Dennis from Russia

I guess your reason for making your own baits is not to save money. Am I right? Then you must be getting pleasure just out of the process itself. So why shorten the time of your own pleasure? More to the point: there is no such thing as a paint that is able to withstand teeth and hooks. Or if there is it must be really generously applied. So keep on with your clear coats.

guys, paying so much attention as you do to the paint, I assume you fish in the crystal clear waters and perform the slowest retrieve possible, meaning fish have all the time in the world to study your baits before actually striking. I am fishing the Don river (Russia's south, big lazy river, muddy waters) and most time I spend trolling. I started out beliving the color does matter. Now I do not pay any attention to it. The only difference is in winter, when the dams are down and the current is weaker, thus the visibilty in water is times higher. Action catches fish, paintjob catches fishermen. IMHO. Now that I said it out loud, I sit and try to figure, why the hell I am still reading through the archives of this forum, looking greedily for examples of your paintjobs. Beats me....

exactly what I meant to say

I hope you mean lime which grows in our latitude (wich is 'die Linde' in German), not same like lemon, only green in colour? Here it is basicly used for boarding saunas, and that's where I get my supplies from. They use LOT'S of this kind of wood and I usually pick through their saw-offs to find the properly coloured chunks. Or trade the whole board for a bottle of vodka, which is a good bargain for both sides Have you tried beech? This bugger also comes in different densities and is damn hard. I use the parquet blocks. But as the blocks are not thick enough I have to cut out to halves and then have to glue the halves together. Epoxie does this just fine. Also saves me the trouble of finding lures' centerlines to drill for hook hangers and belly-weights. The biggest pike I got with such lure was 7.2 kg and it didn't do the lure any harm at all.

If you really need the weights and rattles inside, the only way is to glue the two halves together, meaning that you have to make twoseparate molds for each half. It takes lot's of time and effort. And, I honestly believe, is not worth it. You can insert rattles in virtually any bait: wooden or resin - doesn't matter. If you want the lure to be hollow for the sake of buyoncy - there are easier ways (place a wooden insert inside resin lure, or try foam)

Skeeter, is there any chance to see a couple of your deep flat cranks? As I am a rookie, I presumed the round ones will go deeper. And they are definitely driving me nuts! I just can't make them good enough. So I would appreciate iа you could give a link to your baits.

it used to be awfully slow. But right now - it's OK. I don't recognize the site, this is how extraordinally fast it works

It happens so, that my first posting on your site has nothing to do with lures. But I be damned! I would never have thought there already exists a software product capable of such accuracy in translation! Of course, it is far from ideal but I failed to spot any actual mistakes that could mislead a lurebuilder.