Mattlures

I am good. Fires all around my area but I am safe. My eyes burn and my throat is soar but I got a lot of work done becuase I was off work for 4 days. The sky is ugly!

4.75

No way Biz, I got you all beat! When you have to have a seperate builiding just for your fishing gear becasue the spare bedroom that used to be your designated fishing room is now too small. When all you do all year long is make more baits but hardley ever fish them. And my favorite.. when you own probably 10,000 diferent baits but you only fish 15 of those with any regularity!

I wouldnt get a machined mold until after you have tested the bait and there is a demand. Carve your master, and then get a kit from Smooth-on to make a silicon mold. If you have questions about how to make a mold ask their tech's If the bait works and you believe it will be a hit then invest in some aluminum molds. There is a real easy way to not get sued over patents....DONT STEAL ANYBODY ELSES DESIGN!!!!!!!! that way you wont need to worry about it. Come up with your own original idea and you will be fine. Also you get much more satisfaction out of designing your own succesful creation then copying sombody elses hard work. Carve your own. I am sure it will be similar to other things but it will still be yours. You have a better chance of succeding with your own designs then with copied baits. The only way to make money selling copies is to to sell them soo cheap your margin is very small soo you will need to sell alot just to make a little. Plus you will be competing with the thousands of other little guys doing the samething and making the same baits.

David I corrected myself. It is not the easiest thing. However is was very easy for me. I just bought some parts and started wrapping. It was easy. Now I did get some basic tips and a quick rundown from the guys at the store where I bought everything. There are a bunch of little trcks that make things easyer. Most of these thing you only need to be shown once. Looking for the spline takes about a minute. Guide placement is simple and most of the other steps are to. I am not trying to insult you or your work. I just looked at your threads and your rods are beauitiful. Very impresive. The reason I said they are so easy is sombody asked how hard they are to do and IMO it is not dificult. Time consuming yes. Now Of cource I am only talking about basic wrapping. The diamond wraps and weaves are not basic. Matching componets to specific action or a specif customer need requires a lot of knowledge. Did you look at the pics I posted? those diamond wraps and some of the guides were put on using phone books. Once I bought a rod wrapper the guids became super fast and effortless. The diamond wraps were still done by phone book. I have no desire to build any more. If I was going to do that I would just have you do it for me. I like your work. After reading my post again I might have came off a little arogant. I apologize, thats not what I was going for. I was just trying to encourage the beginners to give it a try. It doesnt cost to much to get started and it can be a lot of fun.

Ok here are some pics. The pics suck but you get the idea. The date is wrong on them also, I was too lazy to reset my camera. I am showing these not to brag or discredit anybody, but to show you that it can be done with minimal equipment and experiance. However It can be time consuming and because of the cost of components, I never realy saved much money. if those didnt work here is the links http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2713.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2720.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2721.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/DCP_2724.jpg these all took a while but to do simple wrap its prety easy. Maybe I shouldnt have said its the easiest thing because its not but.... anybody who wants to try it, should. Start by taking an old rod and rewrap it. If you screw up no big deal

Well let me explain why it is easy. You can do it without any special tools. My first rods I used a drill and a couple blocks of wood as a drying setup. I used two phonebooks, as my rod wrapper. It is easyer with a wrapping machine( I had one of those too) but to make a few rods you dont need it. My rods came out perfect the first time, there was nothing dificult. I will psot pictures later. All my wrapped rods are at least 7 years old but you will get the picture. I think I put maybe 8hrs at most into each one but I got faster as I went. When I say easy I mean, ANYBODY can do a basic wrap. There is nothing dificult about epoxing the real seat and grips , and wrapping some guides on. For me it is just not worth it to do anymore. I might make a repair but even then most quality components cost almost as much as a finished rod so I didnt save any money. I do have some baddass looking rods but I dont have the time or desire to do anymore. If I had to have custom I would probably pay for it know.

Building rods is about the easyest thing you can do. You dont need any fancy tools. Youl need a drying motor and a couple phone books along with your rod components. I have made a bunch of rods a long time ago. I would just watch tv with my thread going through one phone book and the other one on top of it for added pressure and just turn the rod by hand. I made some awsome complex diamond wraps this way. The hardest part was was getting a good clean clearcoat but even that wasnt that hard. There are a lot of little tips that I am sure the guys here can help you with like Always check the spline.

Forbizz took the words right out of my mouth. Bill dance is a neat guy too. He has been around for 200 years and has done a ton for this sport

Use a falcon hook and rig them weedless

OK keep mine and throw all the others away. Now go buy a huddleston 5 or 12 and a 9 MS Slammer. The money you spent on those 3 would probably add up to what you paid for all the others and they are 100000x's better. You will need a setup for the slammer and Hudd other good baits to start with All of mine(take it for what ist worth coming from me ) Triple trout Rago rat 3:16 hard baits Those are all proven, and proven by guys who know how to fish swimbaits. Yeah I know you wont listen but if you ever get hooked and keep at it you will admit that my advise was right on. It might take you a year or two to realize it though. PS I got nothing to gain by recomending any of my competitors baits. We are not friends and if you put us in a room together we would kill each other I just know from personal experiance and talking to about 1000 of the best swimbait guys what actualy works!

I have always fished them as slow as possible. I prefer a loud squeek. No clacker or doubles, just a single bladed loud sqweek. BPS used to make a good one

About 5 years ago Bassproshops had a titanium buzzbait. It was thier brand. This was my favorite buzzer. I have tried other titanium buzzers from terminator but i like the bass pro ones better. Well since the titanium wire was patented bass pro had to stop making them. Do any of you guys happen to have one of those BPS titanium buzzers. If so I would like to trade you a nice expecive swimbait for it. I know this is unlikely but I figured I would ask. Any color.

Triton9 I kinda figured you were just funnin. No need to apologize at all, I just wanted to be clear and I apreciate your suport of my baits Now back to the original Topic...Basstrix. Bruce porter was one of the original big rubber swimbait guys from 15 years ago. He made a basic full bodied swimbait that was dipped much like his little paddle tail tubes. They are crude by todays standards but at the time they were on of the best big baits out. His little tubes truley are quality and I honestly beleiv they will out fish the knock offs. They swim good but more importantly they look realy good anf have great paintgobs with cool scale effects. I know they are grossly overpriced on ebay but if you can get them at regular retial price, I recomend you give them a try. Use a weighted falcon type hook and you can rig them weedles. They are not a big fish bait but they are money bait.

Triton9 my bait is absolutly not a knock off. I dont make knockoffs. All my baits are my designs. I said it would compete with the Basstrix not copy them. Actualy if you laid the two next to each other the only similarity would be that they both have boot tails and eyes. There are knock offs out there and from what I have heard they are not as good as the originals. Imagine that! For any of you that are interested in trying a Basstrix, I do recomend going with the originals. I do not personaly know Bruce Porter but I have met him and he seems to be a good guy. he has been in the game many years before me and I respect that. His baits are quality. when the market gets flooded with rip offs the originals will become easyer to get. They may cost a buck or 2 more but they are worth it. They realy are neat little baits. I think I got them beat though.

Randall I do not disagree with you. You have the fish to back up your statements. Most guys just like to sound like they know what they are talking about especialy with swimbaits. I Have never thrown that KM but since there realy isnt a great gizzard shad bait on the market that might be a bait to look at under those conditions. HMMM maybe there is a nitch i need to fill....

RW on the surface there doesnt seem to be much diference but The SS realy is not a good bait. The action is poor. The baits do produce in the salt but there are still much better options. The diference may not be huge but they are there. Do one of your comparisons like yoiu did with the real Senkos and the rip offs. I think your results with the sassys vs basstrix will be much more lopsided. Soon I will be releasing a bait that will compete with the basstrix. It will be an exact replica of a shiner with a belly slit and a boot tail.

You are about to make the most common mistake in swimbaiting. Why would you handicap yourself? The notion that starting with cheap baits and working your way up to good baits is bassakwards and just plain waist of time and money. Yes I am sure the storm bait have caught some fish and even a few big ones but i am aslo sure that quality baits will catch big fish 25 -1 over the storms. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY out here who consistantly catches big fish uses junk baits. They have learned that if your going to put the time and effort into hunting those big bass why would you ever handicap your self with a bait that looks and swims nothing like a real bait fish. Those big bass didnt get big by being stupid. Now coming from me this must sound like a comercial but....... if you give me an idea of your fishing situation I will recomend a quality bait that is NOT made by me. Buying a bunch of storms etc is the equivalent of bying a bunch of $10 rods as aposed to a couple decent ones. Trust me you will save money in the long(and short) run buy buying quality in the first place.

Oh man I though you knew the weight and we were guessing to see who would be closer. *In that case since you didnt bring a scale you have to be conservative or you will be lying to yourself Now I say it weighs 5.5lbs

I definatly enjoy using more than buying HOWEVER sometimes I like making it more than using it!

I plan on making one that will cost $305. I am not kidding either. I will only sell a handfull but it will be fun

wow this might be the first time in history I am the high guesser. I say 7

Yes you have to cure them. If you dont the powder coating is brittle and will chip with just about any contact. You dont have to heat them too high to cure them. I think I put them in the oven @ 350 for 15-30 minutes. I have never had problems with it doing anything negative to the hooks.

Protec powder paint ... a couple pointers. After you dip your heads, clean out your eye holes then cure them. If you dont, it will be very hard to clean them after they are cured. aslo be sure you cure them. If you dont they will chip easily. You can use spike it dye but I think you would get better results by using worm coloring. Yes the type we use to mix into our liquid plastic. The color chartruse bleeds if anything touches it. If you took you white baits and put them in a ziplock bag and poured in some coloring from lurecraft or MF all your baits would turn a nice bright chartruse How is the mold working out for ya?

Well thanks for the compliments. Its too bad you cant play a big swimbait fish in but with any big bait, they have a lot of leverage and they are usualy smart old big fish that have learned how to break you off. You just gotta stick it to them. Sorry for hyjacking your post Gameover. Your post could help alot of people and its fun to invent diferent scents. You can mix all kind of things in your mixture.