Something I Thought Was Cool

Here's something that was sent to me by my friend Erik Walmann. It's a link to a page of ABU Garcia's website in Sweden. The page contains a short video featuring Erik demonstrating his pike fishing technique, his lure of choice......one of my Big Boy swimbaits. It's still very hard for me to believe that one of my handmade soft plastic creations has found it's way to the other side of the world and is being included in a demonstration by one of the finest Nordic Pike fishermen, on the website of the worlds finest fishing tackle manufacturer. I have been using ABU reels for many more years than I care to mention. To me that is very cool.

Here's the link. The video takes a minute to load so please be patient.
http://www.abugarcia.se/blog/blog-andersforsberg/index.php?entry=885

New From Hoosier Handmade Musky Baits

Here's 2 new baits from Don Slagle at Hoosier Handmade Musky Baits.
These are the 9" Rattling Shad Crankbait (top) and the 9" Rattling Shad Glider.
Specs:
Crankbait
9-1/2" in length
2-1/8" high
1" thick
6.5 ounces
10-12 feet running depth (casting)

Glider
9-1/2" in length
5-1/8" high
1" thick
7.4 ounces
Countdown
As usual these baits, like everything that Don makes are an prime example of some of the finest craftmanship in lure building today. The Rattles that he puts in these are very large and very loud and have a sound unlike any other bait I've ever heard. The wood work, the paint work,and the finish coatings are all top notch. You'd be hard pressed to find a better built anywhere and at any price and judging by the number of large muskies that have been taken on them already, in the short time they have been available, says to me that these will mainstays in my box for a long time to come.
I cannot wait for the opportunity to give these two some serious leader time

Custom Believers

Here's a few photos of some of the process that I did awhile back on some 10" Believers for a friend. These blanks have a bubble for a eye to be painted on but in order to use a 3-D eye I had to machine the bubble down flat to make a place to attach the eye.
The first couple pics show the bubble that is molded into the body.
The next two pics show me using a standard drill bit, in a drill press, to get the placement correct and to cut center of the bubble to the right depth. You have to be careful in this step as to not drill to deep otherwise you will drill into the hollow body cavity.
In the next three photos, I changed the bit to a flat milling bit to machine the edges of the bubble down flat.
The last three pics are of the bait after painting, adding the 3-D eyes and also adding his logo to the back. At this point it is ready for the epoxy coating.
While this doesn't seem like a big deal to do, on one bait, but when doing 15 baits this way, this little project became very time consuming and turned into many hours of work. In the end I think the time spent was well worth it. I hope he felt it was worth it too.

A few Hellhounds

A Tennessee Shad flavored Hellhound that's ready to go and a few more waiting for their tails to be completed.
The top one is Flame, the middle one is a Orange Sucker and the bottom one is a Barred Sucker.

A Couple Days Away

My wife and I took a couple days to get out and do a mini vacation. We set up camp in a boat in campground on Kentucky's Cave Run Lake. With very hot air temps during the day I could only stand to fish a couple hours in the morning and evening. The fish were very sluggish due to the high temps, falling water levels and a moderate east wind. I did however manage to catch 2 muskies, one was a little one, about 30" or so which I didn't even take a photo of. The second fish was a fat 37"er, while not a big fish but considering the tough conditions I was very happy to get it.

A Little Bit of Everything

A pretty good mix of types of rubber swimbaits. There's 3 different types of Chatterbaits, a couple each of Widetails, Ribbontails, Big Boys, Shallow Paddletails and Deep Paddletails. Along with some bodies, a 9" shad, a 6" minnow, a 5" fat shad and a 6" shad. There are also 2 split belly versions, a 9" shad and 10" forktail.
This mix not only has a wide variety of bait styles but also a good mix of colors, from mild to wild. Some are colors that have been posted before but the are a few new colors in this bunch.

How Many is To Many ??

While cleaning up the boat after a day on the water this week I accidently dumped a box of bucktails in the floor. I was shocked on how many baits there were in just one Plano utility box. Unless I counted wrong there were 30 baits in this one box, these are big baits too. The smaller blades are a mag 8's, along with some 9' and a few 10's. The willows are Mag 10's and are close to 5" long. The really sad part of this is, this is not my only box of spinners, these are just the big ones. I carry 3 other boxes that are just as full, one has smaller bucktails, one has rubber bodied spinners and the last one is full of spinnerbaits. I don't even want to know exactly how many different bladed lures I carry that I'll never use.
Oh well, they say "The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys" and since I make most all my own toys (and I do like my toys) I guess that's my way of justifying the cost of having so many.

Full House(s)

I've posted photos of this tree before but the nests were always empty when I took those photos. This time there was standing room only. While these nests were originally built by eagles these 3 families of Blue Herons found them just to their liking. I was amazed at the noise these young birds made. You could hear them from a couple hundred feet away.

A Classic !!!

My friend Erik Walmann doing some filming during his week long Pike competition last week.
That's a classic shot Erik, you should use this photo as part of your logo .

A Few More Paddletails

A few 8"Paddletails and one Shallow model in various colors, some mild, some wild.

Major Changes !!

After hearing of the destruction resulting from the flash floods we had here a few weeks ago I decided to check out the creek that is close to my house. Entire stretches of the shoreline were washed either into the creek or totally swept away. There were dozens of trees that used to stand along the banks now laying in the water, many were across the creek. At one point I had to weave from one side of the creek to the other and back with the boat rubbing brush on both sides just to get through.
Here's but a few photos of the many trees that went from bird houses to fish houses in a matter of a few hours.
I always look forward each spring to get the boat in the creek to see the changes the high water has made over the winter but after fishing this creek for over 25 years I've never seen this much damage in such a short time. Just a small sample of the power of nature.

Some Rubber Stuff

Here's some of the soft plastic I've been working on the last several days.
8" Shallow Paddletails
8" Deep Paddletails
and Big Boys.