zach

IMO boards are good for early and late season fishing when the weeds are not floating. Last fall a father and son team from PA crushed fish on Chaut draggin' boards with my baits and Tuffs last November in the south end. Small baits on boards in late season? Yeah they crushed em with off beat tactic and were doing like 20 fish a weekend. This same team also crushed fish on $9 Bass foils on LSC. They did more fish on my baits then anything else but due to them being associated with another "baitmaker" it could never be told and they didn't even tell the best man at wedding that stayed with them all the whole time. Nobody knew what they caught fish on until this winter when big orders of $9 Bass foils were ordered from PA, lol. Best luck with the boards but watch those weeds, just more trouble than its worth when you have lots of floaters.

Very nice! Congrats! Those Mepps get their fair share of fish!

Happy belated B-day Larry! Havent been on here in a while so I missed it. Got those baits for you all done up, I just need those big lips for them from Moores tackle. Hope it was a good one!

http://www.bigwoodmuskylures.com/lures. ... crankbaits I just started dealing with Kyle from Bigwoods and really hope this works out well. For the first time ever- I hooked up with a big on-line company and am excited. Anyways- just a local boy doing well making baits, lots of baits and people still want more so I am going to ride this crazy train for a minute until it stops. Seeing my baits in an on line store seems weird still at this point but I think I can get used to it. It was crazy around here last month as I built almost 240 baits in a month between Bigwoods and the Pittsburgh show and as of this morning, dont have a single bait left- thats crazy to me! Baker Baits does have a website in the works but with all this baitmaking I have been doing to open that up would just be way too much as of now. Once things slow down around mid-June I fully expect to get it up and running but for now, no need. This is what the dude from Bigwoods wrote- The Baker Baits 5" Shad have in a short time, garnished considerable attention in the Muskie world and have gained a reputaion as a proven fish catcher. Beautifully hand crafted, Baker Baits boast some of the finest paint jobs and finishes anywhere. These wood crank baits (made of White Cedar) have a square lip that gives it a hard kick, a wide wobble and a nice built in "wander" that Muskies can't resist. The 5" Shad runs true up to 5 mph and is commonly fished in the 10' to 15' depth range while trolling. Depths of up to 20' are achievable if long line trolling at 5 mph, yet this crankbait runs well behind a planer board and can be effectively fished shallow. Baker Baits are horizontally weighted which gives them a slow rise when casting and twitching this muskie bait. This additional weight also helps keep the bait down, making it a favorite among row trollers. If you appreciate American made, quality Musky lures with custom finishes, try some Baker Baits and hang on!

After missing the Pittsburgh show I was starting to freak out thinking I have all these plugs and what am I going to do with them. I honestly map quested the route to Michigan to see if I needed to go since I had the invite and a bunch of plugs. To make the long story short, I have no need to freak out anymore, I sold all of my plugs that I made for the show from last Sunday to this Wednesday all in private orders. People found out I had plugs and the phone kept ringing and I sold over 100 baits in 3 days. Now I have an order of 75-80 baits just for the guys in PA from 3Rivers Chapter 16 of Musky Inc. So a really bad thing (me missing the show) actually worked out in my favor this time. I really thought that for the first time in this bait making adventure that I had stock and had some plugs in inventory and with in 3 days they are all gone leaving me back to painting and building for the order. Much love to the PA guys and the Ohio boys for sucking these baits up! You guys really came through for me and I am thrilled. Coming up before the opener for us in NY here, I am going to have a LOU special and offer my baits to you guys first at a discount b/c you guys are very important to me. Well off to make baits and try to be a decent father- your homeboy for Henrietta- Zach Baker

Ray J- this morning something unexpected happened and to my deepest disappointment I am not able to make it. Makes me sick to my stomach and do apologize.

Too bad I am too poor to bid on these, lol. I also would like to say how nice those toothyfisherman lure retrievers are. When Cpt Larry and I fished together in Ohio he showed me how to use it and we were 3 for 3 getting hung baits back. I am going to finally get one at the PA show later this month and would highly recommend them to anyone. They pay for themselves the first time you use it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PA-Baitfish-Fun ... 500wt_1413 Please take a quick look to see if anything here interests you. This is the first of 5 auctions that PA is doing to add funds to their baitfish project to help raise muskies. FYI all of these baits on this auction are "customs" and you may never see one again like it. Take a look at Wileys "brown trout", Legends "mother of peal", Leo's "peacock bass" you dont see these everyday, I promise. Some stuff you might never see again so if your interested, get on board and help us raise funds. Once again, I am honored to be part of this and somehow I got included with the PA boys and I think its pretty cool. Thanks for your time.

Yeah that guy is only 4'6" so even perch look big in his hands, lol.

3rd year in a row we have posted this pic. European Pike.

Hey- whats up Ray and Old Man? Ray- thinking about something black and red for you if you get down to Butler. Old Man- you are on my list of people I need to send a few too since you were so cool hooking up the kid and I last year and I still have a piece of cardboard with your address on it. As far as the shallow running jointed mahogany baits? Just something different for the PA fundraiser auction starting in Feb b/c I am sure everyone was expecting a normal bait from me and I wanted to do something different. Myself, Wiley, Newmann, Leo and Legend Lures are donating a "special" bait every month to raise $ for PA's newly formed baitfish fund. I only made 3 of these and one is for auction and the other two already have homes in PA. I will post a link on here when it officially gets going if you guys are interested. It is a neat fund b/c they will actually breed the fathead minnows over the course of the summer getting around 6x more minnows then they will start off with just by letting those little boogers spawn a few times over the summer. They have special ponds with gravel that will be used just for minnow breeding and then those raised minnows will feed the muskies come later in the summer. Its a good thing to be involved with and I will support stuff like this every time I can. Just remember that 2 years when we (NY) lost most of our fingerlings we had to get PA's muskies and people complained about the muskies being smaller in size than what we usually stock. Well this coming year- they won't have that problem. Now if we could just get some damn muskies in a lake close to Rochester!

I am down to support this.

The Ohio Show sounds like a good time but like Larry said- take a look at Butler. Lots of musky candy at that show!

I just saw you named them, lol. I think the late Vince B would approve, I really hope these work out well for you b/c I am only making 10 total for now. I want these to last for you as long as they can and really do hope they are successful for you. Who knows? If they start tearing up the fish, it may be something I do more of come summer time. Until then its getting baits ready for the Butler Show, filling a nice order from Kyle at Bigwoods Musky Shop (I am getting picked up by http://www.bigwoodmuskylures.com/ after the PA show and he is worried about me not being able to make enough) then its making baits for the Michigan Musky Shop, 2 smaller shops in WV, a small shop in PA and last for the Hooker who placed an order for 150 baits. I am also working on getting them stocked at Cave Run in Kentucky but that is just in the works for now. I should be busy cranking out plugs until at least June with at least 750 of the 5" baits to make and that's not counting the new 8" deep divers that were successfully tested this fall or any lure donations/fundraisers or private orders. It looks like it should honestly be around 1,000 baits by mid-June of 2012. Thats a lot of baitmaking to me! I have also been working on my Baker Baits webpage and will get that up and running sometime soon but I suck at computers so........ Who would have thunk it? Not me when I started this bait making adventure. Very grateful for all the support I have be given b/c I have almost hung up the airbrush for good a few times over the past couple of years. Glad I didn't now.

I just happened to see this even though I have been avoiding internet forums lately. Easiest way to get in touch with me is to just give me a call @ 585-414-0138. I am building for the Butler Musky Show now and have some baits in stock in around 12 colors and 2 sizes as of now. Give me a buzz and we can talk all you want. Thanks very much for the interest.

Ronix- I have been thinking about making a "pickle" colored lure for 3 years now but never have. This winter I will try to make up some for us LOU guys and only my LOU guys. We can call it the exclusive "LOU Pickle" and nobody else will know what we are talking about! Mikey Boy- if you, Nalod and Blueeye want one- just ask. It will take me a while since I want to make them foiled- just let me know if you want them jointed or straight and I will get to work over the winter. This summer I did my best to "lay low" and stay off these internet forums as I have had some issues because of them. I used to try to promote my baits all the time and found out it is a great way to make yourself a target for some people that may not have your best interests in mind. This whole bait making thing has its good side and its really bad side. Every bait maker is trying to sell baits to the same people and some guys do some "cut-throat" stuff trying to sell that one extra bait. People will drag your name through the mud and back just to make themselves look better than you. It got really old this summer and I told myself to just back off and found out that I was 100x happier just sitting back making my baits and not posting every time a fish fell for a Baker Bait. Bty it was a good summer! I got a couple hundred baits on LSC and they did awesome (thanks again Cpt Larry)! A guy from Ohio had a 30 fish day on LSC on one $9 bass color lure, they got 6 50" muskies just from Chautauqua alone that I am aware of, they did awesome on Green Bay trolled behind planer boards on their first fall up there, started selling them in 3 new baits shops down south (now in 6 shops total) and did my first couple orders for international baits. Some guys in Norway got some for pike and I am currently finishing a foil order for some guys in Australia who are targeting Murray Cod with them which I think is awesome. Murray Cod look like 100lb largemouth and are a really neat fish from what I have found out. Soon my baits will also be carried by Bigwoods Musky Tackle Online so you can just order them from there but that won't be for little bit as I just can't seem to make enough baits. So even while I have backed off and almost disappeared from what would considered "public view", I am still here, just as busy as ever making the best baits I ever have. I have learned a lot over the past couple of years and have changed my baits a few times tweeking them to make them better as I learn new stuff but one thing is- without great people around me, I would have fallen on my face along time ago! P.S. Chad- the kid loves breaking the light bulbs on top of this page, I let him do it over and over while he sits on my lap and he never seems to tire of it, lol.

Chad- nice fish on my new bait! Glad you were happy with it as I spent a good amount of time coming up with that design.

Awesome! Great job and to have that fish hit at boatside, really cool! Keep it up, your hot!

I wish I caught it I can tell you that! No, just did some work for Cpt Larry that's all. I would have to stop bowhunting to go fishing and that's not happening right now with how crazy things are in the woods right now, lol.

As some of you may have heard- I did some custom work for Cpt Larry this spring and here are the final results. Thought it was neat!