BIG M

All those lures look great, except one (go tigers). You went all out on the carving, painting will soon be pushed to the side.

Dave, I'm not even going to tell the story of how I figured this out. Let's put it this way, a dumb redneck will eventually stumble over the shovel he left laying the yard. I like your method but I'm not smart enough to figure it out. I'm just glad the numbers worked in my favor this time. Ben, how's that long lip working when you cast that bait.

Dave, you make my head hurt. As usual you are correct but I did it another way. If the bait sinks with two coats then that's too much. On balsa you will be fine with a seal coat and clear coat. You could go another route and use a different clear coat and I would suggest Flex Coat ultra v high build. It's thinner, longer working time, and uv stuff in it so the baits don't turn yellow. Devcon turns yellow from heat also, not just direct sunlight. Check out the rod building finishes for a new clear coat.

Thanks guys Bobp, I think we are cut from the same mold. I leave that intense customing painting to the professionals because I just can't do it.

Here is a little mixed bag of cranks for shallow water. Flat sides and round bodies, painted in some of my fav simple color patterns.

From my experience you will get more depth using G-10 for the lip. I've never tried a lip that long on a bait. The lip I use on my big diver is right at 3.5 inches long. From my testing I found for every inch of lip off the nose of the bait you will get approx 7-8ft of depth. The key to a deep diver is being able to cast it far enough so the bait can reach max depth and spend a little time at that depth. With a super long lip you need the bait to be weighted so it will fly like an arrow. You want the lip to aide the flight and not act as a sail catching air. I hope some of that makes sense to you Ben.

Marc that is my new fav pattern from you. I would take that over the regular SS any day of the week.

Great looking divers Ben. Here's a little tip for future baits, G-10 works better than lexan for the super long bills. It will not flex as much with the water pressure. Some guys don't like the yellowish color but 20+ feet down that lip color doesn't matter. Have you put the big boy in the water yet?

The top far right bait with the straight lip has a very tight action. The other 5 baits have stronger wobble with lots more thump.

Bass Junkie, those are all handmade (by me) balsa wood cranks.

Pretty darn good on the first try.

A few little baits for skinny water.

Nice baits Ben, like those square bills.

Nice looking bass pattern

You can also shoot a smoke color over the back and shoulders then iridescent blue thru scale netting.

Marc, great looking baits all around but the craw stands alone.

First the wood you have on hand is not good wood for making baits. Maple and oak are super high density (heavy) and hard as a rock. It will be difficult to carve and sand to shape. With that said those woods could be used for making a lipless crank. I've made some floating lipless baits from balsa and those work very well. You can use screw eyes in the hard wood for hangers and line tie. Just make a copy of a current lipless bait. Draw that on your wood and cut out the blank. Make sure you mark all the hardware locations exact from the bait you copied. You will need a little ballast around the front hook hanger so the bait sinks in the nose down position. A small split shot should work fine for the ballast weight. Cut out a blank then carve/sand to finial shape. Post a pic here and I can help you take it to a finished bait.

Thanks guys.

Here are few med and deep divers I finished this weekend. All are splatter backs, which has been a very productive pattern.

Good looking paint on all your baits, be careful you are entering the no return zone.

That's a very nice subtle craw pattern, me like.

All of the baits look very sharp.

Ben, here are few more gills. Couple of these are painted over foil.

I hate painting blue gill patterns, mainly because I'm never happy with the finished bait. Here are a few of the blue gills I've painted recently.

Very nice Cliff, all the baits are top self.