Why do you make lures?

[smalljaw]

So, why do you make lures? I know the first reason and the main reason, it is because we all have a passion for fishing, that passion leads us to go more in depth than the casual angler and it leads us to making tackle. There is also a secondary reason that comes once you begin doing it, but not everyone experiences it and it is a shame. The secondary reason I talk about is the feeling or the zone you enter when you're at the work bench, that is what I want to know, where does it take you that you keep going? For me, well my molds and my vise are magical, when you look at them you see lead molds and a fly tying vise but you need to really look close to see where the magic resides. Whether I'm pouring jig or spinnerbait heads, making skirts, or tying hair, I am entering a portal to a world of endless lakes and rivers full of fish waiting to grab my next creation. My wife would agree with me, she often says my vise is a time machine because when I'm sitting at the vise, I'm definitely not anywhere near home, that is so true. Last evening was one of those trips and it made me think about tackle making and all the people that do it, there are more profitable businesses to take up, there are more hobbies than you can shake a stick at, and there are more important things that can be done with our time. On the flip side I would argue that there would be no other business that I would enjoy more, there is not a more rewarding hobby, and there isn't anything you can do with your time that is any more constructive, what we create can be used to make money with, it can be used to catch a fish with, and it can be displayed for all to see just like a work of art, tackle making is more than a hobby, it is a way of life!!!!!  Tell me, are your molds magical? Do you get transported to another zone when making your lures? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Justin9j]

Very well written smalljaw.   First off I started watching my grandpa when I was 4 I loved to cut rubber skirts.   He had a hog farm and me and my mom and sister lived with my grandpa and grandma for little bit.  So every morning we got up feed the hogs abd washed floors. Then we went to the bait shop turned on the radio. And started pouring lead and building spinnerbaits.  Well he did. I sit there watching and learning.  Had no idea how much I learned sitting there.   After he got done. Or got tired of me sitting there : ). He handed me a pole with a spinnerbait tied on. And I would walk down to the farm pond. And fish for hours.   There I learn how to fish a spinnerbait  I had to figure out how they wanted it. Fast slow. Yo yo. Drag the bottom and color. Because I always took three or four spinners with me.  I could tie a fisherman knot at 5 years old.     
Now back to way I do it.  I started to save money. Ha ha ha ha.   But now I carry on the family tradition.    I have a addictive personality.  My real father was a drinker (and a very bad dad). So I promised my self I would never be like him.  But at a early age I had to have something to be doing.  My step dad seen this I believe so up come racecars.  I raced for 12 years.  With fishing in between.  At the time fishing was just something to do when there was no races to go to.  Racing was the way of life.   In the shop four times a week. Running Friday and Saturday night.   
But then came a long my now wife and her daughter. I started to slowly see I didn't need to be getting hurt to help provide for what was soon to me my family.  So I started fishing more and fished my first tournament and it was over from there. 
But I believe that with out race cars, making fishing tackle and my wife.  I would have became a drinker.  Because my first wife left within three months of being married and I looked in the bottom of the bottle for answers.   But  my wife lead me out of it and when my son was born. I races three more times and sold out.  To much to risk to get hurt or die out there just slinging mud. 

So what started out as a hobby turned in to a way of life.    My son has it too. Addictive personality. I see it all ready at the age of three. So he will be taught how to tunnel his powers.

So I do it to fix my problems. Keeps me going.  As smalljaw said. It's my little own world makes my head feel better. 

Sorry for the jabbering it just started to flow out.

[ctom]

I've had this itch my whole life. My Mother and Father were divorced when my Mother was about 4 months along with me. My Dad never knew I existed until I found him when I was 43 years old. But as a very young kid, about 6 years old, a couple of father-figure type neighbors took me fishing and showed my a whole new world. At the age of 11 I had a paper route. I saved my paper money and bought a fly tying kit from Herter's catalog one of those guys gave me. Herter's was still a Minnesota store in Waseca. The flies I tied were a huge hit with a teacher the first year I entered junior high school and what I sold to him really took off in the circle of his trout fishing friends and that is where I started making more serious money, which went right back into materials to make more.

When I entered senior high school, I got tight with my mechanics teacher....he loved to fish but wasn't from this area. He made his own jigs and he helped me make a mold block out of some super hard oak. That mold cast 1/4 and 1/8 heads, one of each. I soon combined the tying with the casting and really hit the jackpot with local anglers. We had a couple of bait shops in Rochester back then and I had cards of bucktail jigs in both along with a couple of department stores that had sporting goods areas. I had cards of jigs in three different bait shops along the Mississippi River. And so life goes.

Plastic injection has been a continuation of the love I have for fishing tackle and seeing how it develops; how color works for and against different elements found in the tackle. The plastic offers new challenges and I love the new doors that keep popping up for me to open. After 52 years of playing with this stuff, I still feel challenged and still love that challenge.

[Blackhawk19]

I'm an avid crappie fisherman but also a 100% disabled Vet for PTSD. Making lures and fishing rods keeps my hands busy and stops my mind from going places it doesn't belong. Also like every body I get a satisfaction from making something!

[School Master]

Reason number 1: I started making my own stuff because I am very picky when it comes to tackle. I was constantly looking for stuff that I deemed a requirement on a bait. There were very few that would fill all requirements. So I started to make my own stuff to be able to have exactly what I was looking for. This in turn gives me more confidence in the ultimate goal which is catching fish. Also, I am a big selection guy. I don't like having only a couple of anything. I like stocking my boxes full as I can with different colors and sizes to be able to fish in any situation. Making my own makes this a little more affordable.

Reason number 2: The water has a thick solid cold layer of matter on top of it 5 months a year. It is nearly impossible to cast through with out the use of a hole cutter. During this period there is nothing better to do other than go to "fantasy land" like Smallie talked about, and make baits for those fantasy situations.

Reason number 3: I look at it as part of my resume. My dream is to make it big one day as a tournament angler and over all fishing personality. I think having my own business and the marketing and managing that goes with it is attractive to potential sponsors down the road.

[sim]

I started making our own stuff because I wanted 1/16oz roundheads with 1/0 hooks and not pay out the nose for them.

THen I got tired of paying 3$ per jig, and found a source for skirts, etc and started making those too, and I can be much more specific about the components when it counts -

I do some tieing similar to what smalljaw makes  -

Once you get 'set up' - it becomes fun to make what you want when you want it.

Now that the plastic bug has bitten me, its just another aspect to the hobby of fishing that completes it.

[TommySkarlis]

I started out making my own lures because the guy that taught me to fish made his own and pretty much told me that if I was going to continue to fish with him, I'd have to help with both the labor and expense. 

He made his own lures because he couldn't find what he was looking for and also - it was more affordable.

Then, I experienced the thrill out of catching something on a lure I made and I was hooked.

I still make my own lures because of these reasons.

Number one is PRIDE!

[Denny Welch]

I love topics like this.  The eloquence of smalljaw and the honesty of Justin set the tone for the posts to follow.  I think we get to know one another better when we read stuff like this.  We get to see what makes each of us tick, where our priorities are and it gives us a little more insight into who we are.  I think all that information brings us closer together as forum members and enables us to meet the needs of other members when replying to a post.

I have this mental image of all of us, old geezers, young bucks and those in-between, standing shoulder to shoulder on a shoreline somewhere.  We are all holding a stick just waiting to get bit on something we made.  That's the common bond.

I've already posted a couple times why I make my own stuff and won't bore you with it again.  I'd encourage the rest of you, however, to let us know, "Why do you make lures?"

[412BaitCo]

Very well written smalljaw.   First off I started watching my grandpa when I was 4 I loved to cut rubber skirts.   He had a hog farm and me and my mom and sister lived with my grandpa and grandma for little bit.  So every morning we got up feed the hogs abd washed floors. Then we went to the bait shop turned on the radio. And started pouring lead and building spinnerbaits.  Well he did. I sit there watching and learning.  Had no idea how much I learned sitting there.   After he got done. Or got tired of me sitting there : ). He handed me a pole with a spinnerbait tied on. And I would walk down to the farm pond. And fish for hours.   There I learn how to fish a spinnerbait  I had to figure out how they wanted it. Fast slow. Yo yo. Drag the bottom and color. Because I always took three or four spinners with me.  I could tie a fisherman knot at 5 years old.     
Now back to way I do it.  I started to save money. Ha ha ha ha.   But now I carry on the family tradition.    I have a addictive personality.  My real father was a drinker (and a very bad dad). So I promised my self I would never be like him.  But at a early age I had to have something to be doing.  My step dad seen this I believe so up come racecars.  I raced for 12 years.  With fishing in between.  At the time fishing was just something to do when there was no races to go to.  Racing was the way of life.   In the shop four times a week. Running Friday and Saturday night.   
But then came a long my now wife and her daughter. I started to slowly see I didn't need to be getting hurt to help provide for what was soon to me my family.  So I started fishing more and fished my first tournament and it was over from there. 
But I believe that with out race cars, making fishing tackle and my wife.  I would have became a drinker.  Because my first wife left within three months of being married and I looked in the bottom of the bottle for answers.   But  my wife lead me out of it and when my son was born. I races three more times and sold out.  To much to risk to get hurt or die out there just slinging mud. 

So what started out as a hobby turned in to a way of life.    My son has it too. Addictive personality. I see it all ready at the age of three. So he will be taught how to tunnel his powers.

So I do it to fix my problems. Keeps me going.  As smalljaw said. It's my little own world makes my head feel better. 

Sorry for the jabbering it just started to flow out.

My story is quite like Justin's. Actually that's probably why we get a long so well. I however didn't have anyone other then some uncles taking me fishing every once in a long while. At a young age in not the greatest neighborhood a small group of friends realized that one place we wouldn't be bothered much was down at the river. Now keep in mind this river we fished was literally right next to a huge steel mill which meant we rarely ever caught anything but catfish and carp but we loved it! We caught some of the biggest fish I've caught to date down there just having simple fun and staying out of trouble. I strayed away from fishing for a while to do the whole teenage early 20's nonsense. After that I found my way back to bass fishing pretty hardcore. My favorite baits to fish are plastics and found that my local retailers always out of the colors that worked best locally. I set out on a google search mission to learn how to make plastics and found my way to this forum in the early times. With the help of a lot of the veterans here I learned. My baits started to spread around locally and got quite popular and even brought me to a guy that was a kayak angler. I tried this and fell in love with the sport. A lot of excise tax and learning to run a business properly later and a bunch of kayak tournaments and gaining sponsorships here I am. A tax legal business owner and kayak tournament angler.

[jl3140]

I just noticed this ongoing topic, so I'll tell you guys my story.

A couple years ago, when I was still trying to decide what college to attend, I actually got 4th place at the South Dakota State Shoot. Being as the individual who got first place had gone in that division already, I was asked to go to National Shooting Sports down in Grand Island, NE. Of course I accepted this amazing offer.

After the week of shooting ended, my dad drove down to get me and then we drove further south to Salina, Kansas to look at K-State. While I was there we were gonna do a little fishing. I hadn't done much for fishing before then and I wanted to do some bass fishing since I hadn't done very much of that. While I was there, I bought some GY senko baits. I thought to myself that they are incredibly expensive and that brought about the search for making my own lures. I found CCM at that time. I was still broke, but I told myself that if I caught one fish on a plastic lure, I was going to save up money and make my own lures. Lo and behold, I caught a bass on the first cast. Then I caught a second one on my fourth cast and I was, like the fish, hooked. I told myself that it would be cheaper to make my own lures, and I could make some money selling them. Neither of those plans are working out but I wouldn't give up this hobby for anything.

When I got back home, I immediately ordered plastic. Then after making my own hand pour molds, I ordered my first injection mold, a 3" croaker. By this time I was a member of the forum and I was looking at buying a used injector for my mold. I started a thread on the forum and Ghostbaits replied to it first telling me that he would just send me a used injector for free. I am still using this gifted injector and when I finally get enough money to buy a twinjector, I plan on giving this injector to a fishing buddy of mine who really likes the baits I make. Currently he is ten years old but he is very knowledgeable already on fishing techniques. I hope that he will be as grateful as I was and am when I do eventually give him it.

Anyway I've been hooked on fishing and making baits since then and I've been soaking up knowledge here on the forum.

Josh

[CrabbyBass]

Great topic guys? I agree with Denny that topics like this really brings us together and get to know each other. Here is my story:
I caught my first fish when I was 3 years old. It was a bluegill on a Ronco Pocket Fisherman. My grandparents owned a house in a private lake community. This is where I grew up fishing. All my life I was a night crawler and bobber fisherman because this is how my grandpa taught me how to fish. It wasn't until I went to Canada when I was 19 that I learned how to fish using different lures. I was casting spoons and also using jig heads with twister tails. This is when I realized that I can catch fish on others things other than nightcrawlers. My fishing went on from there. I learned to fish for bass. I had a bunch of plastics but never had success with them other than a jig head and twister tail. I would out fish all of my friends using only these. I remember one time I caught fish on 12 straight casts on a jig and twister tail. There was another guy fishing there with me and he got mad and left because he didn't catch anything. Anyway, I am way off topic here. I got into making plastics coming on 2 years ago. I had met Wilks19 through work and we decided to do something to pass the time during the winter months. We bought a starter kit from Jann's. Our obsession grew from there. I have always had this artistic ability in my blood. What better way to show some of my creativity than by making lures. When I am out in the shop, nothing else matters. It is me versus plastic. I get lost in what I am doing. Kind of like fishing, it is my escape from the world. I get these new ideas in my head and I love making them come to life. I am like a kid on Christmas morning when I open that mold for the very first time after coming up with a new idea. You should really see me if that lure turns out the way that I envisioned it. I am sure it would make for some hilarious video clips. I also love helping people catch fish. If I can make something for someone and they are happy because they catch fish with it, then that is very gratifying for me. There you have it!

Chuck

[Denny Welch]

Good post, Chuck, but what in the world are you doing up at midnight-thirty?  I've seen your pics.  Go get some beauty sleep.  You need it.

[Justin9j]

Good post, Chuck, but what in the world are you doing up at midnight-thirty?  I've seen your pics.  Go get some beauty sleep.  You need it.

Ha ha ha ha.

[ctom]

"If I can make something for someone and they are happy because they catch fish with it, then that is very gratifying for me. There you have it!".....CrabbyBass.

I live where a stream/creek and a river come together only a few hundred feet from my back yard and paved bike and walking paths amble along the waterways in several directions. While these waters are relatively small [the river is maybe a hundred feet across and rarely over 6 feet deep in this area] they hold lots of game fish from Smallmouth Bass to Walleye, to Crappies and Sunfish to even Muskies and Northerns. During the spring summer and falls there is seldom any given day that someone isn't fishing along here and often times I'll see groups of youngsters plying their skills. I enjoy going down and watching the kids fish and will most always have a bag of jigheads and a bag full of plastics that I use to catch fish along the shores here. Sharing this tackle with the kids is just plain fun. Seeing them get something for free and then be shown how to use it is a treat but seeing or hearing the same kids catch fish using it has a special feeling to it.

Most of you know that the smart one of the family here in Minnesota [Carole] and I have an antique shop and we spend a lot of time in warm weather at garage sales and doing estate sales looking for things to keep the shop stocked. I buy a lot of rod/reel combinations that are in working condition and bring them home and replace the line on them. They then go to a bait/tackle/gun shop a couple blocks away where they are GIVEN to kids who want to fish but cannot afford a rod of their own or who's parents can't afford one. I've maybe donated 300 of these in the last ten years. The shop is located a block away from the city lake and a block away from the same water that flows thru my backyard. Its amazing how many of those rigs I recognize over the summer and its amazing how those kids learn. A couple jigs and a handful of plastics to the same kids just makes it in my book. They don' have a clue to the whole story but seeing them grow into this just trips my trigger. People a long, long time ago made sure I had the itch very well imbedded, today I am paying it forward knowing that some of these kids will do the same thing. Many of these kids have become frequent visitors to the garage during the summer months once they learn I am making the baits there and have come and knocked on the door asking to watch me. Some have gone home and had a parent come back to thank me. Some have gone on to become Scouts and have asked me to do demonstrations to their Troops and I have also had many sessions inside classrooms at the most local of our city high schools doing jig casting/painting/tying demonstrations with the outdoor biology classes. All of this, working with kids who really want to know more about fishing or those who just don't have the opportunities without someone helping them, is one of the most rewarding parts of my life second only to blood donation and being an active marrow donor.

[CrabbyBass]

Good post, Chuck, but what in the world are you doing up at midnight-thirty?  I've seen your pics.  Go get some beauty sleep.  You need it.

LOL! Too late Denny. Beauty sleep is not going to help this beast. 

Tom, that is awesome! I love helping the younger generation. I have been out fishing at times and getting nothing and some young kids come up and just start nailing them. It puts a smile on my face knowing that they will probably be fishing for many years to come. There are also times when they are not catching anything so I give them some pointers and then they catch a fish. Seeing that smile on their face is a great feeling. It is especially gratifying when I give them one of the lures I had made and they catch a fish on it.