zach

i used to use the stuff for pike fly fishing and you need to use the figure 8 knot. any other knot will result in a twirly (spiraling) section in front of your knot. american fishing wire has stuff similar. the lighter weights is mostly what i have used. haven't used it in some time though and it works but you have to change out leaders somewhat often as its not the most durable stuff on the market. good luck.

ray- what all do you have in that box? interested in selling any older lures?

damn bob- i wish i found your box! lol.

thanks very much, all 47 baits are sold and it's time to make more! thanks guys! i know most you you guys are sick and tired of me putting up baits but i never ever expected this response. it seems as of right now i have more work than time to make baits. i was shocked yesterday when i pulled up muskiefirst.com like i do every morning and the president of a chapter of muskies inc in wisconsin was asking for contact info on Baker Musky Lures in the tackle section of the website and how he can get some. someone he knows has been caching fish in ohio on them and he asked for some baits to run out in his neck of the woods. how does a guy in wisconsin even know my name i was thinking since i really just started this year? he ordered 8 (all foils) and said that he will show them off to his buddies that he fishes w/ if he is happy w/ them. i have sold baits in kentucky, ohio, pa, ny, virginia, w. virginia, ontario and quebec but this is my first order from wisconsin! i hope those guys like my plugs b/c there are alot of musky guys up there. anyways, thanks for letting me post pics and i really hope this keeps going! its almost a dream come true! i feel like i owe a 100 thank you's to so many people it isn't even funny. i am one thankful paint squirter!

nitro was down on waneta today and had my deep divers crunching bottom in 30 feet of water w/ only 110' of line out running 2.5mph making these the deepest divers any of us have ever seen. to get a legend perch bait that deep you need like 225' of leadcore and a slow speed. deep baby deep! making more tonight!

chad- check your p/m's

thanks muskybob- those deepdivers were all hitting the 31' hole at waneta last night. they are the deepest divers i have ever run or have seen. i know they will go even deeper if given a chance. they wobble great and open up new parts of the lake for me. it always seemed that all my baits would stop at 20-25' down and now i finally have another option to go deeper. i think they would be great for the 1000 islands, the north end basin of chautauqua and other places that the fish tend to live deep. i fished from 1-6pm and zippo! couldn't believe i didn't get once since all the fish were glued to the bottom last night and i was banging bottom the whole time out. bty these things are good bottom diggers and i was able to walk the bait over the whole bottom on waneta w/o one hang up holding the rod in my hand. its like a perchbait that dives deeper and the straight type has 2x the action of the jointed model. i will be making lots more of this bigger style since i think they are really neat that they not only have good action but dig like no tomarrow. at the last tourney at chaut- i got snagged up in 38'fow and couldn't believe i got my bait that deep w/o leadcore or any extra weight. i am looking at making both styles in a soft-tailed version for even more action. the smaller plugs i do work well w/ a rubber tail but i have yet to try it on the bigger super deep divers. these bigger baits amazed me on how well they ran at low and high speeds. from bumping bottom at 2.5mph to high speeds they were all very stable and balanced. no compaliants and the smaller 5.5" lures all ran perfect and they are the best runners yet of that smaller style. sorry to always post pics and stuff like that on here but i have been selling them as quickly as i have been making them and thanks everyone for that! here is what stan durst did for us. 2 wood magic makers and 2 of mine in cpt. larry's colors. these will be auctioned off with the $ going to the musky hatchery.

wow- a happy ending, that is cool! i could just imagine how happy someone would be to find my box! some of those things you can't replace like that black jerkbait i want in your box! you know which one, the one larry gave you.

just some more from this week that i did for the happy hooker and some other people. the happy hooker sold out in 2 weeks and wants more so i did some perch variations, some dark baitfish, and some lemonheads. i had stan durst paint up a few and i have some foils i have been working on also for cpt larry's lure donation. i will post pics of those later as i am still working on them. the deep divers are cool. i can bounce bottom in 35 fow w/ them, they go deeper than any plug i have ever tried. anyways here are a few- blue perch, carp, shiner, red perch, yellow perch, chocolate perch, lemon head, dark baitfish, perch orange belly and perch white belly in no order. i have doubles and triples of all colors. i started adding glitter to the clear coats after solgrande said he liked it and so do i. i have a total of 4 coats of epoxy on each bait- 2 under the paint and 2 over the paint. each lure is also tuned after i had an issue earlier in the year. anyways enough of your time. take care and good fishin'..... zach baker off to waneta in about an hour to bounce bottom looking for a fish after i got this deer hunting thing out of the way until i go back to illinois bowhunting. i am leaving after fishing w/ cpt larry on 11/11/10 at the harbor so i have about a week and a half of fishing until its back up the tree. i guess i am a bowhunter first and a musky guy second- always been like that.

what are you fishing for? walleyes or pike? i have some spots i can share but what are you chasing?

firetiger just seemed right for the off tint water and overcast/rainy conditions. seeing that not as many people have been fishing also help me make that choice. if i saw some other boats out there i promise i wouldn't have been running it. not another hit all afternoon after starting off hot. the way the fish we set up it was bottom grinding for me and i just bet jigging tubes w/ suckers soaking deep would be just deadly. finally got a trip w/ larry planned for november 2 on the harbor. larry is the man and i hope i can take in all the info i am going to get out of him that day. he is the best on the harbor and has years and years of fishing it. i am do excited to get to finally fish w/ him after all of these years of wanting to. its like an early x-mas present. i am going to try to make a huge deep diver for him to fish w/ by the time we go out. something like a huge 12-13" deep diver that will hit 30'. yesterdays fish was my 4th over 47" this year and it has been my best bigger fish year to date. i also talked to lisa from the happy hooker after cpt larry said they we trying to get a hold of me and she said that she is sold out of the plugs i just restocked for her on 10/2 and that people are catching fish on them and she needs more asap. i thought this was cool since i just restocked them 2.5 weeks ago in the shop and the season is winding down with not too many people even fishing anymore. take care and good fishing/hunting to all!

went down yesterday and i believe waneta is done turning over. 54 degree water temps, water is clearer than 2 weeks ago and most fish are located on the bottom. did a really nice 47" in the rain on a firetiger bait i make in the first 30 minutes and nothing after for the rest of the day. lots of bait and big hooks w/ in 2 feet of the bottom. trolling speed was slow when i got hit. only boat out there all day yesterday. if engulfed the lure, was bleeding pretty bad and had to cut hooks and no pic. you'll just have to take my word for it i guess. looks like waneta is all set up for fall fishing now and i would expect the best is yet to come. ever notice how the bigger fish have lots of black spots on their belly? bigger baits did nothing-

growing up on irondequiot i went down to the bay regularly when i lived there. we always used to cast from shore and used mostly bomber long a's but i would say that most of those fish that are splashing on the surface after dark are schools of shad. these shad are what brings the walleyes up to the surface at night and have caught many casting to the splashing bait. may,june, early july used to be good to us. good luck and don't worry about not banging them up this time of year, i think they might just be deeper than you fishing.

i thought it might be a pickle also. anyways you guys went out and caught fish, so good job, it was better than i did yesterday (or this week). 0-2 throwing jerks this week. 0 hits in close to 14 hours casting for me so maybe i should tag along w/ you next time.

was the tourney last weekend or this coming weekend? i am confused?

i just talked to stan durst and both of us are doing something for donation to the hatchery. he is painting the first ever color larry and him worked on and i am doing a foil or two. its all to get $$$$$$ for the future stockings to make sure my little guy has a lake full of muskies to fish. larry will post them on ebay and i hope this not only promotes my lures but also raises much needed $$$$ for next year. bty i died w/ the jerkbaits at waneta. i couldn't believe i pulled pub b/c everything seemed perfect to get bit. anyways i pulled hoosier handmades, suicks and weighted reef hawgs and not even a hit in 8 hours chuckin' wood or trolling suicks. i guess thats fishin' for you.

just looked at the waneta lake webcam and nobody is out, off to give it a try and i am only taking 1 rod. i am going to live and die by the jerkbait today for the first time in 10 years. lets see how it goes. my trolling rods will be mad at me but my jerkbait rod needs some love also. i have trolled a couple hundred miles summer and its time for a break.

thanks TCON- i styled them after one of my favorites but feel i still have lots to learn. just when i think i got it, i get an issue. the first fish i got a plug i made was the coolest though. the first time i made a plug and it got hit in its first hour of running i knew i was on to something. from there its been a huge learning process. so far this year i have yet to be skunked running my stuff and thats no lie. when we struggled this weekend running big baits i put on my smaller ones and started getting banged. thought that was neat. http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/f ... 33&start=1 (if that link doesn't work its on muskiefirst under basement baits if you scroll down) i put a post up on muskiefirst and have had orders off of it but the absolute coolest thing is talking to Stan Durst every other day on line and through p/m's. i never knew that Mr. Durst's first custom jobs were for Cpt Larry back in the day. Stan Durst and Mr Vince B were also very close. i guess Vince gave Stan an all white boxer back in the day and they were friends and the dog is still around but Vince is not. Mr. Durst also has nothing but great things to say about Cpt Larry and we share ideas and such about painting and colors. Stan is sending me a custom he did and i am doing the same for him w/ the ugly green foiled bait. I can't believe i am going to paint a lure and give it to one of the best lure artists in the country b/c he said he like my work. what a freaking complement! i put up a link if anyone here has any time to look at it. it is titled a walleye for the tourney. thanks guys and i am sorry i have sort of taken over this section w/ lures but things are going so much better than i could have dreamed. at the tourney 2 friends from ohio asked me to make them 20 after they bought one from the happy hooker b/c they liked it and thought it would work back home on leesville. i am more busy now than ever before and the baits will only get better and better. thanks to everyone for supporting your local wood baitmaker trying to make it in a business run by big bait makers pumping out plastic at cheap prices. there are lots of you that have helped me and my family and to each one- thanks! honestly, things are taking off and i owe most of it to good friends willing to give me a try! even though the season is starting to wind down i am finding myself more backed up than ever. i couldn't have even got this far w/o you guys! for that i am so thankful! zach baker now if i can just get larry to like them......lol

i almost forgot a pic of our monster- i think it was attempting to spawn w/ the lure. lol. this is my best tough guy face.

was a cold nasty rainy day- took time to figure them out, we did good but no tourney winners. lex hung in like a champ w/ the rain and cold! all fish that i got were on perch colors all on baits i make. it really felt like fall time and the water temp was around 62 degrees. all of our fish came from the same area and all hit in a 1.5 hour time frame. crazy how picky they can be sometimes. of course the one we lost was the biggest of the day. lol. oh well. Once again i would like to give a big thumbs up ( ) to Cpt Larry Jones for all his hard work setting this thing up. we had people from all over once again but the weather kept the crowds away. can't wait to sign up for the next one!

how do i make these? lmao... in so many ways i am still learning. lol. by absolutely no means do i think i know everything and i learn something new on each batch i cook up. trials and tribulations, trials and tribulations joe. i still have sooooooooooo much to learn. there is nothing worse than trying to do your best, working hard and to find out they turn in circles or just sit there w/ no action. lol. its like a big kick in the n*tts when you try hard and they don't work out. thats why i call it the trials and tribulations of baitmaking. all of our fish this weekend came on plugs i made. so- joe, when i really learn how to make each on 100% perfect i will let you know on how i do it, but everything starts w/ a block of wood and your imagination and where you go from there is all your personal preference. if you ever want to bang your head against the wall 10x in the same day- try to make a crankbait. lol.

thanks for the report chad- i bet that one that jumped would have had no problem on the 8 if he was that hot! the weather didn't look too bad and looks like everyone had a decent time. i love it when they hit right after the lure lands, catches me off guard everytime it has happened. 2 fow huh? wait until bob hears that and almost trolls himself up on shore. lmao. good to see you got bit and now its on to the important stuff! best luck and thanks for posting again! bty in that musky pic i can see your pink backpack. nice, i use one just like that as my fanny pack when i try to pick up the ladies. any idea what the water temp was?

when by tomorrow? lol, it takes time to develop a plug. i spent all summer on the shad profile. when i make one its all yours. i need at least a month to do that even for you larry. i also do a 2 tow eye lip like you like and just haven't posted it. it would go along way in my book if you like my plugs larry. i will show you at 6am at the mayville launch when i register b/c i waited until the last minute. high 30's on saturday am so you'll see me dressed up as if i was hunting. lol. i was just thinking it would be a lot easier to repaint a plow than to try to develop that big of deep diver right now. i do have some HUGE lips i cut though.

or drag live baitwith the icefishing heater on my feet.

it has paid off for me so far- i have caught fish and some decent ones so far this summer and i have been able to meet some cool people. i plan on making plugs for as long as i musky fish and maybe after some years i will have one i am 100% happy w/. lol. hope that at least one good fish this weekend makes a mistake and hits a bait i am using. at least they haven't seen these 100x a day for the past 4 months. i enjoy seeing the finished product turn out, some do work out sometimes and some fail horribly.