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Some More Homemade Topwaters....
COLT
Member Posts: 12,637 ******
too dark...
I made this...frog (he he) a couple years ago, UGLY!...but the bass love it...[:D]
I have some more but...they are sold to a friend of mine...and I don't want him to see 'em.[8D]
Comments
looked like it would work...so made one. A LOT of todays lures are a knock off of old proven lures!....[:D]
here is the antique one I saw and ripped off the design
I sell most for $13....shipped...not exactly any money to be made at THAT price! Some I charge $18 bucks for, but they are all well worth the price. Balsa is IMO is the best material for topwaters, I hate plastic.
All the plastic baits you buy have those damn decals instead of paint, mine are painted. They all have agood 30 coats of paint, from base coats, to paint...to all the clear coats. With the base coat I use, and all the other coats, ti makes the soft balsa REALLY tough.
... I use 5/16 screws in the hook hangers,and all the "eye" hooks for tie ons and for the back hooks are 3/4" to 1" dependining on the size of the bait. All screws are dabbed with real 2 part epoxy when screwed in...they don't pull out!
...Matter of fact when I fished the ranch lake other day, I didn't
put one of the two small boats kept there in the water...just walked the bank. A new bait I just finished (new design too) that the fish were tearing up...I hung up on a stump that was sticking up a foot out of the water, damn,...of course I would have put one of the boats in the water to get it if I could not have got it loose....too much work just to leave it. I use 30lb spiderwire, almost IMPOSSIBLE
to break...so I just walked backwards with my rod thumbing the spool to apply a LOT of drag, it was stuck fast, ..finally it popped loose and shot past me...figured I'd pulled a hook out; but no!...I had only straightend out one barb on one treble! Took out my leatherman, strightend out the barb, and kept on fishing...need to ck the barb, and maybe change that hook out, but the screws stayed IN, there built tough.
I love 'em, and they produce, and no two are alike, and no plastic with decals! [:D]
...Hell, a good balsa bait when you can find a decent one is $9 bucks plus...and getting harder all the time to find any worth a poop. Custom ones on the net run into the $20's. I make some (about 6 or so dozen a year for a group of guys that just collect 'em...don't use 'em, go figure! If I wanted, I could spend all my time just making baits and would not have time for anything else....or FISHING! [:D]
Hand carving everyone takes about 3-5 hours each, very labor intensive. I'm seriously thinking of a small jet lathe, which would make the designs I like the most REALLY QUICK...it might be worthwhile then to "push" some then. As it is now, hand carving makes a "profit" impossible, and painting is awfully tedeous too, then the drying times, and sanding between each and every coat.
... I have a good friend around Jamestown NY that sent me a poopload of squierrl (sp ck) tails to make buck tails with...need to make some soon, as I ran out of my own tails. The tails he sent are awesome, sable, black, red, blonde....what we DON'T have around here. Bucktails are a pain, and really hard to make, tedious. I need to find some "trick" that enables me to make them a lot quicker...since I have plenty of cool color tails now [:D]
Then my $150 airbrush crapped out now ??, one air mix tip does not work?, and every orfice is clear, have no idea what the crap is wrong with it. Going to clean it up, and put it on ebay, one mix tip works, but it's the tip that sprays from 1/2" to 1"....and I need the tip that sprays 1/16 to 1/4". It's the 150 dual action...the type you need to pat your head, rub your stomach, balance a golfball on your nose....and walk a tight rope at the same time to use it right....going to buy a single action, much, much easier to use....well, got to rambling, later....[;)]
heres the bait I got hung up, and pulled loose straighting the barb, pic taken before I went to the lake...
I sure wish I had your artistic lure making talents using Squirrel tails sent to you from a yankee [;)]
ever catch anything with this lure.......i like it
DaBow,I'll never know...it's headed to upstate NY [:D] Have similar styles I catch fish on, but this one will never touch the water with my rod...[;)]
o. ok. looked like an interesting lure to me