zach

i know the sites you are talking about and i am a complete amatuer compaired to all them but these were fun for me to do for gustofson as i am a tuff shad fan and his 2 had seen better days. i wish i could have taken a before pic since when they were new the clear had cracked pretty bad in a short summer of fishing and were taking on water and even discolored the wood of the lure. since these lures weren't mine i did a very simple pattern that lee talked about and didn't want to screw it up for him by getting in over my head. i think i solved his problem with the wood for good and hope he fishes these this summer! this clear coat is way thicker than any i have ever seen on a commercial lure and i hope it holds up very well for him. the screw all have all been epoxied in also for that added strength. to test out how strong an expoxied in screw eyes was i once this winter hung my fat a** from a screw eye in the basement. held 175 lbs so i think it may be okay to chase muskies w/. some things i have made came out okay and some horrible. i have a crankbait that almost does circles when you retrieve it and some that have no action at all no matter how fast you crank and a few that actually run okay. i have tried 3 jerkbaits so far and one is good and the other 2 are over weighted and suck. no action, right at you and then dies, i will get back to drilling out some of the lead some time eventually. this year i have also tied up about a dozen bucktails and about the same in spinnerbaits to my specs. also made 3 topwater that actually work along w/ some in-line buzz baits that i copied after grim reapers that look like they will raise a ruckus. all-in-all it is a fun little hobby that i am glad i started this winter but i have no time for it (remember i have a 2 yr old lil guy take i am happy to give all my time to) and now that summer is almost here i dont see much if any time for it cause if i get any free time i am off to waneta. i remember asking larry about a year ago what sort of action and design he would make in a crank if he could- he replied that only people w/ alot of time and $ should even think about making plugs. after doing this for a short time i fully agree with him. if you got paid by the hour it just wouldn't work out but if you do it for yourself you can justify the time spent and you really dont save all that much $ doing them yourself. i am starting a new one today and i will post pics of the process if you want. i am gonna make a jointed squirrley tail wiley/gotcha/stalker hybred that would be like a cool hard pounding curly tailed stalker if things work out and make it good size for night trolling. big curly tailed ugly thing, i am thinking. got the body and lip together now but have to cut the joint and decide how big i want it. i also want 3 hooks on it. all the squirrley tailed cranks i see seem only have 2 sets of trebles and i want 3 (i need all the help i can get). last one before the season starts and i want it done for 6/19 at midnight! thanks for the comments guys but i am by far my worst critic and i will tell you i have a long way go. eventually i may make one where i won't be able to point out any mistakes, wouldn't that be nice.... but then would i even fished it? anyways thanks and take care!

is it a grim reaper spinnerbait? nice job and it looks like nice boat also! thanks for giving up some info.

yeah and they look like they will hold up for more than a year also. not the cheapest though! glad i could help you as i didn't even know they existed 3 months ago. new lure company. did you get straight or jointed one?

(walk the dog topwaters) i have got a viper, water moccasion, and bs one eyed willy new for this year (in addition to my weagle and jackpots) and was thinking about the absolute best leader to put on them. i am thinking about a solid leader w/ a small snap to the lure and no swivel on the line tie end to keep it from sinking. from there i was thinking about adding a small styrofoam float like those used on walleye worm harness' on the line tie side directly in front of the connection on my braided mainline. my excesive overthinking is this would keep the metal leader from sinking maybe improving the action? any thoughts on this guys? is it even worth it? i love topwater fishing and plan on do alot more this year since last year i had only one hit at waneta on top and i missed it (very nice fish) but only casted for a very short time last year as i got caught up in the trolling darkside? just so excited about musky fishing and want everything to work the best it can-

didn't want to get too crazy on lures that weren't mine so i did a simple black perch on these and hope they turned out okay for you lee. i believe i solved the problems you had w/ these tuff shads and hopefully u hand them back to me next winter to do again after having teeth marks all over them all chewed up, that would be cool! good luck w/ these and i hope it was worth me redoing for you. just dont beat me at the tourney w/ these or i'll be hot and you'll owe me alot of beer . take care and i hope u are somewhat happy with these.

go fish that south end triangle and you'll end up catching something- lots of 32-40" in that area.

hopefully the tourney winner will hit it and leave a big tooth in it (i have made muskies leave teeth in my lures before, its really neat i think) but why troll so slow lee? solgrande makes fun of me all the time b/c i troll so fast and hate slowing down (its so boring). some times it costs me and sometimes it works really well and am able to get fish when others aren't doing anything. to me slow is anything under 4.5mph. i found that i can troll sledges at almost 9mph along w/ a few perfectly tuned tuff shads that i have but most good lures top out around 6mph i find. i think 4.5-6mph w/ lots of turns is my perferred trolling speed for warm water temps during the daytime and then the dreaded 2.5-3.5mph at night if i dont fall asleep from the hum of the engine. sometimes i use special 4.5oz spinnerbaits w/ 8 oz of weight on the leader just to keep them in the water when going over high weedtops during the middle of the day fast. love it, love it, love it and am getting so excited for musky season!

rapalas do get hit but they get expensive.

should be finished by this weekend gustofson.

are you gonna stop fishing at 3:30pm then?

they are working back out of the lower river now- bigguns are headed back to the lake if they aren't there already and smaller fish will hang around the lower until later july sometime- jigs, cranks, worm harnesses... so anywhere right now in the lower, sorry but they are spread out at this time, earlier in the season they bunch up real good. if the water is brown turn around... if the water is green the fish are eating and mean. water color means alot on this river. was out tuesday on the upper. put in at black creek and went up to oatka and did my limit and put 3 shorties back in a quick evening trip. all on straight raps 120'-150' back.

one i haven't tried and yes i have had one or two "professional overruns". i stole it from another website but decent info for those windy days, i am sure i will have a chance sometime this season to test it out.

good luck in cali- hopefully you get some of those monster bass and it looks like cali has some really good trout fishing- best luck.

where am i staying? i am gonna be fishing all night and all the next day. i will be staying in my boat trying to get the big one while you are sleeping! how can u sleep when we all have been waiting for so long to get slimed by a real fish. night fishing has always been good for me.

both. i live right next to black creek, where the genny meets it but grew up in irondequiot so i have been lucky and have been able to fish both but prefer the "seasonal" fishing of lake run fish in the lower. i have fished the genny from wellesville to the lake. i once took a float trip on the upper and it was so much fun. trout in the shallows and smallies in the deep holes. would recommend that float trip to everyone.

big waldo on a pike lure? maybe you'll actually share some info...

i heard he has a lure duplictor. it copies an existing lure and shapes it from that original lure so there is no more hands on with the lathe. i know he is busy but contact me and let me know whats going on. i love his lures and have learned for next time to order well before hand (the fall ahead of time), i just thought i had enough time to get my order for 6/19. larry- i ordered all shapes and sizes and maybe that put my order behind.

make it 34 more entrees left.

this year i went through all my lures and sold what i didn't use and kept my favorites. i had 120 crankbaits and jerkbaits and this was way to many to fish in a season so i ebayed most of them. during this time i wanted to upgrade to alot of the lures i used and was also interested in. first order i placed was for some wiley crankbaits. i love to fish them and they do well for me, always have. i am a huge fan of wiley cranks in all sorts of sizes and styles and would recommend them to anyone. this order was placed in march in hopes of getting them for this season and most importantly for the opener at chaut and i knew it would take some time. on the wiley website it says 6-8 weeks to get your lures. since then i have also placed orders through muskietrain, for musky rockets and some talonz slashers. i have recieved all but the musky rockets and that order was just placed last week and their customer service is as good as jones bait from wv is, as the best i have ever seen in any sort of business. i emailed wiley b/c it has been 9 weeks and haven't heard anything about my order. it took 10 days and 2 emails for them to get back to me letting me know that i may not get them before 6/19. in the original order this was my request and they were aware of this when i placed the order. i am hot b/c the comminication is horrible from wiley (every other company either ships fast or is in good contact w/ you) and shipping times are way over the 8 week max it says on the website. if you are looking at wileys for this year dont even think about ordering through him. i am not sure if i want to tell him to cancel my order or what. is he too big to keep up with orders? this should be told to his customers that he doesn't worry about the smaller (couple hundred $ orders) fisherman and only caters to large commercial orders getting tons of baits for resale. i have enough other lures that i can run instead of wileys. my question is should i be pissed about this or not? would you be? i dont know if i will ever order from him again after this. if he can't get them to me before 6/19 thats 4 months (16) weeks, thats 2x as long as he said it would be if he can even get them to me by then which he doesn't even think he can. i know he may be busy but come on.

i lost a very good friend also this year. feel for you and his family- best wish's.

very nice fish. i take it these fish were caught trolling as that seems to be what you do the most for your trout/salmon/and walleyes. any info on how deep?

fished last night- one pike, one smallmouth-6 largest walleyes weighed over 30lbs total (5lb average)- gave them to a guy at work who is needs all the help he can get right now. total- 11 eyes boated- 3 lost only 1 under 18". so long-

something we all have to get used to.

so in the late fall when the water starts to dip the bigger tigers come in from being suspended all summer and set up outside the drops? i mean if its so easy a kid can do it. looks like in the pics they are trolling? am i correct? what do you consider big baits? 6-8 inches? 8-10 inches? 10-14 inches. what is big to you?

what- you dont hop in the water to land all your 30" pike? come on ole man and be responsible to the fishery- get in that water and release those fish- makes you look like you know whats going on. hey didn't we see pictures of that 12 foot pike come on this forum earlier this year? you know the one that has been caught in 10 differant places? how come that guy from europe didn't get in that water to release that pike? i wonder if that pike made it through that whole release process even though that angler didn't get in the water to release it like we all know we should. should we all release them sturgon style? even in the cold? what happens if the water is deep, do we need scuba gear? burrrrrr. old man- where are the big tigers at? do they stop growing @ 24" or is there so much competition from the pike in there that most dont get big?