Making Lures

[TBO]

so i have been watching youtube vids on making lures. with the winter approaching i might try and do one just to stay busy.   

 

has anyone here made their own hard baits and or swimbaits?  if so any pics of your process or videos.    and was it worth the time or just a good hobby to stay busy??

 

i seen someone foil a hard bait before paint has anyone tried it or are you better off carving or painting the detail scales?

 

 

i know their are lure  makers here so show your stuff! 

 

 

this guy makes some incredible lures, great artist!  check out his vid here

 

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Incredible. I would have no fingers left.

[TBO]

Incredible. I would have no fingers left.

yeah this guy makes some incredibly nice baits.  amazing artist.  he makes it look easy

[Munkin]

I have made just about every bait except a swimbait and can tell you crankbaits from scratch are the hardest. Ballasting, lip angle and size, etc all have to work in harmony. My suggestion would be to try and copy a current bait that you like to get a feel or the process.

 

Allen

[Bluebasser86]

I've tried to make hardbaits, incredibly difficult unless you're a very skilled craftsman or willing to fail, a lot. Having tried it myself gives me an appreciation for the nice hand carved baits that some feel are overpriced. A ton of hours and skill goes into making those baits, even those that make it look easy surely had many, many failures before they made a bait that worked correctly, especially a diving bait. 

[BobP]

It's a slippery slope.  Maybe you just want to repaint a few plastic baits.  Then you think maybe you can fool with the ballast or trim the lip on a wood bait to make it run better.  Then you see you paid $20+ for a custom wood bait that fell apart in a few days of fishing and you think to yourself:  "Hey, I bet I could make some that last longer and run just as good."

 

Pretty quick, you're carving baits, designing new baits, and building dozens of the darned things every year.  You're checking the Hardbaits forum on tackleunderground.com every day for new tips and technologies.  Your fishing friends are bugging you about building or painting a special bait for them.  You didn't really want this to take time from your own fishing - BUT YOU'RE TRAPPED IN YOUR OWN WEB.       

[mixb7]

I have been making my own lures for 3 years now. Don't try to make them for money which never was my intention, make them for the fun of it. It is purely a hobby for me, but I have sold a few to friends because they wanted them but the most joy I get out of them is giving them away. I have given away probably several dozen and that never gets old.

Making crankbaits is by far the most difficult for me. Like Munkin said above the ballasting and lip placement is truly the key. If guys are set up for making the same ones over and over with jigs they have got that part beat. Nothing against them (they have figured out the hard stuff I didn't want to spend the time on) I enjoy making each lure separate and no two are alike. Foiling is another technique I have not come close to getting a hang of but there are many guys out there that are truly artists with that.

In conclusion, find your niche, and stick with that until you are tired of that and want to try a different technique. You will once you do more want to try different things and that is where your creativity will come out. I do suggest also that you a take a few at the beginning and put them in a shadow box. In a few years do the same thing and will see where you have gotten better as you do more. That way you will always remember how you started and not take it for granted.