zach

this worked out way better than I imagined.

Look how big your smile is! You can't fake that! I know you have worked really, really hard on getting that 1st river fish so great job! I am just happy you don't have a piece of broccoli in your teeth b/c we all could see it w/ you grinning from ear to ear! Honestly I know all of the hard work you have put into that fish so go pat yourself on the back and may you walk an inch taller today! Nice job and I hope you know after all this time I am joking. I am jealous now! These river fish sure do look purdy!

Guys, just on a serious note- this auction has raised more money for our fund (over $315) then any auction before and it shows what AMAZING people we have here to support our cause! Your guys' generosity is something that is very unselfish and b/c of you the future of muskies in NY looks better then it would without it! We have a very solid group of people that care about what we have and I hope I know you guys for a long time as I would like that. When I take my son out musky fishin' in years the fish we catch may be the ones that our $$$ went to raise and I personally want to give a huge thumbs up and say thank you as very grateful person. I don't have money to donate so this is what I thought up after seeing it done other times on here to raise money by other people. To the winner- I hope you not only enjoy the plugs, I hope you fish them and do well but most all just for being a good unselfish, caring person that helped out the cause so all of us can enjoy our sport for many years to come! This auction has worked out 100x better than I thought it would. I was expecting maybe $70-$75 each but I guess I didn't know what amazing people I was surrounded by. You guys have opened my eyes to the sort of people we have around here and I so happy to be associated w/ all of you! Thanks again b/c of you all the future looks brighter than it would have! Your generosity will not be forgotten! When I post a picture of a little kid holding a musky bigger than him- you get a lot of the credit not me! Doesn't get any better than that! Imagine a 6 yr old holding a 40" ugly ole stinky musky. It would look 80" to the eyes of my kid and make one heck of a memory for both of us! This is why I decided to make a few to put up here. When I get that picture of little colton holding a fish bigger than him- I will be one proud father! Thanks guys for all of your support as nothing would have happened without getting involved. Zach Baker P.S. Old Man- love that Evan Williams picture. Laughed 10 times looking at it!

old man- i thought in the past we have learned to stay away from ebay while have a cocktail! lol. i remember the last auction you accidentally hit the wrong # or something like that as you were having a drink and playing on the computer then also. Looks like bob (solgrande) is the man to beat now! Bob is also selling a few items w/ partial proceeds going towards the bait fund also so if anyone have time take a look for his items also, i put in a bid on his items and am trying to win his sandcat jerkbait and sledge for next years fishing. if i get that sledge i am going to tinker w/ it by weighting it to make it run deeper.

well I know a guy who may be able to reproduce that gold bladed, brown and yellow tail if you want me to talk to him? i know he has been busy lately but he may have time for you. lmao! bty that's like the 8th or 9th bait I have made that has been donated to the "musky gods" this year so no worries. You should see whats at the bottom of waneta that I have lost to snags and the 3 that lil colton through over board when we took him out. I know i have 2 perchbaits and a few other nice baits just off the boyscout point in 20 fow in the same d@mn snag if anyone wants to go swimming.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 500wt_1156 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 500wt_1156 Links to the ebay auction. I will make zero money from this, all proceeds go towards the hatchery on Chautauqua Lake. We already have over 10 bids in less than 12 hours so lets keep this going. I also posted this lure auction on Muskiefirst, my facebook page and also on Mostlymuskies. I am trying to get the word out but need all the help I can get from all of you guys to promote this as I want to get as much $$$ for the future of our muskies in NY as possible. I dream of a little guy (my son colton) holding a musky bigger than him in a few years and this is why I put up my lures to raise money. How cool would it be for him to get a big musky that we all helped out on raising.

I just put up the lures that Stan Durst and I did on ebay. All proceeds of this auction will go towards helping out the hatchery feed those little guys. Come one guys let's raise some $$$. You know the deal, bid and we all win! I will put up a link later to it but just do a quick search of Baker Musky Lures on ebay and it will pop up.

Chad, I can't believe that fish spit those nasty 7/0 VMC's I put on that those tails. Anyways at least it was a yank on the line and got the blood flowing. What color bucktail did it eat?

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.