smalljaw67

There are skirt making kits with colors specifically picked out for spinnerbaits but nothing else in kit form. I make my own spinnerbaits from cutting and bending the wire to pouring the lead but I got started by doing the very thing you are asking about. What I would do is get the skirt making kit, I'll leave a link but most lure supply shops should carry it. In addition to the kit I'd get an assortment of blades, figure out what sizes you will most often use and get Colorado, willow, and Indiana blades and perhaps something different like a Royal blade. If you spend around $100, you'll have a good set up to modify a lot of baits, you could even buy spinnerbait heads painted or unpainted and build your own rather than modifying an existing bait. A lot of options, good luck...................https://www.barlowstackle.com/Skirt-Making-Kits-C118.aspx

The OP is looking for baits UNDER $15, not at $15.

I like fishing jerkbaits, and I have a bunch of different types and brands. The Rapala Shadow Rap is really good, I've taken to using it more and more. The X-Rap is one of my top 5, they don't get much press anymore as they are common and don't have a high price tag but they just work and they work in a variety of conditions. The Smithwick Rogue, I put these in a category I call "must haves" when it comes to jerkbaits, the regular suspending rogue and the newer Elite 8 are fantastic. There are others like the RC STX as well as some store brands that are good, I've also taken a liking to the Yo-Zuri 3DB jerkbait, it is 3.5" and is just under 1/2oz so you can cast it well but it only dives to 2' so it performs better in the higher temp range for suspending baits. The last one is my "best value" pick, the Storm Twitch Stick, they are relatively cheap but catch fish and I like them a lot. They have a size 8 and 10, the larger one weighs 5/8oz and reminds me of a Pointer 100, it has a larger profile, nice heavy hooks and it has a distinct wobble when you pause it, the newer ghost colors have exceeded my expectations.

I saw a picture of those jigs he ties on the slider head, impressive to say the least.

I use the small #1 5304 and I have to get them direct from Owner. I asked if they made a #2 and I was told the smallest is the #1 in the 5304, so where are you getting a size #2, I'm interested because I'd like to try those myself.

Go to Cabela's online and you can check if your store has it. Cabela's carries it, go online and select the thread and then when you choose the color look at the bottom of the box, it will say "check in store availability". Just choose the state and store and you can find out if they have any.

I camp and launch at River Front Campground in Duncannon a lot, in fact I've fished that stretch from Montgomery Ferry down to the Statue since the late 80s. The other posters gave you great information so I can only add a little bit. As you were already told, the weather can really vary as can the river level but I will try to get you a good range of baits that should have you covered. Tubes, if you want to keep it simple you need to have only 2 color tubes to limit what you carry, those would be green pumpkin if the water is warm and by warm I mean above 52 and lower water temp you want smoke purple. Use inside jig heads, 1/8oz to 1/4oz depending on current, and then other baits for that time of year that I use with regular success are as follows. Hair jigs, not large ones but ones ranging in size from 1/16oz to 1/4oz, if the current is fast with high water the fish will hold tight to the bank around eddies and other slack water areas, a small hair jig or tube will work well. Jerkbaits are amazing if you have some water clarity which generally means a low flow and that could be the case depending on how the rest of the winter pans out. Don't rule out cranks either, I like one knocker lipless baits if the water is heavily stained, I like the rattlers when the water has some clarity, also shallow diving flat side cranks work extremely well, Rapala DT Flat 3s are good as well as a Bomber Flat A, and a shad rap is good if you don't have really fast heavy current. You got great suggestions, and I left out swim baits, but a 3" to 4" finesse swimbait fished on a slow steady retrieve or fished like a tube can work wonders, and if you have of the 3" Mann's Stingray grubs in avocado or green pumpkin, well those are killer as well, but having a combination of those things will have you covered.

Nothing magic about it, the color is highly visible in muddy water and is different than chartreuse. A lot of anglers that fish in heavily stained water say that fish become conditioned to chartreuse so this color seems to work better as it is visible but different.

That would be me....To Bill Brasky!!!!!!! LOL!!!

The spinnerbait is my favorite lure and I throw it a lot. I also like square bills and other shallow to mid diving cranks and for me it has to do with where the fish are and water clarity. If I'm fishing a spinnerbait shallow, there has to be wind or stained water, if the water is on the clear side with no wind I'll opt for the crank. In all honesty though, there really isn't any general rule of thumb, more often than not you simple have to let the fish tell you what they want. I've had days when the fish were feeding up and they would destroy a spinnerbait pulled just below the surface but they wouldn't touch a crankbait. I've also experience the exact same conditions when they wouldn't look at a spinnerbait but a square bill bounced off a rock would work. I try to use the spinnerbait more often, especially if there are snags but sometimes the fish want that the crank and in dirty water a crankbait banging the rocks with a hard rattle will generally get more bites but you really have to let the fish tell you and you experiment to try and find a pattern based on conditions.

I don't think material played a big factor, it was probably the profile or the fall rate. I know there are times when the water is cold that the fish will like that bigger bait, but more often than not they will take a smaller offering over the larger bait. In murky water the bigger bait is the one I would have thought would be better but with the cold water and it being shallow, the fall rate of the larger bait may have been the deciding factor but I do better most times in cold water with smaller jigs.

You know this one time Bill Brasky was tying a jig....... I'm sorry man, I couldn't resist, the name is classic!!!!!

With bass fishing you often have to retie after a couple of fish or if changing baits so if you tie a short leader you get 1 or 2 times to retie and then you end up having to tie on a new leader instead of just the bait or hook. If you are fishing a tournament it will kill you in wasted time. There are other reasons too but in short there are a lot of reasons. The guys that fish my local rivers for smallmouth that use braid will tie on 30' leaders, 1 reason is to avoid tying leaders constantly but another is the rocky environment isn't kind to braided line and the long leader helps keep the brad out of the rocks, and that may be a little on the long side but you adapt your needs to the situation. I use a small Spro power swivel for a technique called "shrimping". This is similar to a split shot rig except we don't use a split shot. We tie on the small swivel and then tie a leader 2' long and add a small size #2 or #4 Owner Mosquito hook and nose hook a small 3" bait like a Damiki Armor Shad or something similar. The small swivel add only a tiny amount of weight so the bait drifts naturally when fishing in light current, but more importantly you won't get the line twist that this technique will cause. That technique is the only time I'm tying a swivel on to attach a leader when it comes to bass fishing.

I like a lot of different jerkbaits, right after ice out I like the Pointer 78 but the last 2 season the Rapala Shadow Rap has be really good, not to be confused with the shadow rap shad. This will get some folks dander up but the smaller Luck-E-Strike RC STX jerkbait is very good at this time as well. When that water temp get above 45 then I go to Pointer 100s, Smithwick Elite 8 or regular suspending rogues and X-Raps, just about everyone will work and I don't think you need a really high end jerkbait to be successful but I do think a Pointer is 1 that suspends well in a wide range of temps and it what I consider a must have at some point.

I make my own and I'm in the middle between durability and vibration. If I was buying a spinnerbait off the shelf it would be a Stanley Vibra-Shaft, that is one of the best I ever used. I like using .035" diameter wire for 3/8oz and 1/2oz spinnerbaits, it gets me some decent vibration along with some durability. I do make a 3/8oz with .031" diameter wire but I use downsized blades to the slightly smaller wire diameter helps with getting more vibration.

I thought the Clackin' Rap was ok, for me it had a specific purpose. When they came out I grabbed a few and fished them hard the first year and I found they had a time and place. For my waters it seemed like they really did well fished yo-yo style in mid to late fall when the water temps were in the low to mid 50s. I love my Xcalibur one knockers, that lure doesn't get a lot of numbers for me but it does draw strikes from bigger fish, at least for me it does. The clackin crank wasn't bad, the only ones that I got are the 53 models, they are caught fish but I do better with a lot of other square bills, they just weren't for me. I'm with Turkey Sandwich about the Fat Rap, I'm glad they still make the perch and silver patterns at least, I still have 1 silver blue fat rap that will get bit every time I use it, it is just one of those baits and it doesn't get used much anymore. I have almost 3 dozen Flat Raps, half in the size 8 and half in the size 10, that is very subtle and is fantastic in clear water during the summer, I do well when smallmouth are actively chasing small darters. I also buy all the Arashi cranks I find on sale, it seems only certain colors I can find less than $5 but when it is one I use I grab it, they have been very good producers for me.

You won't find them because the hair from white tail deer in the south and mule deer isn't of good quality. The bucktails and body hair from northern white tails is taken when they have their winter coat, the hair has a neutral color which makes it accept dye better and the body hair is thicker and stronger. I asked Bob Clouser a longtime ago about tying with black tail or mule deer and he told me the hair isn't any good, he also said that white tail deer that is harvested in southern areas is kind of the same, they get winter coats just like the deer that live in the north but it is still too thin to really tie anything of quality with. I asked because the day I saw him at a show I just happened to be watching a hunting program on T.V. and they were going after mule deer, and it made me wonder about using it for hair jigs so when he was at that show I got to ask him that question since it was fresh on my mind. Coming from him it satisfied my curiosity and I never looked into it after that.

He is looking for a 1/6oz to 1/8oz jig head for a marabou jig, completely different. What you posted is easy to find, what he needs is tough because he wants a hook larger than a 1/0 but heavier wire in a very light weight. What makes that hard is there is only a little bit of lead in a large hook so the head tends to come loose from the hook even with hard lead. That said, I do make a 1/16oz ball head with a 2/0 Owner 5313 hook, it can also be made in a 1/8oz if that would be any help.

Have you used a 1/16oz marabou jig before? I ask because I tie a lot of them as well as pour them, and when it comes to that size I've never heard anyone ask for anything other than a light wire hook. The main reason is it is a light line technique that is normally 6lb fluorocarbon or 15lb braid with a 10' to 15' fluorocarbon leader in 6lb line, stout hooks with be a tough set at distance with light line and a medium light power rod.

Suspending Rogues will work without breaking the bank. I've been impressed with the Shadow Rap which is slow sinking but that seems to have a time and place. I also like the yo-Zuri 3DB and Storm Twitch Stick and I too have high end baits like the Megabass Vision 110 and the Lucky Craft Pointers. For the lakes I fish, the Smithwick Elite 8 Rogue is really hard to beat and it flat out catches fish, in fact that would be what I would recommend to someone just getting into that lure, it works and isn't expensive.

J Francho told you what you need to do first!!!! You will need a Tax I.D. number for your business, this will let you buy a lot of your material from wholesale suppliers, they sell you the product without charging you FET (federal excise tax). The reason is because when you sell your baits, you will have to pay the FET tax on your baits. You will also have to check with your local ordinances about home based businesses and whether they allow small scale manufacturing, a lot of municipalities frown on such activity. Chance_Taker4 also brought up a good point of the learning curve and the amount of custom made baits available right now. It is a crowded market, in order to stand out you need to make something unique and your product quality has to be at a really high level and it takes time to get it right. There is a lot more to it than just heating plastic and shooting it in a mold, you'll need to develop recipes for your plastic formulation for color and consistency, you can get away with buying medium grade plastic but some baits you'll need to add softener for the bait to perform well, and nobody is going to give you all the information, somethings you'll have to learn on your own. I do not want to discourage you, I just think you should know that there is a legal side to making and selling soft plastic baits and there is learning/knowledge side that takes time to master, if it was simply putting the plastic in the mold and done there would be a lot more doing this. A lot of guys have gone into this blind and end up selling their stuff for a significant loss when they realize they don't have the amount of free time needed to really learn. Do the research and go to Tackle Underground, you will learn a lot there and when you feel like you're ready to take the plunge you'll be prepared rather than just winging it.

I fish the #5 and a #7 a lot in early spring, the first crank I use. I use them the same way HookRZ does, and I discovered years ago that they will sometimes out fish suspending jerkbaits. The last couple of seasons I've been using the #5 Bagley Balsa Shad, a hair longer than the #5 Shad Rap but same profile and diving depth but they weigh 3/8oz so I can use a casting rod with it, my finesse cranking rod to be exact. They are awesome fish catchers, I was actually shocked because no other shad style crank was as good as the Shad Rap in cold/cool water but the Balsa Shad is right there. I can't really say I prefer 1 over the other, the Balsa Shad I like as I can throw it on casting gear and they have a color called purple shad that is lights out on the waters I fish. I like the Shad Raps when the water temp is lower than 45 degrees, at that temp I'm still throwing hair jigs and tubes and I only have 1 casting rod with me, a jerkbait rod, the #5 Shad Rap is the only crank I throw with a spinning set up so I don't have to bring another rod for them. If the fish aren't on the bottom I'll throw the jerkbait and if they aren't hitting that I'll go to the Shad Rap, regular Crawdad if I'm in water less than 6' deep and Silver in the 6' to 8' range. BTW, Silver and Crawdad are probably the best producers followed by the shad pattern but even that doesn't come close to the other 2.

Those sandbar drops sound exactly like the spots smallmouth would head to during low water periods. Let us know how you make out.

I have several rods I use for jerkbaits, square bills, and poppers/small walking baits. I know you are looking for something that covers it all and it can be tough because square bills seem to do better with a little extra power. I know of a rod that will work great for what you want to use it for, I got 2 myself in the same length but different powers. I know you already picked a rod up but should you not like it for some reason I think you should check out the Hammer Rods 6'9" MH-MF, it is rated 3/16oz to 3/4oz and it is perfect for your needs. Yes, it is a MH but it is more like a light medium heavy, it will handle some of the smaller walking baits and poppers without overpowering them yet it will have a little more power to run a square bill through cover, and it is their regular rod, not the crankbait series.

When that water level drops the smallmouth are going to pull off the banks. Look for mid river holes, it doesn't have to be much, maybe 1' or 2' difference. Smallmouth are easy to find in high water, they almost always head toward the bank, especially ones that have undercuts or current breaks with eddies, when the water gets low they will seek out deeper, more stable areas and they tend to bunch up, and that is probably why you are having trouble as most of the fish moved to a certain area. If you are running an entire stretch and can't find them, look on a map and find the closest area to a major depth change, that is most likely where you will find them. Smallmouth will travel a considerable distance, and in your case it is possible most, not all, but most of them have moved, but you should be able to catch some in mid river holes as long as they have an adequate current break. I wish I could be of more help but your river is vastly different from the ones I fish so I just gave you the general rule of thumb, good luck and keep us posted. BTW, if you do find them, you will probably load the boat, it sounds like perfect conditions for them to be grouped up.