My creations

[Baitmaker]

[Baitmaker]

[S. Sass]

The first two pics you just posted look like something I'd love to have at my disposal.  very nice work. Do you sell them?

I am guessing your upload limit was hit for the day? 

[Baitmaker]

TY S. Sass. I mainly make them for my own personal collection, but have sold some in the past.

And yes, it appears as though they set a smaller limit on new users at first. That makes total sense to keep riff raff or even bots from blowing it up with trash. My max total upload size is now a whopping 7.32MB  

[Baitmaker]

I like to build baits in a series of 3 or more. Especially my prototype designs. Each one will have slight differences between them that allow for instant feedback during testing. For example, these 3 have the same side profile and identical weighting but are slightly different in thickness and head shape. The blue gill has more shoulders and a rounded head, while the tiger is a bit more flat sided with a narrow head. These changes will all effect how a lure performs and give me a better understanding of how to build baits with very specific actions. Whether it's a wide wobble, or a tight chatter, or an erratic seeking action etc. The next 3 may be different in weighting or line tie placement or whatever. There's an endless combination of things that go into it, and one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. 

[Baitmaker]

A couple attempts at a new through wire gold foiled musky bait in the works. For this one I carved and sanded gill plates out of epoxy putty that make for a nice 3-D effect especially when covered in foil.  Working with this ultra thin leafing foil really tests the limits of my patience. Usually, the end result is pretty cool and worth the trouble, but I really hate this stuff.

[Baitmaker]

Some more basement baits.

 

[Baitmaker]

[Baitmaker]

Sorry for the photo album. I guess you get the idea. 

[Jrob78]

Awesome baits and awesome paint!

[Bluebasser86]

Your painting skills are incredible! 

[Baitmaker]

Thank you all for the interest and nice comments. There are few things I would rather do than build baits and fish. My main business and background is in portrait painting, but this is a nice change of pace from that. Catching fish on your own creations is a great feeling and I hope to inspire others to get into it. 

John

[draino]

On ‎2‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 0:36 PM, Baitmaker said:

TY S. Sass. I mainly make them for my own personal collection, but have sold some in the past.

And yes, it appears as though they set a smaller limit on new users at first. That makes total sense to keep riff raff or even bots from blowing it up with trash. My max total upload size is now a whopping 7.32MB  

I happened upon this thread searching the site after running into the same issue in uploading files, but glad I found it for two reason.  One, those baits that Baitmaker produced are absolutely breath-taking and enjoyed viewing them.  Second, you answered my question about upload size.  I probably should have waited before putting the picture along with my user name.  I wonder if the more likes you receive the greater the size.

[Baitmaker]

5 hours ago, draino said:

I happened upon this thread searching the site after running into the same issue in uploading files, but glad I found it for two reason.  One, those baits that Baitmaker produced are absolutely breath-taking and enjoyed viewing them.  Second, you answered my question about upload size.  I probably should have waited before putting the picture along with my user name.  I wonder if the more likes you receive the greater the size.

Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it. As you can see, a lot of my time has been spent developing different styles of lures. Lately I've been making square bill rattle baits using circuit board lips. After tweaking some things with weighting and placement of hook and line ties, the action of my new ones is all I could hope for and then some. They run true, but with an erratic hunting action that triggers strikes. I guess bait making is better than a lot of other addictions. Still, my family and friends are about to corner me for an intervention. 

 

[Darren.]

You, sir, are an artiste, and an artist!!

Great stuff. Some of your lures are huge,
or you have super tiny hands  

[Baitmaker]

58 minutes ago, Darren. said:

You, sir, are an artiste, and an artist!!

Great stuff. Some of your lures are huge,
or you have super tiny hands  

Thanks Darren  Some of them are musky baits, and the ones I make are actually small compared to a lot of them. And no, I don't have gopher hands.  

[Baitmaker]

A few new ones. These are 2 1/2" cedar rattlers. 

 

[skeet8]

Awesome looking cranks!  Can I ask what clear coat you use? also what airbrush.  Give us some details please.  lol

[Baitmaker]

13 minutes ago, skeet8 said:

Awesome looking cranks!  Can I ask what clear coat you use? also what airbrush.  Give us some details please.  lol

Thanks a lot skeet. I use EnviroTex Lite epoxy for my clear coats and Iwata Eclipse airbrushes with Createx, Auto Air, and Wicked water based paint. 

[saugerman]

Baitmaker, you are very talented. I love your paint jobs.

 

[Buckeye Ron]

So John,it's obvious your lures have what it takes to catch us fishermen. Beautiful creations and your painting skills are top notch. What I want to know is do they catch fish!

[Ginosocalbass]

You have a gift.   

That craw crank at the bottom of your first post is fantastic. I'd love to buy a few for my Susquehanna fishing 

[Baitmaker]

Thank you all for the kind words. I really appreciate it. 

And yes Buckeye Ron, they work very well.  As long as the weighting and hook and line ties are perfectly centered they have no choice but to run true. My lip slots are also cut square to the blank while in block form, so there is no guess work involved. I tune them if needed but most don't require much if any.

Here is a new pair of 2" squarebill rattle gills I just finished. This pattern was very good to me last year. 

 

[nhpleasantlakebass]

All I can say is wow incredible

[Baitmaker]

TY! Here is a belly shot