Mattlures

Do any of you guys know a good source for stainless sinker eyes? I am looking for #1 long. I checked the regular online stores. I am looking for the manufactures, or a good price on 1000's. I bought them by the pound several years ago but I cant remember where I got them.

Do any of you guys know a good source for stainless sinker eyes? I am looking for #1 long. I checked the regular online stores. I am looking for the manufactures, or a good price on 1000's. I bought them by the pound several years ago but I cant remember where I got them.

I sent you a PM

I met Kurita when he came to the USA and stayed at a buddies house. He told us about seeing bigger bass then the one he caught. He was cool. He had his interprature with him. He also brought his tackle box. His baits looked kinda funky with feathered hooks and weird colors. He showed us the bait he caught the lake record on to.

Kurita caught the world record bass on a live bluegill. He caught a lake record on the mother

Thank you Andy

I usually put on 3-4 very heavy coats that I need to rotate. The finished product resembles a heavy epoxy coat but with much less time and hassle

I love using auto clears. I am just seeing if anybody has their favorites.

One of the clears I use is an automotive clear. Its Kustom shop and I am not totally satisfied with it. It seems to dull easier then other clears after prolonged use. It also seems a little bit soft. I am wonder what auto clears you guys use and what you think of them. I am very happy with its ease of use Basically I am hoping somebody hear is using an auto clear that's a little harder and or stays shinny after being fished hard

My lead guy recently went MiA so I need a new source. Do you guys know any? I don't have production molds. I am most likely looking for somebody who does spin casting Thanks

Recently my lead guy went MIA so I need a new source. I need some small lead inert pieces made. I don't have production molds so I will need somebody to spin cast them. Any of you guys know a good source? Thanks

The biggest reason I don't use mesh or a harder plastic is the baits simply wont swim as good. I will take a bait that produces big bites over a bait that is more durable but doesnt produce as well every single time. Real prey uses silicone. That works with his style of wedge tail. It would not work with a boot style tail. Most of my soft baits require very soft plastic to get the right action I am looking for. If you lube your baits while fishing them they will tare a lot less often. If you use Mend-it you can make them last a long time. My #1 priority is for my baits to get bites and specifically big bites. Everything else is 2nd. For me its not a matter of cost its a matter of fish

Heat up the hook bend until its red. Bend it out to where you want it to be and then dip in cold water. This works on titanium wire too.

blisterpackaging.com

I agree with Vodkaman. There are new baits and products every year. A lot are recycled ideas but there are always a few that are new and unique. I feel that when guys say there are no new ideas,they are using that as an excuse to steel somebody else's idea or they just can come up with anything new. At the very least there are improved materials and components. Look at swimbaits today. Those old lures look like kids toys compared to todays realism. You may argue that they share similar designs but they are so vastly improved. There are a couple ways to be successful in the fishing product business. #1 make a good a product with the cheapest price. Guys will buy it. #2 is make the best. There will always be a market for the best of anything. If you make the best you can charge what you want. If your somewhere in between then it gets real tough. You guys want to get rich? I'll give you an idea I have had for over 30 years. Make a clear hook. Make it like fluorocarbon. Make it strong enough and make it stay sharp. If you can make a clear hook that's 80% comparable to a steel hook, you would be very wealthy. That would certainly be something new!

Stores mark up 40% if your lure sells for $10 retail then you sell it to the stores for $6.

Travis you and I must look at baits completely different. When I design a bait there is a reason for EVERY single feature of that bait. Some body might look at it and think its just a molded fish with a boot tail or molded fish with a couple joints cut in it. What they probably will never understand or notice is how wrong that is. I carve all my baits because I have to. I might need a certain part of the body to be a little thicker or thinner. The line ties are where they are at on purpose. The hook hangers are exactly where I want them to be. The fins might be a half an inch forward or back from where the actual fish has them. The joints are exactly where I want them to be. The style of joint and the pivot point I use to accomplish the goal of what I envisioned. Nothing is simple, and I just touched on the surface of what goes into a design. Now why is figuring these things out important? Why does making baits for some have everything to do with learning? Well all you have to do is look at the countless inferior knock offs on the market. 95% of the time they never come close to matching the fish catching ability of the original design. Why? because the guys doing the copying don't fully understand why the original bait works so well. They copy what they see, but they cant copy what they don't understand. Of course there is a difference between a simple plastic worm and a multi jointed swimbait. The more complex the bait, the more that goes into it. Yeah anybody with a pulse can make a simple jig that catches fish but designing a swimbait is whole other animal. Heck not even all spinner baits are created equal. Go talk to the best spinner bait fisherman in the world and ask them what they want in a perfect spinner bait. You would probably get a long educational answer. I guess we just have different goals in our bait making passions. We will just have to agree to disagree.

My point was to try and detour those from taking the easy rout of just copying stuff. I get it. I understand that building your own baits for your own use is fun and using proven ideas is the fastest, easiest way to make a bait that works. What I was trying to get across is that by doing this you learn very little. When you force your self to figure things out and make your own ideas you learn so much more. Its so much more rewarding. Its kind of like the difference between somebody catching a ten pound bass on there own or somebody being given a ten pounder that somebody else caught and said "here you can have mine" I was just trying to encourage you guys to think and challenge yourselves. the rewards are so much greater. Imagine if you came up with the next great bait and decided to keep it for yourself. You would rule your lakes for a long time.

There is a VERY simple reason why the line ties are in different places on soft and hard swimbaits. Most soft swimbaits use a top jig hook so the line tie will be on top of the head. Also soft swimbaits tend to have all or most of the weight in the jaw area so naturaly the line tie needs to be above the weight to balance it properly. Hard swimbaits are different and rarely use a jig hook so its easier to put the line tie where ever you want to plus they are weighted differently. The weight is usually spread out. BTW its far better to design your own then to just steal from somebody else. By designing your own you learn why and how things work. By stealing you never make anything better. Use your brain and figure things out.

try PVC glue. It will weld them together

hebmfg.com

Wow thats a good one! hope you heal fast. I have had two good burns in my past but I havent had one in probably 8 years. As soon as you loose your fear is when the plastic gets you. I try and stay scared of it! I catch myself being careless every once in a while and then I remind myself how bad those burns hurt. I feel for you.

First this is not meant to be a knock off argument. If you are repainting baits for your own use wouldnt you want to start with the better bait? After all you do plan on fishing it right? If your just practicing your painting then use the cheapest ones you can find.

If your patent attorny feels they can make money on a suit then you can negotiate with them. In my case I would be ok with my attorny getting all of it just to make the theives pay. Also I dont have to make a big case out of it. If a little guy copies one of my patented designes I can sue them and make them show up to court. It will cost me very little but they might have to travel and hire an attorny. I could make them come to me several times before it went to trial. It could end up costing them a good chunck before it ever went before the judge. I would then have a real good idea if I was going to win or not and make a decision weither to continue or drop the suit. Either way the theif is out a lot of time and money, but I would be out very little. I know of this happening more then once in our industry and even specificaly with swimbaits. Company A sues company B. Company A drops the suit just before it goes to trial. Company A is out a few thousand. company B is out 30x that. People may think that company B won because it was dropped but company A is the one Laughing about it. I also know of a swimbait company that sued one of the largest, if not the largest fishing Co in the world over an internal lead head, and the little swimbait company won!!!! So even though the big co had all the money and lawers it didnt matter. They infringed (stole) and they paid for it big time. From what I have heard the Judge or Jurry looks at the 2 products and decides if its infringing or not. Thats got to be prety scary for the defendant. As for foriegn countries. I have been copied several times in China and so far they have done such a bad job on thier copies that they have not been a threat. For the most part I am protecting myself against my piers and the smaller leaches. If I big company infringes then I would discuss that with my attorny. If its a winable case I could offer my attourny a large percentage of any monies awarded. As for taxes, I know you were reffering the knock off guys but for me, you bet I pay the taxes. It aint cheap either!

Not for sale. The only reason that I am getting the patents is so I can build my baits with out having to worry about anybody steeling from me. I have no desire to sell or even make royalties. I just want to keep the thieves away.