Baitmaker

You will have to excuse my ignorance on the matter, but I'm not sure if I should be using a hosting site as a 3rd party or what? I upload quite a few pictures on here. Hope I'm not over stepping my welcome on bandwidth. I'm just not sure how it works.

Iwata Eclipse HP-C is what I use.

Thank you for the kind words. I free hand and cut my stencils for each bait out of heavy paper or thin plastic. No vacuum box but have considered making one. Rarely do I ever use the same stencil twice. Like you, I enjoy making one off baits that are unique to one another.

Very cool pattern and color choice. Nice job!

Have to agree with the others. They turned out great! Nice job!!!

The squarebills were hot again yesterday. Orange/chartreuse was the ticket. These are pics of a friend with some of the bass he caught including a 23" toad.

I had the same trouble when I joined also. It seems as tho this site opens up more available bandwidth as you post more. Try making a few more posts and try again in a day or so.

Nice bait! Some of my "mistakes" have led to very cool techniques and new patterns.

Thank you! I have thought about making a detailed tutorial, but have never spent the time to do it. The entire process would take quite a while to sit down and write. It's hard for me at times to explain well enough to convey a clear picture. Taking photos of everything would help, but they would still need explained to a degree.

Here are some of the Ohio bass that have been caught on my wood baits. These were all taken from public lakes and rivers.

Besides making my own lips from Lexan, I also like to use circuit board material (fiberglass) and these manufactured lips that are available at lure supply sites online.

Here is a video that further explains what I mean about building symmetrical baits. I hope this info might inspire others to start building, or help those who are just getting started. It's a fun, therapeutic hobby, and a great feeling to catch fish on baits that you made from scratch.

Thank you! They require a lot of hand sanding and checking each side with a template for uniformity as you go. Thanks for the nice compliment Sam! Much appreciated! Glad you like them. There are shows for custom baits and other wood carving. Some of the work that the top carvers do is mind blowing. I've never been to a show or entered anything, but do like to see the entries online. HAHA Crypt! Catchingest should be a word if it isn't already. Thanks for the kind words! Here are a few pictures of baits in progress. The profile shapes are rough cut with a skill saw and finished using a disc and belt sander. The lip slots are cut with a skill saw using a template. For these squarebills, the lip angle is 45 degrees. The material used is Lexan (polycarbonate). Never use plexiglass, as it is brittle and will crack with use. The most crucial part to making a bait run true, is cutting a square 90 degree lip slot and carving or sanding equal amounts of wood on both sides of center. While the bait is still in block form, a center line is drawn, shown here as an example. I use a compass for marking center. This line should remain visible throughout the entire shaping process. The holes for weights and line ties are drilled on this line. The lip slot is also cut while the bait is square sided to ensure a 90 degree cut. I begin shaping them buy carving with a knife, and then hand sanding. The finish sanding is by far the longest process for me. What wood you remove on one side has to match the other. I make C shaped templates from heavy paper stock to match both sides equally.

Hope you guys are surviving the winter blues. Here are some of my latest wood creations. I would love to see what everyone else has been up to. I'm starting to get the itch pretty bad here in Ohio. It won't be long now!

After some home testing on different epoxy brands, I trust the Devcon 2-ton more than the others I have tried. The wood usually fails before the epoxy does. Most of the 5 minute quick set epoxies will yellow and crack over time. The 2-Ton seems a bit more flexible. It claims a 30 minute working time, but it's actually half that at best. Still, it's the one many bait makers trust for their lips and line tie hangers. With any epoxy, it's critical to get equal amounts of resin and hardener, and mixed very well.

The smaller SS eye screws from Jann's are .062 inch in diameter, or 1.5 MM. That hole looks to be a bit large for the ones I have to work. The larger gauge eye screws are .072, or 1.8 MM but with a much larger eye than you might want to use on that bait. Here is a picture of a thru wire set up that may give you another option to rig it. If necessary, drill a short hole in that indented cup area just big enough to accommodate for a small loop and make a wire hanger or use a swivel as shown. It can't be pulled out with the main wire passing thru it. The bait you have may already be drilled all the way thru. If you do decide to go the eye screw route, I would recommend using Devcon 2 Ton epoxy. Not all the Devcon or epoxies in general are created equal. 2 Ton has really good hold strength.

Here are a couple of musky baits and some squarebill cranks I have made recently. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanks Angry John. If I showed you how to do this and put the airbrush in your hand, you might surprise yourself. Practice is all you need. When it comes to painting, cutting stencils is actually the most tedious part of the process. This wasn't a super detailed paint job. I plan on putting more time into the next pike that I paint, but will spend more time on shaping and 3-D carving to go along with it.

Here is the finished bait from my previous post. Painting them is the most rewarding part of the process for me. This one is a northern pike pattern.

Thank you Crypt! Very kind of you. For those who don't know, the guy in the OP video is Mikko Offernen (maybe off on the last name) from Finland. Known as SolarBaits. He's a genius when it comes to lure building. His work has always fascinated and inspired me. He's also a very helpful and friendly guy. We have corresponded quite a bit through the years and on another online forum. He speaks and works very mellow and laid back, while listening to ultra heavy european death metal music. If you enjoy fine craftsmanship, check out his other videos also. His work is incredible. Even if you aren't hand carving fine details, or building intricate designs, making your own baits can still be very time consuming. Here is a 12" musky bait that I'm working on right now. Hopefully the pictures can help relay the various steps involved. This is one method for building a wire thru bait. A channel is cut up the belly with a table saw. The channel on this one is filled in with strips of cedar cut like puzzle pieces to fit snug against the wire. shown in the picture before getting epoxied into place. After cutting and sanding out the blank, then the lip, then the strips of wood, bending the wire, etc. etc. comes sealing it, painting it, and applying 5 or 6 epoxy top coats that take 24 hours each to dry. It's insane how much time just 1 bait can take sometimes.

Here is approximately where I would add the ballast weight for that design of yours. Shown a hair large, but close in proportion to what I use for my cedar (mid-rising) floating crankbaits.

Not sure how you could critique these paint jobs. Especially being new to airbrushing. They look dynamite! Very nice job!

Yes, It may help you to have a finished body to look at as a reference. I began by tracing the outlines and taking measurements of my favorite baits and trying to duplicate them. Interesting. This bait appears top heavy. The weight of the bearings is above the lateral line which makes me wonder how it looks in the water.

As someone who builds my own baits, my first thought after seeing this technology some years ago was that it was going to completely change the game. Not only for fishing, but other industries as well. Now that I understand it a bit more, it's easier to understand why it's still a long way from keeping up with the current speed of mass production. Still, it's fascinating to me and I have enjoyed looking at 3-D baits and prototype designs. Thanks for posting!