# Latest Batch



## bowhunter29

Here's a few that I've been playing with the last couple of weeks. Most of them are new body styles for me so I didn't spend much time on the paint- I was concerned with the action. These guys will go in my box and the next round will have better paint jobs on them. I got the idea for the striped pattern from someone on here (I think...it may have been Thalme?..). I also did a couple of Rainbow trout and a perch. I did two with the line ties in the lips, a first for me. After some tinkering, they run great!

My version of the Legend Plow...only smaller.









This is a little minnow that I built for the local river.









My first deep diver with the line tie in the lip. It pounds!!!









This one is in my regular 8" minnow body.









This is Big Bertha, a 12" monster.









A small wake bait in a perch pattern.









My first attempt at a bass lure. It actually runs great which surprised me.









Two rainbow trout. The top one has the line tie in the lip and runs at about 20'. The bottom one will run about 10'.


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## JamesT

Great looking lures! Those paintjobs inspire confidence and look like fish catchers. I think some of those smaller ones would work well in my local flows. Real nice shapes and designs too!


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## Many Eyes

Those look great, they will definitely catch fish. Great work!


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## surffishn

Did not spend much time on the paint? I have A nice collection of custom plugs.But yours look as good as any if not better than most. There is a site Stripped Bass Obsession many good plug makers there.Yours are Awsome ! I can't wait to see some you spend some time painting.


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## vc1111

Clearly your best work yet. Very impressive and a great use of color.


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## ShutUpNFish

You certainly have a "style" about your lures....very nice. I like how you really bring out the contrasts and your use of colors. I can't wait to get my new airbrush going here....just waiting for the paint!


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## bowhunter29

Thanks for the compliments guys! 

Vince, thanks for your help with the deep diving lures. 

StutUpNFish, I was told I have a "style" with the way I dress also. LOL!

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

Sorry for being a forum hog but with archery season coming I'm getting alot of stuff done and out of the way. I'm so excited to hunt I've been dreaming about it!!!

These two are some of my 8" minnows wrapped in sea snake skin. They have .092" stainless eye screws and taxidermy eyes. I finished them with 5 coats of Diamond II. The top one is khaki color and the bottom is white.


















These are two snake skin lures for a lady in Tx. The big one is my 8" baitfish body and it's carved from maple. It is wrapped in python skin and uses the same hardware as the others. The little guy is a new body style for me. Not sure what snake the skin is from.










Two more of my rainbows. I'm staring to play with the color scheme's on these and I think I'm getting closer to something I like. I used a darker transparent green over the pearl green on the backs. Still not happy with it but it's growing on me. These guys are identical to the python wrapped lure above. 8" maple blanks, same stainless hardware.










I love these little guys. They are about 4.25" long. I built them to be shallow runners for the local river. The orange/black/gold scale has a much wider back on it and it has a psycho-wide wobble to it. The black/blue/silver scale has a much narrower back and it runs more like an original Rapala. I was hoping to find the right combo of wood, weight, and lure shape to make one run like a Rapala- mission accomplished! I was down at the creek yesterday throwing them to make sure they run true at high speed and a fat old 20" pickerel smashed the orange one. I hope that's a good sign of what's to come!!!


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## Pikopath

I gladly accept one of the snakeskins in the ongoing lawsuit, I started in the rod post... 
VERY nice lures, and those snakeskins are übercool!

Michael


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## bowhunter29

Pikopath said:


> I gladly accept one of the snakeskins in the ongoing lawsuit, I started in the rod post...
> VERY nice lures, and those snakeskins are übercool!
> 
> Michael


LOL, you almost made me spit coffee on my keyboard again! Thanks for the compliments.

jeremy


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## muskyslayer96

Bowhunter,

Those are AWESOME  Love the new baits, very,very cool!

MS


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## vc1111

This is one very, very cool thread. 

Python skin? You gotta love it. That is one of the coolest baits I've ever seen.

Keep posting!


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## crittergitter

Sweet baits. That black-orange is killer! I want one or four.


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## [email protected]#$carp

Like the idea with the python skin did you glue it down? would like to try that myself.


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## JamesT

Awesome snake skin baits! They look flawless!!!


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## Fish G3

Those snake skin baits are ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. That's the coolest/sickest design i've ever seen on a bait.


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## MuskieJim

Fish G3 said:


> Those snake skin baits are ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. That's the coolest/sickest design i've ever seen on a bait.


X 2 

Insane artwork. Just curious, do you go out and run all your baits with different legnths of line and record the depths??? I can only imagine the addiction in lure building


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## bowhunter29

MuskieJim said:


> X 2
> 
> Just curious, do you go out and run all your baits with different legnths of line and record the depths???


Yes, whenever possible I do. I usually don't bother with the shallow divers. Most of my lures aren't built for trolling so I don't do it often. Most of my 'testing' is done with 100' of line out and I have some flats on a local lake that are different depths. If the lure hits at 15' but not 20' then I know about where it's running. Pretty scientific, eh? 

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

Finished another snake skin. This is a big one! 12" cedar blank, 1.5" .092 stainless eye screws, 2x size 6 split rings, 7/0 3551 Mustad's, and a big whoppin' diving lip. Comes in at just over 7oz total. This will be a trolling lure. Sorry, no taxidermy eyes on this one- couldn't find any that looked good. Finished it with 7 coats of Diamond II epoxy- this stuff is WAAAAAYYYY better than Etex. It's much easier to apply because it's a medium build epoxy and it's noticeably clearer. I played around with the gills and I couldn't really find something I liked, hopefully it doesn't look too bad.
I've casted it a few times and it seems to run great. Haven't had the time to troll with it yet.


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## muskyslayer96

Bowhunter,

Impeccable, beautiful, NICE!

By "medium build" do you mean it goes on thinner? Might have to give it a try



MS


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## bowhunter29

muskyslayer96 said:


> Bowhunter,
> 
> Impeccable, beautiful, NICE!
> 
> By "medium build" do you mean it goes on thinner? Might have to give it a try
> 
> 
> 
> MS


Actually, Etex is a light build, it goes on very thin and is extremely runny. A medium build like Diamond II goes on just as nice and it actually levels better without being so runny. In my personal experience, putting on anything but a very thin coat of Etex results in a less than stellar finish. I love the clarity of DII as well. 

jeremy


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## muskyslayer96

Bowhunter,

Thanks for the tip, what is the working time like? Where do you purchase it? I'm interested in giving it a try.

Thanks,

MS


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## bowhunter29

muskyslayer96 said:


> Bowhunter,
> 
> Thanks for the tip, what is the working time like? Where do you purchase it? I'm interested in giving it a try.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> MS


The working time is about 10-15 minutes or so. I can get eight 8" lures covered with one batch. As with all epoxies, it is heat cured so you can't have a warm working environment and expect it to not set up quickly. I coat my lures and put them on the dryer for a couple of hours. I usually let them set up for 10 hours and then put them in my drying box at 110 degrees for 1.5-2 days. It gets rock hard when fully cured. It takes 6 days to fully cure at 70 degrees but it's cured enough to handle after 8-10 hours. You can cut the cure time down by using a heat/drying box. For every 20 degrees that you raise the temp (above 70), the cure time is cut in 1/2. So at 110, my lures fully cure in 1.5 days, not six. 

I get mine from Karen Hapka at Bingham Enterprises. You can reach her at 913-897-6657. 

Another benefit is that it doesn't smell nearly as bad as Etex!

jeremy


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## muskyslayer96

Jeremy,
Thanks a lot for the tips.

MS


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## bowhunter29

Here's a couple more of my 8" cedar bodied snake skin lures. They still need one more coat of Diamond II but I had to post some pictures now. I have fun doing these lures and they have been catching alot of fish so I'm hoping that I'm on to something! The fish really seem to prefer the light/dark contrasting skins.

Cobra skin:



























Python skin:


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## SolarFall

wow those latest ones look wicked


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## JamesT

Unreal. I would have never thought of using snake skin for baits but it looks fabulous.

How much are skins? And how big are they?


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## bowhunter29

@Solarfall, thanks!

@JamesT 
Snake skins are not cheap. Python skins are off the charts right now, I'm thinking of investing in a python farm! The sea snake skins are the smallest at about 30". The cobras are around 4' and the python I just bought was 9'. I'm trying to find some rattlesnake skins that will work. Width is the main issue. 

jeremy


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## st.slippy

Really nice work. I really like the effects of the snake skins. Those green taxidermy eyes look great.


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## muskyslayer96

Bowhunter,

Hands down some of the coolest builds I've seen, simply outstanding....Love the eyes, where do you get them?

Keep 'em coming!!!!!

MS


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## bowhunter29

muskyslayer96 said:


> Bowhunter,
> 
> Hands down some of the coolest builds I've seen, simply outstanding....Love the eyes, where do you get them?
> 
> Keep 'em coming!!!!!
> 
> MS


I get the eyes from Van ***** Taxidermy. They have a nice selection.

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

Finished up two more baits a few days ago and they are done curing! The first one is a shallow diving cobra that I did for a guy in VA. (not sure if he wants his name mentioned or not). The yellow python I did for Gerry Carroll, the maker of Gerry's Girls. The yellow python is also a shallow diver. The python skin is hard to find, very hard to wrap on a lure and it's also fairly expensive. Not my favorite stuff but it sure looks good! I let Gerry pick the eyes that he wanted on this one because I have a decent stash of them now. I think he picked a winner!

Something new I've started doing on my last few batches is securing the lips with two stainless steel .062" pins in addition to epoxy. I've also gone to a slightly larger diving lip which has really enhanced the action. Seems to be working well so far. 

jeremy


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## sam kegg

sweet!! they look great i like the snake skin look(python)


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## muskyslayer96

BH29,

Amazing work, I love your baits...... Cool,Cool!

MS


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## Pikopath

Im going snakehunting this summer! we dont have to many species here tho... Maybe I can use a squirrel... 
Very nice as always!!

Michael


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## Hetfieldinn

Great looking baits. Have you tried using fish skin (after it's scaled)?


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## bowhunter29

No I haven't tried fish skin but I've seen some very nice stuff some other builders have done. Right now the snake skin is keeping me plenty busy. If things slow up I might give it a shot.

jeremy


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## SolarFall

the latest ones look very cool as always .. btw that yellow python scale scheme sort of looks like a scale trick i was doing a while back. its fairly simple to do but you have to be very precise when doing it.
So what you do is just put a regular tulle net that has big enough holes that look like fish or in this case snake scales and just paint the first layer with black or some other dark color then you move the whole tulle net 1millimeter to forward towards to the head of the bait and add a second layer of paint, of course with python you would do the opposite and move the tulle net 1 millimeter backwards. 

check it out, the end result looks like this:


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## All Eyes

Man you guys are coming up with some amazing looking baits!


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## Pikopath

I threw this in an open stretch of river today:








Was out with a friend testing some of the baits he has gotten through the winter.
I liked the action of it. The looks and finish is top notch!

Michael


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## bowhunter29

Michael,

Glad you like it! Send me some pictures of the fish you catch on it! My email is [email protected]oratackle.com.

jeremy


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## Pikopath

I didnt buy it, a friend did. But I will pass on the message.

Michael


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## bowhunter29

I finished this batch up a couple of weeks ago. It went to Big Wood Musky Lures for the Chicago show. I used a slightly larger lip on this batch and I'm going to stick with it from now on. I like the more pronounced wiggle it gives the lures.

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

Here's a few musky baits I finished up early this week- all small stuff. I did a bunch of different style lips on these just to see what they would do. I just did two patterns: what I call Black Goldfish and the other is a Fire Tiger/Perch. The Black Goldfish has gold glitter and gold stripes but they are hard to see in the pics. I have some 8" versions that just finished drying last night, I'll post some pic's of them in a day or two. 

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

The last few...


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## bowhunter29

Here's the bigger versions. They are 8" in various configurations. The shallow diving Fire Tiger in the minnow body will probably stay in my arsenal. The others dive to about 8 feet and the two deep divers will hit the mid teens. Is it spring yet?!? 

jeremy


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## CRAPPIE LOVER

All of you guy's do fantastic work...Love all the paint jobs..Keep up the good work...Spring will soon be here for you to try them out....JIM....CL....:B


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## rjbass

Nice baits Jeremy.....great colors!

Rod


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## MadMac

Very nice Jeremy. Both those patterns look like they will go.


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## bowhunter29

I finished this batch of lures up before the Butler show but didn't get a chance to post any pictures. These are two of the three I have left in this pattern- what I call a Black Sucker.

This first one is an 8" minnow body in a deep diving version. It will hit the mid teens. There is a little bit of glitter in the first top coat that catches the sun nicely.






























This little guy is a 5" shad body in a deep diving version. It will hit 12-14 feet.






























jeremy


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## puterdude

Darn nice looking baits there bowhunter.You have a talent for sure!


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## bowhunter29

Here's a 6" rainbow trout in a deep diver (should hit around 15') that I just finished up for a guy in CA. It's a gift for his friend who's going to use it for largemouth and striper. It will take just about any speed and it should hold up to anything a striper can throw at it. 

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

Here's my latest two. Custom order for a fisherwoman in MN. They came out pretty nice. There's a bit of glitter in the first coat of epoxy that shows through the purple scales, it's a bit hard to see in the pictures though. These guys are 6" and weigh around 1.75oz. They will dive in the mid to upper teens. I really like this body size and style, I think it will be a big producer for me this year (musky and striper).

jeremy


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## Photog

Bowhunter, I'm in awe. I just bought a bandsaw and beltsander and now wonder if I can ever give this a go. I feel puny!


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## bowhunter29

This batch was done on some Salmo blanks and they're headed up north to Canada. I used regular python on one, the new silver metallic python on another, and the two little guys have cobra (brown) and sea snake (white) on them. They were fun to do, I've never put snake skin on anything other than the blanks I've made. 

I haven't had much to post lately because I've been busy working on blanks. I have a bunch of stuff roughed out so I'm hoping to get some new ones done before I get too busy in June. Summer is coming fast! 

jeremy


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## vc1111

These snakeskin baits are your signature style. Others may copy them someday, but they will always be yours. Very cool stuff, Jeremy.


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## bowhunter29

Vince, thanks for the kind words.


Here's a small batch I finished up last week. I was throwing these guys a little bit over the weekend so they have a scratch or two on them. Had some good follows but no takers. Can't wait to get some teeth marks on these guys. Nothing fancy, just some of my favorite colors in simple patterns that work.

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

Here's a few from a batch I just finished up. I did 5 each of these 4 body styles. I finally settled on names for them: Viper Minnow Sr (8", 3.5oz), Viper Minnow Jr (6", 2.6oz), Viper Shad Sr (8", 4.75oz), and Viper Shad Jr (5", 2.1oz). I've really only played around with one of the smaller lures with snake skin before I did this batch. I'm very pleased with how they came out, they have some great action to them. I prefer my lures to really have a wide wobble. 

jeremy


Viper Minnow Sr.









Viper Minnow Jr.









Viper Shad Jr.









Viper Shad Sr.


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## muskyslayer96

Jeremy,

Love your work! Beautiful work as always

Awesome stuff

MS


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## Pikopath

Ctrl+C Ctrl+V what MS96 said.

Michael


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## bowhunter29

Thanks guys. I could kick myself for not making extra baits in the smaller sizes for myself. I don't have any 5-6" snake skin baits in my box! 

The local river has been at flood stage since about February but it is now coming down to a fishable level. I was out for the first time this year with a buddy on Saturday in the stormy weather that was blowing through and I had a beauty (I'm guessing in the 47-48" range) hit right by the boat. She hit in front of my lure and grabbed my leader and line in her mouth. I had her tangled up for about 2 second before she bit me off. I was panicked until I saw my lure floating nearby. The last thing I wanted was for her to swim off with a face full of hooks! Work is picking up so I'm hoping it's not the last time I make it out until August...

jeremy


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## sherman51

just please dont ever throw one of those snake skins in my boat. i would leave the boat.LOL. they look real.
sherman


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## bowhunter29

Sherman, you wouldn't like my shop, it's full of snake skins and a few snakes. I've caught 5 black snakes in my shop in the last 2 weeks! I keep one eye on my work and the other watches for snakes. 

I was fortunate enough to find some time for some fishing last evening. I've only been out 3 times this year and each time I've only spend an hour or two on the water. We've had so much rain here in central PA that most of our water hasn't been fishable for months. I was out for the first time last Saturday and had a 47-48" hit right at the boat but she hit in front of my lure and grabbed my line and leader. Fortunately, she never touched the lure and she swam off unharmed and I got my lure back. I was able to get out Wednesday and had a decent follow but nothing else. A storm rolled through last night dumping 4" of rain upstream. I didn't know about the rain until I got to the river today because it didn't rain at my house. Major disappointment, it was high and muddy. My buddy and I decided to go anyway and I'm glad we did. I caught this one on the 3rd pass through the only spot we had time to hit. She was about 37.5". I didn't take the time to measure her very accurately, I kept her in the water and only took her out for pictures. I'm just glad I finally broke the ice after having chances each of the first two trips of the year. Being pretty new to musky fishing, I'm blessed to have had action on every trip this year. I can pretty much figure that I've got a great chance at seeing fish if I'm out right before or right after a storm. These local river fish seem to be responding well during those times.

jeremy


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## bowhunter29

I got in another bass/muskie float on the river today. My buddy and I weren't able to get on the water until 8:30 and being the first day of bass season, the river was packed! We went straight to the hole where I missed the big muskie two weeks ago but there were 6 boats there. We made one float through and decided to move. We headed downriver and did some bass fishing the rest of the morning. Around 1:30 we came up on a good eddy that I hadn't fished much in the past. We worked down through the hole without any action but on the last cast I was planning on making, this one rushed out of the shallow water along the bank and hit the olive minnow I was throwing. I think this lure is going to be a hot one for me, it's the same one I used two weeks ago when I had the upper 40's fish on. The river is heavily pressured and most of the legal fish don't make it back in the water, so I feel blessed to have had action on every trip this year. Sorry for the bad picture, my buddy chopped her tail off...I need to send him to photography school.

jeremy


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## "Big" mark the shark

nice fish '''''''


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## bowhunter29

Thanks "Big", it's been nice to be on a roll. The local musky fishing was hot all summer last year but I only made two trips. This year the fishing is just as good and I'm actually finding time to be on the water.

This is a pair of lures that I built for Gerry Carrol who makes Gerry's Girls bucktails. I really like his baits because they are built super-durable and the blades spin the instant they hit the water. These lures are going to be gifts for friends of his so I can't mention any names until the guys have the lures in their hands. These lures are both 12" and are made from 1.25" cedar. A buddy of mine cut the lumber himself from a tree that was in his brother's yard. I used the usually 1.5" x .092" stainless eye screws, 3x split rings in size 7, and 7/0 3551 Mustads. The lures are wrapped in python skins that have been hand- painted to add a bit of color. I used red reptile eyes on one and a pair of gold/silver fish eyes on the other. I made the diving lips from 3/16" lexan. The lures were finished off with 10 coats of Diamond II epoxy. The finished weight with hooks is 14.8oz!

jeremy


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## muskyslayer96

Jeremy,

Those are awesome!!

You have some lucky friends 

Keep 'em coming, always love to see your work.

MS


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## Musky Lip

Nice lures! I like the white/yellow/blue one. They all look very nice.


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## bowhunter29

I just finished these guys up yesterday. One more day of curing and they'll be ready to go. I really enjoy working on these little guys, they lend themselves very well to snake skin. 

This first one is covered in python skin.



























This little guy is wrapped in a tan seas snake skin. Tan seas snakes are hard to come by (they must not spend much time in the sun ) but they look great.


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## Pikopath

ye ye blah blah 

Michael


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## bowhunter29

Here's a couple I just finished up- some new stuff! The jitterbug actually came from one of my 8" minnow bodies. I cut about 1.25" off of the head and screwed the jitterbug bib on. I used 3 stainless screws that are 3/4" long to attach the bib. During testing I used 2 nickel screws that are 1/4" and I couldn't pull the bib off then. I know if won't come off now. It pushes a huge amount of water! I decided that I'm going to give it to a buddy of mine for his birthday. I've had several people ask me when I'm going to make a glider so I figured I'd better get this one done. It's from one of my 5.5" shad bodies but I didn't shape it and taper it head and tail like my crankbaits. I just ran it through the router table- quick and easy! It has a nice glide to it, about 1.5' or so with a short tap on the rod.

When I painted these, I wanted something a little more natural looking on the jitterbug...not sure what it looks like but I like the pattern.  I wanted something flashy for the glider so I went with black and silver underneath and some nice iridescent orange and yellow over top. I hand painted the eyes on the glider. They came out okay and I'm excited to try more. 

thanks for looking, 
jeremy


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## "Big" mark the shark

Good stuff


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## bowhunter29

It's been forever since I've posted pictures of some baits! Here's a few I just finished up and swim tested. The only new designs are the 8" gliders. I have about 3 other new designs that I'm working on right now. I need to start buying lottery tickets because all four designs worked on my first attempt (actually I attribute my success to the lure building community, there's a ton of info out there and guys are willing to share it). 

I tend to do lures in batches, meaning I'll do several different designs with the same paint scheme. The first one is my carp pattern. It's coming along and I think I'm starting to it to where I want it. The second one I call OrangeCicle. It's not exactly complicated to paint but I think it will be effective. I like to paint patterns that contrast a lot, I think contrast can trigger strikes. The pattern has a fine gold pearl sprayed over the black but it didn't really show up well in the pics. It pops in the sun and the orange ends of the lure really wobble and flash...I think it will work. 

jeremy


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## All Eyes

Great looking baits Bowhunter! All of them are sweet but I love the skins and that rainbow trout is awesome.


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