Tackle Crafting and the Pros

[Jerry V]

I saw this photo of Bassmaster Classic Champion Cliff Pace on Bassmaster.com and it made me wonder how much tackle crafting plays a part in the success of the Elite Pros...  I have a good idea, just wondered what Y'all think.

[gone2long]

Well I would have to say it plays allot, I know these guys have the money and sponsorship to get any bait  in any color that they want but for me it's simply the demand, stores around me only have limited colors and styles and with making my own I can produce in a few minutes what would takes days to have delivered and at a cost. I'm a creek and river fisherman and you know that losing tackle is a given and if I wasn't making my own my success rate would surely suffer as a result.

And note to self: I'm no pro

[Brent]

Pros use one offs or custom baits more than you think.

[Denny Welch]

I think the pros have to think outside the box a lot.  If they have something a little different than what the fish are used to it just might lead to a bite that gives them a paycheck.  About the only way you can do that is to make your own.

I also think a lot of those guys still enjoy the thrill of catching a fish on something they made.  It doesn't get much better.

[kipbass]

I marshalled pace and he lost a lot of football jigs that day. He didn't seem to mind much. 

[DobynsTriton]

if you need some tackle made right you just gotta make it yourself

[Jerry V]

if you need some tackle made right you just gotta make it yourself

and ain't that the truth..  I've a feeling we would ALL be amazed at how many Pros either manufacture/modify baits or have someone that does it for them.  Either way, I think a large portion of what they fish isn't necessarily "main stream".  Most of what they fish likely has a personal touch of some degree. 

I believe for most that's the way they can separate themselves from some of the others and have total control over the end product, and be able to switch things up on the fly.  It only makes sense for a serious angler to put as much in their own hands as they can.

[WALLEYE WACKER]

Jerry It's the ability too make thing's the way you want and a little different than the other guy or gal is using that get's you more fish in the boat. It's the little thing's and I do mine little. Hook size, weight  of jig,size of plastic , different shade of the same color some time's, glitter. With the quality of the molds your company make's it so everyone can fish like a pro. If you can think outside the box anything is possible. I have the ultra minnow mold. I use the 1/8 & 1/4 the most. In the fall I tie it with sheep hair for streamers in pink and I do mine bright pink. I have had times when it out caught 15 different people in the course of a day. Remember sheep hair really like's too mat up so you need to stick the hook in some foam like a streamer or you will have a big mess. Thank you for all the great work by you and the Do-It team. With out people like you it would be a lot harder if not imposable to make a quality jig and or lure. MIKE        

[Lamar]

  It does seem like every so often a new hot lure comes out and everyone keeps the QT on it as long as they can. Then everyone is using it and it's just another lure. The pro's aren't any different. They make a lot of there own lures plus they have lure companies that work with them to test products before making them public. Why not ? Who better to market it. But what I think the pro's do best is their ability to make the cast. The ones I've watched are spot on with every cast. It's amazing how far back under trees and docks they get with very little noise. Most of them are the total package.

[ctom]

I've been known to hit a Cabelas and buy them out of some colors and styles of plastic baits and then come home and cut and weld. I don't do it much now that I make what I want but years back I did this a lot. I had one bait that was super for crappies....I welded the tail section of a Culprit paddletail to a grub body with rings. 2" long and fished on a 1/32 head, this bait had a drop rate of about a foot every twenty minutes. On neutral and negative suspended crappies the drop rate was such that it drove those iffy fish nuts. I still have some of those hand-done baits saved up in a ziplock. Hard to let go of them.

[pjmcla]

The pros do a fair bit of prototyping on baits for their sponsor companies.   Or at least they used to.  Especially on crank baits.   

[crappiezilla]

I have 3 in the crappie world that buys from me. And I got alittle help with colors from a pro also. So it shows they do dabble in baits of there own