from my moms prize rooster .Had I known then how far ahead of my time I was I may have been a major contender in tackle today . Alas hind sight is 20/20 . Had a business or two but it became a drag . Now I just experiment with out of the box ideas . If its crazy I'm probably game .  Hobby yes and no . It is therapy  my escape from the humdrum days in my life . It is a quest to do what no senseable  man would and  yet make it work . Upside I get to let everyone critique my nuttie ideas . Some think I should not be allowed out of my house . Others cheer me on . It's all good and FUN.

[RayburnGuy]

My lure making started with the first creepy crawler sets on the market and yanking the tail feathers from my moms prize rooster .Had I known then how far ahead of my time I was I may have been a major contender in tackle today . Alas hind sight is 20/20 . Had a business or two but it became a drag . Now I just experiment with out of the box ideas . If its crazy I'm probably game .  Hobby yes and no . It is therapy  my escape from the humdrum days in my life . It is a quest to do what no senseable  man would and  yet make it work . Upside I get to let everyone critique my nuttie ideas . Some think I should not be allowed out of my house . Others cheer me on . It's all good and FUN.

 

Count me as one who cheers you on Toadfrog. Just remember to stay safe. I must admit when you posted about the "cook-n-stir" it reminded me of the joke about the frog in the blender.

 

As far as how I got started making lures it all started with a friend of mine asking me to paint some baits for him. He knew I had fished since I was old enough to walk a creek bank and figured I would be able to come up with some stuff he could use. It started out just painting baits. Having worked with my hands my entire life the "fabrication" side of me came into play and I wanted to learn how to build lures. Thanks to all the good folks here at TU who were willing to answer my never ending questions I've been able to build a few baits. Some of which actually catch fish.

 

Ben

Edited October 31, 2013 by RayburnGuy

[Tracy G]

I started making fishing equipment as a kid, running through the woods of Mississippi, making flies and bobbers out of what ever I could find (Momma's game rooster hated my guts). 

I never fished crankbaits untill a few years ago. I became interested in handmade cranks, but the prices scared me away.

Long story short. Being a mechanic by trade, I had to try to make my own, so I would keep a piece of popular in my pocket and carve on it when time would allow. That bait caught an 8 pound Bowfin and I have been addicted ever since.  It wasn't untill a year into building cranks (a lot that didn't work) that I found this great site.

I consider myself a hobby builder even though I do sell baits and pay taxes. I just don't really take special orders, I make enough to take the wife out to dinner from time to time and that's fine for me, I build and paint what I want, when I want. I get a big sense of pride when people buy my creations. And who knows, I might go full fledge one day, but for now I'm enjoying the ride.

[Travis]

I started making lures about 20 years ago when in college.  At first it was soft plastics as I couldn't readily find a big worm so we were making Frankenstein worms by melting several zoom magnums or baby hueys together to get some large worms.  I made some cranks during that point also and a few top waters but nothing too serious.  I ended up getting married and moving to essentially the dark hole of fishing compared to what I had before.  I ended up pouring soft plastics and making cranks to attempt to at least be doing something fishing related.  Hobby for the most part but have made some money off an on selling stuff.  Looked at going a little more serious into it but can't spend the time needed without seriously hampering my goal of retirement.  

[EdL]

ME - I'm still starting out.  At least it seems that way cause I learn something everyday. TU is great for this.

I had a job that lasted 40 years and one day I thought I'd quit and start up a hobby to occupy my time and do something with the remaining brain cells I have and keep them working.  Since I like to fish I decided why not try making some baits.

[littleriver]

The hobby and an old tacklebox.

 

Over thirteen years ago a neighbor waved me over to show me an old tacklebox. As he opened the old metal box,  a strong chemical odor was the first thing to hit my senses. Once i uncurled my nose and opened my eyes, they were met with some of the oldest most unusual fishing lures i had ever seen. Some factory and some homemade. He was having a yard sale and knew I liked to fish and offered to sell the box and all the lures for twenty bucks. I quickly agreed, ran and got my twenty bucks and promply carried the box of lures from my neighbors basement to mine. And that is where they sat for the next ten years. 

 

Funny how life changes. I was a single man then. No children or wife and plenty of time to fish and play to my hearts content. While the old box lay in my basement , life was changing for sure. Married , three kids and ten years later, I was cleaning the basement out to make room for my growing family. And this is where the old box of lures resurfaces. My first thought was to find out what I had and if anything was of value to sell . I asked everyone i knew but no one seemed to have answers to the old box and the lures inside. As i was cleaning out the basement, I had begun to sell a few of the items on ebay and an idea struck me. Why not try and sell one of the old lures. Maybe I could find out more about them in the process. So I picked one of the baits and place an ebay ad. 

 

 

I placed the opening bid at 30 dollars and waited. It wasn't long before I got a nibble. A really nice collector who wanted more photos of the bait. As I sent him more photos, he would send me several teasing  bits of information on the old bait. But he never would give up the name of the bait or its maker. As the auction was went on , he finally sent me an email revealing the maker and name of the old bait. But before he sent the email he did one thing.  He placed a bid on the old bait. The bid was placed to assure i could not back out on the sale once i knew the maker of the bait. After doing a bit of googling I knew I had something special.

 

(to be continued)

[nedyarb]

Little river, that's a great story! I started four years ago making plastics. I was tired of spending money buying sweet beavers, I didn't realize the molds were so difficult to find. But I made a few other plastic lures and soon started reading the hard bait section. I realized I had all the tools to make a crankbait and made my first one. It swam like crap and I realized how difficult it was. So I just bought some kos. Three years later I have figured out a couple types of lures I can make that actually swim and sell a few on ebay!

[Matt M]

I'm a hobbyist. I have been toying around with making lures since high school but got serious about it two years ago. I have an uncle who ties flies. He really started motivating me but I have no interest in fly fishing so I focused on crank baits. With a little help from a friend who makes awesome crank baits and the info on TU I have been honing my craft. I make what I consider to be a mediocre crank bait. I get a lot of positive feedback from others and I catch fish. I don't sell any lures. I fish them myself and barter them to a friend who owns a cypress mill for rough cut cypress to make more lures.

[rhersh]

The hobby and an old tacklebox.

 

Over thirteen years ago a neighbor waved me over to show me an old tacklebox. As he opened the old metal box,  a strong chemical odor was the first thing to hit my senses. Once i uncurled my nose and opened my eyes, they were met with some of the oldest most unusual fishing lures i had ever seen. Some factory and some homemade. He was having a yard sale and knew I liked to fish and offered to sell the box and all the lures for twenty bucks. I quickly agreed, ran and got my twenty bucks and promply carried the box of lures from my neighbors basement to mine. And that is where they sat for the next ten years. 

 

Funny how life changes. I was a single man then. No children or wife and plenty of time to fish and play to my hearts content. While the old box lay in my basement , life was changing for sure. Married , three kids and ten years later, I was cleaning the basement out to make room for my growing family. And this is where the old box of lures resurfaces. My first thought was to find out what I had and if anything was of value to sell . I asked everyone i knew but no one seemed to have answers to the old box and the lures inside. As i was cleaning out the basement, I had begun to sell a few of the items on ebay and an idea struck me. Why not try and sell one of the old lures. Maybe I could find out more about them in the process. So I picked one of the baits and place an ebay ad. 

 

PA273164.JPG

 

I placed the opening bid at 30 dollars and waited. It wasn't long before I got a nibble. A really nice collector who wanted more photos of the bait. As I sent him more photos, he would send me several teasing  bits of information on the old bait. But he never would give up the name of the bait or its maker. As the auction was went on , he finally sent me an email revealing the maker and name of the old bait. But before he sent the email he did one thing.  He placed a bid on the old bait. The bid was placed to assure i could not back out on the sale once i knew the maker of the bait. After doing a bit of googling I knew I had something special.

 

(to be continued)

littleriver, ever thought about becoming a writer? The suspence is killing me. lol

[littleriver]

                                                                                                                                     2

 

 

Time was running out on the auction and so were my options. The bait, I learned, had been made just a few miles from my home. The makers were local and had produced baits from the 50's thru the 70's. Now I had a decision to make. I really didn't like being cornered(checked). And after doing some sole searching, I decided; I really didn't want this bait to leave home. I knew my collector friend would be mighty sore. He was really looking forward to adding this bait to his collection. But I felt strongly it's place was with the small collection where I found it. Before listing the bait on ebay, I had made a deep, what if, search into my options as a seller. Who wants to sell a big money bait for thirty bucks, right? I knew from the beginning It may not be in my best interest to sell the bait. Turns out, I could cancel any auction for any reason(or no reason at all) and cancel all bids. The only catch is it had to be done at least 24 hours prior to  the auction end time. So, I sent the collector a letter explaining how I felt and did my best to explain why I was keeping the bait. Next, I cancelled the auction and all bids, Checkmate!

 

Tennessee Shad by Jim Lovingood and Boots Anderson was the name of the bait and the makers. Seems some time in the early sixties these two makers worked together making baits for local fishermen. As time passed they parted ways but this bait was an early one from their time together. I believe this bait was made by Jim Lovingood. Boots was known to  put two kill spots on his baits so people could tell them apart. They made some of the first balsa cranks in TN, if not the first. They were reported to have taught many a new maker the secrets of balsa crankbait making. It is said they were even visited by Fred Young and it is from this pair he learned the trade. 

 

The more I learned about the baits; the more I wanted to know. They were opening doors and taking me places I had not expected. One of the  people I visited was Jim Lovingood's son. Jim Jr. He confirmed for me that the baits were indeed some of his father's and Boots Anderson. He also confirmed they were early. Infact, he said he was happy to see some of these early baits had survived. He asked a question of me I had not thought to ask myself. Where did i get the baits? My neighbor had moved away by this time and I had really not thought to ask my neighbor about them but Jim insisted to know where the baits came from. So, I looked my neighbor up and gave him a call.

 

(to be continued) :-)

[mark poulson]

Tease!

[bassguy]

     This may sound strange but the lure building started at the beach here in Northern California. My wife and I frequent an area almost every Sunday and while walking down to the water, I spotted a piece of fire wood. A beautiful piece of flawless pine, "not" a knot one in it. I stashed it in the garage and let it season for almost a year.

     Well, actually I totally forgot about it but, one afternoon it surfaced. I set up the table saw and cleaned it up enough to slab off two or three nice pieces. I took a Buck knife a went to town on one of them and after an hour or so of whittling, I had the shape I was looking for and was quite surprised. I wasn't versed in the way to weight the bait so, I did land on TU and lurked and listened.

     I ventured to find other sites but TU pulled me back and I found some answers I needed. A piece of Lexan for the bill, two screw eyes and a piece of copper wire for the line tie and I was in business.

     My son found an old Wren airbrush he had from his bodywork days. I mixed a couple of colors of Patio paint to get a color similar to a Fire Tiger pattern. It came out alright but I was really hooked when my wife and I took it to our local lake to see how it would perform. I was shocked, it was perfect. A great to and fro wobble and it did dive to at least 6 feet only because that was how deep that area was but now I didn't want to loose it. So it hangs on the shelf in my shop. Retired, that was 10 or 12 years ago.

     Now all the baits I make are from PVC, only because it is very forgiving and it doesn't need to be waterproofed. I wouldn't mind to get into the selling aspect but have a reluctance to get started. Like what if no one wants them or I get overwhelmed.....well another story, but good luck to those who venture into that mode.

[woodieb8]

my start was watching my dad in the 1950,s. fast forward to the early 80,s. then it took over. yes I build for profit,to offset my minimal pension.. the love is still there the thrill when you get a report of big muskies/pike caught on your product is exciting. one thing to be made clear though is. its great to come on line and see the creations and thoughts. worldwide..

thru the years we have helped young. folks in the aspect of fishing and creating.

after all its all in vain unless we keep the intrest in the outdoors and fishing.

[RayburnGuy]

my start was watching my dad in the 1950,s. fast forward to the early 80,s. then it took over. yes I build for profit,to offset my minimal pension.. the love is still there the thrill when you get a report of big muskies/pike caught on your product is exciting. one thing to be made clear though is. its great to come on line and see the creations and thoughts. worldwide..

thru the years we have helped young. folks in the aspect of fishing and creating.

after all its all in vain unless we keep the intrest in the outdoors and fishing.

 

Well said Woodie.   Sometimes we get so caught up in something that we can forget that's it not just about the here and now. If we don't pass along the passion for all things fishing the very thing we care about so much can wither and die. Thanks for reminding us.

 

Ben

[littleriver]

                                                                                                                 3

 

 

Bill was happy to hear from me. They had only moved a short distance away. He and his wife both retired; they wanted a single story home . So, they had one built on a lot they owned only a few blocks away. After some small talk, I got to the point of my call. I explained what I had learned about the baits in the old tacklebox and asked if he could tell me more about the baits and the box. He said the box belonged to Doc Moser. Doc was his wife's uncle. According to Bill, Doc was a hell of a fisherman. He was known to be the sort who could catch a fish out of a mud puddle. As Doc grew older, Bill would often take Doc fishing with him. And when Doc passed away, the tackle box was given to Bill by the family. I guess it was their way of saying thank you. Bill went on to say that Doc was known by the family to fish with Boots once upon a time.

 

 

Now I had the connection. I went back to Jim with the new information. He mulled it over for a bit and said there was a Doc that he remembered in their small circle of friends. I then asked why he wanted know where the baits came from? What he said next really surprised me.

 

( to be continued)   

[Jdeee]

Littleriver this is better than 16 shades of grey LOL

[Cougarftd]

I have been painting for a couple of years now...and yes you learn/discover new tricks every day. I sell a few here and there but mainly do it as a stress reliever from my full time business. It is uncanny how you forget about everything else when you get creative. I am amazed at all the talent on this site and how willing people are to share and teach.