Got a few balsa lures fom Big M & ......

[ernel]

Very nice work to say the least. As a lure builder, I like to see other peoples work on the web site, but Marty was the first that I made a swap with. He and I swapped a shallow running lures last week and I finally had a chance to fish them over the last few days.

I spent roughly two hours each with them in the test pond below the house. The test pond is roughly 3 acres in size and varies from 22' on the deep end to 18" on the shallow end. It has a few points that break off a lip into deeper water at a little over 45 degree angle. At this time all of the shallow lips are covered with bedding crappie and a few early bream. The bass are holding near these ledges and will go after the crappie that get spooked from there beds. However with so much "live" forage, the artificial bite is very tough. All of the upper end of the pond is loaded with actively spawning bass. Now that the stage is set I can better explain the overall results.

The first lure I tested was the much awaited gill pattern. First off this thing looked great. I spent probably an hour the first day I got just looking at it from different angles and admiring the attention to detail that Marty had put into this lure. Very well made and very cosmetically pleasing to look at.

Went to the pond and began throwing along the lower corner where some of the deeper water is located, but also one of the only pieces of timber in the whole pond as well. The top of the limbs are in almost 8 foot of water with the bank sloping quickly in both directions. I was unable to hit the limbs with the lure, but the back side of the base of the limb was easily hit in 6' of water. Came around the solid base very well without getting caught up and the lure would roll hard upon impact. Unfortunately there were no fish holding on the upper part of the limb. Tried to bring the lure in front of a few of the lips where the crappie are holding and after 12 - 15 cast caught the first bass in roughly 4 foot of water. Ticked the top of the grass and when the lure ripped free a small 15 incher nailed it. Unfortunately this would be the only strike on the lure from the bass on the lower end of the pond. Did however catch two crappie that were some fine slabs.

Now for where this lure shines. Went to the "nursery" as I like to call the spawning flat on the upper end. Water depth is from <18" to 4 foot. There are probably 20- 30 active beds I am only casting to 10. The lures wide wobble and ability to float back and wiggle are a huge plus here. All I had to do was get near a bed and repeatedly twitch the rod tip and it was almost an automatic bass on every cast. These was the result I was looking for in this lure. I tried to use it as a slow wake bait across the a few of the beds and drew one strike from a bass that had been chasing other fish off his spot earlier. He came unbuttoned due to operator error. Caught 11 bass (1 I caught twice) in 15 cast before leaving them alone and nature work its course. Is the test pond the local lake? No but it gets hammered by people fishing it everyday. There are at least 5 to 10 people wetting a line everyday. The bass have been educated to artificial lures.

The second lure Marty sprung on me by surprise. He wanted to show me some of his smaller lures. (Roughly 2 1/4" and 1/4 oz) I impressed by the way this smaller lure cast. It cast like a rocket. I was throwing it on the baitcaster (6'6" MH 12lb test) and it was throwing as well as any 3/8 oz lure I have. I see a lot of use coming from this lure in a TX on this Sat. It has a tighter wiggle than the "Gill" as the line tie is on the lip, and it also gets slightly deeper. I was able to hit the top of the tree limbs in the 8 foot range. (Rod tip down and a long cast.) Great action upon impact. Some of the smaller bass were in the weeds and were the primary targets I was hitting with this lure. I was able to hook up with 4 today that were between 10 & 14 inches. The real surprise was the 1 that broke 2 lbs. ( Never even knew it was there) It is not common to have an older fish on the lower end of the pond while the spawn is going on. It must have been moving up late or was hitting the outside weed edge to spawn in 4 foot of water as the tail was barely marked yet.

I know this was a long post. I wanted to take the time let it be known that the lures that are posted on this section of the board are not just for show. They do catch fish. There is a lot of time placed into each lure, with attention to detail and action that is hard to beat on any store bought lure. Marty's lures have definitely got a spot in the my tackle box. ;D Thanks again Marty.

Eric

[Stringjam]

Yup, Marty's baits rock - - now post some pictures of em darnit!!  

[ernel]

Here's the lure pic:

[Jimzee]

That bluegill pattern rocks!!  Great job Marty.

[bmadd]

Very nice baits!

[BIG M]

Thanks Eric,  that kind of praise from a fellow builder is special.