So why do you Do-it?

[MO QWACK]

Amen, to that I like a little don Williams and  ray Charles myself I agree very relaxing to take your mind off the world

[Brent]

Well about a month post surgery and I have started making baits again. I had one of my friends call me up on Friday, he is making a name for himself via guiding, and I had tossed some baits his way, Well he and his client were smashing the crappie on one that I made for him, the same day I had been a guest on another friends boat, he wanted to learn how to fish plastics, by the end of the day he was putting crappie in the boat on a consistent basis. I just enjoy sharing the sport of fishing with others

[Justin9j]

I do it because my grandpa did it.   But I love it.  I have never fished a store bought jig or spinnerbait.

Music  Johnny Cash to Rage Against Machine.   I love it all..   And yes its relaxing to be out in the garage by myself. 

[Partycrasher]

I have never gotten tired of it.  It just keeps getting better.  I walk through fly tying shops and my head spins with ideas.  There are so many new products out every year you can hardly keep up.  The palette of materials available so make lures has multiplied 10x in the past 20 years.  Its great!

Marc

[Eep3501]

Well looks like no one has posted here for awhile...Well I'm new and figured I would throw my two bits in. Several reasons actually. 1) Other than the local Wally world the closest bait shop is 35 miles away. 2) Wally World doesn't have the bait/ tackle selection I want, and don't want to order something and by the time you get it, it don't necessarily, work any more. Then I got interested in Tying jigs. Been doing that a while, maybe a year or so, and got the bug to get into plastics. Due two surgeries for cancer and still in the recovery phase from the last one, my order to ccm is on hold a bit more. Won't be long and I will be playing with the plastic too. Mean while it gives me time to go back and read the forums on here, and get as much info as I can from the posts on here. W hat I have read so far, everyone on here are great big family, so to speak. That makes it comfortable to ask questions and learn, and have a real good idea of what to do, what to buy, and how to do things safely when I can get started.  so that's a bit of my story. Hope others will find this thread and add there stories too....Eric

[smalljaw]

I never saw this thread and since it was bumped up again I'll give you my take whether you want to know or not, LOL. I got started back in the late 90s, I was already fishing the Susquehanna river hard from the late 80s and I stumbled onto a great technique for the summer smallies. I mean they weren't hard to catch or find really but getting bigger fish consistently in the warm months was hard to do but I found a pattern. What I discovered was the lower end of riffles with deep water was where big ones hung out and they would take a spinnerbait but only if it was burned, the problem I was having was everytime I would get into the heavier current the bait would roll on its side and I had a beast come up and hammer the bait but because it when so far over on its side the fish ended up hooked weird and got off, so I needed to find better spinnerbaits. I tried all kinds for a solid year and when none of them worked I started buying blades and changing them out and then it was swivels and then a round nose pliers to change the bends and then I looked and saw I had all this stuff, why not just buy a mold and make the bait I needed and that is what I did. I cut and bend my wire using the tried and true "little blue bender", it doesn't do a lot but it makes "R" bend spinnerbait forms perfect with all kinds of wire. I experimented with blade sizes, spacing and I would go fishing not to catch fish but to observe the 40 or 50 baits I made marking down the blade spacing with the size blades and what kind of beads I used, plastic or metal and how it affected the bait and fast speeds, slow speeds and everywhere in between and I would do this in lakes and rivers so I had reference for moving water and stagnant water. So it became apparent that I should do jigs too and then I learned how effective hair jigs were and thus another part of making baits got incorporated and after starting with 3 spinnerbait molds it has grown into quite a collection, I do sell a few but I make no money, I charge for material so I can keep making baits, the best part is the fun I have and I suffer very little during the hard water months as I have an outlet.

[Eep3501]

Great story smalljaw. Really glad someone else came on and posted here too. Really enjoyed the read and was able to learn a bit on the book side of keeping track of things.

[efishnc]

Hey Eep,  welcome to the club. 

I got my start tying jigs and streamers with Dad at age four, but I wasn't allowed to pour lead until second grade... (if that was today, dear ol' Dad would likely be brought up on child endangerment charges)... and we actually poured our lead from a cast iron skillet, melted on the stove top.  Because of my early start, my history goes back farther than many others older than myself.  I actually took one of Dad's original molds to headquarters and they couldn't give me a date more accurate than "pre-1973".   

I cut my teeth fishing walleyes on the Big Miss before kindergarten, and I was convinced that hair (because it was "natural") would always outperform plastics on jigs - so much so, that I didn't try my first plastic on a lead head until I was in my twenties.  Now, I'm convinced plastics will generally out-fish hair (because of it's action.)  I'll still use a hair jig on occasion, and the mayfly hatches are when it seems to come back and really shine for me... especially one made from red fox tail!

Dad, being and old farmer, instilled the efficiency mindset within me; making our own jigs from recycled lead pipe and tails from deer we shot just seemed so natural, I never thought it needed a reason... but looking back, I guess it was done out of simple economics.   However, with the addition of all we can do with making plastics, lure crafting is far more pleasure focused for me now.  The thing I like most is coming up with baits no one else has to catch highly pressured fish (i.e. muskies); but I like it all... it's just a shame I'm not independently wealthy.

[Yves]

hobby
I started to make molds with polselein  powder ,have found this forum, and started with injection.
poorselein powder is good stuff for hand molds (super)

will catch big Walleye 

[jmatheny9]

I first started this to just say I make my own baits. It was just a cool thing that I didn't know anyone else who did it.
The first time I took out my baits, I absolutely slayed the bass while my partners just watched in awe. They were some goofey colors but they worked when others didn't and it just made something click inside my brain. This is something I'm beginning to love and it is a good way to show some skills in a positive way.  Not to mention, this forum ha really got me that much more into it. All of the help an a sense of community, if not family, is just a cherry on the cake to me. I just want to thank everyone, really. It's great.

                     -Jeremiah




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