BIG M

Kb, I'll have to make a guess here, but I would say western red cedar. The white cedar seems to be a little harder to find but I'm going to find some and eastern red has a lot of excess oil in it. A Old man told me once that I should be making my deep divers out of white cedar (best wood for making cranks) in his opinion. I'm at a disadvantage I don't have a planner and some of the other tools needed to mill lumbar down to crank bait size. Allen, that is one of the better pre made lure bodies I've seen on the market.

The Tapp is not a Poe's original pattern, that bait is copied from an old handmade called a Blazer. The guy that made it originally is from N.C., if I'm remembering this right. I think his name was Shawn Blazer, I'll have to make a call and make sure this is right. WEC copied that bait and it won some money and now everybody makes a copy of that bait. Most of the baits I make are bits and pieces from old and current baits. I also copy old crank baits that are not made anymore. Does this take away from the craftsmanship in my baits? I say no, my baits are as good if not better made than any wooden bait you can buy, no matter if it's a copy or Big M original.

I always happy to help. There were old timers there for me when I started this hobby and I asked every question I could.

Those are good baits, I've talked to the guy that builds them over the net. I can't remember his name of the top of my head. The only thing I don't like about those baits are the plastic lips, he should use polycarbonate but it is a big time consuming pain to cut your own lips. Avid, all baits are copies of other baits in some form or fashion.

it is suppose to slow down the drying process of the paint so you can spray longer without the paint drying on the tip of the needle. I don't use it because of the time it takes to mix with the paint. I like to pour and shoot.

Sure you can, insert glass worm rattles cross ways on the bait. A little wood putty in the hole and it is ready for paint.

I keep my rod tip at 10:00/11:00 position for walking baits.

I made a drying wheel with a rod turning motor and a 10 inch round disc. Mounted the motor on top of a 2x4 and mounted the 2x4 to a plywood base. I got the motor from a rod building supply site for about 15 bucks and I've be turning baits on it for about 5 yrs. You really want something to turn baits about 8 rpms.

Rapala did not do anything special to anchor the lip in the bait, just epoxy. Sometimes the epoxy just won't hold, I've repaired several for friends and I've heard a lot more than 4 complaints about the lips pulling out. If you have a lip pull out here is the fix. Drill 3 1/16 inch holes across the back of the lip, use a quick set epoxy and cover the back of the lip and slide into place. That lip will never come out again unless the bait comes apart.

Clickstreet, which part of that mess did you not understand. Craft paint brushes, cut in half and use 1 end to stir the epoxy. Bottom of a coke can is uniform and smooth makes for a good mixing platform. The bait has to be rotated until the epoxy is set or you end up big saggs on your bait. I hope this is easier to understand.

There is a lot more involved than just the lip in giving the bait action. Line tie location, weight, lip angle, lip lenght, and width. Where the balast weight is positioned factors in also. You can buy some pre-made lips from Stamina that are about the size of lips used in a pointer. You can get polycarbonate or garolite from Mcmaster-carr.

If you want to get the most action out of your crankbait go with a good snap.

I favor a big round crankbait with a square bill in highway yellow with a black back. followed by a big spinner bait.

Bettencourt makes a real nice bait, you should take a look at his real hair rat. I don't understand what all the fuss is about, I think other web sites sell Nathan baits but I could be wrong. He use to sell his baits directly from his own web site. I haven't looked at in several months though.

That bait is ment to be fished slow and I also say go with a snap. That is all I use on my own baits. You can get some lead wire and wrap around the belly hook to get a more nose down attitude and few inches deeper.

You need to get devcon 2ton epoxy and get some of the plastic craft brushes. Cut the brush in half and then you have a stir stick. Now the bait needs to be completely dry so wait about 10 days before you apply the epoxy. You will need to rotate the bait for about 20 min as the epoxy cures or you will get saggs in the clear coat. You can pm me if you have any further questions.

1 just like this, 2 1/4 inch long, just over 1/4 oz and made by me.

Mr. Chambers make a very nice crank bait, but with the increase in demand they do turn out a few that missed the final inspection. WEC baits along with a couple of other companies are the closest thing to mass produced hand made baits. That is why they fetch the higher prices, and you do get what you pay for. everybody uses the same size lexan in our baits 1/16 of an inch thick, can't go thinner than that it has too much flex. There are lots of guys out there building baits as good as anything you can find on the market. But most fishermen are not willing to pay the price to have a top of line custom made bait. If you've never tried a top quality balsa wood crankbait you are selling yourself short.

I use forceps to hold my baits while painting.

I don't use a thru wire harness. I twist my screw eyes out of 20ga or 18ga stainless wire. You can't pull the hangers out period. I've only experienced a screw eye pulling 1 time on my own baits, back when I started.

The reason the P-20 doesn't cast well is it's too light and the body style. They had to use that lead shot in the lip to get the bait's dive angle steeper so it could get down to 18+. I build a bait very similar to that design and have the same problem with casting in the wind. But Mr. Session has some great designs and from what I've been told, no body could build a better bait back in the day. The Poe's baits are 1 of the best deep running baits out there, cedar is the reason. The higher density cedar is the ticket for building those deep running baits, but you have to sacrifice the quicker rise you get from balsa. I don't understand why the finish on the Poes baits are not holding up. I have a idea that those baits are not sealed well in the begining. Oil from the cedar may be cracking the paint or water is getting to the wood. I've never used a Lohr's bait, but I will tell you to check those screw eyes from time to time. Screw eyes tend not to hold well in balsa wood. But then again I'm not sure if Lohr's baits are all made from balsa wood. It is a very interesting body style with the tail down.

I feel those baits are about avg. with the rest of the mass produced wood baits. Nice thumping action and are fair coming thru cover. But I did find some baits that have to be tuned often and some that you can't tune to run straight. For the price not a bad buy. You will find very few wood baits that the eyes a perfectly lined up, very hard to do.

there are lots of guys here in Ark. still swear by that bait.

I've not noticed any change in catching since I switched to circut board lips on my baits. These do however cause the bait to dive a bit quicker but I doubt there is any real difference in how the bait deflects off a stump. Circut board will chip on the edges when you fishing rip/rap alot. But other than that this stuff is as tough as lexan and 10x tougher than any plastic lips. Most big man. are using G-7 and it is a translucent white color. I use G-10 that is a translucent green. The fish don't care about that lip, and down deep I bet you can't see it. Stringjam, how much tuning did those baits need? I've found Session baits have poor quality control on their line ties being off center.

Thanks for all the nice words. Basslovr, I started with all handtools myself. First you need to cut the lip slot before you cut the blank out, while the piece of wood is still square. You can use a metal finger nail file to clean up the lip slot after you've cut out the blank. Install the lip and make sure everything is nice and straight before doing anything else. I also install the lip before sealing and painting the blank. From time to time I still get a crooked lip.