zach

since i couldn't go fishing today i worked on this some. all done painting and waiting until the epoxy clear coat cures until i add the screw lock in the end of the tail, add the twistertail and hardware. so there it is, almost done and i showed somewhat what i have been doing this winter. will post finished pic when its done. gonna put that gold tail on this one and hope it does okay and doesn't ruin the action. i like it now and hope i don't ruin it by adding the rubber tail. lets hope it works and if it does it should be neat! i like the paint job, the finish is good and i may almost be happy w/ this one even though i could point out some mistakes. oh well, trials and tribulations of wood musky lures as i still have so much to learn. it turned out fat like a les chubbie that isn't being made anymore. this one will not be on the raffle table.lol

is she the girl from jonnywalleye's picture from owasco?

mr. jones called me and said they would be shipped out tomorrow which means they will get wet at chaut- good company, great communication!

ghetto musky huh? i thought ghetto muskies were carp you snagged while trolling.

where else are you supposed to leave a monster box of lures while you are fishing? i think that w/ how much those cost that they would have considered this over just looks. anyways off to finish the brown perch then its 2 coats of clear and add hardware and tail! will be done well before 6/19!!!!!!!!!!! watch out boys!

uv sun damage that yellows the finishes and can cause them to crack, the day they make it tinted or colored is the day i trade in my old cedar custom made musky box for one. until then i role old school w/ my awesome wood box! hold onto your $ for that just-in-case in my opinion. bulletproof box's but needs more thought put into it. anyways- i am doing this plug in frankybaits brown perch w/ a big gold glitter tail if things work out.

u guys and them spoons, just more hooks to clean of weeds.

well i have everyone at work mad at me b/c i primered this at there and it stinks horribly. oh well, they never really liked me that much anyway. wait until i basecoat it white in about an hour!

bob- thanks, if it looks like a lapper than i think i am doing good! if you ever have any small bubbles in that clear coat take a heat gun (or a lighter for those w/o a heat gun like me) and hit the clear while its drying and they will pop leaving you w/ a crystal clear finish. yeah, the body is like a bigger gotcha i guess, all the gotchas i have are small 6" ones and this has more "meat" to it than those and is longer. same head as a gotcha/wiley though. all new lures are, are copies of another w/ some sort of improvement made and it has always been that way. happy that stuff is working for you and you should think about not storing them in a clear case this year but i dont think you'll make that mistake again. i am sure bob will agree that these lures we finish have a much more durable protective finish than any commercial made plug. bob- since you and i have the same taste in lures check out muskietrains diesel. wanteta killers for sure! just dont order the cobra perch and we are cool.

awesome. now your neighbors know what a big northern looks like! like the weeds old man! whats the old lady think about it? neat. some how i dont think lexie would like this on our garage though. lol.

cut in half, took out about 3/4 inch of wood and hope for the best. next sand, even up joint and get ready to prime.

so like most things i was over thinking it. seems to be a reoccurring problem when u get obsessed like i have been for some time. thanks for thinking about it alittle differant. i dont think there would be a need on a propbait since it usually has a taught line pulling it pretty steady.

so you think any float would actually work against the topwater?

lathe cut, lexan lip, ready to be cut for the joint (white cedar). nine inches right now. angled top of head and flat front. max diameter is about 1/3 of the way back to the tail (something i have learned). i have also learned it is best for me to add the lip before i primer or paint since i have had paint get in the lip groove and i dont want to epoxy in a lip and have it connect to the primer i want it right to the wood. thinking about pinning the lip also. it does get in the way painting it but its what i am doing as of now. i also need to learn how to cut lips better b/c it always take me more than one to get it right. need to work on this soon b/c i want it for 6/19.

larry? bob? nitro? larry dahlberg? anyone have an opinion if this is worth a try?

i know the sites you are talking about and i am a complete amatuer compaired to all them but these were fun for me to do for gustofson as i am a tuff shad fan and his 2 had seen better days. i wish i could have taken a before pic since when they were new the clear had cracked pretty bad in a short summer of fishing and were taking on water and even discolored the wood of the lure. since these lures weren't mine i did a very simple pattern that lee talked about and didn't want to screw it up for him by getting in over my head. i think i solved his problem with the wood for good and hope he fishes these this summer! this clear coat is way thicker than any i have ever seen on a commercial lure and i hope it holds up very well for him. the screw all have all been epoxied in also for that added strength. to test out how strong an expoxied in screw eyes was i once this winter hung my fat a** from a screw eye in the basement. held 175 lbs so i think it may be okay to chase muskies w/. some things i have made came out okay and some horrible. i have a crankbait that almost does circles when you retrieve it and some that have no action at all no matter how fast you crank and a few that actually run okay. i have tried 3 jerkbaits so far and one is good and the other 2 are over weighted and suck. no action, right at you and then dies, i will get back to drilling out some of the lead some time eventually. this year i have also tied up about a dozen bucktails and about the same in spinnerbaits to my specs. also made 3 topwater that actually work along w/ some in-line buzz baits that i copied after grim reapers that look like they will raise a ruckus. all-in-all it is a fun little hobby that i am glad i started this winter but i have no time for it (remember i have a 2 yr old lil guy take i am happy to give all my time to) and now that summer is almost here i dont see much if any time for it cause if i get any free time i am off to waneta. i remember asking larry about a year ago what sort of action and design he would make in a crank if he could- he replied that only people w/ alot of time and $ should even think about making plugs. after doing this for a short time i fully agree with him. if you got paid by the hour it just wouldn't work out but if you do it for yourself you can justify the time spent and you really dont save all that much $ doing them yourself. i am starting a new one today and i will post pics of the process if you want. i am gonna make a jointed squirrley tail wiley/gotcha/stalker hybred that would be like a cool hard pounding curly tailed stalker if things work out and make it good size for night trolling. big curly tailed ugly thing, i am thinking. got the body and lip together now but have to cut the joint and decide how big i want it. i also want 3 hooks on it. all the squirrley tailed cranks i see seem only have 2 sets of trebles and i want 3 (i need all the help i can get). last one before the season starts and i want it done for 6/19 at midnight! thanks for the comments guys but i am by far my worst critic and i will tell you i have a long way go. eventually i may make one where i won't be able to point out any mistakes, wouldn't that be nice.... but then would i even fished it? anyways thanks and take care!

is it a grim reaper spinnerbait? nice job and it looks like nice boat also! thanks for giving up some info.

yeah and they look like they will hold up for more than a year also. not the cheapest though! glad i could help you as i didn't even know they existed 3 months ago. new lure company. did you get straight or jointed one?

(walk the dog topwaters) i have got a viper, water moccasion, and bs one eyed willy new for this year (in addition to my weagle and jackpots) and was thinking about the absolute best leader to put on them. i am thinking about a solid leader w/ a small snap to the lure and no swivel on the line tie end to keep it from sinking. from there i was thinking about adding a small styrofoam float like those used on walleye worm harness' on the line tie side directly in front of the connection on my braided mainline. my excesive overthinking is this would keep the metal leader from sinking maybe improving the action? any thoughts on this guys? is it even worth it? i love topwater fishing and plan on do alot more this year since last year i had only one hit at waneta on top and i missed it (very nice fish) but only casted for a very short time last year as i got caught up in the trolling darkside? just so excited about musky fishing and want everything to work the best it can-

didn't want to get too crazy on lures that weren't mine so i did a simple black perch on these and hope they turned out okay for you lee. i believe i solved the problems you had w/ these tuff shads and hopefully u hand them back to me next winter to do again after having teeth marks all over them all chewed up, that would be cool! good luck w/ these and i hope it was worth me redoing for you. just dont beat me at the tourney w/ these or i'll be hot and you'll owe me alot of beer . take care and i hope u are somewhat happy with these.

go fish that south end triangle and you'll end up catching something- lots of 32-40" in that area.

hopefully the tourney winner will hit it and leave a big tooth in it (i have made muskies leave teeth in my lures before, its really neat i think) but why troll so slow lee? solgrande makes fun of me all the time b/c i troll so fast and hate slowing down (its so boring). some times it costs me and sometimes it works really well and am able to get fish when others aren't doing anything. to me slow is anything under 4.5mph. i found that i can troll sledges at almost 9mph along w/ a few perfectly tuned tuff shads that i have but most good lures top out around 6mph i find. i think 4.5-6mph w/ lots of turns is my perferred trolling speed for warm water temps during the daytime and then the dreaded 2.5-3.5mph at night if i dont fall asleep from the hum of the engine. sometimes i use special 4.5oz spinnerbaits w/ 8 oz of weight on the leader just to keep them in the water when going over high weedtops during the middle of the day fast. love it, love it, love it and am getting so excited for musky season!

rapalas do get hit but they get expensive.

should be finished by this weekend gustofson.

are you gonna stop fishing at 3:30pm then?