zach

this guy i know got this small one last night on topwater. sorry its so small you can barely see it p.s. i am done swimming in waneta after seeing this one. 48.5" i had to photoshop the background so u cant see where i got it. just kidding. i hate when people do that!

u both should have been @ chautaqua supporting the musky fishery and raising much needed $ for the musky stocking, making sure we have future musky fishing like all of us were. you guys could have helped all of us out seeing u chase them like we do. anyways................................

thanks ole man, it was almost 20 hours straight musky fishing, where where u? still would love to meet you. weeds were part of the game plan and i know that u can throw that rabbid spinnerbait as good as anyone in the weeds. chad- i believe you know kevin from greece, he said growing up you had some beautiful trout mounts at your house.

sounds like u had a great time!

great time had by us, thanks larry for getting it going. lex got her biggest so far after being stuck @ 33" for some time! here is her 38" once again, great job babe you earned this one. look at my hair in this pic, the fish soaked me thrashing at the boat. my buddy kevin got this on his FIRST cast ever for muskies 39.5" six casts later he got another one, we have video but i was swearing the whole time so i cant post it. i was calling him lucky but w/ many swear words mixed in. 41" . once again, awesome job kevin on your first 2 muskies! we did 3 in one 20 yard stretch through out the day. crazy. heres me, no need to mention that mine is the smallest of all of them 36"- no monsters but i never get any big ones so i'm not dissapointed. lost one more decent one and that was our day! the one we lost was on a bite off on 100lb flouro (first time for me and i was changing out leaders almost every fish so it wasn't old or cut or anything, just left w/ about 18" of leader after my swivel). chaut has been kind to us for #'s but not for slobs. largest for us was 42". thats along way from the 52.5" that we needed but thats fine w/ me b/c thats whats going make me sign up for octobers tourney! fun, fun, fun and some sunburn! but at least we all got slimed! lex got her biggest, kevin his first 2 and me talking smack the whole time. it was a long day and i cleared enough weeds off my line that we could have fed the world salad for a year. it has been a long wait and i am glad summer is finally here. next weekend is my birthday and i will be waneta looking for some action. once again thanks larry and i wish we did these tournies every month, maybe then i would actually have a chance! p.s. stopped by the hunting camp in bath, left lex to sleep and kevin and i went out to my girlfriend waneta's house and got this small one on topwater after losing 2 at chautaqua on top. finally got the hooks to stick on my topwater, was a good day but very long- 48.5" and thats no "king of waneta" measurement. i wanted to stretch it to 49" but she just couldn't make it. 2 lakes, one day- 43 hours awake- one hour sleep- like 2 packs of smokes later- still smiling- and my largest from waneta! its gonna be a good year for the buffalo bills!!!

recieved my lures and i dont think i will ever buy another wiley after seeing how much better these are built. 10x better paint job and an actual protective finish on these unlike wiley's clear laquer non-existant finish. built like tanks. best built lures i own.

i carry superglue on the boat for that reason. something i have recently learned for emergancy stitches.

then i hope my burger is so dry and burnt that i can't eat it! getting pretty excited here guys! its musky eve, eve.

didn't it seem that way nitro. i took off oct and nov to bowhunt but the last 2x there last fall i struggled. i seem to do best before mid- july.

i am happy w/ my action optics. like the copper lens over the other colors.

i have some diawa's line counters and okuma line counters, like the diawas better. metal vs compostite reel frame.

i took it down to the creek and after one minor adjustment on the front screw eye it came in slow w/ the tail breaking the surface making and bubble, bubble sound. cool if you want to reel slow like coming back to a fish that followed and when i cranked it as fast as humanly possible it held dead n#tts on line! i am guessing i had it up around 4-5mph and the tail goes crazy at that speed. i could see the tail in dirty water 10 feet away when i made it run shallow by keeping the rod tip up. i am gonna run this plug and i think it has everything needed to put fish in my boat. i dont think it would be a trade off at all to take of a wiley or whatever and put this baby on instead. now i guess i have to name it, any ideas? i already have a plug i called "the colton crusher" named after my little guy and it is a tuff shad twistertail combo that i haven't posted as its my project design. shhhhh on that one. name it guys! p.s. my father is moving back to retire in hemlock, so soon i will have my musky fishing partner back after 8 years of living in NYC. my ole man is as good of wood worker/carver as there is. i asked him if he would be interested in doing bodies for me and then i would finish them. he agreed and said this winter he would have no problem kicking out 50 or so... gets me thinking about trying to get something going.

sometimes use line counters, sometimes count level wind passes. figure out how much line it takes for the level wind to go back and forth and use that as a guide.

would you be interested in one if i made more? not sure how much wood working i am gonna do this summer. maybe come winter time?

there aren't any muskies in waneta, i heard they all moved to lamoka.

all put together and ready to go to black creek on the way to work to be tuned. there is a big screw lock that keeps the grub on so i can make on the water replacements w/ out superglue. i am happy i got this done for this weekend and imagine if i do get a fish on this or any other i have made, i will be a happy camper! just one, thats all i need. no time for any others its off to other things. click on the pics to get a better image. take care and you will see me trolling all around you on saturday so say hello! good luck guys and let all your fish be 39.999999 inches! oh by the way heres the screw lock i put in the rear end... it should hold up since its made of thick stainless .060 wire that was a pain in the @ss to bend in that shape and epoxied deep into the bait. heavy duty for sure! just an idea but i think it will hold up nicely. if my phantom tails hold up okay w/ just superglue and a metal pin, these will do alot better. gotta be 10x better than just gluing it to the body like a stalker or squirrley burt.

you should go to chaut and meet all of us!

i could tie up a bucktail if you want? tell me what color and i will do my best. trying to hold onto my baits for right now.

since i couldn't go fishing today i worked on this some. all done painting and waiting until the epoxy clear coat cures until i add the screw lock in the end of the tail, add the twistertail and hardware. so there it is, almost done and i showed somewhat what i have been doing this winter. will post finished pic when its done. gonna put that gold tail on this one and hope it does okay and doesn't ruin the action. i like it now and hope i don't ruin it by adding the rubber tail. lets hope it works and if it does it should be neat! i like the paint job, the finish is good and i may almost be happy w/ this one even though i could point out some mistakes. oh well, trials and tribulations of wood musky lures as i still have so much to learn. it turned out fat like a les chubbie that isn't being made anymore. this one will not be on the raffle table.lol

is she the girl from jonnywalleye's picture from owasco?

mr. jones called me and said they would be shipped out tomorrow which means they will get wet at chaut- good company, great communication!

ghetto musky huh? i thought ghetto muskies were carp you snagged while trolling.

where else are you supposed to leave a monster box of lures while you are fishing? i think that w/ how much those cost that they would have considered this over just looks. anyways off to finish the brown perch then its 2 coats of clear and add hardware and tail! will be done well before 6/19!!!!!!!!!!! watch out boys!

uv sun damage that yellows the finishes and can cause them to crack, the day they make it tinted or colored is the day i trade in my old cedar custom made musky box for one. until then i role old school w/ my awesome wood box! hold onto your $ for that just-in-case in my opinion. bulletproof box's but needs more thought put into it. anyways- i am doing this plug in frankybaits brown perch w/ a big gold glitter tail if things work out.

u guys and them spoons, just more hooks to clean of weeds.