Need Suggestions On Where To Buy Blanks.

[s4il 0]

Hey new to the site, and new to painting, I wanted to ask everyone what some good sites are for purchasing some crank bait bodies, I ordered some already from Bustinbass and they came out great, but a friend said those are all "knock offs" of the real thing, (l c 2.5) so i guess my question is where are the "real" body blanks that i can purchase? if they are available even? If those are only for the Mfg? where are some Bodies like the strike-king 1.5 2.5 silents/rattling.

[RayburnGuy 1,341]

The only place your going to find "real" bodies are from the manufacturer. If you want "real" Strike King bodies you will have to buy them from Strike King. Same thing goes with Lucky Craft or any of the other manufacturers. Bodies you purchase from anyone else are going to be knock offs. Do an online search for "unpainted lure bodies" or "unpainted crankbaits" and you can find a number of suppliers who offer knock offs. There have also been several topics posted on this subject here at TU. You can find these by using the search function.

 

Ben

[nedyarb 89]

Unpaintedlures.com has some good kos

[Richard Prager 172]

If you want the 'real" thing then you need to look for discounted colors or sales and repaint them. Most vendors have a mixed bag of quality blanks. If you don't want to play hit or miss, the unpaintedlures.com has 100% quality.

[s4il 0]

Thanks much for the info, sure glad i didn't order to many of the vision 110's and pointer 100's they might not suspend like the "real" ones, But ill find out when i paint em. I'll check out those sites mentioned above, and even the ones on this site.

[fishnart 38]

I've looked on unpaintedbaits.com and they only have about four baits, is there something I'm missing????

[Mr.Nsmith 8]

I go to https://wlure.com/ they have crankbaits that I personally like and they are pretty cheap as in cost but not cheap as in quality...also, I bought some from http://dakotalakestackle.com/ which also has videos on how to paint lures, furthermore how to use/ make a stencil and other great info.

[bobv 31]

Predator always has good stuff as well. http://www.predatorbassbaits.com/

Edited January 1, 2013 by bobv

[highwayman 22]

I recently bought some 5" minnow blanks from LurePartsOnLine for less than 1$ each:what a deal!They looked good,clear plastic,fixed balast,3 moving weights,scaled sides,gill plates,recessed eye sockets;I repeat what a deal!UNTIL I taped some lead to the belly to get the bait to suspend and float tested in the sink.They leaked ----like a seive.When I tried to get the water out it came out by the belly hook hanger.I'm still going to use them I'll just have to screw around with them more than I wanted to.I guess the old addage"If it seems too good to be true;it probably is" held true in this case.Or "You get what you pay for" may be more appropriate .Beware

[JayBee 19]

The only manufacturer that I know that offers blanks of their lures is Drifter Tackle;   http://www.driftertackle.net/shop/believer/blanks-all-bait-styles/. i have bought a few of these blanks and they seem to be factory seconds, I had to do a little work with some sandpaper to clean them up a bit. Or like 152 said just buy the lures your looking for and scuff and paint them.

[BobP 944]

I bought a few Megabass Vision 110 knockoffs with chrome finish awhile back.  The price on the real 110's is crazy!  I know because I've bought a few.  When I float tested the KO's with trebles before painting, I found that they would not suspend head-down like the real thing.  I fixed that by putting some lead tape in front of the front treble before painting them.  Now they LOOK exactly like $25 Ito Vision 110's and they suspend correctly... but do they really have exactly the same action as a real 110?  Dunno but I sort of doubt it.

 

Maybe the KO's will be great jerkbaits in their own right, I haven't fished one enough yet to know.  But based on my experience with various KO's, I'm not betting the ranch on it.  That's not to say that there are not some really good KO's 'out there'.  But if your expectation is that the KO will be just like the original, you're not being realistic.

[bobv 31]

I always check my blanks over before painting and most of the time I will dab some super glue around the hook hanger and line tie just to make sure they won't leak.

[CincyFisher 0]

I purchase my blanks from Dakota Lakes Tackle so far.  My friend tried to purchase some blems from Predator baits but got cussed out and banned from the site for not reading some tiny print about special shipping charges on the blemished baits - lousy customer service if you ask me.  So I will be sticking with Dakota Lakes.

[bsgorilla 13]

I've had excellent service from Dakota Lakes as well.