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Well i have not posted anything in here for a really long time i've been enjoying the finnish summer and going fishing which i have been doing alot. anyways i decided to paint some bass themed baits and attempt to make them as realistic as possible with combining hand painting and airbrushing, the results should speak for them selfs.

6" Bluegill Female in Classic Female Bluegill Dark pattern.

Baby otter lure. PVC, Createx, Folk Art, Sorarez brushed on. 122 grams, 6" long plus tail. This lure weighs a ton! I lob cast it with an Okuma 7'6" heavy swimbait rod. It wakes really well at both slow, med, and fast retrieves. It walks the dog in place, probably due to the deep diving bill. I'm still playing around with hook locations, and that's why there are multiple swivel hook hangers on the belly.

This 8.75" trout glide has been a long time in the making, but I'm finally getting it to where I want it to be after years of testing and weeding through iterations that I wasn't 100% satisfied with. I actually started working on this particular model about a year and a half ago and only now have enough time on the water with it to feel comfortable pushing it into the final phases of prototyping. The master was carved completely by hand out of a block of basswood using only a utility knife, wood chisel, and sandpaper. I made a two-piece silicone mold of the bait so that I could pour duplicates out of resin. The tail was also carved out of wood and molded with silicone. The casting material is a flexible urethane with black glitter to replicate the trout dots on the body. The bait in the photograph is the first fishable prototype out of my new mold. It was painted with an airbrush and clear coated with KBS Diamond Clear. I did a semi sloppy job with the hand-tied Owner ST-36 feather trebles. Not sure how they will effect the swim, but they add a nice touch. Overall I am very pleased with how this bait came out. I'd love to fish the paint off this thing but will be donating it this week to support the Swimbaits for Autism fundraiser event hosted by Swimbait Culture. Check it out and thanks for looking! Dan

Poplar crankbait

I made three hard bluegill frog baits from PVC trim. They all use a 14"X1/8" magnet to hold the hook point tight to the bait until it's eaten, when the hook is forced up into the fish's mouth when it bites. The popper pops, and the other two walk the dog really well. I am cheap, so I originally wanted to made a durable frog bait. But I found that these also cast like bullets, and come through tulles and over grass really well. I took the two bait picture to show my bluegill painting skills. Hahaha All Createx and Folk Art paints, with a single dip into Solarez UV cured resin. I put a 1 gram lead ball rattle in the top bait, with circuit board end caps, and it is loud. I wrapped some lead wire around the hook shanks to make sure the baits landed face up, or turned over when they landed.

This is a 9" Swimbait carved from Tupelo Wood. The bait is airbrushed and hand painted with acrylics and finished with a durable two part clear coat.

OG seed.

I carved the master for this resin bait 100% by hand out of a block of wood using only simple carving knives and sand paper. It has a triple joint configuration which gives it a very fluid and natural swim at a wide variety of retrieval speeds and cadences. A full set of soft plastic fins adds to its realism and collapses easily out of the way when a predator fish strikes the bait. This black crappie paint scheme was accomplished by using six layered colors of spray paint topped off with a black crappie scale pattern applied by hand with a tooth pick. These patterns alone took a few hours to complete but were well worth the effort. Overall this is my best work yet and I'm excited to see how I can improve. Thanks for looking! Dan

So i have been toying around with the idea of making a line thru crankbait and finally got off from my butt and made one, i was pretty surpriced how well it actually works. if your interested you can check out the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8vOX6yWb44&lc=z22wdhqybwigsvsrb04t1aokgf4kaiqviey24c3omiz5rk0h00410

baby lobster. articulated arms and pincers. articulated tail that curls under in a swimming motion. 9", sinking

I made a laminate bait out of 1/4" Centec PVC board. I used the same pattern as my other 3 1/2" PVC crankbaits that I made to try and copy barrysbait's balsa bait. I put a 2/1 gram lead ball weight transfer into this one, instead of a rattle. The lamination process adds another 1 1/2 hours to the build, for the additional layout, cut outs, and slot making, and the actual lamination. I sanded the meeting faces with 80 grit to give the ZAP gap filling glue something to bite, and it holds up fine. The finished bait weighs 36.5 grams, with a 3 gram LPO hook hanger, and the two 1 gram lead balls in the weight transfer slot. It is also with (2) #2 Mustad EWG short shank trebles and (3) #4 split rings.

My friend came up to fish with me, and she caught them on an old Bandit crank in red/orange craw. One of the fish spit up a craw that was black/red. I had some old Bandits, too, but none that looked like hers, so I made these two. They are both PVC trim board, with 1/8" lexan bills. I put a 1 gram lead ball in both of them as a one knocker.

These cranks are a BEAST!

Latest project, been working on this for the past couple of days. Need some better water conditions and some hungry fish for final testing. Body carved from high density poly foam. Notice tie point is on the tail to pull the bait through the water like a natural crayfish in escape mode. Hook is a standard treble hook with the opposing barb cut off to minimize snagging. This may change based on testing. Claws are craft foam, we'll see how that holds up in use. Legs are standard spinnerbait skirt material, (four strands) Legs and claws are replacable if they get worn.

Custom tied "Deceiver Cockroach" fly on number 3/0 hook with 3D "Living Eyes" Custom Inline spinner with removable hook clip system, brass magnum 1/4oz body & #5 gold Colorado blade with custom holo scale lure tape. This is one of my best Largemouth Bass & Pickerel setups!

Seems like my mind is stuck on foil here lately. This one was made with fishing a gold Rogue in the springtime in mind. It's 4" long and made from Paulownia with 5 grams of ballast. Createx and Auto Air paints with epoxy top coat. The bottom is a pumpkin color I mix. Sunrise yellow sprayed over the foil sides with a black back. A little red on the throat and a spot of yellow on the tail. Forgot to get a total weight and I'm too lazy to get up and go weigh it.

Floating Trap that I modified and made suspending... (I Hope) LOL Tight Lines all, and Happy Safe Holidays! bb

Here is a giant carp I did recently. Lots of work!

This is a 6" crappie swimbait made entirely of natural wood. There is zero painting on this bait. Every detail was inlaid with a scroll saw. It is made from five different kinds of wood: maple for the belly, pine for the yellow of the upper back, green poplar for the back, walnut for the head and tail, and ebony for the black spots. I had to do everything twice to make two sides, and I joined the two sides with a center core of maple and poplar.

Lure is approximately 2 3/4 inches long plus the 2 3/4 inch soft plastic tail and weighs about 7/8 ounce. Handcarved from mahogany and finished with two coats of E-Tex epoxy finish.

With some help from the forum here, I finally got around to making my own eyes, it is a fun project. And a good use of extra epoxy. Need to be a bit better at getting rid of microbubbles next time.

8” cedar wire thru shallow diver wide body

Hey guys have not posted much here recently but i have been making some baits and this is the most recent one. i call it the triple roach. and if your interested i also made a video on how i made it

My 6" golden shiner swimbait. Weights 2.2 oz top hook with internal harness to control sink rate.

I made a laminate bait out of 1/4" Centec PVC board. I used the same pattern as my other 3 1/2" PVC crankbaits that I made to try and copy barrysbait's balsa bait. I put a 2/1 gram lead ball weight transfer into this one, instead of a rattle. The lamination process adds another 1 1/2 hours to the build, for the additional layout, cut outs, and slot making, and the actual lamination. I sanded the meeting faces with 80 grit to give the ZAP gap filling glue something to bite, and it holds up fine. The finished bait weighs 36.5 grams, with a 3 gram LPO hook hanger, and the two 1 gram lead balls in the weight transfer slot. It is also with (2) #2 Mustad EWG short shank trebles and (3) #4 split rings.

New crankbait color but I haven't named it yet

My name is Joe McGraw. I carve fish lures and decoys using my brand name Wapak Fish Decoys and Lures. Im located in Springfield Ohio, having started carving in Wapakoneta Ohio.This is my largest minnow to date. This is my take on a steampunk heddon 150. I carve one off wood lures and decoys out of driftwood from the banks of Grand Lake St Mary's in North central Ohio. This is an example of my Wapak Century Minnows. In another time and place i like to imagine these lures being used with small on board boilers propelling themselves through the depths of lakes and rivers of another realm. When designing these Century steampunk minnows i try to engineer then in a practical real world way. The length is 17" long with brass, copper parts many hand made. This Century Minnow would be used to travel just below the surface with its snorkel protruding the surface to supply air to its on board boiler. I'm a fan of the over the top, and oddities. Ty for looking, good luck to all entries as we share a common bond....creativity and a love of fishing.

LOVE LURES

bluegill, 5 1/2"

3/4 oz swim bait head stainless bottom arm and Titanium side arms. Have not fished it yet. John

Another version of Tennessee Shad I've been working on. There are six different colors under the scale pattern and getting a picture to show them all was not possible for me. Definitely need something other than my phone to take pictures. Takings pics is a whole other art form in it self I can't get right. Got $1200 in camera stuff and I get better pics with my phone!! LOL..............Joe

Legs are soft plastic, craws float, and the tail is heavily weighted. Makes for the most realistic craw out there.