# "Night Bite" walleye baits



## TIGGER

Hey everyone, Well it is on the eve of my most favorite thing to do.............. Night walleye fishing. 

I was introduced to it about 7 years ago. It started out fishing off the rocks at Mosquito and has progressed to the "BIG" waters of Lake Erie. The pattern was always fish Mosquito in the spring and follow them untill they moved out into the late spring. Then catch them in the fall when they return to the shallows at night with the cooler temps. Well thanks to this site and meeting people like "dixie chicken" Larry has opened a whole new world of the "night bite" for me. The Lake Erie bite I have been doing for only 1-1/2 seasons. I will never claim to be an expert but I am starting to learn what works and does not. 
After fishing with VC111 this summer there one thing that was clear to me is that he really makes his baits to fish specific conditions,weather patterns,times of year and lakes that he fishes. As he was firing cast after cast all I could do was to go through his box and look at all the lures he has made. It was really hard to find and lure that he didn't make. I make alot of musky lures. It seems I never keep any of them. They are pretty and work well but I just don't have that specific target zone of personal colors and sizes yet for my deadly weapons arsenal. It will come as I get more swallowed up by the muskies, but for now I have the cross hairs on the my most favorite thing "Night bite" walleyes. 

What I have noticed: Over the last 1-1/2 seasons on Erie I was stunned what was brought to light for me. I had always thought that the night walleyes were the deep shadows that creeped around the depths only to invade the shallows of the lake edges for only minutes to grab their meal and disappear as fast as they came. I was very suprise to hear the night boats talking on the radios " Took one 5 back on chrome and blue" What the heck is 5 back? 5 wraps back? .............No.......... 5 feet back behind an inline board. "We are only going 1.5 mph!" ........."That can't be down more than 2 feet down!.............. "We are in 40 feet depth in "open" water!" 

I started to think alot different about baits for walleye. Specifically baits for "Night" walleye.

As the season progresses the are always subtle but important changes that take place that I hope to take advantage of. The with custom making specific colors and actions to help me increase the odds. 

There are so many great baits out there already. Rapala, Storm, and Renouski's. Why change you ask. Well there is always the search for the ultimate bait. Maybe the ultimate color or action. Only thing with fishing there is always adjustments to be made.  

The most major thing that suprised me was the preference of the walleye to eat smelt instead of the shad. Yes they eat shad but seem to like the longer slender baits are better. The other factor was how to get the baits to stand out from all the other bait fish that are everywhere. Action and Color

Actions: As the season progresses the water gets cooler. With the cooler water the actions of the fish slow down. They will not chase as much from further distances. Thus the speed has to be reduced. As the speed reduces the bait works less. The wobble reduces. I had spent endless hours laying awake in bed thinking about this. I have been only making the baits for a year but I have noticed some factors that come into play. The first is lip angle/shape and lip thickness. I have been playing around with different materials to use in the lips. I have heard of people using cd disks as lips on smaller baits. I went to the hobby shop and got some 1/16" thick aluminum. Here is a pic of the difference in the thickness













With the thinner material the bait seems to widen its wobble. The wobble widens to 4-6" range. With the warmer temps I don't think it will be a factor in them catching it. What I am really hoping for is that when the trolling speed hits the .8 to 1.2 mph that the wobble we be 1" to 2" range to help them single it out. We will see how this plays out.  I have been playing around with the lip angles verses bait size. I hope to run the baits and record what I have noticed through this season.


Colors: As you know there are lots of colors of baits out there. The problem that there are only so many to pick from in the specific type of bait that you want. I wanted to try some really bright colors to start off the season. Some really bright colors!!!!!!!!! Here are some very shallow runners with the bright colors. They are in the 7" range.















I like to do the foil on the baits as a base and then layer the paint over it. Here are a couple more. The top one has real copper foil and the bottom has HVAC metal duct tape in silver as its base.












These two I have real high hopes with. They are metal base also. I can't wait to try these.


































Well I hope to get out this weekend on the big water and start this journey. It will lead to shore casting after ice out on the inland lakes that I fish and back to the spring big water bite of Lake Erie. I have many ideas to try. So tag along and please feel free to add your pics. It doesn't matter if the bait was made by hand or bought right off the rack. It is all good information! There is a fall Lake Erie tournament I hope to fish. Maybe we can do this together and see what comes from it. I hope to have some pics soon with these baits and teeth marks. LOL Wish me luck!


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## Gju42486

wow---they are impressive


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## ezbite

those look great. i think you and i are thinking alike. i have not been out since i got this one, but i think it's gonna be a good one. kind of like the one you are holding, just without the black bars. keep us updated. im going tuesday to try this one.


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## eyesman_01

Awesome baits as usual TIGGER. I've never fished the night bite, except those hot summer nights around home. Due to extenuating circumstances, it doesn't look like I'll make it over for the fall bite at all this year. Hopefully things will be more stable and I'll make it next year. That gives me a whole year to build baits for it.  I'll definitely be back out there in April to start the year off at Turtle Creek.

Definitely keep us posted. The way you and Vince always talk about Muskies, I never knew you were a walleye man. Now you're talking baits I would use. I just started my next one, a 4" version of the walleye without the back fin. (Doing one at a time til I know more about what I'm doing) But you're right, I better think larger scale for those fall 'eyes. You think a 7" version of this bait might be too thick? Hmmm, maybe just stretch it without adding to the width. OK, it's too early in the morning for my brain to be working this hard. LOL

Best of luck. Let's see those teeth marks!


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## peple of the perch

............


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## MadMac

All I can say is, "What time should I be there".


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## rjbass

Really nice John, love the colors and the shape. You have inspired me to make some more Walleye baits for next year now....give the Musky baits a rest this winter...Except....I am going to hit it hard again this weekend and keep going until ice. We usually catch our biggest fish from now until the end.

Have you tried making any of those jointed? I bet they would be awesome. I do well with my jointed baits for walleye here, don't see why they wouldn't do well there. Seems like the jointed baits have great action even at the slow speeds used for Walleye.

Anyway, good luck, I know your baits will catch fish!

Rod


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## MadMac

I like them all but especially the top right and the third one down on the left. They'll really look good with some 10# hanging from the John.


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## etch

sick paint and plugs big john, dont know how you do it as i cant make a bomber style bait to save my life

Etch


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## hazmail

TIG -looks like you have that foiling 'down pat'- great looking lures, killer paints with foil flashing through. pete


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## TIGGER

Well good mourning everyone. Well I made it out last night to test some of the lures. I headed out with "Dixie Chicken", "Jig", and "Wrong way". Hit the Big water of dowtown CLeveland at dark. Though we didn't mark alot of fish we did manage to go 6 for 8 on the walleyes. 

The first fish came on the yellow tail bait. It was a nice 21" Here is a pic. the bait was 25 feet back while trolling 2.25 mph. Five minutes later the emarld green one went pulling back but no hook up. Darn! LOL












Some interesting observations last night: The bait was really in close to the shore. I still can't believe the fish find the baits. After we has landed a fish on of the inline boards fell into the water. We made our turn to retrieve it and I pointed the spot light into the water to look at the water clarity and behold a midsize chunk walleye was swimming with its dorsal out of the water. It quickly darted back deep. After seeing that Larry turned my bait world upside down with a new bait called a "chatter trick stick" from Renouski. It has no lip and one of those chatter blades in the front of the body. He said it runs only 2 to 4 feet down. The vibration is off the wall! He put it back only 10 feet and 5 minutes later we were netting. Ran it back out and another 10 minutes we netted another. This brings me back to the ideas of rattles and lure action. I want to try putting rattles into the baits put it will be challenging to do with such a small body.

As the night continued we started to make changes on colors and bait sizes. We scaled down the size with some success at midnight. The chatter sticks shut down hit was hit and miss with the colors. The copper black head went off but Jig and I kept grabbing the wrong rod while finally got tired of being towed around and let go of the bait. Dang ! LOL Jig ran out a size 18 firetiger rapala to change it up a 1 am and a nice 22" cracked it. 

It seems that the fish might be the local resident fish that feed there all year round. They are all 2003 brood. All the fish came on different lures with the exception of the 2 on the chatters. The same for the colors. Going to try some new ideas this weekend on sizes and colors. It was a fun night with more info to use in the workshop






















Rod, I am going to try some jointed ones I think. New ground for me.

Ezebite. I know that will catch on tuesday for you. Those glass minnows are incredible baits. I am trying to figure a way to make them. plexiglass maybe! LOL


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## Columbusslim31

Congrats Tigger. There's nothing like benefitting from the fruits of your labor!


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## JIG

He is very tallented when it comes to wood and paint! Dont see many guys maken lures like he does. Takes it to a new level. Good to meet and fishin with you guys. Larry and Dan! Ill think of you guys ever BITE!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## true2plue

Wow!! These baits are truly amazing!! I was wondering Tigger if you have any of these topwaters with broken tails!! I was out last night and went 5 for 5 with a gold and a silver broken tail rapalas. I haven't seen many of the colorful broken tails, and thought they'd work great ...thx!!!


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## peple of the perch

............


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## hazmail

hey Tigger - This is my first attempt at FOIL, talk about fiddly, a guy needs the patience of a rabbit trap to do this. That being said I'm on the hunt for foils, watch out ladies with those flashing foil shopping bags, I could quite easily become a chronic bag snatcher. Pete


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## rjbass

Tigger,

Great job on the eyes!!! You did better than I did today. Is that a yearly bite in that area?

Rod


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## eyesman_01

Way to go on the 'eyes. Wishing I could make another trip, but doesn't look like it's gonna happen. Guess I'll start gearing up for next year. Just posted in the "mother" thread, but here's a pic of my most recent. Looks like "perch" is in.


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## TIGGER

Wow Pete. That thing looks great. The trout and walleye would really really tear that thing up. That body shape is "off the wall" crazy! .......... I hear you on the foil bag thing. LOL I went into the gift/card section at a birthday card store and was looking at all the different foiled things. Many many ideas! 

Eyes! You have got to be kinding me. You are all ready doing baits like that! Where will you be by the end of winter?  That thing is incredible.

Rod, Yes it is a yearly cycle here. I am still learning alot about it. The pattern is generally when the water temp hits the 60 degree range it acts as a trigger to start and end the whole thing. below starts it in the fall and the opposite in the spring........water hits 60 it ends it. The fish and bait move to the shore line and the eating is easy for them. They all gather together. The walleye are fattening up for the winter. Easy pickings for them. As the water hits the 52 to 55 range it really gets on from there. The very very big ones move in. The fishing is world class as you will see. It is not uncommon to pull several fish over ten pounds every night. Last year we had a double go off with one being a 12-1/2 lber and the other a 10-1/2 lber. I lost a super fish last last night. I will think about that one for a while. Through the winter the fish will stay in the area and move to the traditional spawning areas. It is like a rest and feed stop at downtown Cleveland. When the ice gets off the lake the fish finish their spawn and will pass through again for a stop as they migrate East . They visit the feeding areas untill temp pushes them out to deep water and turns into a day bight. 

The weather plays a factor. The winter can come fast and the amount of trips can be very limited. Last year was the bonus round!!!!!!! We had the boats in the water untill 1 st week of January. Very rare.

Well went to hit it last night again. "Jig" and his friend were coming up to try again. They would not make it up until 9 ish so I decided to get a jump and pick them up when they arrived. I got there at 6 ish and went out for a bit. I could tell the weather was breaking down fast. started at a 2 foot chop but went downhill fast! I made up my mind to call Bob and tell him not to come. He had a 1-1/2 hr trip up. The waves where getting to the 3 foot range on the edge of the open water zone. I had the two rods go off at the same time. That was some fun by myself! The boat was spinning and bouncing like a top! They were both 22" range. Good news one was on that green foil one that I had the pull back last night. The other came on a broken tail rebel bait. Thanks to "true2plue" I put one on that I found from my brown trout days in the bottom of the box. It caught the other. 












I called Bob not to come. I decide to head behind the breakwall where it was more protected. There were about 6 boats out. I heard a couple that were caught along with some steelies. The bait was so thick in there. I decided to hit the road knowing I had to cross the "open" bay to get to the ramp. The waves were getting to the 5 foot range. I set a straight line troll to the cut for the ramp. I had a #12 glass minnow Husky jerk. In the center of the bay a hooked up with a monster. It took the inline board 6 feet under the water. I could see the light way down deep. The dang surging waves pulled the hooks out. Still not sure if I would be able to net the fish in the waves. I was thinking of trying to tow it into the cut at the ramp in the protected area. I never got the chance.  That is fishing. "fishcrazy" said I was saving it for the big tourney coming up. Maybe he is right. It should a fun one. 

One thing that I have noticed with the fish I have caught is that they are hooked on the front hook. I would think that they would come up from behind and be hooked on the back one. They must be "t" boning them in a towards the head kinda strike. I will have to keep an eye on that for the front hook placement.

Here is a pic of the husky jerk and the rebel "broken tail" I want to try to copy these this week. I will see what I come up with. I am also seeing that have a bit of a preference for white / pearl patterns. I may have to start to add a third hook on the baits. The mid-gap range may be to big. It may cost me a nice fish later without it. That glass minnow will be a tough one to copy!


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## peple of the perch

..................?


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## JIG

Those teeth marks are from him after he runs out of pretzels! Still glad you called me off. Hard to believe that Milton can be glassed out and Erie so rough. Theres always tonight. South winds at 5!!!!!!! John when you started to talk about pearls and posting some common lures I thought it would be cool to snap a shot of some of the ones I like. X-RAPS! That suspending,rattling,jerk bait!:B  Hope the pics come out al right. I took 15 min too make them right but....


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## JIG

Image too big... 800x600 maximum size


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## peple of the perch

//////////////////


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## eyesman_01

I know what you mean about trying to net in those waves. Can break your heart. Glad to see those teeth marks!

I have some of those glass baits also, in a couple different colors. Glad to hear they work, I haven't used mine yet.

Took my latest creation across to the lake to see how she swims, and I have to say I'm slightly pleased. This was at a moderate retrieve from shore... It runs approximately 18 inches under the surface with a slow wobble. But then I noticed an added bonus, it takes about a 6" run to one side, wobbles, then to the other. I've heard other walleye hunters talk about a search or "hunting" mode in some baits. That's what this reminds me of. Wow, now I wonder if I can duplicate it again. Hopefully it will do the same at trolling speeds.


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## Dixie Chicken

I was fishing with John, Dan and Bob (JIg) on Friday in Cleveland. I've had a very busy weekend so sorry for the late post. It was a great night not a lot of fish but still a great night. John's baits are really unbelieveable. I did not want to run them they looked so good. He said he made them to fish them and fish them we did. Right off the bat his bait took the first fish. We also had several other pull backs on his baits throughout the night. It was fun to see them work and even more fun watching John's reaction. A rod would go off with his bait and he just watched the board go back. That was all he needed I don't think he needed to see the fish. His enjoyment came from tricking the fish with creation. It was aslo fun watching the "Wheels Turn" inside his head. We ran a few other baits and every new bait that came out of the box he would look at and then say what he might do to change it. 
John thanks for the ride it was a good one hope we can do it again soon.
Keep those baits coming.

DC


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## Fishers of Men

ezbite said:


> those look great. i think you and i are thinking alike. i have not been out since i got this one, but i think it's gonna be a good one. kind of like the one you are holding, just without the black bars. keep us updated. im going tuesday to try this one.


Tom, where did you get that? I really like it.


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## ezbite

Fishers of Men said:


> Tom, where did you get that? I really like it.


ebay, where else.lol.however, i know a place... want one?


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## RiverRunner88

TIGGER said:


> Hey everyone, Well it is on the eve of my most favorite thing to do.............. Night walleye fishing.
> 
> I was introduced to it about 7 years ago. It started out fishing off the rocks at Mosquito and has progressed to the "BIG" waters of Lake Erie. The pattern was always fish Mosquito in the spring and follow them untill they moved out into the late spring. Then catch them in the fall when they return to the shallows at night with the cooler temps. Well thanks to this site and meeting people like "dixie chicken" Larry has opened a whole new world of the "night bite" for me. The Lake Erie bite I have been doing for only 1-1/2 seasons. I will never claim to be an expert but I am starting to learn what works and does not.
> After fishing with VC111 this summer there one thing that was clear to me is that he really makes his baits to fish specific conditions,weather patterns,times of year and lakes that he fishes. As he was firing cast after cast all I could do was to go through his box and look at all the lures he has made. It was really hard to find and lure that he didn't make. I make alot of musky lures. It seems I never keep any of them. They are pretty and work well but I just don't have that specific target zone of personal colors and sizes yet for my deadly weapons arsenal. It will come as I get more swallowed up by the muskies, but for now I have the cross hairs on the my most favorite thing "Night bite" walleyes.
> 
> What I have noticed: Over the last 1-1/2 seasons on Erie I was stunned what was brought to light for me. I had always thought that the night walleyes were the deep shadows that creeped around the depths only to invade the shallows of the lake edges for only minutes to grab their meal and disappear as fast as they came. I was very suprise to hear the night boats talking on the radios " Took one 5 back on chrome and blue" What the heck is 5 back? 5 wraps back? .............No.......... 5 feet back behind an inline board. "We are only going 1.5 mph!" ........."That can't be down more than 2 feet down!.............. "We are in 40 feet depth in "open" water!"
> 
> I started to think alot different about baits for walleye. Specifically baits for "Night" walleye.
> 
> As the season progresses the are always subtle but important changes that take place that I hope to take advantage of. The with custom making specific colors and actions to help me increase the odds.
> 
> There are so many great baits out there already. Rapala, Storm, and Renouski's. Why change you ask. Well there is always the search for the ultimate bait. Maybe the ultimate color or action. Only thing with fishing there is always adjustments to be made.
> 
> The most major thing that suprised me was the preference of the walleye to eat smelt instead of the shad. Yes they eat shad but seem to like the longer slender baits are better. The other factor was how to get the baits to stand out from all the other bait fish that are everywhere. Action and Color
> 
> Actions: As the season progresses the water gets cooler. With the cooler water the actions of the fish slow down. They will not chase as much from further distances. Thus the speed has to be reduced. As the speed reduces the bait works less. The wobble reduces. I had spent endless hours laying awake in bed thinking about this. I have been only making the baits for a year but I have noticed some factors that come into play. The first is lip angle/shape and lip thickness. I have been playing around with different materials to use in the lips. I have heard of people using cd disks as lips on smaller baits. I went to the hobby shop and got some 1/16" thick aluminum. Here is a pic of the difference in the thickness
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> With the thinner material the bait seems to widen its wobble. The wobble widens to 4-6" range. With the warmer temps I don't think it will be a factor in them catching it. What I am really hoping for is that when the trolling speed hits the .8 to 1.2 mph that the wobble we be 1" to 2" range to help them single it out. We will see how this plays out.  I have been playing around with the lip angles verses bait size. I hope to run the baits and record what I have noticed through this season.
> 
> 
> Colors: As you know there are lots of colors of baits out there. The problem that there are only so many to pick from in the specific type of bait that you want. I wanted to try some really bright colors to start off the season. Some really bright colors!!!!!!!!! Here are some very shallow runners with the bright colors. They are in the 7" range.
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> These two I have real high hopes with. They are metal base also. I can't wait to try these.
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> Well I hope to get out this weekend on the big water and start this journey. It will lead to shore casting after ice out on the inland lakes that I fish and back to the spring big water bite of Lake Erie. I have many ideas to try. So tag along and please feel free to add your pics. It doesn't matter if the bait was made by hand or bought right off the rack. It is all good information! There is a fall Lake Erie tournament I hope to fish. Maybe we can do this together and see what comes from it. I hope to have some pics soon with these baits and teeth marks. LOL Wish me luck!


John you never cease to amaze me great lookin lures!!!


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## Fishers of Men

ezbite said:


> ebay, where else.lol.however, i know a place... want one?


cant walk well on one leg. Appreciate it if you pick me up 2.
Thanks


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone, Well I just finished a couple more that I am excited to try tomorrow downtown. The first is a smaller bait. It is only 4-1/2" long. It is a shaker. I how not too much. If the walleyes don't like maybe the steelies will in the grand river. It has a copper metal tape base. I put some stripes on the belly. Maybe some contrast will help.











On monday my wife said that we needed to go out and get some birthday gifts for the nephews. We stopped at this party store outlet to get some gift bags and wrapping. I was brousing around and came across this really cool ribbon! You turn it one way and its a gold color, turn it the other and it turns to a green color. It is almost like a hollowgram on a credit card. 

I took the ribbon and glued it down to the wood with some quick set epoxy. Then I let it dry and coated the whole lure with no paint on it. This helped smooth out the transition of wood and ribbon. I just painted over it to blend the edges in. I used enamel paint (testors from the hobby shop). If the over-spray gets to be to much on the ribbon area I will take "naptha" and wipe it off the side lightly. It helps keep the view clear on the side of the bait and gets rid of the overspray. 

This one is a black smelt immitation.



















This one is a blue smelt. They seem to like the blue at night for me



















I can't wait to try them. "Jig" is down ther right now!!!!!!!!!!! I had to pass tonight! It is killing me! LOL


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## Dixie Chicken

Tigger,
They look great.
Can't wait to knock the "New" off them tonight!
DC


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## JIG

No doubt!!!! Fish should Gobble them up! Hope to see ya out there tonight. Pulled 4 out of 6 last night. Along with 6 pull backs. Lost a BIG fish off the corner on braid and a white x-rap. Rest were caught on a 8in firetiger Rapalla 15 ft back on mono main line and leader. When the bigger class fish go down they pull hard! After that they lay right off the corner of your boat and go NUTS!!!!!!!!


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## JIG

Pix were too big and threw thread out of whack.


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## Fishers of Men

Nice, how deep of water were you in?


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone, Well I made it out with Jig , Dixie Chicken, and Big Daddy lastnight. I got to run some of the new batch baits and a jointed prototype. Had some good success. That blue smelt had a good night boating 3 fish. Here is a pic of one.










It also had some action going before we got into the boat. I went into the shop to retrieve from the rafters. I turned the light one and it was hanging by the switch. Its hooks stuck me in the right tricep! I had to push it thru and cut it off! That was some fun! LOL











I made a couple of jointed ones to try. Not many people run them. I thought they may work if I play with the action at a slower speed and use a color that has been good. It paid off. I got 3 fish on it last night. Including my personal best of 10 lbs 6oz. Here are some pics of one of the medium sized fish that it caught along with the big one I got.






























The big fish are really moving in right now. We got 3 fish over 10 lbs last night. It is only going to get better. Here are the other 2 ten pounders. Bigdaddy and Dixie with some bookend 10's










It still seems that the fish "t" bone the bait towards the head. I am suprised by this. I never really paid attention to this. Just unhook them and into the box before. Now I am watching how the hooks are hooked and I am noticing this. The big one came up from behind and was hooked on the back treble. Still trying to think what is more important. Action/sound verses color. I alway thought that the rattles in the baits caught more fish but I am seeing that may not be the case. The other is size. Are bigger fish always going after the bigger baits? Our biggest last year came on a 4-1/2" storm bait. That fish was 12-1/2 lbs. I want to make dual baits in different colors and run them together and observe. The same with same color with different size. I know you are thinking why not just go out and buy the dang 7 dollar bait. Just having fun toying around. I might come across something!


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## peple of the perch

...........


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## ezbite

sweet..man i cant wait until tuesday.......


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## JIG

Didnt think much of them till they were starting to out fish the other lures! Every fish off the corner came off Johns baits.


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## eyesman_01

TIGGER said:


> I know you are thinking why not just go out and buy the dang 7 dollar bait. Just having fun toying around. I might come across something!


Those that don't make their own will never know why. 

Congrats on the fish. Was at Lorain yesterday but was too rough to hit the open lake. We perched behind the breakwall and got a dozen between 3 of us. Still enjoyed ourselves. Last trip til spring.


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## rjbass

What did I tell you about those jointed baits.....great job!

Rod


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## TIGGER

Rod those jointed are working great. I finished some up a couple of days ago. They had some success also. I upped the anny with an 11lb 2oz one that OGFer "Goolies" landed the other night. 15 minutes later a 10 lb 6oz one took the bait. I got three others on one we call "trix" The orange one we call "tony" for that tony the tiger cartoon character on the ceral box.


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## goolies

I'm placing my order now for 1/2 dozen Tonys. They're Grrrrreat! Thanks to you 
John I finally have an avatar.


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## rjbass

What can I say....awesome, wish I was there.

Rod


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## TIGGER

Well it is time to fire up this thread again. The night walleye bite is my most favorite thing in the fishing world. I really really love this time of year when you can cast take care of some of your cabin fever and the fish will go along with the plan.

The spring will start casting dam faces and the causeways. Really any shorline from deep water that has a south facing side. They seem to heat up first. It always seems also that right after a long phase they come right out of the starting gate. I like to find that 2 to 3 foot depth and cast shallow baits and run them right along the rocks. I don't like it if I go ten feet and not make contact with the bottom. You would be suprised how shallow they get. I will catch them in 1 foot of water all the time.

The actual bite. In the fall I notice that they "t" bone the baits. Head shot them alot. 90 percent of the time. In the spring it is way different. They seem to come up behind the bait and follow it and just nip the back of it. It just gets heavy and they are hung. I have started to twitch the bait every 10 feet. Just a minor little twitch to break the pace. I notice that they will hit it at that point. They will follow the bait to your feet and turn away. Or startle you big time with a hit as you lift the bait out of the water. I like that in the dark your senses are narrowed on the task of feel more than anything. No sensory overload. I will pick a casting path and throw there 500 casts in a row. I will know every rock and ledge in that zone and picture it in my mind. They will come I hope! LOL The time goes by in seconds it seems. I really love that it is here!

Well I had this bait ready for paint and as the day got warmer and warmer I thought it may be a good starting point to kick off the season again. I decided to paint the lure and slam some 5 minute clear coat over it! LOL That was some fun! LOL It came out ok. I will clear coat one more time with envirotex. I ended up with one on it tonight. I am happy. The lip took a beating on the rocks. I may have to use plastic or stainless steel. Not the aluminum for these. 60 tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! I even heard some spring peepers tonight. Here are some pics


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## Fishers of Men

Nice Tigger, thanks for the post and a fine lookin lure!


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## peple of the perch

.............


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## RiverRunner88

uh oh he's up to it again!..beautiful bait john...try to save us some eyes would ya!


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## Brian.Smith

Those baits are a work of art and they catch fish too, great job on the baits and the eyes.


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## fishon

wow.. what a talant.... I am very impressed...

Frank


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## hazmail

Tigger - Nice natural colors and as usual, perfect finish. That fish has 'cat eyes', just like a Barramundi, scary in the dark.
I have not posted much lately, the world is closing in on me, and it feels like I have 2 days before I fly out, not 19, sooooooooooo much to do before I leave, and so little time. pete

19 Days to go


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## fugarwi7

How gratifying it must be to make the lure (a beauty at that) and then get out for an early spring evening eye or two...that must be the best of both worlds!!! I can't wait for my first outing...only two weeks from tomorrow!!!:B


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys! I really love this time of year and the night casting as you know. 

Well I finished a couple of new ones that I wanted to try tonight. I slipped out to mosquito and climbed on the rocks.

The first is a shallower diver that I started out with. I was going to cast it all night until it got bit. That was if they were biting. It was a long wait. I told myself 10 more casts and thats it. I had casted for almost two hours. Then it happend the first one came on this bait.




















It was a 17" fish. I changed to the other one I had. It has a curved back and was a bit tuffer to use in my spot. I was casting into 3 to 4 feet of water and bringing back to shore. It dives more than the first. I had to reel very very slow to just keep on top of the rocks. It was pure torcher! LOL It paid off. I just about ground off an 1/8 off the metal lip on the rocks! LOL. It was 18-1/2 incher. Both the fish were milking.




















I put a regular rapala in a #5. They seem to like chart. and white alot. I got one more 14-1/2 incher I threw back. I lost one other on a blue and white one. I tried to lift it up and it came off. about 15 Incher I would guess. 

The next ones I want to use plastic for the lips and alot shallower depth. I broke off three plastic lips tonight on the rapala baits. The fish like those rocks. It is very wearing on the baits. I may have to stay to the metal lips.

Fugarwi, It does feel good for sure catching on them. You will soon find out with those great baits you make. I can't wait to see the pics

Pete you have a great trip my friend! I want lots of pics!  

Well this weekend I shold have some new ones to test I hope. Thank God for 5 minute epoxy on these little buggers! LOL I had them hardening on my rear view mirror on the ride out there. 

John


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## rjbass

I am jealous....no fishing here yet.....sounds like fun. I think you will be better off with Lexan lips for that type of fishing IMO. Nice baits though.
Actually, what am I talking about, you caught fish I didn't...lol and those are the perfect eaters.....
Rod


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## peple of the perch

................


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## vc1111

I actually just read a lot of this thread. I was away hunting when it was started. 

It should be fun for you to build for walleyes on the local lakes and from the pictures, it looks like a lot of the fish agree with what you've done so far! 

I like the look of those shorter ones a lot. They look like they'd be versatile.


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## hazmail

Tigger, hope to see you sometime in the first 2 weeks in May, if you are not 'night fishing' - so maybe we won't need any pictures. Really looking forward to this. pete


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone, Well the next phase the inland night casting is starting. Super early I cast from shore. The next phase is to move to the boat and get tight with the rocks. It seems that the minnow bait coming from in to out works very good along with getting to those spots you can't walk to. It is not so much telling people your honey holes but the experience of catching fish on lures that you have made or just cracking the code of certain pattern. Timing can be everything with many things. At certain times you can have 90 percent of the fish in 10 percent of the water. In that 10 percent the baits may have to be geared for that particular task or location. Thus the beauty of making your own baits with the ability to adjust actions and colors. 

As the spawn continues the males that have been involved early seem to want to hang around the action but are more willing to take the shot at the bait in a feeding mode than the others. I never catch the females untill the next phase starts in about 3 weeks. 

Rod had mentioned about using the plastic lips. I did that on the lures I used last night. I really shortened the lip length and had the lures running no deeped than 2 feet down. It worked great!!!! 











Sometimes I have to remind myself that a decked out paint job is not always needed. It is more getting the lure in the strike zone for as long as you can and to have a decent action on the bait. The top bait had spatters , I dropped it on the floor. I was set on using it last night. I ended up catching 3 fish on it. 













It ended up being a nice night. The lure that I posted a couple of days ago really worked well for me. I caught 4 nice fish on it. The largest being 24"











The new lures caught 4 total with the shallow lips. I was happy about that.

[img]http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/photopost/data/500/DSC08183postlure.jpg










Overall I caught many fish on a great night of weather. I think the cabin fever is cured. I was very excited tonight to see fish being caught on the front treble hooks. This tells me they are getting more aggressive towards feeding!!!!!!!!! A good thing! The next phase will be the post spawn bite. This is where the big females come out the box after BIG baits. They tend to hang around the spawning areas. I do well in the rock areas adjacent to deep water. About two more weeks or so. Then off to Lake Erie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YE Haw!

I kept culling the fish in the livewell for a nice group shot. I took a picture and let them go. The shot off like bottle rockets! The average was 22" You can see they looked a bit skinny and they hit like freight trains. Very healthy fish. Good to see from our inland lakes. Our stocking programs are working great!


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## Fishers of Men

Nice Tigger, see anyone else out there?


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## peple of the perch

...........


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## fugarwi7

Wow Tigger, nice job on the eyes...glad to hear you were able to burn the cabin fever edge off...and your comment about making a lure to fit a specific pattern or aid in presentation to a certain spot is one we should all take heed to !&#37; ...and it must also be much more rewarding knowing you made it rather than pluck it off the shelf at the local tackle shop! Great job!! After having such a rewarding night, I would suspect you to be right back out there as I am typing this!! LOL Lots of :B


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## vc1111

Nothing like doing that on your own baits. Now I love your baits, but those fish make my mouth water.

I gotta try this stuff.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys. I did actually go back and that east wind always messes with the pattern. I don't why. I got only one. I couldn't buy a bite on my baits last night. I caught the fish on a berkly frenzy stick bait , I found in my lift lid storage! LOL It was a golden shiner color. Not sure if the fish are done with the peak spawn or it was an off night. Thats fishing! 
I did notice the crappies popping off just outside the walleyes. I may have to switch to that while the post spawn bite kicks in. There is usually a 2 week time frame for that to start. The time I catch the first largemouth it is done and lake Erie starts. 

Pete............ I hope to see you at that time. It will be fun!!!!


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## rjbass

Great post John, great pictures too...you really have those local lakes figured out....we still have ice.... 

Rod


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## peple of the perch

............


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## RiverRunner88

he sure was!..good turn out for the opening night of the tourney!..alotta OGFers! hope ya got into em john!..good to see ya again!


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## TIGGER

Ya peple that was me. I was out with Jig and Dixie. I got one just under 8lbs on that "tony the tiger" jointed bait. We lost one other on it also. We went one for three over-all last night. Many many OGFer's there last night. 

Jake that bait you showed me last night will be great!!!!!!!!!! Have you figured out what color you want to paint it? Have you to post it one here when you are finished. 

Andy did you run any of your baits last-night? I know those babies will work!!!!!!!

Here is a pic of the fish from last night. It was 28-1/2" long. Nothing huge .... but a good icebreaker! Caught on the jointed "tony" lure


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## RiverRunner88

thanks john im not sure yet on the color leaning toward something with a firetiger type stripes what are some good nightbite colors?

nice fish!!! the action didnt seem to be hot and heavy last night from what i heard but i see theres already a 12 on the board!


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## TIGGER

Jake the firetiger is always hot!!!!!! I am doing some tonight in a pearl color tone I think. I like the orange patterns also. Blue and silver is good also!!!! LOL So many colors so little time! LOL

Hey Prez caught a 12.03 lber last night and is in first place for the tourney so far!!!!!!!!! Way to go Walt!!!!!!!!!

http://www.fishcrazycharters.com/20...ake-Erie-Walleye-Frenzy-Tournament-Derby.html


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## RiverRunner88

yeah i really really liked that one you showed me i believe that was pearl right? i was thinkin a yellow or maybe some orange also...like you said SO MANY COLORS!


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## peple of the perch

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


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## goolies

John - Glad to see Tony is still pulling fish.


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone! A funny little story. 

I have a friend by the name of Beaver. He lives in Wisconsin. He makes the bait called the "Perka's" It is a glider bait that is popular for musky's up that way. He had mentioned he would like to try some shad baits that I make for his personal time on the water this upcoming summer. Well I had one for him and I had only casted it in my little pond out back. It is a deep diver so it was difficult to test it there. I was going fishing with Dixie for the night bite tournament and we decided to get there a bit early for try for some pre-dark. I thought it would a good chance to run the bait from the boat to make sure it was running at it tops before heading north. We ran it out for a while in a short time a fish must have grabbed it. The waves were rocking and it was hard to see the fish hit. I told Larry to take it off and he started to reel it in. He said it seems a bit heavy. He unclipped the in-line planer board and said there is a fish on here. We reeled it in and to our suprise there was a 7.6 lb walleye on the end of it! LOL I then told him now "it has some scratches on it!" I was sending the bait up north and I was testing it. He started to laugh and I took the picture! I emailed "beaver" and told the lure works but has some scratches on it. He said he didn't mind and thanks for field testing it. The bait is a musky sized bait. Crazy world! LOL


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## eyesman_01

Face it John, you just have the touch, no matter what species you make a bait for. 

Was great finally meeting you at TC. We'll definitely have to hook up some time. 

So far I'm not getting much of a chance to get my baits in the water to test them out, here at home, or on Erie. Once again... maybe next weekend...


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## Dixie Chicken

John,

That's not what you told me! You said "If I scratch it I buy it" LOL!.

Nah, not really. 
I gotta tell you guys I feel very fortunate to fish with John and see his baits work! I sometimes get the inside scoop on his process or his thoughts behind the design and/or paint scheme. As he decides which one he wants to run he'll share his expectaions of that bait. Got to say most times he's dead on. 
Most all of his baits we've run together have taken fish. "Tony" is my favorite a jointed medium diver with a color scheme like Tony the Tiger from the cereal box. Tony has boxed his share of 10 punders so far. We both get a kick out of seeing a bait fire back even if the fish doesn't stay buttoned up.

John, thanks for letting me be a part of it.
Larry


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone again......... well it is the Big Fish night bite time again! Ye.......Haw!!!!!!!! This is my most favorite thing in the world to do! 

Well I tried some different things with the bait this fall. I tried some different line tie options and some different body shapes. I stretched the lengths past the the f-18 sized rapalas with great success. 


The first lure this fall was this firetiger type pattern. The first night out I did not have the black paint part done yet and caught a nice 9.4 pounder on it! Go figure! LOL I ended up painting the black on it a couple of days later. But I had to paint over some teeth marks! 










The next time out I was worried about them fish not liking the black on it. It didn't seem to matter. I lucked into a 10.913 pounder on it!






















The next one I tried some different color patterns with some blue sparkly stuff on the finish on the back. It is a super long bait. Almost 10" long. We have caught 4 fish on it the last two times out. All have been in the mid 9 pound range. The others guys in the boat have named it "Lakewood treat" I think they are making fun of my color pattern! LOL I told them not to worry. The paint may be chewed off by Christmas!  





















The next one is little smaller bait. I have been watching the guys out at Huron tearing them up on the bomber sized baits. Ironically enough I painted this pattern and later heard one of the hotter colors out that way was close to this one. 










Last night we had an odd thing happen with this bait. The fish had the bait all the way down the the throat. I have never had a bait that far down there before. She wanted it bad. We clipped the hook with snippers and she swam off just fine. She weighed in at 8.9 pounds.


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## TIGGER

The couple of lures are longer styles also. This one I arched the back and kept in the 10" range. I made it even thinner and sparkled it up also. We got it to go off two nights ago with a 9.3 pounder also. Trent caught this one.

































On this one I had major success with this pattern last year with Dixie Larry. I couldn't get the jointed version to go this year yet. I decided to make a straight version of it and has been very hot for me so far. We took 4 fish on it two nights ago. The fish ranged from 8.5 to 9.4. 





















I did one in the a color pattern in honor of "Donkey" I know he loves that blue/glass minnow. I have only caught one fish on it so far. It was a nice 6.4 pounder but I have a very good felling the best is yet to come this one.


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## TIGGER

Well this bait has been incredible for us the last two nights. Sorry I don't have a close-up of this lure. It is a half done one. I only painted the base color on it and needed one more bait for the pattern. I decided to take it to see how it runs. To my suprise it has been the best one yet for us this fall. Pearl with a yellow head. I added some gitter also in a blue fleck. I wanted to paint a redish head one it up front. I stuck on paper eyes that are still hanging on. I may have to leave it the way it is. I don't want to mess with the Mojo!   

Two nights ago Mike Mordas caught a registered 10.442 one on it.




















Last night is went off again with a registered 11.314 one on it at 3 am this morning. Mike again!






















It was a great night. It was raining steady but the big fish were biting.

Here is a group shot of the fish. 11.314 , 10.6, 10.913, 10.2 , 9.6 , 9.4 lbers. We let go 5 fish 9.1 to 9.25 range.


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## TIGGER

Congatulations Mr. Gary Zart! Incredible 13.8 pound fish last night. You are making it tough!   I hope to get two more nights out to catch you! Dang this weather!!!!!!!!! You earned that fish for sure. You have definetly put your time on the water. Hats off to you! I heard 24 hours straight of fishing to get that one.

http://www.fishcrazycharters.com/FishCrazy-2008-Fall-Walleye-Frenzy-Tournament-Derby.html



I am saving this one for one last crack at you Gary! LOL It is called the Gremlin! 12 inches long!  !% 











Husky I got the clear coat but have not used it yet. I hope to do so soon. Many many thanks "Husky" (Mike)

Vince sorry not to get back to you. This night bite is addictive my friend. I hope the deer hunting is going well. I will dial you up later this weekend my friend.

TaterHog. I will call you soon. This dang 2 hours of sleep a night is killing me! LOL One more hard week of it! 

Swede. The sealer I got from you has been working great on these lures. (the pellets) Many many thanks.

John


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## luredaddy

Nice baits and fish!!! Trent and Mike look happy!!!! Good Job!!!

John


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## jerkin

Not sure what I'm more impressed with, the lures or the fish!! If I can learn to paint half as well as you Ohio guys I will be a happy camper. Awesome lures for sure.


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## ezbite

tigger, i knew you were good, but man those are great. nice picts to go along with the post/stories. thank you


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## Fishers of Men

Very good, I mean EXCELLENT Tigger. 
Did you bar that dixie dude from the radio? Been out almost every nite and don't hear the doc like last year.


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## tomb

That was a nice pile of fish you guys had last night. Did all of them come on your baits? 
Nice to have met you. Sorry I didn't chat much, I was beat.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys, I really like playing with the walleye baits.

Tomb......... nice to meet you the other night. I am glad you got to fish with Andy also. He is a great guy and a heck of a luremaker. Great story about the painting of that lure and the results you had.

Fishers of men.......... I never realized how big you boat was. It is like a pirate ship in the dark. We passed you and I asked who's boat that was!!!!!!! I was told it was yours. I heard you had been doing very well out there. I kept a close eye on you. LOL

It is interesting with the baits in relation to action. Yes there are times that you could run a tree branch with hooks when the bite is on. I am thinking there is a relation to big fish and bait size / action. I am definetly seeing the color preference.

An interesting thing also is the hot color for me last year was not a factor this year. They simply did not want that color.

Other observations........ I did notice an increase for us when the moon went down. Also speed this year of the troll......... slower was better. Butt............ I changed the line tie to a lip tie. I set it back deeper towards the nose of the body. It worked better with the slower speeds in relation to wobble. A wider wobble at a super slow speed. Crazy but not too crazy.

Not sure if the lake will be fishable for the rest of the tourney. I think we will be able to get more fishing in after the event. I will be fun fishing and more bait experimentation. 

John


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## Big Daddy

Nice job on the fish John. The lures are truly awesome works of art that produce. 

Love that night bite!


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## rjbass

Great post John, love those baits and the fish....

Rod


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## goolies

Nice post John. Those lures look great. But more importantly, they catch :B !


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## vc1111

Man, those are some nice fat fish! You guys must be having a blast out there.

I remember from my days on Erie how critical trolling speed could be. 

Those baits are just beautiful, John. I can see why you're not getting any sleep between trying to modify the size and colors and trying to fish as much as possible too.


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## TIGGER

Well this dang weather is putting a damper on my bait experiments. One alberta clipper across Lake Erie and everything goes to pot!. I can't even explain how much I love his night fishing for the walleyes. I just can never get enough. I wait all year for this and like that I may be over till next spring. 

I had just finished a bunch more that I wanted to try this fall. There still may be a chance but not counting on it. I may throw them around for some steelies in the mouths of the rivers. Punderson just stocked the large brooders up to the 10 pound range. They may take a crack at them! LOL

This is a better picture of the yellow headed lure that really did great for us a couple of weeks ago. It was 1/2 done at the time. I was going to paint some head details on it but decided not to. I didn't want to mess with the mojo. They seemed to like it as it was. I just added one more clear coat to it. With the lures this fall I started to mess around with glitter and metal flakes on the baits. It seemed to work well. I did run some of the baits I made last fall and they didn't want them. They seem to like that sparkle. This lure took 6 fish over 9.25 lbs in two trips out. The largest was 11.319 lber. 












With the baits I have been leaving the third hook off. I noticed last year the fish were aggressive and 95 percent of the time took the bait head first. The lures are just a little larger than the f-18 rapalas. I also made the line ties attached to the lips. I noticed at the slower speed of 1.2 to 1.4 mph they wobbled better than the nose tie ones. There is an adjustment on your line lengths but that is easy to do. The fatter tails give a better sight line with bait color. At times at the very slow speeds the F-18's became very lifeless in calm conditions. These body styles and lips kept the bait wobbling in the calmer conditions. Here are a couple more colors.



















I did do one with the three treble hooks also.










This one I have some very high hopes for. I did a bunch of a clear glitter that I got a Walmart in the craft section. I noticed that is picks up the base colors and catches the light at the same time. I layered it twice to give it a holographic effect with alot of depth. I like it alot.


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## TIGGER

Here is a couple more of the two hook / fat tails.

The first is a wonder bread that went bad! LOL  



















I know Andy (Goolie's) did very very well on his jointed wonder bread pattern this fall. I believe he took a couple of fish over 10 pounds on it. I did do another jointed one similiar to the ones I made last year. I coat over the whole jointed lure and then I go back with a dremmel and clean out the joints. It works well for me.










This spring I learned a hard lesson. I kept running the fall style baits. Baits that were a bit larger. I found out the hard way that they wanted a smaller sized bait this time of year. They will go for the larger baits but a little later after the post spawn females kick into gear. 

So.................. I scaled down on these last two. They are about the size of #10 - 12 Husky Jerks. I think the steelies will have some fun with them also. Don't be suprised if a steelie is hanging on one of thes by the end of the weekend. I tried to do emerald shiner patterns. Again the glitter gave some nice sparkle to the baits. The sunlight really catches the colors. 

The first is a deeper diving style. Has a nice medium wobble.










The next is skinny emerald shiner size. 4" range.



















I have some three inch range ones I am playing with this weekend.

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!

John


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## Fishers of Men

John, that's sure a fine example of your excellent work. What can anyone say but...sweet! 
Thanks for sharing, and I'll bet the paint gets messed up as soon as you get a chance.


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## ThreeRiversEsox

One of the best baitmakers in the country, hands down, I feel fortunate I just get to look at the pictures!!


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## tomb

You are one talented individual. Those baits are amazing. How much of that detail is necessary to catch fish? Do they have to be so pretty?

Here's the hack job I did on an F-18. At least one dumb walleye thought it looked good. I never caught one fish on it in the original factory finish. Done w/ spray white and brush colors, followed by a glitter nail polish clearcoat.



Look familiar Andy?


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys. I am not better than anyone else. There are some Incredible bait makers out there. There are some amazing guys here that build baits!!!!!!!!!!!

The camera helps makes the baits look good. 

I was hoping to get out and try the baits but the weather may not help!

Tomb. That paint job looks great. They will crush it for sure! I like the idea of the glitter nail finger polish. I used some of that glitter glue and spread it around with a small paint brush. Let it dry for a couple of hours and clear coat. It works pretty well.

John


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## peple of the perch

.////////////////////////////


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## goolies

tomb said:


> You are one talented individual. Those baits are amazing. How much of that detail is necessary to catch fish? Do they have to be so pretty?
> 
> Here's the hack job I did on an F-18. At least one dumb walleye thought it looked good. I never caught one fish on it in the original factory finish. Done w/ spray white and brush colors, followed by a glitter nail polish clearcoat.
> 
> 
> 
> Look familiar Andy?


Nice job Tom! It's great that your effort produced a fish. I don't think the fish cares if the paint job is perfect. Only the human brain works that way. It's funny that you painted an F-18 in the wonderbread pattern. I painted one also but only got to run it one night. Yours produced one more fish than mine.


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## All Eyes

Been away from the tackle making forum for a while and now am wondering why. These baits are amazing! Seeing them hanging out of the mouths of monster walleye is just too much! Makes me want to get into this craft of making crankbaits more and more all the time. Very inspiring stuff here guys.


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## tomb

Very nice redo on that one Andy, looks like Rapala made it that way. It's going to produce soon for sure. Good thing the fish aren't too picky on neatness, I'm no Picasso like you guys.


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## TIGGER

Well getting to be that time again!  I think this will get me back into making baits again. I went through a major burn-out period. I really really really like the night bite walleye fishing.

I have been watching everyones work on this forum and it looks great! Keep up the good work! 

John


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## allwayzfishin

blown away on how great this thread is. i am going to start today and need some advise on where to purchase these hobby materials? methods of shaping and painting these great stickbaits. any input is appreciated guys. how do u make that slot for the lips, and how to shape them? so many questions to ask, but ill start with those. thanks again for all the detailed info in this thread. oh, i have a dremel, but not sure what bits u all use. can i use spray paint and what type of epoxy is used?


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## TIGGER

Hey allyz, The lures look great! Those will catch for sure. There are so many ways to do things relative to lure making. You can buy lips & bodies from suppliers and paint them the way you want. You can hand shape bodies from wood by using power tools or hand carving them. You can even get into making molds and casting them. Re-painting older lures is a great way to start into the lure thing. You have to watch with some styles of lures on putting too heavy of a finish coat on them not to whack them out of swimming action.

As for some of the other questions that you asked I like to hand shape the lips out of lexan that I bought at home depot or lowes . For the epoxy I use envirotex that can be bought at the hobby stores.

I hope this helps a bit.

John


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## TIGGER

Well everyone I know I have been withdrawn alot this past summer. I will just call it "The Lost Summer". I went through a bit of burn-out with building lures for 3 straight years without a break. I do that with alot of things. I just hit the wall. 
An example, I was a ski instructor for many years in in the 80's. I would get a season pass every year before that. I would average 80 ski days a year. The one day I just said I don't enjoy this anymore and walked out of the ski instructors shack leaving my equipment behind. I have never went skiing since. I am hoping this doesn't happen with the lures so I am trying to take breaks to avoid this example. The irony is I like to fish!

Compounding this was stress of being laid-off for 4 months and fully committed to fishing a walleye tournament season. My wife gave her support and knew I had wanted to do this. She said everything will be fine and worked itself out. It did and thanks again my wife.

I got to learn a new style of fishing for me............ The way of the worm. Worm harnesses are an incredible way to catch big fish in tough conditions. This has led me to making worm harness rigs and playing around with painting some blades for my tackle box. Just what I need another dimension of luremaking! 

Well things are getting back to normal. I gave up on my previous employer and settled into another job. It is funny later on you realize that sometimes things happen for a reason without us knowing that during that point of time. My wife and daughter have been waiting to adopt a child for 3-1/2 years now we are getting very very close to it becoming a reality. That sure didn't help worrying about that this summer either. Hopefully I will have some good news for you in the next month.

To all the people that were worried and concerned about my well being this year I really appreciate it. Even though I did not return your calls. I was thinking of you. I will try to get my feet back into the pool again to take another swim.

John


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## TIGGER

I did still tinker at times in the later summer with daytime walleye baits. I do alot of night fishing when is the season but I still like the deep water day bite out on lake Erie. I started to play around with a larger body bait that was a cross between a bomber style bait and a reef runner action. The bait came out a bit on the larger side but it really was catching some very nice fish. I had a proto of this body and ran it the last fall night bite season and worked great.

Here are some of the paint schemes I did. I took them out a late summer day and great success with them. After the bait would catch three fish I would throw it up on the dash of the boat. It was one of those right time right place deals. I was by myself running two rods. I using a down rigger on one side and wire line on the other. I boated 32 fish that day. I think I could have run out a block of wood that day and caught fish! LOL Color didn't matter or lure type. Everyone was netting around me also! I didn't want to leave that day. It felt good catching and releasing the rest of the day.


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## TIGGER

Here are some action shots from that day. I think the fish averaged around 6 pounds for the entire batch. I had 4 over 8 lbs one was just over 10 pounds. It was a special day for sure. The conditions were just right and it was just before the full moon phase. After the full moon and clear skies two days later they would not touch a bait during the day after feeding all night long!


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## TIGGER

I did get to play with a bass bait style that I thought would work very good in the inland lakes. It has a shad body and does not dive that deep. I made to run behind lead-core line. I had some in my tackle box and the next day after fishing the monster day described previous. The bite had slowed down so I decided to put one behind a dipsey diver and run it out at a 3 setting 80 back. To my suprise I got this monster on it. It was 30-1/2" long and was 10.38 pounds. I was really really suprised. I gave one that I had to my friend Scott in a different paint pattern and he called and told me he got a 30" the other night night trolling the night bite. I am going to have to try some of these on the night bite!




















I wanted to try something like a rip shad style bait. I didn't like the body at first but it is starting to grow on me. I made two of them. The first one really got taken down hard by this fish. Then I lost the dang thing an hour later aftercatching three fish! I never took a good picture of it and will have to remember the color off this photo! 










Here is a picture of the other bait in the same body shape. I got a good photo of this one! 











I have one other style of bait. It is a spin off from the "tony the tiger" bait from a couple of years ago. That is retired. I am not going to make them jointed. They are a flatter higher profile. There is difficulty in making them swim right. I think I have it figured out. In September while prefishing for a Huron tournament my friend Scott got this nice one. It just over 8 lbs. I have one other that is used a couple nights ago while fishing after dark.


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## TIGGER

Well the fall night bite has officially started this year. I got to get out and fish two nights ago with fello member "JIG" (Bob) and his friend Doug. We got some nice fish. It will keep getting better and better with every day. The water temp is 54 ish. When it hits 50 watch out! 

We got one on this wonder bread type of pattern.











We got a couple on that higher profile bait I explained earlier. I will get a better picture of the body style soon. It took two fish over 8. That is a good sign already. The night bite tournament starts November 8th! I can't wait.











This is a picture of Bob and Doug as I left them. I had to get home early that night. They stayed out till dawn. It was nice jumping in your boat and running some lures. Thanks again. The biggest fish was 30" in length


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## peple of the perch

.....................


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## Bischoff66

Tigger wow you have got a lot of talent. I have spent the last day or two going over this thread. The baits are beautiful. Also most a shame to put them in harms way. lol I noticed you mentioned getting the lures to run right. Is there a thread on here how to do that. If not can you elaborate on it. I am thinking of trying to make a few myself but want to make sure it is something I can do before buying all the stuff needed. Any help on getting started would be appreciated.


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## TIGGER

Bischoff, There are many things that will determine how a bait will run. Here are a couple:

- Symetry of the bait itself. Make sure the body itself is equal and centered with a straight lip. If the lip is crooked it not run right.

- Make sure your bait floats. This is an overlooked aspect at times. Bouyancy is a very very important factor in how a bait will run and its action. The wobble of a bait is the interaction of the bait wanting to float up and the pull of the lip going down. I can tell you that I messed up many many times not accounting for this. With smaller thinner baits is when this happens. They will get tail heavy. When applying epoxy screw eyes and hooks. 

- Body shape is another factor. A curved body will add to the wobble and a straighter one will reduce the amount of action. This can be good at times based the time of year and water temp. In the spring the fish want something more vanilla in action. The summer they want a bait more erratic. In the late fall back to more of a vanilla action. Big fish in the fall tend to more lazy in chasing baits I have found. You give them a nice big lazy actioned bait they will not miss it. If you look at my post #104 you may notice something. Look at the baits and their body shapes. The gold one is a straighter body. The others have a medium curve and the bottom one with the greatest curve to its body. I did that with a purpose for an experiment to try to find the ultimate action.

- Lips......... This is hardest to explain without going thru the madness of trial and error. So many things to consider. Does you bait have a nose tie or a lip line tie? This can determine many things about the action of the bait itself. Deep diving lures have the line tie on the lips. Shallow runners usually have the line attachment on the nose. Your lip should not be narrower than the widest part of the body of the bait. On a nose tie bait the farther you move the lip back with a minnow type of bait the more stable the bait will become. Look at an f-18 rapala. When using a lip line tie try to put it 1/3 the way out from the nose of the bait towards the leading edge of the lip itself. There are a thousand combo's when it comes to lip sizes and actions. Here is a thread on musky baits I started a while back on a musky forum. You will be able to different examples of this. This may help in that aspect. This is the hardest to explain. You can photo copy patterns of lips and cut them out on lexan.

http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=41208&posts=75&start=1

One really neat thing about making your own baits is that you match your style of fishing. I have baits for the fall that were made to run 1.1 to 1.5. I take them out in the summer and try to run them at 2.4 they will spin out. Put them in their setting they were designed for and watch out! It is also the opposite . I have baits that run the summer action mode but struggle to run at slower speeds. Both catch fish when in their proper enviroments. I have tried to keep it fresh with changing body styles and finishes. I have some more body styles coming shortly for the next month of fall night bite. I really enjoy field testing them! With the musky baits there is so much time invested in the quest to catch them. The walleyes I don't have so long.


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## Bischoff66

Tigger thank you very much for explaining that. I have looked at the different styles of baits you have made and placed in this post. I know that every lure has it place and time. I wouldn't dream of running a hot'n'tot in the middle of the fall but the work in the summer well at least use to. Sounds like it can be very frustrating but when one baits goes off then it is worth the effort. I know how much satisfaction I got from being able to take trophy walleye on worm harness I had tied. It adds a whole new element to fishing. Thanks for letting us pick your brain and thanks for posting. Once a I get a few to the paint stage I will pick your brain a little more.


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## kyjake

Don't know which is more interesting in Tigger's post,the nice lures or the fishing stories.This thread inspired me to try something I have been thinking of doing.I night fish for sauger in the Ohio river where we catch about one walleye for every twenty or so sauger so thought I would try to target walleye a little more tonight.Took some stick baits and crank baits,they didn't produce anything tonight but caught a few sauger on jigs.Will keep trying the shallow running lures along with jigs until they produce walleye.Did get one small sauger on a crank bait.
Jake


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## ThreeRiversEsox

Glad you're back at it John!! Beautiful fish and baits as always!!


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## James F

Those are some great looking baits! Do you make any that suspend like the husky jerks?


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## TIGGER

KYjake, glad to here you got and tried for some night walleyes. Interesting to here about the saugeyes and walleyes you have down there. I know with the walleye and rocky shoreline the walleyes like to come in tight and high. Alot the fish that we are catching are in the top 8 feet of water and higher. We are fishing the 25 to 35 foot drop-off rocky areas. You can watch the fish rise as the night goes on.

Jake. The suspending happens by accident. I am trying to get them to be consistent in floating. I am playing around with the resin and the microballons. The first couple out of the mold are sinking or suspending. As the mold gets hotter the expansion is greater and the baits are corkier.

Well my friends Trent and Jared got out tonight. It was sure not fast and furious action. I got to get a couple of fish to go on this new body style. It is a flat pancake body with a high profile. I am going to call it the "Billboard". It has more of a la -la action. It is a stiffer swimming bait like an f-18. I will try to get close-up on the next batch of them. I have three of them I am playing around with. Trent got this nice 10 lber on the bait tonight. It was out 25 feet back behind the board. I have no clue how deep it runs. 25 feet has been working well on it at 1.5 mph. Later in the night as the fish rise up a bit we have been running it back 15 feet and it caught some fish also.











The head on his fish was huge!!!!!!!!! This is a big bait! The picture does not show the size of the fish as it was in person. We released this fish to fight another day. Good for you Trent!












There were some big fish caught. Guys were talking on the radio. A friend of ours got a 13 pound 4 ounce fish! I can't wait to see the pictures of it! Here is a mug of me with a nice one on the same bait.




















There are some nice fish in town at the moment. There are not great numbers but there are some real nice quality. Next week should be fun as more move into Cleveland!


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## JIG

Got to hand it to ya man! You make some cool lookin baits. Those smaller ones are perfect for in-land waters. Tell those guys well get on the ice again this year. Preet nice being able to walk around and shoot the breeze along with slamin fish!:Banane49:


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## Pikopath

The baits, and especially the colourcombos are AWESOME! Very inspiring!

Michael


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## peple of the perch

Thanks for all the help guys:good:


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## TIGGER

Pikopath, You guys have some really neat styles of baits along with great color patterns over there in Norway. I think you guys are more cutting edge over there............. I am trying to catch up with you guys! 

Peple, I know you pm'd me about the night bite over at Ladue. I bet there is one after dark. I have tried a couple of times in the later fall but I think I was fishing in the wrong spot. I had alway believed that the fish would move towards the dam and that deeper water. I was way wrong I found out later. 
They did a gill net survey out there a couple of years ago. They randomly placed nets around the lake. I thought for sure most of the walleyes would be caught on the north end. I think there were only 6 walleyes caught north of the 422 causeway. 60 plus fish were caught south of 422. Of the total fish that were caught. I think 6 were over 30" and most of them were over 23". A huge amount in the 25 to 27" range! The fish are moving towards the food source and the river system of the lake. It also happens in Miton. I do want to try the night bite in the fall at Ladue but this time I will fish by route 44.

Well I got to go out last night for a scouting mission before the fishcrazy tournament. I think that front a couple of days ago messed them up a bit. They would not come up to much in the active strike range. If I don't see them approaching the 12 foot depth I know it will be a slow night. I did manage one very tight to the rocks on a 20 foot lead behind the board. It is a new style that I was playing around with in the spring. I wanted to be a smaller musky type bait. It had a very dull action so I decided to heat bend the lip and move the line tie to just on the bend of the lip. It gave it a nice hunting action and a great roll to the wobble. It was in the "tony the tiger" pattern. The fish was around the 7 pound mark. That was the highlight of the trip. We had no other pull-backs or hits. The warmer temps this weekend should get them back on track I hope!


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## isaiashortie

so do you sell any of your baits you make???


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## TIGGER

Heres a couple or others that I hope will do well for me this fall.

Here are a couple close ups of the that higher profiled bait. It has a wider wobble and I like the way they run at the 1.5 speed.






























I tried a smaller 3-1/2" style I hope to use out west in the Huron area this fall. It has a bomber type of body.

I did really well on this one at mosquito lake this spring on lead-core line. I can't wait to try it after dark










Some others in the same style


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## TIGGER

Here are some other smelty type of baits. 

I played around with some of the foils. I used copper shielding tape. It is a product made by 3m. It is used in high tech electronics and for making electric guitars. I bought it on ebay. You can take the blank body and peel and stick it into position. Coat the lure with epoxy and it will be back to smooth to start your paint progression. The ridges go away on the top and bottom of the bait after the coating fills it in.




























I also did one in the hvac metal ductwork tape. It is a shinny silver color. I got it at home depot or any other home improvement place.










A couple of others that I tried to paint a more natural smelt pattern with paints only.





















Just some other odd ball ones. I hope these body style will start to go when the water gets into the low 40's. I really like the action at close to the 1 mph speed. They will stay in that top 5 foot of water and have a lively action. This body style worked great in August in the that deep water trolling at 2.4 to 2.6 mph zone. I can't wait till the full moon phase is out of here!


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## Big Daddy

Good thread guys and VERY informative. I had to make a couple changes in a few pics though, as they were too big. No one has done anything wrong in posting, just in the future, to keep the threads flowing smoothly, please keep the size of your pictures to 800 x 600 or lower. 

Thanks guys and keep up the great work on those night bite baits. I wish you all LOTS of success in fishing them.












From allwayzfishin..."heres an attempt at repainting in a smelt pattern from an old beat up f-18 rapala. who knows, might actually work!


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## James F

I like the hologram paper. I was playing with some of the Easter wrap plastic, very thin and delicate but once in place it really popped.


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## CRAPPIE LOVER

Great looking baits ...All you guys do a great job...Tigger the one that impressed me the most was the one you made with the Copper Shield Tape...If I was a fish I would be in the cooler....I love the copper color....Keep up the good work.....JIM.....


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## All Eyes

Amazing Tigger! Just amazing. Between yourself and a few others on here, I have seen some baits that blow my mind. I'm going to have to get into trying this. After seeing some of yours and VC1111's, as well as a few others on here, I don't want to buy any more crappy store bought baits anymore.


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone, It looks like summer will be here in no time!

I started to tinker with some baits for my personal stash for the spring thru fall. I downsized the baits the post spawn feed.

Played around with a perch pattern on a shad style bait to cast the rocks with at Ladue. I worked well in the 3 to 5 foot range ticking the rock tops. I got a decent one that was just under 6 pounds.




















This was a little bugger that hit a raspberry clown type of pattern in the shad style bait.











These are some 4" minnow type bodies I made last week and got to fish them last night. The bite was slow but managed one on the clown type pattern. It was 9.1 pounds and was released to fight another day. I hope to use the orange one more during the day than anything. I have a feeling the steelhead with have some fun with that one!






























Here is a fish that my friend Trent caught last night on a chrome and blue husky jerk. The fish was only 26" long but weighed 9.9 pounds! It is the fattest walleye I have ever seen. We let her go to fight another day!


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## "Big" mark the shark

man thouse are the ticket real nice stuff


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## TIGGER

The other night when we caught those fish they were spitting up 3 and 4 inch shad up in the boat. Talking some of the other guys down there they were saying the same thing. I had some bodies that I started last summer but did not finish yet. After seeing that I decided to get them done and fish them the next couple of weeks. They are 3-1/2" long.

Casting the inland lakes this spring I took one along to see if I might get a bite on one. I only had the base coat colors on it but I caught a little 18" on it. I have a picture of the final paint on it also.






















I have a feeling on this one for the downtown Cleveland night bite. I was looking at the spit up shad and it reminds me of this one. I can't wait to try it out!










These are the other ones I got done also. I hope the weather holds up this week to try these. Not sure what leads to run yet. They are an aggressive diver. Maybe like a 5 to 10 foot leads after dark.


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## TIGGER

Well I got to do some fishing for walleyes the last couple of weeks. It is the deep water bite off the North East side of Ohio on Lake Eire. It is my second favorite walleye bite behind the fall night bite. The fish are down around the 60 foot depth and are looking for large forage fish like smelt. I get to use downriggers, wire, and dipsey divers. I got alot fish the first day on this pattern in a shad type body. I caught most of my limit on this lure. The fish were just average size of 5 to 6 pounds.










I got out today and tried some other lures and stuff. I caught a very nice walleye of 8-1/2 pounds off the downrigger on the purple one with the green belly. It put up a nice fight. I like when I get the chance to fight them with no in-line weight or diver in front of them. Just 10 lb mono!


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## TIGGER

Last year I started playing around with bodies for the worm harnesses. I always get on the fence when to switch from the worm bite to the hard body lure bite. I thought if I make some kind of body that can replace the beads on a worm harness. It may fill a void at certain times of the year. I fished them a little out of ice-out last spring and caught some nice fish. I never really got to fish them late last summer at this time because I was experimenting with some lipped baits. Well I got to use them today. It is a solid body with a hole down the center. I thread the line down the middle and place a blade and some beads in the front. Here are some I had loose still and not on my harness wrap.











I got some nice fish with them today. This one was 8 pounds and hit the salamander pattern. When they start to get that gold color to them when they hit the seven pound mark.












This one was hot. It is a little shorter in length. I caught 4 quick fish on it. I was throwing them back at the start of the day. The fish were very aggressive at the start of the morning. They were swallowing the hooks to the gills!












I was switching colors to see if they would get hit.















This one took a couple of fish also. I broke my first fish off in two years today. It was a real nice one on a blue and gold pattern. It was on a dipsey diver with a body. I should have known better to have just the 15 pound leader and not checking for nicks in the line














As the sun got higher in the day I noticed the fish were not taking the worm as much. I kept loosing fish and I couldn't figure out why. I would fight the fish half way to the boat and they would get off. I finally got one into netting range and could see the front hook was in the cheek. The fish started to t-bone the body and would not care about the worm. The front hook would catch the outside of the mouth and pull-out. I will have to work on that one! That is when I switched to that purple shad crankbait and caught that nice one. All in all it was fun today. Did it make a difference .........who knows. I still had fun with it. I ended up with a nice basket of fish. It is a 120 quart cooler.


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## JamesT

Great design!!! This thread is full of beauties, both lures and fish!!! 

And I don't know how I missed this the first time around, but as far as that fish on 4-24-10,

:B*HAWGEYE!!!!!!!!* Unbelievable!!!:B

Now I need to find some of that copper tape with the pattern already in it...


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## st.slippy

That is a really great idea!!! I hope you don't mind if I steal that for a try at some inland saugeye. You really have a gift man!


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## jshbuckeye

very interesting thread to say the least. love the idea for the hard bodied harnesses


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## MadMac

Nice work John. I need to get up there and fish with you guys one of these days.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys.......... I really love the walleye side of things. I know I make the musky lures but it just hasn't hooked me like the walleyes do.

James.......... You can find the suppliers for the copper. Just do a search for "copper shielding tape" You can find it on ebay or any other 3M sources. 

It is amazing how big the fall bite fish can be. He is picture from last fall off downtown Cleveland. I was with my friend Scott and Jared. Jared took the photo. I am on the left and Scott is on the right. The left fish I caught on one the baits here on the thread. It was the smallest at 10.3 lbs. The middle one was caught by Scott. I was on a rapala product. It weighed I think 11.6 lbs and was in first place for one day. The right one Jared caught was 10.62 lbs. I think it may have been on another bait of mine. One heck of a night. I get a little sad keeping those big fish. It is a big fish tournament paying 10 places. You can upgrade as you go. The fall weather can turn on a dime and you could loose 2 weeks of fishing in a snap. You try to get fish on the board before the weather turns bad and temps. get to cold.













Slippy........try some of those out. I would interested in the outcome for the saugeye. I notice you are hold some hawgs in your avatar! You have been doing some nice work. I have been watching. At times this luremaking stuff seems like a curse to me. I want to take a break from it but it keeps sucking me back in.

Steve you know you have an open invitation. I just have to pry you away from those muskies. BTW........... you are having a nice year at WB. You have to be approaching 60 plus fish for the season. Plus......... that 50 incher on an Ohio lake! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I looked at the body baits last night after they dried out. I am amazed at how many teeth marks are on the clear coat of the bodies. I am convinced that later in the day they were hitting the body and not the worm trailer. I think they did not have clue what was going on after they grabbed that thing. I may wait a little longer before grabbing the rod. I want to see what happens with that. If they will let it go and come back on the worm.

Here is one I hope to run this upcoming weekend. It may be a little early for it. I really want to run it off a bottom bouncer in the Fall perch pack. I will see how it runs in open water first. BIG walleyes love to eat perch!


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## MEISTERICS

Tigger,

Last week i started to smell the fall in the air, i hear its only supposed to be in the sixties this weekend! Oh boy am i getting pumped. This year i hope to be no quite as tired as last. Work has been such a bear with all the cut backs.

On a positive note i drew my big walleye baits last night. If i am not out of town this weekend i hope to shape them. i am in the midst of a balancing act between big musky baits & my drive for the night bite. Its so tough!

Nervously awaiting the NITE.


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## TIGGER

Here are some other patterns that I did this summer. It may give you guys some ideas on color patterns if you are painting some of your own lures.

These are in the 6" smelt bodies.


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## donkey

The third one from the bottom is awesome.It looks like it is on fire and glows like a hot coal.


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## TIGGER

Hey Donkey! It won't be long for night bite. Here are some other smelt ones.


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## theyounggun

Dang.... when i seen them i about p'd myself. lol. the fourth one down is crazy. the eye on it looks awesome. Great Job man!


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## buck.eyehunter

wow john those are incredible! like always ................. mike


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## tomb

That fourth one is really cool. Wicked Salamander All of them are really sweet. Be tough to decide which one's to run first.


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## TIGGER

Well I finally got a smaller bodied minnow bait figured out. I has taken a couple of years. I was having trouble making the 3-1/2" to 4" body in a smaller dia. with some spunk. I scaled down the lip to 1/16" thick in a new shape for me. It is hard to get everything together and still have it float. The bouancy is very important with smaller baits to have them wobble nice. I played with 6 different bodies but this one is what I was looking for. It ended up 3-3/4" for the main body. I still will dive to the teens. I think it will be a good out West after dark on a short lead. I know it will catch during the day. I have not fished it yet. I was hoping this weekend but the wind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe a small chance on Sunday I hear. Not sure where the walleyes will be now.



















































This one was a body that I did in the process. I caught some nice fish this spring after dark. It has a tighter rapala wobble and dives to 8 feet. It was in 1/8" thick lip experiment phase.












This one of the other bodies on the journey. It has a medium wobble and will dive to 12 feet at 120 out. I thought this may be a good pattern for this next month during the day. 1/8" thick lip also.












John


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## Hetfieldinn

Incredible as always. Beautiful work, John.


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## CarpetBagger

Very very nice...Where do you get the bodies from?


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys.

Het........ those blades look great!

Carpetbagger, Nice job on your blades. I did a little painting of them but not much. Maybe 30 of them. I am watching you blade guys with great interest. I wasn't sure about the top coats. The devcon product sounds interesting for the blades.
I make my own bodies. I make them out of wood and now mostly resin. It is a two part resin mixture equal parts of A and B. It is from the Alumilite company. I did an early thread on here somewhere. I will see if I can find it. It was years ago. You have to make a silicone mold first. I can't remember the name of the thread. There many many threads around luremaking sites on casting resin. You have to add Microballons to the mixture to get it to float. 


Here is another style of body that I hope will do well. It is like an old style Bomber fat body. It is more along a bass bait body with a Hot-N-Tot action. It almost has to much wobble. 












Here are a couple more the shad rap bodies I posted months ago. Bowhunter did a color pattern on a musky bait that I liked with blue and yellow stripes. I thought the walleyes would love that type of pattern. I changed it a little. I caught a nice little 4 pounder already with it.













This was an orange patterh that I did. I caught a nice one.






















On the little worm bodies I finally got one over 10 pounds with one. It was 10.3lbs and 30-1/8" long. It is my biggest so far with the worm harness bodies. The fish really fought hard with 10lb mono and the cooler temps.













Sorry to sound so uppidy. It is just really neat catching a fish on something you made. I don't care if it is a spawn sack , fly , jigging spoon , jig or painting blades. It makes me feel like a kid!


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## Boondock77

these are amazing, I would love to be able to do what you are. Great work man, keep it up.


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## TIGGER

Well I ended up painting a couple more that I wanted to try out today In Huron. 
































I ended up catching one in the first 10 minutes of fishing and thought it was going to be on today. That was the only fish I got. It was just under 9-1/2 pounds and it hit the chart. squirrel pattern. I only saw one other net go into the water. I was home in time to watch the 2nd half of the browns bashing.


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## BaddFish

Tigger, any luck? Love your pics.


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## TIGGER

Baddfish .......I haven't done the nightbite yet this fall. I will get out in the next week and a half. I have some daytime ones I want to run out West. I think they might be getting some after dark out West. I saw T-buzzes post on a nice 8.75 lber. 

Do you get out for the nightbite?


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## BaddFish

Yes, I picked up a 20ft Thompson in March of this year and have been tooling around erie... mostly out of Fairport but in April I did the Gold coast troll and we picked up a few nice ones.

I'm looking forward to trying the night bite- have boat & gear, will travel! I understand the best fishing around ne ohio is over in cleveland..

Dixie Chicken has been kinda showing me the ropes this year... I remember seeing all the reports of the night bite last year on here and am determined to join in the fun.

I see you are from Burton- If you ever need a 2nd mate- let me know!


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## TIGGER

Well the night bite should start to get going soon I hope in the next couple of weeks. I jumped into "Jigs" boat last night and the fishing was slowwwwwwwww. I heard of a couple fish being caught but that was it. Virgil pulled one on a short lead so we shorten up the leads also. Then this fish hit. The bait was in the top four feet of water. We could see the fish tail walking for about five feet and came completely out of the water. At the same time we both said "Steelhead!" We clear the other three lines so there would not be any tangles. I got the fish to the boat and hit it with the light and there were marble eyes looking back at me. I have never seen a fish hit a bait that hard! It looked like the Great White sharks hitting the seals! We missed one other 5 minutes later and that was it for the rest of the night. Pulled the boat at 11pm. Way to much bait down there at the moment. We need it to move into the river. I am still amazed that you can even catch a fish with 100's of tons of bait swimming around. Not alot of marks or you just can't see them in the thick zone of bait. Maybe next week I'll try again. I have some new ones to try out. The fish was 28-1/2" and was just under 8 lbs.


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## tomb

At least you had a little excitement for your efforts. Hit on one of your baits John? 

I was packing up the boat to head out when the cold rain started pouring down. Rechecked the weather and figured it more productive to head to work instead. Maybe try again on Sat.


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## TIGGER

Hey Tom,

I caught the fish on a smaller HJ in a firetiger pattern. When the bite is slower I will downsize my baits . The firetiger is always good for one fish on tough nites. The fish we lost 5 minutes later was on the same bait. I can't wait till they are on the bigger bait bite. I have a void with my baits in the shallow runners in the size 10 range. I am working on that this weekend!

The weather doesn't look to good out there at the moment.

John


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## tomb

Thanks John. We caught our fish on size 10's last fall on the very last trip of the year. A buddy and I were out w/ Jig on his boat. Haven't given them any time yet this fall, been using 12's and ripsticks mostly. Can't wait to see your take on a size 10 bait. Will give it a shot tonight hopefully.


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## JIG

I was out there last night. Water is a bit stained so I stuck with the double jointed floater. Most fish were up but not ready yet. Went one for one on a firetiger 20 back. Looks like next weekend will be it!!!!!!!!!!!:B


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## tomb

JIG said:


> I was out there last night. Water is a bit stained so I stuck with the double jointed floater. Most fish were up but not ready yet. Went one for one on a firetiger 20 back. Looks like next weekend will be it!!!!!!!!!!!:B



I sure hope your right. This payin' dues crap is getting old. Nice job---your the only person I heard who caught anything.


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## TIGGER

Well I hope everyone is doing fine and a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

This is the least amount of nightbiting I have done in years for the fall. It gets hard to start fishing waiting for the big bite to turn on hoping that you are there when it really turns on. Many nights you are only picking one or two. Then you miss a couple of nights and then hear it was on like donkey kong! Thats fishing.

On some of the tougher nites the fish just would not come up into what I call the "active" range. That is the zone at about 10 foot down. Most of the really good nights the fish are in the top 2 feet of water. Other times they hung up at 8 foot. I thinking if I could get a bait at 8 or 9 feet down I might be able to get some of those fish to bite. I really didn't have my night baits designed for that. I did make some this summer I was hoping to run out at Huron during the day but didn't get a chance to go. Well I had them still in the boat and ran them on some of the tougher early nightbite adventures. I got some fish to hit them. They are smaller in length I think more a snack to the fish.
























The little buggers help turn around a tuff night into a not so bad one. Some 8 to 9 pound fish.















This one is a fatter hot-n-tot bait that I got to go one night. I thought the action would be to crazy for night but it turned out a solid fish. I had it on a 12 foot lead.













At times the baitmaking thing can get crazy. You want to try the new styles you made and give them water time. I think at times it works as a plus but I also think at times you get away from what might have worked better on a given night.

When I first started playing with this thread everything is fresh with what you believe will work that is different from what can be bought. That is the beauty of baitmaking. To create something can't be bought and is customized to your style of fishing. It may be the depth of water you want to target or speed and color you like fish. 

At the start of this thread I made a bait called "Tony the Tiger" It was an oversized jointed bait. It had a metal lip and was an early style of swimbait. That bait caught many BIG fish. Well over a couple years fishing it after dark it started to get splits in the side of the body. It was a poplar wood bait. Well though getting teeth marks and use water got into the body and started to split. I decided to retire the bait and hung it from the rafters in the shop. Long story short I decided to take it out of retirement and fix it to see if it still had some magic left. The first night I had it out it took a 9-1/4 pounder. I ran it lastnight and it didn't let me down. I got an 11.25pounder with it. I know it is not a money fish but it has now taken 4 fish over 11 pounds . Goolies from this site reeled in two of them. One might be on his wall at home. It felt great to get back to "Old School" stuff. Maybe there is still a little bit left for something over 12 pounds. Time will tell.


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## tomb

Sweet John! I've ran Andy's big homemades a few times this fall. Unfortunately not Wed night. Looks like they would have been a good option.


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## TIGGER

Tom I heard you got an 11 pounder also that night. 

You are having a great year with lots of numbers on tuff nights. I notice this year you have your trolling speed dialed in. I could always spot you in the past by how fast you were moving. Now I just look for netting lights and scoop!

Has Andy been running his baits?


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## st.slippy

Nice work as always!!! My homemades have produced, but not like that.


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## TIGGER

Well I got to playing around with those bodies again. I had some great luck with them at the beginning of summer in front of Mentor and at the end of the summer out in Geneva. I was getting some monster hook ups and loosing a fair share of some really nice fish. I figured out what was happening........... The fish were t-boning the body and getting hooked for a short time during the fight on the outside of the mouth with the worm harness hooks on the back of the rig.

I decided to add a belly hook. Not sure how I want to rig it but I will have fun experimenting. I may even rig it for trolling steelies in the Grand River or out front of the Eastlake power plant. It is an Emerald Shiner pattern. I am working some Smelt bodies which are a little bigger in size. I have that wrapping paper on it that changes colors. 


































The bait is clear. I took a picture up against the light in my shop. It gives the bait a pink color from below. You can see the thru-wire and the belly hanger wire inside the bait.


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## "Big" mark the shark

Awesome work


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## tomb

Those harness bodies are really cool John. Ingenious. 

Somehow I missed your post #160 in this thread way back in the fall. Don't remember if I ever answered your questions in person at 72nd. Both Andy and I did run his baits. Andy can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they ever pulled a fish. I still have plenty of confidence in them. Netted some really nice fish for Andy. Water was really stained on nights they worked. Much clearer this past fall. 

I'm learning on the speed thing, still get real antsy creeping along at 1.5-1.6. Nothing a few big fish won't cure We pulled so many fish in years past in the 1.8-2.2 range, I have a hard time leaving that zone. Even though they were mostly eaters. I was talking to Donkey a while ago about having fished so many years w/o pulling big fish (10+ pounders). He asked me "where you been fishin' ?" After another fall sharing stories w/ everyone out there I'm sure speed was all the reason.

Due to being extremely busy at work I haven't had the time to make anymore baits myself. Have all the paints, poplar, wire, hooks, and lips I need. Plenty of ideas rattling upstairs too Maybe by the fall they'll be done......

I'll be looking forward to more of your adventures in this thread. Hope you take some real hawgs on those new ones.


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## allwayzfishin

TIGGER- 

I have been following this thread for sometime...you do amazing work. I noticed that you fish the Mentor area? Its phenomenal over there at the right times. 

My question to you...is the harness body made out of lead or your plastic mold? 

That same concept has been with me for over a year now, but I am just curious on your approach. Thanks for all the great pics and knowledge you have shared through the years. Keep up the good work.

TomB-

Had no idea you are into Lake Erie walleye fishing. Give me a call sometime so we can discuss the upcoming spring bite.


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## TIGGER

Tom the Lake Erie season is approaching. It seems it is taking forever this winter.

Allwayzfishin.......... The first bodies were made of casting resin by Alumilite. The hard part was getting the hole thru the center straight on the inline slider type of body and not to have a sharp edge to cut through the line flurocarbon. After drilling the hole I take a piece of wire the roughly the same size as the hole and chuck into the drill and burnish the inside of the holes on the high setting .
I thought at one time of using lead for the bodies but I think the fish at times may drop the whole set-up if they feel that weight in their face. I was caught up on trying to make my own inline weights there for a time but with the great quality of the ones on the market it just didn't make any sense to me.
The clear body I first started to use the extra epoxy I had left over after coating the lures. Then I ended up buying some of the clear Alumilite casting resin to try. It sets up much faster. I am trying to figure out a vacume system to remove the CO2 gas that forms at times off the wall of the mold. I think it has potential for making some cool musky lure eyes also. I hope to get some 6" realistic smelt bodies made this weekend. My daughter and I have been having fun trying to make our own maple syrup off the maple trees in our yard. It has been alot of fun and a learning curve. My wife doesn't see the point of it but when we made pancakes for dinner last night I think she saw the light!

The Mentor fishing......... I really learned alot there last year. When the fish started to move East and get out front of Fairport I would always run to 60 foot water or deeper. I would catch decent fish it was always a longer run. I would always talk to the launch worker and ask how the other boats did. They would always say some people got some really nice fish in the 20 to 30 foot range. Year after year so I decided I needed to figure it out. I started to fish the area by the perch hump and work shallower. I didn't realize there are larger patches of non-smooth bottom stretches. Not sure if they are old dumping grounds or just natural structure. Anyhow the fish hung around those areas for three weeks last year. It was around the time Workdog just started to get out and fish Geneva and catch a couple there. I hope to date track it better this year. For some reason the larger fish were hitting the bodies more than the beads at that time. I think I may have launched next to you at Fairport one weekday night. Do you have a brown / dark gold colored boat? I think you were posting some nice fish you caught around that time also. Fairport is nice for me, I can get the boat in the water in less than 40 minutes from my house.


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## JIG

I like the weight idea with hooks. After seeing teeth marks in some of them we def needed an x-tra hook. Hard to beat a crank bite east but when the bite slows its dipseys and weights tight to the bottom.


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## TIGGER

Well I started to play around with the inline bodies again. I made a smelt type one that is a little bit longer with a narrower profile. The 20 lb line will pass-thru the body. The first one I did I have wire loops so I can pull that one on a dipsey with willow blades at a faster pace.

I just used my clear epoxy that I had left over from coating musky baits. I made a mold and let it sit overnight.





















These others have a little shad body profile. They are just over 2" long. I really like how these came out. The line passes thru the body also. I can either add a very small spinner to the belly or another hook. I think I will do well on these more West early in the season. Again these are clear bodies and are transparent when held up to the light. I can slip these inline instead of usual bead set-up. I started playing around with these a couple of years ago and have caught some nice fish. I kept loosing some nice fish then I realized that they were t-boning the body instead of hitting the worm trailer at times. I hope with the extra hook I can correct this problem. I noticed that when the fish hit this setup it was a like a sheephead hitting the bait......... Very very aggressive. It definetly triggered something. The typical strike on a harness is a slow fade back. 



I have some others that I am working on in the more popular Lake Erie colors. Hope to finish them this weekend.


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## TIGGER

They were finally dry enough to play around with rigging. I had a wire thru the middle of the bait during the epoxy phase. I almost couldn't get the wire out today. I ended up heating the wire to pull them out. Close call 

I think I am going to start with this rigging for them. I debated on putting the front of a worm on the belly hook and using only one trailer hook spaced with beads. We will see how it works shortly with the season starting soon. No more T-boning the body with no hooks!!!!! 

























I may try to make a vibee type of bait down the line. All I would have to do is add a top line tie and an internal weight some how. I think it would work great for Mosquito Lake!


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## Tommybouy

Sir;

Great thread and great looking baits!!! I havent seen a thread extend into its 4th year and be this interesting. Your baits and ingenuity make me want to learn but I already know I wouldnt come close. 

Stay at it and I cant wait to see whats next; good luck with them!

It wont be too long now Thanks for sharing!


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## TIGGER

Thanks Tommy I can't wait to get out and fish. It is going to be a great season!


Well I finished the last batch of these for my arsenal for the start if of the season. Some brighter colors. 

These first two I used some of the peel and stick film to try out. A smelty pattern for the top and a perchy pattern for the bottom one.












I think this one will do the best.















A couple others

























A smelt body in similar to the glass perch rapala

























I am excited to get on the water and try them!













Time to start some shallow runners for the inland walleye night bite!


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## TIGGER

Well part of my excitement for the season is fishing new style of lures and playing with the actions of the baits. Thinking of areas from previous years and wishing that I had a lure that dove a little deeper or ran a little shallower. I really love the night fishing for the walleyes. In the inland lakes 99 percent of the fish are stocked here in Ohio but there is some natural reproduction. 

Walleyes attempt to spawn in three places as a general rule. The first are current area's such as rivers. The second are the gravel sandy humps / reefs. The third are the rocky shore lines. What makes walleyes decide which area to go to I have no clue. Not sure if it is genetics where that fish will go back to those same areas for the their entire life or just happens to use whatever is available at the right time do to proximity of available resources. 

For the inland lakes my favorite locations are the rocky shorelines. These are challenging areas do to the problems of snags and damaged fishing lines. If you are not in the shallow water just ticking the bottom your chances are extremely reduced for success. One thing that I have learned there are times when this pattern is forming when the walleyes will just stay shallow all day long. I mean like lay there in 2 to 3 foot of water. This was hard for me to grasp at first thinking of the walleye as a creature of the night. A mysterious fish that lurks in the depths and comes up with those marble eyes only at night to visit the shallows to feed. Not sure if it is the warmth of the sun or the proximity of the events that will soon take place through mother natures coarse. 

I decided to try Ladue&#8217;s causeways rocky shoreline last night thinking with the warm day that fish may be active. I made this little shallow 4" bait with the nose tie. I guess I was influenced by the styles of the Norwegian baitmakers. They have a certain curve to their styles of baits. It is made from mahogany. It has a wider action that runs shallows great. I am always nervous running new baits along the rocks. One cast and it could be gone ....... stuck in the rocks forever. Thinking that the daytime shallow bite may be close and the chance to get to the area early to view the rock layout to avoid any pitfalls........I headed there. On my second cast I caught this nice 26" fish. I wasn't even in the groove yet. It caught me totaly off guard in 2 foot of water laying against a larger rock. I was just trying to get the line I put on my reel stretched out. What a great fight. I didn't bring a net with me. When I went to grab the fish I got a hook also. The blood was both of ours mixing together. I got part of the second hook from the fishes under gill area into the back of my thumb.  Blood was everywhere. It hurts like #$%^&* today but will be just fine. Overall the night was very very slow. Towards the end of the trip I caught one other on a rapala F-9 that was 20" long. I like casting the old style rapala's before I leave to go home because you cast them in one foot of water and reel them in real sloooooooooow. That is always good for one. Not sure if the peak is over or it just needs a little warm up a little more. I may try to get out one more time next week.


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## bowhunter29

John,

That is a killer looking lure! I really like the shape and the colors.

I always enjoy the fishing reports that you and Vince post. Keep them coming!

jeremy


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## RWK

Tigger can you PM me, i'm new to the site and did not know you have to have 5 comments to send a PM. ThANKS rICH


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## tomb

Nice going again John. Pretty sweet your able to design a productive bait right off the first try. Try to only hook the fish from here on out


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## WALLEYE WALLHANGIN'

frigin awesome lookin baits and even better lookin results!!!!!!keep it up man!!!!!!!


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys! The baits keep me excited to go fishing! 

Jeremy, I imagine you will be out fishing soon if not already. Have you been out? I hear they have been catching musky's around of late. Some decent ones caught at pymi today.

Tom the Cleveland bite should start in the next 1-1/2 weeks. I went back and looked at my old pictures over the last couple of years. The water has been messed up of late. I have some jobs going on downtown. I will have to swing down to 55th and have a look next week. I have been getting the boat ready.

Well I made some more of that style bait. I did and experiment with the eyes. On such small baits the size of the eyes can make a big difference in the action of the bait. The very small eyes make the bait have a tighter wobble almost like a shimmy. I like this action the best for casting at night on inland lakes with steep rises into the shallows. It is also killer for trolling leadcore line down old river channels. 

The larger eyes make the bait have a wider action / wobble. A super great musky type of action. It takes less effort to start the bait in motion. You can get alot of wobble with very little speed. I like this action if I am going to cast in 3 foot of water or less on open larger flats. I can reel very slow and tick the rocks. I will interested in how they will troll for steelhead in the Grand River. They may be attached to some leadcore at Mosquito on Sunday.

Here are a couple I finished tonight. I have three others close to being done also.

A mini version of "Tony the Tiger"












I green version.













I think these will do good off downtown Cleveland in a couple of weeks after dark.


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## ShutUpNFish

Those are really neat looking! I like the big eyes too, they give the baits a unique look. Those should slay the walleyes for you John.


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## bowhunter29

John,

Those are some killer baits. I love the top two with the tiger stripes. 

The bite is definitely picking up here now. I mainly fish the Juniata River but I also hit Raystown Lake and a couple of very small local lakes that shall remain nameless . The Juniata is up a bit right now but if the rain stops it should be prime in a week or two. My favorite time to fish the river is when it's up about 2-3 feet above normal with a deep green color. The big fish seem to feed really well in the green water. One of my favorite local lakes is heavily stocked with trout and the trout fishermen are hitting it hard right now. I like to wait for the trout guys to clear out before I start my musky fishing. You should see the feeding frenzy that takes place during the October stocking when the stock truck pulls up and starts a big batch of trout down the chute into the lake! I missed it this year but I hear it was something to see! In a related note, I'm perfecting my rainbow trout paint scheme...LOL 

I did see one fish that came out of this lake during a DCNR shocking study, it was in the 50" range and was built like a fire hydrant. Not sure what it weighted but it was what I would call chubby. 

*Edit: I found the picture!!!! I may have exaggerated the length...I'm not good as guessing from pictures. However, it's a beautiful fish.









I have about 3 new bodies of water that I'd like to fish in the next 6 weeks. I am starting to get more and more orders for the snake skin baits so I'm not sure how much I'll make it out. I'll keep you posted if the bite turns on.

Keep up the amazing work,
jeremy


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## TIGGER

Dang Jeremy that is a BIG musky! 

Well I got out to fish with my friend Trent from Musky Train downtown Cleveland last night. I was so excited to try the my new little baits. The last couple of years in the spring I made baits that were a little big for the spring bite. I swore that I would not get caught in that again and created that last batch. I was excited that I got a nice one right off the bat with the only prototype that I had on an inland lake. 


The water was very stained. I ran the baits for the first 1-1/2 hours and just wasn't feeling it. I did not bring any larger baits thinking small. I heard on the radio they got some on HJ-14's. I found a couple in my side pockets of my tackle bag and ran them out. We started to get a pattern together and caught 5 fish. 3 were in the 7-1/2 to 8 pound range and my last fish was a very nice 11.25 pounder. It was weighed on a boga. I figure if you take off a 1/4 pound it was still around 11 lbs. My good scale was on my boat.  It was the hardest fighting walleye I had ever caught. We thought 100 percent that is was a steelie. Breaking water and making long strong runs. I was driving the boat at the time and did a power turn at 3 mph. I hit on the fast side and took 100 yards of line the first run. It was straight down under the boat untill it came into the spot lights and my jaw dropped. Took a couple of quick pics and let her go. Blue and chrome were the only two color that I had............ 25 foot leads. I am all messed up now. I don't know to go big or go home.....go figure. It must be the dirty water and lack of feeding with the torn up water conditions. All the fish hit hard and head shot the baits. Water temp was 53 ish. I better finish up some more bigguns soon! 

I got the wrong water pump and have my lower unit off my boat untill it comes in this week. Hope to get out this weekend weather permiting.

John


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## All Eyes

Tigger, you are killing me with some of these baits you've been making. I know I've said it before, but your work is fantastic!!! Now you're really getting innovative with these latest designs. One would think that walleye (and sportfish in general) would just tear into some of these. Keep the pics coming and keep messin around. You're going to end up inventing the next big thing if'n you aint careful. It's hard to pick favs amoungst your work, but that purple perch is making me wannna tie that thing on real bad.


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## TIGGER

Thanks Eyes, I am a huge fan of your jigging spoons! I played around with some of my own. I made them from clear epoxy and added a line tie on its back. I was hoping to try them out this spring but the rain took care of that. I will post them later. Maybe icefishing this winter.

Well after catching some night walleye the other day on HJ14's in blue patterns I figured that I would finish up a golden shiner that I had on the work bench. I decided to add some blue striping to the bait. I ran the bait the last two times out with no luck. Got out between the storms last night and finally got it to go 25 feet back off the board at 1.4 mph. The fish was 9 pounds. 
























































Jig (Bob) gave me a call and said some bad storms were moving into Cleveland on the radar and that I should start heading in. That was around midnight. I did one more loop and got three quick ones. That was fun when you are only fishing with two rods. Not sure if the wind change and the approaching storm made them hungry. Got one on the little green tiger bait posted below on a 35 foot lead. A good eating 3 pounder. The others were nice solid fish on HJ14's in blue. Got the boat on the trailer and in the truck as the rain and lightning started. Thanks Bob!


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## tomb

Nicely done on the baits and the fishing John. Was out with Andy and Bill last night. We only got one fish running six rods. We did get that one right at midnight too.


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## JIG

Pretty nice baits John! Was out last night with one to show for it but only got a couple hrs in before the pea soup roled in. Doesnt look good for this week either but should improve by Fri.:T:T


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## TIGGER

All eyes .............this is version of your style baits I made from epoxy. I always have extra after clear coating lures. I have boxes of eyes that I have made and wanted to try something different. This one I have high hopes for. It has a nice fluttering action on the lift and fall. These fall slower than metal. May give the fish a little more time to catch it on the fall. It casts great also. You can twitch it on a slow retrieve and it looks like a little shad trying to make to the surface. On a long casts it will swim its way back with a natural swimming action. I have a feeling it end up on a back half of a dipsey in Geneva around July. I wanted to try it for the icefishing season but ran out of time. 

You can see the one piece wire running through the bait in some pics.


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## TIGGER

Here are a couple of others that I did also. The one I did in a minnow type of shape. I hope to flip the docks a Lake Milton this summer with them. The minnow one I will use a Mosquito along the weed edges soon for walleyes.


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## bowhunter29

John,

You are a machine! You never cease to amaze me with the ideas you have. Those are some great little baits, I'm anxious to see what you catch on them. I'll bet they'd be great for river smallmouth... 

I love the little 'golden shiner / blue tiger' you did, great colors. 

Ten years ago the hot color for me was fire tiger but now you can't catch many fish on it in the local rivers. In the last two years, I've been switching to more white or blue/orange and I've had great success. That blue really caught my eye! 

jeremy


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## Fisherman123

Tig all i got to say is wow... those look like you bought them from a store there so perfect. i wish i could make lures that well. GOOD JOB!


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## Pikopath

Those last ones were AWESOME! I am sure they would be a killer for perch and sander here.

Michael


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## TIGGER

Well I got to get out this past Sunday for perch and walleyes. We got our limit of perch and tried for some walleyes. I got lucky and found a pod of migrating fish that were active. I got to try one of the shad style inline bodies and had some success. The golden shad got 2 fish!





















I made this cedar bodied smelt two weeks ago and got to run that one also.

























I ran it on 12 pound wire line 274 foot back @ 1.4 mph. It produced 2 nice fish!


























I had to put that the green salamander out also. It always catches a nice one!  I wish I could have ran some more but we got our 12 fish to complete our limit. I hope to get out again this weekend.














We had a nice batch of fish. Six were over 28". The fish are starting to fatten up for the winter. This is the time they put their feed bags on. If you happen to stumble on a school of active fish it can be alot of fun with BIG fish to boot!


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## muskyslayer96

WOW!

Beautiful work on some beautiful fish!!

Well done TIGGER!

MS


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## TIGGER

Well the night bite is near! I hope to try this one out this weekend. It is made from redwood and has mylar foil over flo paints. I was hoping to bring in a little of the clown coloration into it. I think I got it! It really glows in low light. I hope to get some jaw breakers photo's soon! 

Be safe everyone fishing after dark! I have been seeing those glow sticks attached to my inline boards in my sleep!

John


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## peple of the perch

How do you get the bodies of the epoxy baits to be symmetrical?


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## goolies

Nice bait John. By the way, the bite has started!


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## eatwhatyoukeep

Another great tackle thread. 

Tigger, How did those plugs with the trailing nightcrawler work if you don't mind my asking?


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## TIGGER

Matt, I made a body from a piece of wood first. Next I took some silicone and made a one piece slip mold. The epoxy looks like frosted glass after it is pulled out of the mold. I next coat them like they are a lure on the spinning wheel. That gives them that glossy glass look. I will add paint between the coats. Hope that helps. I spin them like dolphins jumping out of the water. That gives the equal uniform shape from side to side.

Andy....... I figure they have to be close to coming in. I have been running a night crew at Quicken loans. Remodeling the place after someone took their talents else where. I thought I saw some boats on the water but I couldn't tell. I was very tired and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Eatwhatyoucatch....... I take the head of the worm and hook it on the belly hook and attach the rest to the back hook. The body will spin a bit making it look bigger than it is. May be why the bigger fish are hitting it but not sure. The ones with the long slender body like the salamander one, the worm is just like a regular worm harness.

Man this is my favorite time of year! 

John


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## goolies

TIGGER said:


> Andy....... I figure they have to be close to coming in. I have been running a night crew at Quicken loans. Remodeling the place after someone took their talents else where. I thought I saw some boats on the water but I couldn't tell. I was very tired and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
> 
> Man this is my favorite time of year!
> 
> John


I fished solo last night out of E72nd and managed to boat 2. I fished for a little over an hour before it got snotty and I decided to go in.


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## TIGGER

Well I got for the first run of the fall. Nothing huge but fun to catch. No real pattern or location. Pick one here and there. Covered alot of water searching. Hoping the marks pick up out of CLeveland. May have to head West. Largest was 9 pounds even.


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## goolies

Nice fish John. I guess I fished in the wrong place last night.


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## rjbass

Nice mess of fish John, I'll have to get down there and try that sometime...

Rod


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## TIGGER

Well I finally retired the "original" Tony the tiger this year. It had been through many battles and I just couldn't bare to lose it after the memories. So.................. I decided try to recreate the majic. I did a bunch of measurements and patterns off the original. The original was a free hand model cut on a bandsaw. I finished it up last week and ran it a couple of nights with no luck. I thought the mojo was only in the original but this week it proved me wrong.

The last two nights out it pulled 3 fish at 10 pounds and a nice batch of 9 pounders. I could not buy a fish early in season of the night bite on a homemade bait but the tides have turned. Must be something with the water temp at 50 degree's and lower.

The homemades caught 3 of the 4 ten plus pounders this night. The largest two in the pic were 10.71 and 10.68.
























This night we had one over ten and a couple of high 9's. 30 mph wind gusts! I am still rocking in while sitting in the chair. I quess it takes a while for the brain to settle down from all the wave action.












The fishing has not been fast and furious this year. The bite has been more out around the outer breakwall and into open water. Been fortunate this fall to come across some nice fish. I remember two years ago when I just couldn't buy one over ten pounds but everyone around me was catching them like crazy. Ron and Frank thanks for the memories!

John


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## Chef T

Wow Tigger, looks like you got this pattern down. I've been following this thread for a few months and have yet to see handmade lures that look as nice as yours. Whenever you have an open seat, don't hesitate to send me a PM. I see I have a lot to learn and am a good first mate.


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## TIGGER

Well the window is starting to close on the 2011 fall night bite. I learned a couple more things about the walleyes and their diets. For years I thought that the Cleveland walleyes mostly feed on the shinners and smelt that came into the shoreline. I have heard in the past of people catching walleyes with large shad in their stomachs. Most of the fish that I have caught in the fall have had nothing in their stomachs,maybe a smelt every now and then. I got to fish the "Fall Brawl" with a couple of friends who have their own different styles of fishing. It was refreshing in the sense to trade each others styles and cross link them together.

There are many different kinds of shorelines along the shores of Lake Erie. Cleveland is unique with many of the different types right out front of the city. You have a river out the middle of it, an outer breakwall structure, a power plant inside the harbor, deep water rocky points and sandy shallow bays. My favorite places are the rocky points and outer breakwalls. I got to fish some different places that I would only breeze by on an occasional troll. To my suprise while fishing some of those areas I noticed that those fish had shad in their stomachs. I normally don't like to fish in areas where the bait is so thick that the lures will have bait stuck on the hooks. I always thought it would like finding a needle in a haystack for the fish to find the fishing lures. It also brought me to the conclusion that certain walleyes are feeding on specific types of baits. Here is a picture of a typical day after cleaning fish and what was in their stomachs.











You may notice that there all different sizes of shad. Some of the smaller fish that we caught out in open water had more minnows and small smelt. I started to pay more attention to the size of the fish and their stomach contents. It really wasn't such a suprise to find out that the large walleyes had large shad. Sometimes up to 5 - 5"-6" shad in their belly. So I decided to trace out some of the shad bodies and make some shad style lures. I wanted to keep the baits in the same size range as the shad found in the belly's.













I ended up just putting the base coat on the lures and ran them the next night. To my suprise they worked great! We caught like 5 fish on the different sizes. We also hooked 2 steelhead the same night on them. 













I still thought it was funny running a musky sized shad for walleyes but it proved my wrong for doubting such a thing. I ended up finishing off the final paint schemes on these three.
















































Most of the biggest walleyes that we have caught so far have been on shad style baits. Here are a couple of pictures of some really nice fish.


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## TIGGER

Thinking that I would run those shad everywhere catching fish the whole way but I was way wrong........... I started to see that relationship between the areas of specific types of baitfish gatherings and specific walleyes diets in those areas. I ran the shad for hours out in open water and never caught a fish! I am not saying that you can't catch fish on different types of lures in those areas but you can increase your chances if you know what the big fish are targeting for their meals. The bigger walleyes are lazy. They don't like to chase much. They use less energy by catching larger prey in concentrated areas. The problem........... the window that they feed is very small with all the bait around them. I have also come to the conclusion that large fish don't eat everyday. You will get nights when all the fish are big and next all the fish are small. Going almost everyday the last 6 weeks it seems that the cycle is about every 2-1/2 days this time of year. You will catch fish every night but big ones have their cycles. I am excited to try this out in Huron in years to come. There is a huge gathering of shad at the river mouth and I want to see if this will still apply on shad base forage.

The areas that I call transitional zones between main areas we ran baits that where a shad / smelt profile. Something that was thicker than a F-18 but more slender than a shad. To my suprise that worked well also. 












Tony the tiger jointed really shined in those areas. This particular night it took eight fish. The top 5 fish weighed in the area of 55 pounds. The largest was officially 11.75 lb caught by Frank. It was in first place for about an hour before Isaac brought a MONSTER 13.11 pounder to the scales! Here is a pic of Franks fish. Someday I hope to have a lure take the first place fish.










Here is a pic of the fish from that night.


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## luredaddy

John,
You should write a book, SERIOUSLY, you should write a book !!!!! John


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## donkey

If John ever writes a book I would be first in line.Great idea!One thing for sure he would have plenty of material for illustrations.


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## sherman51

yea, tigger you seem to really have the pattern down, and those are awesome home made lures. and some nice eyes.

i dont know diddly about night fishing, and not much about day time fishing. but next year if you have any open seats for the night bite you can pm me anytime. i would love to do a night time trip with someone of your calaber.

i dont plan on ever taking my boat up for the night bite but i would enjoy fishing with some of the great guys that already know how to handle there boats in this zoo thats called the nite bite,LOL.
sherman


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## da-animal

tigger im sure you get this ? asked alot, but do you sell any of your lures?? if so please pm me im very interested to buying more then just 1


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## MadMac

John, using the bigger baits doesn't surprise me at all. Most don't realize just how big of a meal larger fish can handle. A 5" to 6" bait should be no problem for a 30" fish. I have caught eyes at WB on Legend Perchbaits. They are like 8" long. Good job on setting that pattern of different bait fish in the different areas. By the way, the last time I fished up there with Bobby I caught the first fish of the night on a firetiger mini Tuff. (4")


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys, I am sure my wife would like it better if I crack the pattern for getting her "honey-do" list completed. 

John maybe someday. Heck I have a hard enough time speaking and typing properly. 

Steve I remember Bob telling me about you catching one on a tuff shad. Some of the ranger guys we were fishing with this fall were catching some nice fish on monster shads. I know of some people also catching them of the giant AC shiners. I saw my second Lake Erie musky at the dock about three weeks ago while launching for the night bite out of 72nd street. It was swimming on the surface and was about 36" long. Casting range from the docks!


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## goolies

Nice job on the fish this Fall John. Thanks for sharing.


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## MadMac

TIGGER said:


> Thanks guys, I am sure my wife would like it better if I crack the pattern for getting her "honey-do" list completed.
> 
> John maybe someday. Heck I have a hard enough time speaking and typing properly.
> 
> Steve I remember Bob telling me about you catching one on a tuff shad. Some of the ranger guys we were fishing with this fall were catching some nice fish on monster shads. I know of some people also catching them of the giant AC shiners. I saw my second Lake Erie musky at the dock about three weeks ago while launching for the night bite out of 72nd street. It was swimming on the surface and was about 36" long. Casting range from the docks!


I hear more Erie muskie tales every year. We had a good thread about stocking them and improving Erie shore spawning habitat on Guy's site a while back. I bet there are a few monsters out there but you would need the patients of a saint to try for them. Especially since St. Clair and Buffalo Harbor are so close.


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## TIGGER

Steve I was fishing with Bob 2 springs ago out of Edgewater. We came in around 3 am to stretch our legs at the ramps. Bob spotted a very nice musky cruising the ramps. She was in the 42" -45" range. She had some white perch pinned up in the shallows. The fish were on their sides to try to get as shallow as possible. We stood there and watched her swim under us for about 10 minutes back and forth. The water was crystal clear. Man she was wide! Good to see them around. 

One other experience I had was about 10 years ago fishing for smallies around Bratenal. I was casting the high wall around the corner heading to the beach. I decided to put on a giant white twister tail First cast something grabbed it and headed out to deep water. It never stopped and spooled me out on one run. I think about that fish alot. I never saw it as it passed under the front of the boat and headed out to the depths. It stripped line to the knot , I cupped the spool and it was gone! It never stopped.

I have been fishing with Frank this fall night bite and he was telling me a couple of nights ago he has caught two night musky's over the last two springs. I think a 24" and 30" if I remember correctly.


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## MadMac

I had a fish on at WB this past summer I will think about forever. My brother Bob was with me. We were trolling a big shallow flat and when we had to swing out to turn around I saw a lot of big marks 15' to 20' down in 25' of water. I told Bob we had to try for them and dropped my Fatfinger's Rocketshad back 59'. First pass my rod goes off. I am fighting and fighting this fish telling Bob it's huge. He clears the other three rods and gets the net into the water next to the boat. After a few more minutes he's a little calmer and says "come on, get it up here". I say watch this and apply enough pressure to pull about a foot of drag and the fish immediately pulls three more. lol I finally get the fish to start coming up and at about 4' under the surface up comes the lure. The water was murky and we never got to see it. I can't even say what it was for sure. I know one thing, I've caught a 51" muskie and a 43" flathead and last year my bud got a 36" striper out of my boat. I've snagged gig carp too. I don't believe this fish was snagged as could feel the head shakes as it pulled back. All I know is that was the biggest fresh water fish I've ever had on and I didn't even get to see it.


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## TIGGER

Man Steve that sounds like a really big one! You'll get another crack at her. I bet I will see you in a pic with that fish in the next three years!

On the last day of the "Fall Brawl" last week we had a slob on. It had the inline board buried for 15 straight minutes under water. We thought at first that the light may have went out on the board. When the fish got closer to the boat we saw the line angle straight down. The board started to come up from the depths. Several attempts to get to the board to unclip it but every time it would shoot down as if a stone was attached and dropped into the bottom of a well. Finally got it unclipped and the fish rolled on the surface feet away from the net. It made on more shot at the depths and came off. The fish was barely hooked. I hate when they start to roll. The mouth looked like you could insert a volleyball into it. I have never had a fish do that to a board before for that length of time. I can't imagine what that thing would have weighed.


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## MadMac

That'll make you stare at each other. lol


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## TIGGER

Well the water temp. is fast approaching that 40 degree mark. This is when I have noticed that the walleyes start to move back out with the bait fish. The boat ramp was void of bait the last couple times out, turned the graph on and the water was at 40.2 degree's in the cut. We found the walleyes out more outside the breakwall where the water temp was in the 42 degree range. Found some really nice active fish where the water was still 42.3 degrees. You can still catch fish in the colder water but you better have your trolling speed close to .9 to 1.1 mph. 

I think I am done for this season. What a fantastic year it was for the Cleveland night bite. By far the best I have experienced. I got to learn a couple more things about the relationship between the different types of bait fish (shad and smelt) and how certain walleyes feed on mostly on one or the other. I had the chance to make a couple more new bait styles and got to revist some older ones. I really enjoyed fishing with Ron and Frank. I liked how they would go thru my bait boxes and run some of the older lures from this thread. Most of the baits that I make I run for a short time and catch some fish and then go on to a newer style always searching for something new and different. 

This smelt that I made late this summer and got to run on wire for a couple of hours with nice success. It was pulled out , ran on a short lead and caught a nice 9 pounder to my suprise after dark the last time we where out. I got nervous running it because I didn't want a steelie grabbing it and breaking it off. That night we did have a big steelhead on but it was a different bait.  I have big plans for this one in 2012




















I ended up making three new "Tony the tigers". Some nights all three were out on the lines at the same time taking over half of our big fish for the season. Tony also caught a nice 11.751 pounder that took second in the "Fall Brawl" Frank pulled out a straight version of Tony I had from 08. It is now called "Little Anthony" There is a pic of the lure just a couple posts down. He really shined also. 

This was one that Ron picked out that caught some really nice fish. I thought it was a little big for the walleyes but he showed me I was wrong and became a favorite this fall. It is now called "Blue Boy".












It ended up catching my last fish of the season on Tuesday night and is also my biggest fish caught on one of my baits at just over 11.78 pounds.























The 2011 fall season was one of the best for #'s of fish and size. I think many of the larger fish were from the 2003 hatch. I hope they come back to visit Cleveland next fall!











John


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## TIGGER

Well I got into a walleye bait mode with all this warm weather. Here are some 6" smelt baits in different colors. They are medium divers. It is always fun to play around with the brite paint colors.


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## TIGGER

These are some 3" shad bodies.























These ones are 4" deep diving smelt/ minnows


















































Some 3-1/2" fat shad bodies


























The last two are 5" in length. It is between a shad and smelt body...deep divers


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## BigDaddy300

Very nice looking baits John. Tried to PM you with a question but your box is full. Let me know if you clean it out. Thanks.


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## All Eyes

Fantastic work as usual. Real "eye" candy


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## sonar

They ALL are great looking baits!And I really like the 4in. deep smelt,,,the first of them is a 7-up-tiger ?,,,what shade of green is that TIGGER ??? That's VERY COOL!!! ----->>>>>sonar<<<<<-----


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## TIGGER

Sonar, I think it is Chart. yellow with a spritz of emerald green. I think that is the one. 

Eyes you have been doing some really nice stuff! Keep it up!

Rick I know I have to go through the PM's. I am bad about reading them. I hope you family is doing well. The fish are on the rocks right now.

Well it is time to talk about the hazards of the night bite!  
I was fishing a causeway this weekend from the shore. My friend Frank hooked a nice fish. I had just moved further away from him when he hooked up. I sprinted back towards him to give a scoop with the net. As I was running along the guard rail I hit an 8" bolt at full speed. Before I knew I had flipped head over heels and was on my back. My leg felt funny and reached down to feel it and grabbed a glob of flesh that was sticking out a tear in my thigh area. There was a large hole in my leg. I could believe it. Frank went and got the truck and we managed to get me inside. I was at Geauga Hospital for 4 hrs till 4 am. They had a crazy night going on and I was a low priority. While waiting we took some pictures to pass the time.






















I basically punctured and then ripped out a cork of flesh. I tore the membrane that is over the muscle and between the fat/skin. The problem is that the muscle bulged out like a hernia. The ER doctor tried his best to pull it back over but said that I will have to see an Ortho doctor the make sure it completely pulled and sewn back in place. The doc was having trouble with the swelling and getting muscle pushed back inside the membrane. I guess they will have to open it back up to take a looksey again.

Frank took this picture after he finished closing it. The doc said this will at least get me home for the night.












I will find out tomorrow what my fate will be.  I hurts like @#$%^! 

I told my wife I will have to fish my way through this one!


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## da-animal

hey john, wow!! talked to frank and told him you guys are some serious fishermen with full contact, boy that looks painful, hope you heal fast, and all is good- cause the nite bite is getting started i will see you on the water-andy


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## muskyslayer96

Tigger,

I wish you a speedy recovery....man that looks like it hurts! 

Best

MS


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## JSykes3

Ouch, that made me cringe.


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## All Eyes

Holy $#!+ that looks bad. Def looks like the guardrail won. OWWW!!!


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## ShutUpNFish

Ouch John!!!! I can't look at that pic! I wish you good healing.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys, I just got back from the orthopedic surgen. He will leave it alone to heal on its own. He was happy with the ER doctors patch work. Man I am glad they didn't have to re-open it! The membrane called the muscle fascia should heal on its own he told me. If there were any non-closed gaps it will scar over he said. I may have a small bulge there after healing. 

Hopefully the Lake Erie night bite will start soon. The only guardrail I want to see now are the ones I am passing in my truck!


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## bowhunter29

John,

Glad to hear you're going to be okay! Man, that's one sick battle scar, good thing you got pictures. That one's gonna be sore for awhile. I had a really bad thigh injury last year and it hurt for weeks. The best medicine will be to go catch some fish!

Best wishes on a speedy recovery,
jeremy


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## All Eyes

Sorry John, I know that had/has to hurt pretty bad. But someone is gonna ask eventually anyhow...did your buddy land the fish?  
And if so did you get any pics or were you too busy snapping away at that nasty thing.  
Juss messin with ya! Glad you didn't injure your building hand in the process. For what that looks like, I'd say the doc really did a heck of a job of fixing it. Anyway, Hope you feel better!!! John


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## rjbass

Hey John,

You should have used a little epoxy, and made it look like one of your baits....lol

Hope it heals well...

Rod


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## "Big" mark the shark

All I can say is ouch.


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## da-animal

hope your all healed now john, nit bite right around the corner


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## TIGGER

Hey everyone,

I hope you had a great summer. My leg healed up ok but there is a big dent where the bolt hit my leg. I was lucky that it didn't hit my knee.

It looks like another Fall nightbite is rapidly approaching. I always like to have a plan for the baits. Last year it was shad. This year it is fiber optics and foil.

This summer I started to play around with fiber optics and fishing lures. Years back I noticed a guy that added fiber optics for the fishing lure eyes on rapala products. I always thought I would like to expand on that.

Fiber optics is a very neat thing. It can gather low light and focus it down its length. Many of your bow and gun sites use it. I figured with the low light and city lights it may work out. Here are a some that I did.


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## TIGGER

This one came out nice.




































Another one in an albino pattern.


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## TIGGER

I started to play around with carving a little. I thought it would be nice for the foil to reflect. Here are some bodies right after I carved them and applied the siilver foil.























It took over an hour to apply the foil to each one. I added some dye color to the perch pattern one.
























The shad came out nice after laying paint and epoxy.


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## TIGGER

Here are a couple others with the silver foil.


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## TIGGER

I had some copper from a couple years back that I played with also.


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## TIGGER

I had kinda hit the wall with the silver and copper foil. I thought it would be nice to try something different with color. Painting over the foil is ok but it just isn't the same as colored foil. While shopping with the family a couple of weeks ago I noticed all the Christmas stuff was out. I went over to the wrapping paper and hit the jack pot! Everything you want in green , red, and gold. I ended up getting some of the other colors out of patterned wrapping paper.


Here are some in the festive holiday colors!


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## TIGGER

My favorite so far.........



























Now I have to figure out how the foil and fiber optics are going to go together!  

More to come........


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## sonar

And as TIGGER takes us into the next dimension..... the fib/ops,,,that's way cool stuff!! And the rest,, to me,, are as if you went to "Times ice box" and thawed out Jurassic Park !! I like 'em all!! Great job,,TIGGER!! ----->>>>>sonar<<<<<-----


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## silver shad

Simply amazing.


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## MadMac

Very cool John. I love how you experiment with new stuff.


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## Snakecharmer

How do you turn the fiber optics on and off? How do you replace the battery?


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## goolies

Snakecharmer said:


> How do you turn the fiber optics on and off? How do you replace the battery?


I don't believe there is a battery or an on/off switch. I think fiber optics takes the existing light and concentrates it. I could be wrong.

John - Amazing work!


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys,

Snakecharmer, the f. o. passes all the way thru the bait. If a light source in on one side it focuses it and directs it to the other. It does look like there is a little led light in it. Have you had that black bear out your way? He is making his way back thru Burton after visiting Bedford Hts.


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## da-animal

very cool john, and as always your custom baits just keep getting better and better, the f.o. you made i hope that really works well especially when them fish are in their neutral zone. i have a couple of my own i want to try, these past nights have been colder and colder....ill see you on the water soon


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## ShutUpNFish

Those carved ones are really cool...They have an antique look to them and I'm sure they will get eaten. Nice work!


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## TIGGER

Andy it will be here shortly. I'll keep and eye out for you. I will be fishing with Frank.

Paul you have been doing some incredible lures! Keep up the good work. I see you have been after the steelie's. I bought some fiber optic stuff to try on some small jigs for the trout. I just haven't got to it yet.

Here are a couple more I finished lastnight.














This has some great action. It is funny how some lures of a batch just have that little extra mojo wobble.

























This one I put glow in the dark paint for its belly. I like the pink and antifreeze together.


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## All Eyes

Always fascinated by your work. Keep posting! This stuff is great motivation for me.


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## TIGGER

Well the best part the whole lure thing is getting out for some water time. Many of things that you think may work while testing them in the tub or swimming pool just aren't known until they hit the big water. 

This fall season night bite season has been the most difficult so far because of Miss Sandy. 25 foot waves destroyed the coast line making water clarity near zero visibility for weeks. Many times color doesn't make the difference between you catching fish and others not but more of how your lure swims through the water. A big key is having your lure swim on the edge of disaster. What I am trying to say is that if you know that you are only going to troll a set speed all the time you can do some crazy things with weighting in your lure bodies. If the speed rises the lure will spin out of control. The new I-pilot trolling motors make speed control very easy now a days.

Lure weighting........... As you move belly weights back towards the tail the swimming action gets very wide and loopy. If you have ever seen a minnow that is stunned or dying its swimming action is along those lines. Walleyes have long lateral lines that are very sensitive to movement. In very dirty water they are very dependant on this sense.

I know with the Fall Brawl going on there are many tight lips. Keep your hopes up. It only takes one BIG fish!

We have had many nights with not even a sniff. Can be discouraging at times.


Here are some pics from this week to keep the hopes up. The fish are getting bigger each day. Here are some recent lures that I just posted with teeth marks. I have some secret weapons that have been deep throated I will post after the derby.  Hang in there! Things aren't always what you think!


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## All Eyes

Great post! Glad to know things are picking up and always like seeing your eye candy paying off. You would think the fiber optics are a nice advantage in this dirty water.
As far as weighting, I always use to have some external lead sticky dots on hand to try to get some different action going. I remember one night when we couldn't buy a fish and I added some rear weights to an orange Thunderstick that I'd been using. It really seemed to make all the difference. That bait caught fire all the sudden and turned a bad night around for us. I've gotten away from using them for some reason, but I've always liked them for being able to move them around and not making any permanent changes to a lure.


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## goolies

Thanks for sharing John. I have done something similar with my new homemades. I have shaped them similar to proven commercial lures and weighted them to get more action at slower speeds. My eyes were opened one night last Fall when we fished in chocolate milk and had a good night catching fish on wide wobbling baits.


Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


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## All Eyes

John, your post made me thaw out some fish for dinner tonight. Just finished a big plate of walleye from Berlin.


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## TIGGER

Eyes I hear you on a good walleye dinner! I have a nice stock now to get me thru the long winter months. I hope to get out and do some icefishing your way if we get any ice!

Goolies I hope your ranger worked out great this fall. Looks like you got some nice fish up by the islands a couple of Saturdays ago.

Well we caught the largest fish so far on one of my homemade baits this past Wed right before this winter blast. It was the first fish of the night. Tom Killian got to reel it in. We just call him "Tall Tom" you may have run into him up at Erie Outfitters. I think he is 6'7" tall. The fish weighed 12 pounds exactly. I did not measure its length but it was long one. It was a great night out with lots of large fish. I think we had 3 fish over 10 pounds that night. Hoping to get out again if the weather allows. Happy holidays everyone!

John


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## sonar

There's NO better feeling than,,get'n 'em on your custom made baits!!!! GOOD for you TIGGER!!!! & next is the EATIN'!! Happy Holidays to you too!! ----->>>>>sonar<<<<<-----


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## da-animal

hey john nice job on that 12 lber, im sure there is heavier fish swimming around, just have to be at the right spot at the right time....im sure ill see you at the ramp soon. btw them lures are a killer!!


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## TIGGER

Well I survived another night bite season. It was the best Spring night bite that I have ever experienced.

Let me set this up of how our 2013 fishing season started.

Back in March my fishing partner Frank Murphy and I decided to go try fishing the Lake Erie Islands area on a beautiful weekend day. The lake was perfect and the big fish were in the area. Frank and I are both obsessed with the big night walleyes. We have been fishing hard for them together for the last 6 years. We have both thought that our personal best walleyes would come on some late Fall night right before ice-up. 

Frank and I have talked countless hrs while trolling about some day in our lifetimes of catching a fish in the 13 - 14 pound range. Well an amazing thing happened that day. Frank hooked a nice fish and was working it slow and steady. I moved stuff out of the way and got the net ready. I unclipped the inline board and waited for the fish to come in from 65 feet back. I heard 20...... 15........ 10..... as Frank called #'s off the line counter and so climbed in the splashwell awaiting to scoop. The next thing I know I am starring at a monster. It made one small run and I was able to slip the net under the fish. I let the fish hang over the side not in view for Frank. I said this is a really big fish and lifted into the bottom of the boat. We both looked at the fish speachless on what to say. I broke the silence saying that fish is over 14 pounds. We gave some high fives and hugs of joy. Frank got the scale out and checked the fish. It was 15.25 pounds.!!!!!! We both sat down in silence taking in the moment. The next thing we know a board on each side of our boat goes back. We just left the fish/rods in the holders for the next 15 minutes towing them along as we sat in our chairs in disbelief of what was laying in the bottom of the boat. Finally getting up and reeling the two fish. One was over 10 pounds and the other was over 9 pounds. Franks monster fish measured 30" long and had a girth of 26".












































The night bite had not started yet. Some of the people may know that I started playing around making fiberglass fish replicas. I asked Frank if I could make a mold of his fish. He said "no problem" and so I did.
























































to be continued...........





Wife needs the computer.......... sorry



John


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## TIGGER

I finished the fish in less than a month. I gave Frank the fish replica one night right before we left the dock to go out fishing.














The Spring Fling walleye tournament had started. It is a 4 week tournament for the biggest fish caught during a 4 week time. You can upgrade during the span of the tournament. 

The night I gave Frank the fish a storm front was to blow in around 10 pm. The waves and wind were steadily building all day. Knowing the fishing time would be limited we decided to take my larger boat out for the night to handle the bigger waves. Some mojo must have been left in that walleye replica or something. The fish were on fire. We could not keep all the rods in the water at one time due to fish were in a feeding frenzy. The walleyes must have sensed the front moving in and where on feeding binge. We boated 18 fish in less than 1-1/2 hrs. We kept taking turns reeling the fish in while one person held the steering wheel trying to keep the boat straight. I made a sharp turn to head towards the ramp due to the deteriorating conditions. Franks outside board went off and was dealing with that and both of my boards went off at the same time. Just nuts!!!!!!It was the second triple of the night. I am trying to drive while holding one of my rods while Franks board is no where in site. This is due to a heavy fish pulling his board under the water. I knew Franks fish was the one we were looking for. I let the wind take the boat downwind sideways while putting my rod back into holder towing the two other fish. We managed to get Franks fish to the net and I just dropped it on the floor and grabbed the wheel gunning the gas motor back into the wind straight to the launch. We towed the fish into calmer water and they somehow they were still on the line. I reeled those two fish in and they were both high 9 pounders. Building 4 foot plus waves in seconds and we were done. Franks fish ended up holding the first place postition at 11.9 pounds the remaider of the tournament. Here is a pic of the fish back at the ramp.


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## TIGGER

One thing I have learned with the luremaking is that there are times you need to put them back into the tacklebox and use something else off the store shelf. I learned this the hardway back 4 Springs ago after coming off an incredible Fall bite with the homemade lures. All winter long I was making lures for my arsenal ready to hit the water. Thinking the fish would be hitting the same style and larger sized lures I had every rod attached to a homemade bait. I struggled that year with BIG fish only catching smaller more aggressive fish. 

Last year I had a spring prototype that caught almost 80 percent of our big fish but would not even get a pull back the first week of this Spring derby. Learning from years past I abandoned the homemades for the while with great success. You just can't beat a rapala product at times. The next two weeks of the derby was very good for us with two nights in the mix of 24 and 28 fish hitting the net. Believe me the fishing isn't always like that. We had a skunk one night while everybody was catching nice and steady. Along with 6 to 8 fish nights also mixed in. I did sneak some homemades out in the mix at times and caught a couple nicer ones.

Here is a pick of a ten pounder caught on an inland casting bait.













Here is another 7 pounder caught on another smaller style.













We had some real chunkers this night.


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## TIGGER

I ended up upgrading a couple of times during the derby and was holding the 5th place spot with a 10.8 ish fish. 

We had a cold front move in mixing things up for a couple of days making it unfishable. When it settled down we got a crew together to hit it hard for the last week of the Derby, Frank , myself and Tom Kilian (Ranger Tom). We hit the water last Tuesday night early with plenty of daylight to scout water color and marks. The water was tore up and muddy but the marks were up in the feeding zone. It just had that good feeling. We ran a day program for an hr with no success. Frank at times calls out "show us a sign". We were bringing the lines in to turn the lights "on" the boards and switch to the night program. I had a Fall style homemade bait for sampler 65 feet back on a daytime program. Tom unclipped the board to reel the bait up and a fish hit it. That was the sign we needed. I mentioned that a larger wider wobble bait may be the ticket tonight. We ran the lure back out on a night lead and it was hit again 5 minutes later. I cracked open the fall night bite homemades and started passing them out. Man did that work out! We ended up going 22 for 24 that night with the big fish on the feed again. We ended up catching 16 of the 22 netted fish on the homemade baits.

Tom ended up catching an official 11.055 pounder one of my homemade baits.













15 minutes or so later I ended up catching an official 11.7 pounder on a homemade also.













We also caught two others over ten pounds on the homemades.
























Here is a pick of Tom and I holding the fish at the ramp. 























Tom's fish finished in 5th place and my upgrade finished in 2nd place right behind Franks 11.9 first place fish. It has just been an incredible 2013 season so far. I will be able to get back into a normal sleeping pattern again! LOL 

I am glad I learned from my mistakes in the past. Let the fish tell you what they want and not to force the issue. After Frank caught that 15 pounder we just had a calmness with our fishing. Kinda like a "no worries" sort of thing. I hope it keeps rolling on for us for some summer tournaments.

I am excited about getting back into making some lures with new idea's to try.

Frank I want to thank you for taking the time to put a tournament together that we all can enjoy. How you can you beat a 100 percent payback with only a 25 dollar entry fee. I know you spend alot of your free time putting this together for our enjoyment, from the pre-party to the post party. Tracking down raffle prizes to knocking on doors for donations. I know you are the most passionate person about the night walleye fishing and I am glad you can get some enjoyment from your hardwork. You are the most honest and caring person I have ever met. Your a class act and I am honored to fish with you. I just want to say thanks. I think people forget to say that at times.


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## TIGGER

One other neat thing that happened this Spring.

D'Arcy Egan and well known Cleveland sports writer contacted Frank and I to do an article on the Cleveland night walleye bite. It was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer a couple of Saturdays ago. I really enjoyed hearing the stories of all the fishing events he has covered along with all the famous people he has fished with. It was a slower night but we did manage one over ten pounds.

Thanks D'Arcy!

Here is a link to the article

http://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2013/05/murphy_snow_have_lake_erie_wal.html#incart_river


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## All Eyes

Congrats to you and Frank on a spring that will be really hard to top. Incredible eyes and great stories! 
Also thanks for the link! That's awesome! D'Arcy fished with Joe Thomas of the Browns on Mosquito Lake and I never got to see it.


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## TIGGER

I love to run the wire line for the deep walleyes. Made a couple more the tackle box. Hope to run them next week.

The is 5-1/2" smelt with holographic foil paper. I bought it at a craft store and glued to the body with some devcon 5 minute epoxy. I have a good feeling about this one.























Here are some that I used Christmas gift wrapping paper.

























Just a couple others in some different patterns.




































The group


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## All Eyes

Another beautiful batch of baits John! Love that holographic wrap. Awesome work!


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## JIG

Now your talkin John! Better than a long A. Great for trollin or casting! Musky,pike or walleye. In-land or Erie! Nice work man! Add a couple tigers and youll have all youll need.


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## muskyslayer96

John

Another beautiful batch of baits. Are they made from wood or resin? If wood do you have to add weight to the belly to get them to run well?
How fast do you troll them.

Very nice
MS


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## muskyhound

I don't have a good camera to take close ups but here are a few custombaitmaker and I have made for the night bite, maybe he can post some better pics cuz he has a good camera, we use cedar and no weight..


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys for the kind words.

Bob I want to run some this fall for Westbranch muskies.

Eyes I hope you are having a good summer! I wanted to run the holographic one today but the lake was too rough. Turned around and came home.

Slayer I hope you are doing well also. They are resin bodies , no weight added. I will troll them anywhere from 1.7 to 2.3 depending on how the walleyes are feeling that day.

Hound, Super nice batch of baits. I love the third one from the right on the top row!


Well Frank and I got out on the water yesterday. Got to run wire for a little bit while figuring out a dipsey program. I put this one out for a little while and caught some dandy ones. Big headed fish! Ran baits yesterday at 2.3 mph.







































I hope to run some of the other colors later this week. Too rough to get out this morning. Turned around and came home.


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## TIGGER

Well I got to break away from the walleyes last weekend with a trip to New York. We went for a quick one day event. Right out of the box I got to reel this nice 22 pounder in. I just so happened to be next to the rod as it did its wicked imitation!












I was able to get another batch of lures finished for my tacklebox in preparation for the Fall bite. They are made of resin.















































This one I got to run in our OWF championship a couple of weeks ago. It took some nice fish but no time to snap off some pics. Hurry and get the lines back in! We ended up with a nice bag on day two. 5 fish = 40.23 pounds. Our two day total was 76 pounds and finished in 6th place. Just out of the money! Had a great time and a great OWF season. Our first year fishing it and managed 5th place for team of the year. Thanks Frank Murphy and Tom Killian for some fun fishing!













Excited about running them this weekend again in the Erie Outfitters Tournament.


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## Many Eyes

Those are bad ass TIGGER!!!! Nice king, was hoping to get there myself, but don't look like its going to happen.. Nice work!!


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## JIG

Wall hanger!!!!!!!!!:B


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## MadMac

Nice King John. Bet that was fun.


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## All Eyes

Congrats on a real bruiser John. Looks like you are having one heck of a year! 
Really like that pink bait in your latest batch (top one in pic) That screams walleye for some reason. I've got a feeling about that one.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys! 
Almost made the one day trip back for the salmon yesterday but decided to go fun fishing for some walleyes instead. 

We ended up going to Ashtabula. Headed to the 02 to 04 line in 70 feet of water. It was nice to fun fish today and not have to worry about prefishing for a tournament. I like these kind of days, I get to tinker with some homemade baits and different set-ups.

We got on the water way before the sun rise and started setting lines with just a hint of the day to come. All Eyes had a feeling about the pink one so I ran it out on a downrigger at 50 feet. I thought I would try a deep diving crank on a # 3 dipsey. I put that holographic smelt on that one. Usually a deep diver will flip the dipsey but I thought a 3 setting it may run ok. 10 minutes into the troll both rods with off at the same time. LOL

Mr Pink was the first to hit the net. 











The dipsey had something very heavy. Frank got this one to the boat and I scoped it up. It was just under 10 pounds.























Took a couple other good eaters on those lures. Even the antifreeze got in the action.












The bite started to slow on the cranks later in the day. Worms were doing very well. I had been playing with some hard bodies to take the place of beads. 














I ended up making a wire harness rig with a spinner attached. Ran it out on a dipsey with a worm trailer. 













The second fish on it was another super nice fish! It was right at ten pounds. 













It was a great day of fishing. Frank and I stayed out to 3:30 with lots of catch and release. It is a happy/sad time of year, summer is ending but my favorite is approaching. Soon the night bite of Fall will be here........ I can't wait! 

Everyone have a great Labor Day!


Here is a pic of the twin bookends. They were both right at 30", a good day for the homemades!


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## Star1pup

These are art! Maybe they should be hung in an art gallery and not fished.


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## sylvan 17

Great stuff Tigger!


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## All Eyes

That's what I'm talkin about! Wish I was that good at picking horses. 
Love that harness also John. I'll have to try and make a few some time. Congrats again on another great day with your amazing creations!


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## All Eyes

It's been slow going for me on building lately but I've been wanting to make some of the longer slender deep divers for the inland lakes. Here is one in the works that is 5 3/4" overall with a 4 1/2" cedar body. Hopefully I'll have a few of these made to try out in the coming month or so.


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## TIGGER

That thing looks great! If you ever want to come up and fish Cleveland let me know. We have to run some of your lures thru the wolf pack! Your lures will catch for sure! I really think this Fall / next Spring the state record will be broken. The fish this year are huge. I just have this feeling the Fall window will be short. We are due for an early Winter.

I am trying to figure out what style of lure to fish this Fall. I think the fiber optics will be playing a roll.


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## All Eyes

Thanks for the invite John! I may just take you up on that this fall. It would really be fun to fish with you guys and watch your baits in action.


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## All Eyes

Finally got around to finishing my bait. It's all done in pearl waterbase paint. The lip wasn't epoxied in place yet when I took this pic and was stuck in there sideways so that's why it looks odd. Now I need to work on the other ones I started a while ago and do some fishing!


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## TIGGER

All eyes that looks fantastic! I have been messing around with some musky baits this week. Hoping to shape some new walleye ones later this week.

Heading to mother Erie early tomorrow. Hoping to run all cranks and hardbody spinners. Might be the last trip out East for the season. I'll let you know how we do!


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## All Eyes

Thanks Tigger! I am trying to get some shallow minnow baits done for fall also. Just don't have much time. Good Luck out there and let me know how you do. John


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## ohioutdoorsman23

Tigger tried to send you a pm but your inbox is full?


Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## TIGGER

Outdoorsman I need to to get those cleaned out. As fast as I empty them it fills up. I will get them emptied.


Eyes those shallow one are the best in the Fall! I can't wait to see them!

Well Frank and I headed out to Ashtabula today for our last eastern trip. A brisk south wind was blowing. Headed out to the 02 line and there were some 3-4 foot rollers so we trolled with them.

I love these type of fishing trips because there is no tournament pre-fishing involved. It is all just for fun, play and experimenting. My goal was to run cranks and hardbody inlines. I had this dang bait I make for lasts fall night bite. It never got hit even though it has a great action. So.... I decided to put in on a dipsey to start.












In the first 15 minutes it had caught 3 for the box! I had it on a #2 setting 112 back.





































I ended up taking it off right after that. Who knows how many that thing would have caught! LOL Right before we packed it in to head home I slipped it back out and it caught 2 more in a 15 minute span. I need to make more of them! I didnt want a steelhead to get ahold of hit it break it off. Saving if for the Huron tounament.


I started to rotate some lures in for some water time. The cranks we hot today. This one has some fiber optics and swims like a hot-n-tot, It took 2 off the downrigger at 50' down and 50' behing the ball.


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## TIGGER

I caught a real nice fish on this inline hardbody. 
















Frank started to get the dipseys really dialed in. We decided to run back into the waves to run through a hot pocket of fish. We just got the 4 rods set and 3 went off at the same time! First one in was on a crank.















Mean while Frank had some toads on. He said "grab one" and I said "nope". The rod still in the holder kept taking line the whole time while he was fighting the other.











We got the second one in and the third was out to 230 feet and going. I ended up turning the boat around and chased it down. It had a huge head and super wide back, 10.5 pounds. It had the hooks in the outside of the cheek. The fish was coming in sideways.























I caught my best one of the day on a cedar bodied bait with holographic foil. The fish was right at the ten pound mark and hit like a mac truck. I just put it out on a #3 dipsey at 126 back and was placing it in the rod holder when it hit.
























What a great day to be out. The fish were hitting the cranks hard! We ended catching 23 walleyes only keeping our 12 fish. In the end cranks may have caught slightly more than the harnesess. Our speed was at 1.9 mph.

Man did we have a heavy cooler. Hope we have a cooler like this one for the Huron tournament October 5th. 















I can feel the night bite approaching! My favorite time the year!


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## All Eyes

Nice job John! if your freezer gets full I still have room in mine!


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## TIGGER

Well it was a great Fall night bite season with the conclusion of the Fall Brawl Tournament last night. The numbers were fantastic with some nights boating over 40 walleyes in a single night. A couple of weeks ago we had a 3 day stretch where we boated over 110 walleyes after dark. I really thought all the money fish would have been over 12.5 pounds. The largest fish weighed was over 13 pounds with the others under 11.8 pounds. I have never seen so many 9.5 to 10.8 pounders. I bet we let go close 30 fish in that size range. What a fishery we have here in Cleveland. I would like to thank Frank Murphy for putting on the yearly tournament, I know it is a lot of work. Congrats to all the people who placed in the money.

I didn't get to make a lot of baits this fall to play around with. Here are a couple I whipped up the week before the season started. They are made of resin. The baits are musky sized. I thought I would try a larger profile in the hope a big one would be tricked into biting. 













They really didn't start to hit the larger baits until last week as the water temp dropped in the low 40 degree range. We slowed the speed down to 1.2 range and the larger fish started to bite. Here is a pic of an 11 pounder from 2 nights ago. We thought at the time it may have been a money fish. We kept it hostage in the live well until we could weigh her in a non-moving boat. She fell a little short and released her back at the ramp. 







































We fished one night with 4 inches of snow that fell as we fished. The net was frozen and we tried to keep the reels functional. 














Last night we had one that we thought would make the # 5 spot in the 11 .5 range. We kept her hostage also for 6 hours until back at the ramp. She fell a little short also in the 11.25 range. She was released to fight another day. 














These baits did some damage the last two nights.














We release over 95 percent of the fish caught this Fall. The window is closing fast. The water temps are down to 38 degree range. I hope to get another trip in this week but not likely. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. 

Thanks Dan Paul for fishing with Frank and I.


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## All Eyes

Awesome job once again Tigger! Looks and sounds like a perfect end to a killer year for u guys. The pic of the icy reel is great. 
I really need to learn the ways of making resin baits. May make it one of my winter projects.


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## da-animal

nice job guys!! hey john, how far do you run them deep divers 6-8'?


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## TIGGER

Andy I run them 6 to 9 feet back depending on speed. They do not work well early in the fall bite. When the water hits 40 degree it is like a switch was flipped. Congrats on your 1st place finish in the fall brawl 13.14 pounder ! Nice talking to you at the party last night. Good luck tonight if you get out.

Eyes , There is a fair amount of cost upfront for the resin and silicone but you can make many baits fast. It is also easy to carve. I am going to try to add to the Pandora's box thread with some easy tricks that I have learned over the last couple of years.



Well now that the fall brawl is over we were able to just fun fish on Tuesday. The fish were on the heavy feed and had moved to the outside breakwall. I had made some baits in the late summer that I wanted to run on dipsey's or wire line but never got around to it. What a pain in the $%^& they are to make. The smaller, the more difficult the weighting issues become. I almost threw in he towel a couple of times. I thought they may work for walleyes but was unsure because the past track record has been "no go" with rubber swimbaits and night walleyes. I thought a hard swimbait may work. I figured I would put them out and run them for a couple of hours to see if I could catch one . They are made of resin and the one has micro-fiber fins.
































The night started off slow and then one of the rods started to go back, it was one of the new baits. It was a nice 6 pounder.













The next fish was an 11.5 pounder! It came on a double header.




























The other fish on the double was Franks personal best walleye after dark. It was one close to 13 pounds! He caught it on a rapala husky jerk. We slipped her into the live well to check later back at the ramp.











I took the swimbait and just threw it over the side of the boat to hang there while we cleaned things up. The next thing I know the rod almost flipped over the side. It took me a second to figure out what was going on. I had about 8 feet of line out and a fish grabbed it right next to the boat as we were drifting slowly! The fish was thrashing and throwing water everywhere. It ended up being a larger fish around the ten pound mark. The fish swallowed the bait. If you look at the pic the fishes lips opened the clasp on the swimbait. It took a while to get the hooks free from her gills. There was no bleeding and she swam away strong. I could not figure out why the bait fell to the floor. Looking back at the pics I noticed she had opened the clasp when she clamped on to the bait. You would not believe how many times this fall a fish grabbed a bait while hanging next to the boat. Many times while fishing we would turn our spot lights on and there were fish swimming inches below the surface just feet away from the boat.













We got all the lines set again and the next thing you know a double went off minutes later. They were both board sinkers. Both fish were over 11 pounds again!


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## TIGGER

We kept on fishing and fish just kept coming. It was the most unbelievable night I have ever experienced. We ended up with two more over 11 pounds.





















One more was on the swimbait .











We caught some of the bigger fish on some custom painted rapala husky jerks I did.











I ended up taking the swimbaits off and trying some others style baits. We got a couple more but they were only midsized fish.


































We wrapped up the night around midnight and got the boat on the trailer. We released all the fish that night. Frank wanted to check the big one on stable ground.











She checked in at 12.8 pounds! We set her free after the quick check to fight another day.











All in all it was the best night that Frank and I have ever had for BIG fish. We got very lucky to find a pod of super large fish. We stayed right on them the whole night. The final tally for the big ones was a 1 at 12.8 pounds 3 at 11.5 pounds , 1 at 11.25 pounds and 1 at 11.1 pounds. Just insane!!!!!!!!!! I doubt we will ever come close to that again. Cleveland takes a lot of knocks but I will tell you one thing it has WORLD CLASS walleye fishing!


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## All Eyes

Just ridiculous John! I've had dreams that weren't even that good.


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## PeterB

All Eyes said:


> Just ridiculous John! I've had dreams that weren't even that good.


X2 Awesome. Congrats


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## TIGGER

I hope everyone is making it through winter ok. 

We have a little pond outback that we discharge our "open loop" geothermal water into. The system takes the 52 degree well water and uses it for our heat system and then dumps it into the pond. There is always some open water to cast some baits. I played around with the GoPro today and shot some footage of the some of the baits on this thread. Here is a video of the swim baits I made for the night bite. Fun seeing them swim underwater.


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## All Eyes

Cool video John. Must be nice to have open water to test them this time of year. My bath tub will have to suffice until spring.


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## TIGGER

Well the 2015 Spring nightbite is getting started. I was able to get out and test some new proto's with some success. The only thing is we broke off the hot one on a heavy fish (I should have checked for nicks in the line). 

Saturday night started off great with this 10.5 pounder as we were switching from a day to night bite. We ended up going 18 for 26 with one other real nice fish. There were also plenty of nice 3 and 4 pounders to boot. The larger fish were spitting up 4 and 5 inch shad and were in a full feeding mode. I could not believe how hard they were hitting the baits. Had to quit fishing at 1 am because I lost electrical power on console. Motor still worked fine. It was only a faulty main power switch. Hope to show some lure pics soon after final coats are applied.


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## TIGGER

Well its getting about that time again.

I wanted to share this from night fishing this past spring. We were trolling the Cleveland shoreline right after the state stocked the baby steelhead and caught 3 walleye that night. Only one of the walleye had fish in its belly There were 11 baby trout (I found the 11th in the livewell after the pic) and one white perch in the belly. The fish was stuffed. The weird thing was that one of the trout was a laker. I may need to try some trout and baby walleye patterns this fall.
John


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## heron153

I have been thinking about throwing jointed swimbaits for walleye for a while now, and have seen a few videos about it. Definitely going to give it a go this fall


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## TIGGER

Heron I have caught some nice ones on jointed swimbaits. It seems I do better on them with the water temps get into the low 40's. Rattle traps will work also.


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## tomb

TIGGER said:


> Heron I have caught some nice ones on jointed swimbaits. It seems I do better on them with the water temps get into the low 40's. Rattle traps will work also.


Was it rough that night John? The rattle traps seem better on rough nights for me.


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## TIGGER

Hey Tom, It was calm that night and the water was murky , tight to rocks was best.


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## tomb

Makes sense. The best rattletrap conditions have been whitcaps and chocolate milk. Maybe I misunderstood which part of those conditions to pay attention to.


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## All Eyes

Rattletraps were about the only bait you would see Erie guys casting from shore in the 90's. The lighthouse and wall at Huron would be packed and literally everyone was throwing blue or black and chrome 5/8 oz Rattletraps. When the shad moved in it was a blast. I really miss those days.


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## heron153

No reason they won't still work


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## TIGGER

Tom that is about the only time I can run the rocks tight the way I like to is when it is calm. I have never tried them when its rough, may need to try that!

Eyes, oh those days when Huron mouth was the place to go. Rattle traps were a hot lure, blue and chrome. I was casting one around in my pond today and was amazed how load they are under water.

Heron, I often think about the old school lures and how people forget about them. An example are hot-n-tots. Every year some guys crush the walleyes in shallow water on Lake Erie. They are also a deadly musky bait.


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## All Eyes

TIGGER said:


> Eyes, oh those days when Huron mouth was the place to go. Rattle traps were a hot lure, blue and chrome. I was casting one around in my pond today and was amazed how load they are under water.


There are an awful lot of beads inside those things. No doubt they still work well, but you don't see them used much any more for night eyes for some reason. The slow approach with stick baits is about all people throw now. When the shad are in thick and the eyes are aggressive, Rat-L-traps are hard to beat for matching the flash and action of shad. Huron in the mid 90's was THE spot for trophy walleye from shore.


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## TIGGER

Eyes, That is a great pic of one. I have been messing around with the rattle trap bodies the last two weeks trying to modify them and ruined two of them. That pic will help me understand how they are made.

In the mean time I am getting excited about breathing life back into the night baits. It seems when I am building walleye baits and experimenting with the body / lip relationships I am more in tune with things while fishing. I got lazy the last two years with manufactured baits.

I guess the one thing that came out of it is Smithwick started manufacturing the top 20 from one of my prototype modifications. Here is a picture of a perfect 10 that I modified two years ago. I removed the shallow lip and inserted a deep diving lip while keeping the larger body size. Deep diving lures usually downsize the bodies from their shallow versions. This is the first top 20 and yes those are teeth marks.











I got back in the basement Sunday and started making some of my old body styles again for a fresh start. The shad bodies always do well for me late in the year when the shad are thick.













Got a good jump on a little painting and lip fitting. Hope to start the epoxy process tomorrow!


----------



## All Eyes

Very cool John! Love the mod 10 Top 20 deal. 
I'm just getting back to it myself and am in the process of finishing up some cedar shad baits that I had started earlier this year. One of them is a flat sided Poes Super Shad profile (top lure) that I made with more of a narrow Shad Rap style lip. Looking forward to watching it run.
It would be great to see a picture of yours when they're finished.


----------



## TIGGER

Eyes those are incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would run everyone of those on a rod 10 foot back and wait for the fire drill. Love them all but really like the twins with foil black look. Those on leadcore would crush the walleyes in Mosquito and Berlin.


----------



## TIGGER

Had some incredible nights last year. We found a pod of fish that took a 2 day pit stop to fatten up on their way west. The marks were insane!











The first night was the best night I have ever had during a night fishing experience. The biggest was just a tick under 13 pounds.











You wouldn't believe it if I told you how many were over 10 pounds that night. I thought I was dreaming. LOL












We hit it the second night but the fish had started to move on to the west. Still had some dandies though.












The night bite is such a magical thing to me. All of these fish could have been caught from the shoreline. Its the one time of year when the fish that were out 20 miles all summer come within 5 feet of the shoreline cruising the rocks.


----------



## TIGGER

Was messing around with heat bending some lips on a couple of my baits. Time will tell if it makes a difference.


----------



## All Eyes

TIGGER said:


> Eyes those are incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would run everyone of those on a rod 10 foot back and wait for the fire drill. Love them all but really like the twins with foil black look. Those on leadcore would crush the walleyes in Mosquito and Berlin.


Thank you! Planning on doing a bit more with foil and gift wrap on some new stuff.


----------



## TIGGER

Eyes those are outstanding! The big walleyes would tear those up!


----------



## TIGGER

Here is a little something to get the blood going. This was a 9-1/4 pounder we caught while fishing Cleveland about this time last year for the shake down cruise. The water was very dirty and we didn't expect much that night. 

If the big fish want to eat they will find a way! Just need the water temp to drop a bit to get this season on a roll!


----------



## SELL-FISH

Can't wait to try the news ones but these are still my favorite.


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## All Eyes

SELL-FISH said:


> View attachment 222341
> Can't wait to try the news ones but these are still my favorite.


Awesome looking baits!


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## TIGGER

Thanks Scott I am glad you like them. I keep loosing the ones in my box because the steelhead keep breaking them off! There are 4 fresh ones in the works for my tacklebox. I like to run those in the summer behind a dipsey.












I think they work good in the fall because the walleyes are looking for the shad. Found these in the livewell our last time out last fall.


----------



## SELL-FISH

My favorite box.


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## TIGGER

Here a couple fresh off the wheel this morning.

I had an older shad body style that I wanted to move the diving lip down and extend the nose of the bait more over the diving lip. This allows the bait to have a lower center of gravity with a very wide wobble. At night the big walleye come up high in the water column pressing the bait against the surface. The biggest mistake people make is they refuse to believe the walleye will come up that high and run their lures under the fish. This should make the bait run in the top five foot and be easy to pick out with thousands of shad around.



















This body style is thicker along the size of a magnum hot-n-tot. I little faster paced wobble . I was thinking since the walleye usually feed up at night the wider body may stand out. With the full moons at times with clear water the black body may stand out.











Of coarse you always need a perch pattern. Green and gold foiled sides










I have done very well on this body pattern in the past. Thought I would try some holographic foil and big eyes to match the hatch. They run only 3 foot down max.

























This is a little 2" gold foiled shad body. The dang steelhead always take their share of these on break-offs. The inline planer boards can't move that fast and break the leaders.












The minor league team picture shot. We will see which ones will move up into the big tackle bag.


----------



## HappySnag

TIGGER said:


> Here a couple fresh off the wheel this morning.
> 
> I had an older shad body style that I wanted to move the diving lip down and extend the nose of the bait more over the diving lip. This allows the bait to have a lower center of gravity with a very wide wobble. At night the big walleye come up high in the water column pressing the bait against the surface. The biggest mistake people make is they refuse to believe the walleye will come up that high and run their lures under the fish. This should make the bait run in the top five foot and be easy to pick out with thousands of shad around.
> 
> 
> View attachment 222419
> View attachment 222420
> 
> 
> 
> This body style is thicker along the size of a magnum hot-n-tot. I little faster paced wobble . I was thinking since the walleye usually feed up at night the wider body may stand out. With the full moons at times with clear water the black body may stand out.
> 
> 
> View attachment 222421
> 
> 
> Of coarse you always need a perch pattern. Green and gold foiled sides
> 
> View attachment 222422
> 
> 
> I have done very well on this body pattern in the past. Thought I would try some holographic foil and big eyes to match the hatch. They run only 3 foot down max.
> 
> View attachment 222423
> View attachment 222424
> View attachment 222425
> 
> 
> 
> This is a little 2" gold foiled shad body. The dang steelhead always take their share of these on break-offs. The inline planer boards can't move that fast and break the leaders.
> 
> 
> View attachment 222426
> 
> 
> 
> The minor league team picture shot. We will see which ones will move up into the big tackle bag.
> 
> View attachment 222427


butyful job on the lures.
one night I remember casting HJ#14 about 90' out of the rocks,it hit water,i start realing and the eye hit that lure very close to surfice.i got few fish like that.


----------



## TIGGER

Thanks Snag, 

I can't tell you how many times while turning on the back boat light a fish would just swim by. 

After taking the hooks out of netted fish I like to toss the bait over the side of the boat to get it out of the way. The lure usually trolls along a foot behind the motor or so until I am ready to run it back out. I bet your at least 5 times over the years I have had a fish grab it that close! The next thing you know the rod is flipping out the boat because it is not in a rod holder. LOL


----------



## TIGGER

This is an experimental body a messed around with a couple summers ago. I ended up making 3 prototype bodies in a makeshift mold that fell apart on the third one. Pieced it back together and made a couple more. I finished this one last night. It has a good hunting action and will turn on a dime. The flat wide back helps it dive deeper by extending the diving lip plane. 


































Here is a underwater video of it . I am going to give it a good run this fall night bite.


----------



## TIGGER

A couple more that wrapped up also. With the incredible walleye hatches the last two years there are millions of baby walleye swimming around. I don't see why they wouldn't hit these. The body size is the same size as the stocked trout that were in the their belly's from this spring. Think they will do well when the water hits 42 degrees. 

Here is a pic of the stomach bait I traced for the shape of this lure body. This was a baby lake trout 7" long


----------



## SELL-FISH

Unreal man I can't wait to run em.


----------



## All Eyes

The seeking movement and tight action of that bait looks very promising. Eyes should gobble those up.


----------



## TIGGER

Thanks eyes, working on one last shad style bait and then I think I am ready to go fishing. I love the Fall,


----------



## SELL-FISH

Ready set get wet. . Thanks again man beautiful.


----------



## TIGGER

Nice Scott and good luck. 

I hope to get out this weekend to do some field testing. 


After catching those walleyes this spring that were full of trout stockings I decided to make a baby steelhead pattern. Silver and green foil sides with blue pearlized paint.


----------



## All Eyes

Looks dynamite as usual John. Very cool pattern. I like the extended nose on those baits. Let us know how they run for you.


----------



## heron153

I think in general people don't realize how big a bait will get bit. Some nights they key on the size of the bait in the water, but anyone who cleans fish knows they est big stuff too. I know of walleye that had 13" gizzard shad in them


----------



## TIGGER

Thanks eyes, 
The extended nose works great for the night bite style lures. It allows the bait to swim easily at very slow speeds and still reach a depth of 6 to 8 foot. The bait will swim level instead of that hard diving angle. I just finished 4 new shads and a little lake trout similar to the one above. They are spinning on the drying wheel. Will post some pics tomorrow. Field testing tomorrow night! 

Heron,
I am with you on big baits = bigger fish when it comes to fishing by schools of shad. The key is being in the right spot at the right time. That is why I make so many different sized shad baits. Shad will school together in similar sizes. If you happen to identify the shad size that night you can "Match the hatch". The other important thing is to be closer to shore when running the larger baits. Rocky shorelines are the best.
Over the years fishing Lake Erie I have had fish with 13" perch , 10" white bass and 12" baby walleyes in their stomachs. 
LaDue, I live close to this lake. When I first started night fishing I would stand on the causeway and cast for them when they run the shoreline. When the bite dies after the spawn people think they are done and off to deep water. The one thing that people don't realize is the large females will take 7 to 10 days off to give their bodies a break / recovery. They will lay on the bottom for a week or so and they come right back onto the rocks in the same spots ready stuff themselves. You will catch a lot less fish but the ones you will catch will be trophy type fish. Big baits like F-18's and larger saltwater bombers are great baits to use. I caught one fish that had a 13" baby walleye in its belly. The tail was sticking out of its mouth and still hit my bait.

Big walleyes are lazy. They do not like to chase baits that are trolled to fast and they really like to hit baits that are a little out of control. I think it is because it looks like an easy target to hit with little worry of it scampering away. Many of the night walleye baits I make are for very slow speeds and on the edge of "out of control". If you have ever seen a wounded or dying shad they have a crazy action. 

Big baits really work well when the water temp is around 38 to 44 degrees.


----------



## TIGGER

Well I got them cleaned up and the hooks attached.

This one is a lake trout pattern. The feds stocked some lake trout back into Lake Erie to bring back native species. We found some of them in the walleye stomachs. 












This is a new shad body I am excited about. I played around with a bunch of metal foil combinations.


----------



## TIGGER

I started thinking of big fish we have caught that had large bait in their stomachs. Here are some photos over the last 5 years.

This was a 9 pound walleye summer fishing that spit up a 11" perch as soon as we laid in the boat.




















This was 12 plus pound range fish that had many large yellow and white perch in its stomach. I was trying to get Bernie to mount it but it went under the knife.



















This was a 12 pound range fish that hit a musky bait sized lure late in the season. The bait is close to 10" long. We released her to fight another day.











Match the hatch!


----------



## chatterbox

Tigger, those are some sweet baits. Are You having any problems getting plastic micro floatation balls? I read they were used in soap and Obama made them illegal.


----------



## TIGGER

Hey Chatterbox, I bought a 5 gallon bucket of them years ago and down to half a bucket. They are also used in the fiberglass industry to help make sanding easier for the resins. I did not hear that.


----------



## Hammerhead54

Hello, I just stumbled across this post and I have to say that those are some incredible looking crankbaits. I tried making a couple crankbaits last winter, but after a couple of uses, the clear coat turned milky in spots. Would you mind sharing what you use for the clear coat on your baits?


----------



## TIGGER

Hello Hammer, 
I use envirotex as my top coat. It is a 2 part epoxy mixed with equal parts of A and B. After the clear coat is applied I spin them on a wheel at 3 rpm per minute until they dry. If kept in constant motion the epoxy will not drip or sag. You can also let the bait drip dry on a hanging wire.

The finish you may be using is turning white because the water is breaking it down. Sometimes when I am testing a bait with a new lip the 5 minute epoxy will turn white in the 5 minutes I am casting it around the pond. 

What finish did you use?

I will post pics of things in my shop that I use to make the lures. All the pretty lure pics are fun but this a tackle making forum. Let do some bait building! This week I will do some pics on how to make a shad bait from scratch. Then I will show how to make a silicone production mold so you can make multiples of a body style you create.

John


----------



## TIGGER

Lets make a bait...

I am thinking I want something with a shad / minnow body. It needs to have a good wobble at slow speeds and around the 4" length. I sketched out some body shapes to explain actions.











#1 is very similar to a real shads body shape
#2 has a little more curve to the body that would create a decent wobble. The fat head would struggle slow
#3 has little thicker body but may wobble good a slower speed ( 1.5 MPH) Possible option
#4 has the profile I may be looking for and will wobble good at slower speeds. Should cut the water nice.
#5 has a good shad body but the tall head and straighter back would not be an option at slower speeds
#6 would be a good musky bait profile that could be run a faster speeds with a large lip. 

Curved backed bodies work well for deep diving baits and wobble at slow speeds. Straight backs work harder so lead weighting and specific lip placement is critical.

#4 will be the go design for this bait.


Next thing I do is cut the paper template out and glue it to the wood. Cedar is my choice. It is wood that will not expand if it soaks up water and has a lively action.











There are many ways to cut the body shape, jig saws , hand coping saws and bandsaws. 


















After cutting the shape I used my disc sander to shape it to the pencil lines.


I like to taper the tail part of the lure. I draw a center line along with taper lines and sand to them.


----------



## TIGGER

The next thing we need to do is round the sharp edges. I like to use a hand dremel with a drum sander then followed with a lot of old school hand sanding.


















Once I am happy with the equal sided shaping I am ready to figure out the lip placement. Many people will cut the lips before tapering the tail section. I like to free hand it. If I am crooked I can always straighten it with the 5 minute epoxy I will using for the lip insertion.

For basic lure action I like to have the lip follow the head angle in the same line.










I cut the lip on the bandsaw with a shim under the tail to get the bait back a level plane for cutting. There are many sources for lip profiles online. I will print off pages and resize them with my home computer.











When I find a lip I will make copies of the same lip and cut them out for cutting templates. For your lips you should use lexan plastic. I bought this at home depot or lowes . 1/8" thickness. Cut out your template and glue it to the lexan. The lexan has a protective plastic film on both sides.


----------



## TIGGER

Make sure the lip will fit in the slot and check for straightness. I was a little crooked so I widened the slot a tick. As my 5 minute epoxy sets I can tweek it straight. No need to worry! Make this fun!

When making your line tie it needs to be long to anchor inside the chest cavity of the wooden body.










Before I get to far ahead I want to explain line tie location. Insert your lip prior to this and draw a pencil line around the nose contour.










I have 1-3/4" from the nose to the end of the lip. I want to draw a center line half the distance. This is an very important line!!!!!!! If you cross it or hit it your bait will not work. You need to have your line tie between the center line to the wood nose. This is where the fun of bait building starts to appear. There are a thousand actions you can achieve in that little zone. Closer to the center line the wider the swing. Closer to the nose the tighter the wobble action. I like 2/3 the distance away. Drill your holes.

I buy soft stainless wire. Many are available. Since the line tie is longer than your lip slot you need to drill a hole below your lip slot.


















You can now glue the lip in. I use 5 minute epoxy. Take a wire and make sure there is plenty of glue in the anchor hole.


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## TIGGER

I like to take the extra epoxy and smear it on the wood body. It will seal the body.

Next we need to add the screw eyes. Stainless work the best and I ordered them from Netcraft.










Glue those in with a second mixing of epoxy and coat the rest of the body out.










After it dries completely tape off the lip for the primer coat.

Primer the lure and let it dry overnight. A good start to this project.











The body does not need to be perfect. Once we start to apply the epoxy coats it will all level out smooth as glass.

Part 2 coming...........


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## TIGGER

If you get epoxy on the lip don't worry. Rubbing alcohol will remove it quickly. The Lexan will be fine. Don't use lacquer thinner ! It will fog the clear plastic.


----------



## Hammerhead54

I used 2 part dev-con epoxy. I let the finish cure for 5 day before putting the lures to use, and I was surprised that the finish turned milky in spots. However, I only used one coat and it may be that I should have used multiple coats. Thank you for sharing your finish product, and I look forward to to seeing your future posts. I find lure making to be a fun and interesting experience and I enjoy catching fish on home made lures, although mine look quite amateurish in comparison. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. By the way, what kind of wood to you use? (I made mine from some redwood I had left over from a remodel job).


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## TIGGER

Hey Hammer, I like using the cedar and the redwood because both do not swell with water. Mahogany is another excellent wood. In the past I have used cherry , maple and poplar. but have had them split over time with water.
Mostly now I make resin bodies for the baits . You can reference a thread called "Pandora's Box" in this forum from years ago. I have learned many things since then and will share them next after the current wood build. Hopefully it will help with small baits and resins.

The pretty baits look good to people but I truly don't think the fish care. Some of my best baits are rattle canned white with no clear coat.


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## All Eyes

Good stuff John. Great info for understanding the process along with the different shapes and actions. Agreed that pretty baits don't catch more fish, but your work covers both bases. Besides, who wants a box full of ugly lures? 
Since I've gotten away from any quick set epoxy I haven't had any issues with cloudiness or water penetration. Mixing 2 part epoxy well cannot be overstated. I seal my baits with Envirotex lite epoxy slightly thinned with denatured alcohol. For the finish coats I use it straight 50/50 A and B. Devcon 2 ton is what I use to glue my lips and screw eyes. Cedar is also my choice of wood. 
Making my own lure shapes is fun, but there are also templates out there for those that aren't comfortable with drawing their own designs. Here is one example of a typical shad bait. It shows where to place belly weights (I use lead split shot) and also the top profile as well as the lip. It also shows the line for making a 2 piece bait if you want. Another option to printing templates is to hold a piece of paper on to a PC monitor and trace them. Sounds funny, but it seems like my printer is always out of ink.  You can make the image whatever size you want with programs such as Paint.
And here is a PDF file of lip templates also. 
https://thecrankbaitmasterclass.com/webinar/diving-lip-materials.pdf


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## TIGGER

Great stuff eyes! I took a break last night to watch the election.

Hope get back to it tonight. 

Side note... I have been having trouble with my left hand going numb and my thumb sticking open and close I went to see a hand specialist yesterday. Looks like I will need to go under the knife to correct Carpal Tunnel and a trigger thumb on left hand. Sucks getting old! LOL Friday I have an appointment to do testing for nerve damage. Hope next Tuesday to get the surgery scheduled. I want to do both procedures at the same time. I may be reeling fish with my armpit. LOL


----------



## TIGGER

So I got back to working on the lure again last night. 

My primer was dry and I wanted to put some base colors down. I am not so worried about it being perfect and have been spraying my lures with a 12 dollar Harbor Freight airbrush. You can see my dots are blown out and you can see the finger smudge ridges from spreading the 5 minute epoxy around with my fingers for the original sealer coat. I have been using a newer style Testors paint I bought at Micheal's craft store. It sprays nice in my cheap airbrush and they have all sorts of bright colors. No odor















So next I will peel the tape back to the light tie so the epoxy will leak under the tape and create a mess. I use Envirotex two part epoxy for my top coats and will usually only coat the walleye lures two times. What I like to do is add more paint layered over the first coat of epoxy. If I don't like how it looks I can wipe it off and start over.

I will take the two little Dixie cups and measure the two parts of epoxy equally.











I like to add glitter to my top coats and bought this at wally world in the craft section. Mix the two parts together before adding glitter.


----------



## TIGGER

Make sure the epoxy is mixed for at least 5 minutes. It will start to turn from a milky color to clear. One thing I have learned is the epoxy stays in the cup it will start to super heat on its own from the chemical reaction. So I take a shallow lid or tray and pour the epoxy in it. This will keep the epoxy from getting too hot too quick and give you a longer working time if you are coating multiple lures. Plus the air bubbles only need to rise 1/8" to the reach the surface. You can now take a torch and lightly remove any air bubbles.











I like to use a cheap fan brush to coat my lures. It makes it nice getting in little tight spots around the lip. Just make sure you clean it out after you are done. It will last a long time! Rubbing alcohol will do the trick.












After I get it coated I will place it on my drying wheel to spin over night. I will shoot a little video on my last coat so you can see how this is done.

This is the dry lure today. You can see how the epoxy smoothed out the all the imperfections and helps round out the nose and throat areas around the lip. This really helps with the action of the lure.










When trying a new body shape for the first time I will attach the hooks and test it.












Wowza! does it have nice action!!!!!!!!!! I have not done a lot of these banana style bodies and can really see the nice wobble this body style achieves. Kinda like a Reef Runner!

So I will remove the hooks and re-tape the lure lip off in preparation for the final paint coat.

Part 3 coming soon....


----------



## silver shad

Thanks John Great Stuff
Thanks For Sharing


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## 6lbtest

Yes John, Thanks for sharing! I look forward to seeing how you make a mold and pour a resin bait!


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## All Eyes

Excellent how-to info John. Looking forward to the rest and also would love to see the resin bait process. Sure hope that your surgery and issues with your hands is a smooth and speedy ordeal.


----------



## TIGGER

Well I finished off the lure last night.

I really like the action of this lure and want to run it at very slow speeds in the top 2 foot of water so... I decided to add a little weighting if I was going to troll it at 1 mph.

The lure runs fantastic "as is" if I was going to use it in the summer at 2.5 mph but I was hoping for night cold water walleye.

I Drilled a 1/4 hole in the throat area to add some shotgun pellets, then added a quick dab of 5 minute epoxy to seal it.










The funny thing it runs great and has a little rattle sound from hitting line tie in the chest cavity. LOL

Next we need to start the final painting of the lure. Scales can be achieved by using mess netting that can be bought at any fabric store. The women will love you when you start checking out the fancy bolts of fabric in that section. LOL











You can buy will cheap spring clamps at the dollar store to wrap the lure.


Next I fired up my 12 dollar airbrush and loaded it with purple paint for the back scales.
























As you spray along the body you can change the colors. I like to use a pearl white on the side. It is sort of transparent and allows a little of your base color to show thru. Just wash out the airbrush with water and change colors. The patterns are unlimited and you can recreate some of your favorites on your homemade ones.

We need to paint a gill plate to show a head on the bait. I will save clear plastic from whatever I find in daily life. Toy boxes, milk cartons, etc. just draw a swoop and cut it out with scissors.










This is a neat little way to add bars to your bait. Use a hair comb and spray over it.


----------



## TIGGER

So next we need to add some eyes. There are many different types and colors. Netcraft has a nice selection of them. There are many suppliers. You and even just add a spot of paint if you like.
One little trick I use ... I like to add a little spot of glue under the eye to hold it in place. The eyes have an adhesive but sometimes they come loose with the warm epoxy and spinning all night. You may find an eye on the belly in the morning if you don't . LOL











All that is left is peal the tape back on the lip and put your marking on the tail area.

Just repeat the epoxy mixing process and coat the lure.

After the lure is dry for a day you can drill out the hook ties and add split rings and hooks.

You can see all the imperfections at the start are erased with the epoxy coats. The simple base coat patterns show thru adding a complex pattern look.


----------



## TIGGER

I shot a little video of the drying wheel and this lure swimming in the water. 









It should be a great catching lure!


----------



## All Eyes

Another beauty. You sure know how to get the most out of spray cans and cheap airbrushes. Looks like it runs great too! Very cool.
Lately I've been using open end screw eyes so I can add a split ring before installing them. Just cinch them closed with pliers. I hate putting split rings on! My eyes are terrible, and it also helps not to spring them out of shape.


----------



## SELL-FISH

The action on the new shad is going to be deadly. Can't wait for the water to cool down


----------



## All Eyes

SELL-FISH said:


> The action on the new shad is going to be deadly. Can't wait for the water to cool down


It's dropping fast. Won't be long now. Go gettum!


----------



## TIGGER

I ran it for a couple hours last night trolling the edge of shad school. Super happy how it wobbles but the walleyes never came to the shad buffet. The south wind pushed them out. Still cant believe the water temp is 54 degrees but I think that is about to change. Snowing pretty good now here in the snow belt.


----------



## TIGGER

This is an amazing video of layering paint and epoxy to achieve super realistic finishes. 

The important thing is to downsize your original lure blank to account for the buildup of epoxy layers. You can really make your lures pop with this layer technique. Not sure if the fish care but it is sure a lot of fun to do! LOL

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...3B5B5125D766C36894953&fsscr=-1485&FORM=VDFSRV


----------



## TIGGER

Another one. 


https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...68ADEF2F8A211A06EED568ADE&fsscr=0&FORM=VDFSRV


----------



## TIGGER

Well it is that time to make a resin bait mold.

If you have a wood body you like this a great alternative for duplicating it.

Luremaking resin is a two part A & B liquid when mixed together becomes a solid in a matter of minutes.


First things first... we need to choose what type of body we would like to do. I wanted to make a little shorter smelt bait that was a tad bit thicker than ones I have made in the past. So I sketched one out on some hard maple. Maple sands out real nice and doesn't show too much wood grain.












Shape out your body using similar steps like the wood one we made previously. Cut your lip slot at the angle you like.











The next thing we need to is locate the area we would like to have our belly hook. I like to put it just forward of the thickest / widest part of the body. We will barely indent the body with a drill bit. 



















The type of mold we are going to make is called a slip mold. This is a mold that is poured around an object that is suspended in the middle of a container. We are going to use an empty paper towel roll for this one.


----------



## TIGGER

The challenge is holding the bait in the middle of the paper towel roll. What I like to do is use pieces of wire drilled thru the container hitting the center line mark of the bait on its belly and back. Choose one of the small belly indent holes and drill a 1/4" deep into the body. The hole size should match your wire diameter.










Make sure you leave the nose of the bait about a half inch away from the end of your tube. We are going to set up the mold with the head down. Drill a hole in the back of the bait on its center line. This will usually be the highest part of the arched back on this style bait. Check to see if the bait will hold itself in the tube.











I will also add a wire in the end of the tail and bend it over the outside of the tube. This will for sure keep the bait from spinning the tube. If your bait moves while pouring the silicone into the tube it will cause many problems. 
Next I will get a flat piece of wood to use as a base. You can take either a hot glue gun or 5 minute epoxy to glue down the tube to the base.











Make sure there are no gaps in the attachment. Silicone takes hours to set and it will find its way out leaking all over the bench. 

I also like to take of the epoxy and dab it on the exterior of the tube where the wire pops out. Add some to the top wire also.











Check that everything is secure and stable.

We are now ready to mix the RTV silicone. There are many makers of RTV silicone and it comes in different hardness. I always use a middle of the road hardness. People that have highly detailed objects will use a softer hardness to keep more of the details. You can buy RTV silicone from many places from ebay to searches on the internet. It is not cheap so really pay attention to how you want to use it.

RTV silicone will never harden without the hardener. Each manufacturer has its own mixing ratios. I am using one that needs 10 percent hardener.


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## TIGGER

Make sure you really mix it well. There is no rush because the silicone takes hours to set.

Now we are ready to pour it into the mold. If you pour it slow and to one side it will force the air out of the lip slot.



















I like to pour about 1/2" higher over top the wood body. As it sits the air bubbles will rise and pop as it settles.













I will let this sit overnight and we will be able to make dozens of baits tomorrow in only a couple of hours.

Part 2 coming..........


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## silver shad

Thanks John for sharing


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## TIGGER

So it is time use the mold after sitting over night.

Peel the cardboard off the silicone core.










You can see the hole where the wire was in the top center of the baits back. We now need to razor blade a clean cut down the middle of the back. You will be able to see which side was the head by looking on the reverse sides wire hole. 

We DO NOT want to cut to high into the head area. Cut down the center of the bait's back down to the tail.










Cut just past the tail so you can get your fingers around the tail of the bait. The silicone is very flexible and will stretch. You can now slide the bait out backwards from your mold.










If you remember we made those little indentations where the belly hook loop will go. I now know that is the center line of the bait.
You can now choose if you are going to use screw eyes or use hand bent wire loops. If you are going to use screw eyes your mold is ready to use as is. If you are going to use bent wire loops a little work is needed.

We take a razor knife and cut a clean slot between the belly holes. This will allow you to insert a wire loop.











Next you need to all the way thru the tail piece so we can insert the tail loop












You can buy soft stainless wire from ebay or any other supplier on the web. Just take something round and twist your wires as such


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## TIGGER

So now we can talk resin.

Resin is mixed in a 1 to 1 ratio. (equal parts) 










There are many types of casting resins. 

The problem with pure resin mixtures is that they sink! This is why we need to add micro balloons. Micro balloons are a white powder that expands during the heat reaction of the resin mixtures. They create mini air bubbles in the body so that it floats










You need to add your micro balloons to each part separate first before you mix the two resin parts together.

I put around 1 cup of each resin in separate cups. You do not need to make giant batches and will be amazed how many baits you can get from 2 cups total of resins.










So next I added about a 1/2 cup of micro balloons to resin type. Make sure you really mix in the micro balloons like a protein shake- No clumps. Each resin type weighs different and can be a nightmare if you use a scale. So I just a Dixie cup and make a little mark on each cup. They need to be mixed in equal volumes so make your marks at equal levels. 










It may take a couple attempts to dial in the right amount for your mold. Just move your measure mark up or down accordingly. The cup is just transparent enough to see the liquid levels in your cups.


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## TIGGER

One very important thing is to keep mixing your materials. The micro balloons will float so keep them mixed good.

Fill each cup to your level lines and then combine them in a separate larger cup. I like to mix them together for about 20 to 30 seconds. It will start to get warm and then pour it into your mold. 


















If you carve a little hole area in the top of the mold it will allow you to pour the liquid inside. I placed rubber bands around the mold just tight enough to hold its shape. If you make them to tight it will distort your body.

Fill it to the top and pic up the mold and rock it tail to head slightly. This will allow any air bubbles to escape. There should not be too many because we set up our mold in this manner to allow the highest part of the bait body at the peak / crest. Be careful not to tip it to much to spill it out.









Place it down level and wait for the reaction. It will start to flow out the top and the reaction starts like a volcano.


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## TIGGER

You will be able to see it turn hard. I suggest in the earlier few castings to let it sit in there for 10 minutes. If you warm your mold slightly it will quicken the reaction. Pop the head off carefully , remove the rubber bands and remove the bait as you did with the master wood body.










You can see that I didn't need to go thru the trouble of adding screw eyes because I used wire loops. The bait will start to get very hot to the touch when removed from the rubber mold. This will really harden the body. Fresh out of the mold the bait body is flexible until the reaction is complete so be careful to keep it straight.

Earlier I mentioned about not cutting up to high on the head. You will need to experiment with your body shape as you remove it from the master. I didn't cut high enough and broke off some noses. I simple adjustment to extend the cut and had no further problems.










The top pouring plugs and be cut off with a bandsaw or just sanded down. The baits sand well when freshly cast. The longer they sit the harder they are to sand. I will sand the previous bait while the next one is hardening in the mold.

In about 40 minutes I cast 7 bodies ( two nose breaks before adjustment) and got 5 good bodies done. I probably can get at least 4 more bodies with the remaining batch


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## TIGGER

So in a 24 hour time period I was able to carve a body , make a mold. and cast at least a dozen baits. There is not doubt resin baits go fast. 
There are so many things you can do with resins. You can make model car parts , toy soldiers , and even holiday decorations.


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## All Eyes

Thank You for taking the time to show the process you use. I keep saying it, but soon I will venture into resin bait making and this will be great reference material. My friend gave me a copy of Larry's Workshop DVD, and between the two I should have all the info I need to get started. Thanks again!


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## TIGGER

Eyes the one thing nice about the molded bait bodies is it leaves more time to work on finishes instead of carving bodies. Plus you can experiment with all types of different lips with having a constant body shape.

There are many different ways to make silicone molds. The slip mold is the simplest. There is a minimum amount seams to sand also. 

Key points to be aware of:
- If a bait sinks the chance of it swimming correctly is highly reduced. Mold your first bait and check it in some water. Try to account for the additional weight of hooks , split rings and lips. You can always add more micro balloons to your mixture. Just make sure you more equally to each resin
- The resin expands so try to keep silicon mold confined as much as possible. This will force the excess resin to flow out the top of the mold keeping the body shape constant. If the mold expands your body will be distorted.
- There are resins out there that can be bought that already have micro balloons in them. I believe it is Smooth- on products.
- I like to warm the mold first to help with the reaction process in the thinner areas of the bait.
- Screw eyes work fine also. Just be careful to drill a pilot hole so not to split the tail.
- I like the baits to sit around for a week most of the time to let the resin reaction to completely finish before the painting process.
- If you have trouble with fish eyes in your paint one of two things happened. You have some contamination due to resins not equally mixed or you have raw RTV silicone around your work surface area.
- I like to make the silicone mold part far away from my paint / assembly area. That raw stuff never dries and can really spread all over without you even noticing it .
- I like to at least lightly sand the entire area of the bait even if there is nothing to sand. It helps I believe with paint sticking to body.
- Before painting I like to wipe the bait down with lacquer thinner.

You can make all sorts of baits using this method from frog bass baits to giant musky bait.


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## All Eyes

All great info. I'm sure it will take me some time to figure out the weighting in some different body styles but it looks like it would be real easy to drill and add belly weight if need be. I love making and fishing with wood baits, but making duplicates that fast would be really cool.


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## TIGGER

Well it always seems that I catch the big ones when the weather is on the edge of out of control before a big front moves in. Bernie and I fished last night in 3 to 5 foot swells. We had a couple nasty falls during the adventure but it all worked out in the end. 

The fish was caught on one of the new shad baits I made recently. Could not get a money shot between her bleeding badly and the large swells.












Had it officially weighed at Erie Outfitters today for the Fall Brawl at 11.435 pounds. Currently in 4th place but there will be some big fish coming in this week. I am just don't think she has enough to hold a money spot.


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## All Eyes

Congrats on another quality fish John! That makes up for a rough night on the water. My sea legs get more wobbly every year. Great looking shad bait there too. Love the big eyes on that one.


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## HappySnag

All Eyes said:


> Congrats on another quality fish John! That makes up for a rough night on the water. My sea legs get more wobbly every year. Great looking shad bait there too. Love the big eyes on that one.


nice fish,i like your work,and very good tutorial.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys, The night bite is one of my most favorite things.

The big fish are rolling in this week. I think there are 3 fish over 12 pounds now with the biggest at 12.88.

The tournament ends Sunday morning at 8 am and hope to get out at 2 more times before that.

My most favorite time is late December after the tournament with the water temp 35 to 38 degree range. 99 percent of the boats are gone and fish are stuffing themselves with shad close to rocks.


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## TIGGER

Well I got those 5 bodies painted in some of my favorite big fish patterns and ready for the final day of brawl tomorrow. I think we are going to fish 16 hrs straight for one final push. 

I am real happy with the new waggle of this modified smelt body and have a good feeling.











I messed around with glitters from wally world on this one













I wanted to get one more the silverfish shads done in time so I tried some of the gold leaf stuff from Micheal's craft store but in a silver leaf for this shad. I am happy about the silver flash, wish the camera picked it up a little better. 











This is one of the fat bodies with a cool blue neon translucent paint I found in the sale bin. It looks like Elmers glue when you apply it and as it dries turns into ghostly haze blue that looks like it hovers around the body. Maybe will be good for low light conditions.















Just one part of the puzzle!


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## chatterbox

Real works of art. Good Luck brawlin, and be safe.


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## All Eyes

Just awesome! Love that head shot with the sparkles and the pink nose foil shad. Looking forward to seeing how you did.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys, 
We gave it our best shot and fished the 16 hrs straight. Lots of fish but only 9 pounders being the largest for that stretch. Funny when you think about it not happy catching only 9 pound fish. LOL

The first fish out of the box hit one of the new ones. I call this pattern " Big Blue". 40 foot back at 1.5 mph. It was an 8 pound fish.










This shad took some solid fish at 24 back after dark.










Should be fun in the next couple weeks with the reduced boat traffic to sneak around shad rock points. The water temp. last night was 45.6 degrees. I really like it around 42 degrees for the big heavies. 

It has been a really weird Fall fish season with the warmer than normal water temps. The fish just do not want to come in close to shore from Cleveland and to the East. I like to troll close to structure but the fish seem to like the open water more. We will see what the colder temps will bring!


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## chatterbox

That's funny, complain about 9lb walleye! That 2ton epoxy sure is a tough finish. Seems like there has been an abnormal amount of south winds to keep bait blown out also. That shad perfectly matches the hatch. Keep us posted with reports.


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## TIGGER

Sounds good Chatterbox! It was as very odd year east of Cleveland. I pay close attention to the shore guys and they were struggling east.
I think the warm water temps made the fish slide west faster than normal.


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## EStrong

Both you and All Eyes have made some incredible looking lures! I've enjoyed checking out both of your threads. Feel free to send some my way! LOL...


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## TIGGER

Thanks Estrong, 
Got up early this morning and shaped out some bodies that I hoping to use still this Fall.
Unfortunately I woke up to this on my back deck this morning. We have had close to 22" of snow in the last 30 hours here in Burton. A tight lake effect snow ban set up and started dumping on us!


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## chatterbox

Wow TIGGER! Channel 19 weather says You could get another foot by tomorrow. Here at West Branch just sprits a flurry or two. I worked in Solon before retiring, sure don't miss the drive.


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## TIGGER

Oh great! LOL I haven't watched the weather yet today. Snuck down stairs most of the day and messed around with some musky and walleye lures.

My wife works in Solon at Nestle. 

Do you fish West Branch a lot? I know they have been catching nice muskies on the West end in 4 foot of water.


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## chatterbox

I don't musky fish, but am real good at feeding them shad raps while after walleye. HA! HA! HA! One heck of a musky lake. I live three miles east of the dam. Ya that west end shallow warmer water is where the shad should be. Up in the bays also hold nice northern pike in late fall. The creek chubs also move to the lake from the Mahoning River.


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## All Eyes

chatterbox said:


> I don't musky fish, but am real good at feeding them shad raps while after walleye. HA! HA! HA! One heck of a musky lake. I live three miles east of the dam. Ya that west end shallow warmer water is where the shad should be. Up in the bays also hold nice northern pike in late fall. The creek chubs also move to the lake from the Mahoning River.


Boy do I envy your location. West Branch, Berlin, and Milton all within a short drive. Do you by any chance need a room mate?


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## All Eyes

Thought I would post something cool that Shawn (Many Eyes) made from casting resin. The last time we trolled for night eyes we played hell fiddling around with dying glow sticks in poor visibility. Shawn came up with these waterproof LED lights that mount to the boards. He's a fellow bait maker and talented fabricator all around. He was thinking about making a bunch of these for E-bay and I told him to go for it. They might do really well?


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## chatterbox

All Eyes said:


> Boy do I envy your location. West Branch, Berlin, and Milton all within a short drive. Do you by any chance need a room mate?


Thanks, It is not by accident. I grew up in Alliance and worked as a tool and die maker in Canton. Union Metal closed their doors during the recession of 1984 so I left Ohio for work. When I moved back to Ohio in 1995 I was very familiar with the area. I get some real nice walleye out of West Branch. Not big numbers but quality fish. The dam at Milton was rebuilt while I lived Out of state, It is no where near the walleye lake it was in the 60's, But still has a fair population. Berlin has always been my favorite, just wish it was like when I was a teenager, But I wish I was like when I was a teenager. HA! HA! HA! 

I like Shawn's lights. Why don't You ask the Erie night biters for their opinions to get a feel for the market? Would they also work for courtesy lights inside the boat?


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## TIGGER

Eyes I was thinking the same thing that Chatterbox lives right there! Jealous!!!!!

I think my friend Sly caught this musky yesterday at the Branch, looks cold!












The walleye are doing great in that lake. So many years without a stocking program the fish were reproducing on their own. I spent a lot of time fishing after dark with fellow OGF member "Jig" chasing those walleyes. If I remember correctly they started stocking it again a couple of years ago. Wasn't there a Western Reserve Walleye tournament there last year? Crazy good stuff!


Many Eyes that is a great idea!!!!!!!!!!! Super slick!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never tried the night program at West Branch for walleyes and inline trolling boards. But I have tried it at mosquito with a lot of success! I would troll down the dam face and up to the white crane on the east side and catch my limit of walleyes. One night I thought I had the state record running my inline board way out to the pump house almost hitting it. The board disappeared and the reel was screaming. Turned out to be a 36" northern pike. A few pics and let her go!


Well I had my surgery today to fix a trigger thumb , carpal tunnel , and move a nerve in my elbow. It was on my left arm. Pain isn't bad and should make a full recovery in 4 to 6 weeks. My hand and arm would go numb and just drop things out of the blue. The brace is really helping it stay still.


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## chatterbox

That is a true trophy in anyone's book. NICE !!! I get them, but It is by accident. They love #9 shad raps in that lake. My wallet says so! Those shad baits would sure get them. 

TIGGER, glad Your surgery went good. Get better soon.


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## Many Eyes

Chatterbox, The lights screw on with stainless screws, so you could put them wherever you want too.

Thanks all eyes for posting them pics!

Thanks Tigger, Your stuff if so amazing, cant stop looking at it. Get better soon!
I really hate the glow stick idea, I'm really happy with the way they turned out!


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## Many Eyes

finally got pics of them on the boards!


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## chatterbox

Many Eyes those look good. May want to think patent. I hope Missouri is good to You, and congrats on such a nice buck. Real nice hearing from You.


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## Many Eyes

Thanks chatterbox! I'm doing good out here. Trying to get the shop done so I can start making lures again tigger and all eyes are driving me crazy with all the great pics of there work!!


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## TIGGER

Those lights look great installed on the boards!

Thanks for the kind words about the recovery. I went back to work today and the arm doesn't hurt to bad.

I have the luremaking itch this winter and should be fun sharing ideas. Hope some other people post their baits they make on here. I don't want this to be all about my lures. Just a run thread about walleye fishing!

I do have the desire to make some icefishing walleye jig baits and started messing around with some. Looks like at this rate the lakes will freeze up solid. Hoping to fish Erie this winter.

Eyes made some cool jigging spoons before and I often think about those baits.


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## Many Eyes

Thanks tigger!! I hope your right about ice this year!! I will definitely be headed back if the ice on Erie is good!! We will have to hook up and fish together if we get ice.! I love messing around with ice jigs it is fun!! Hopefully I will be posting pics of lures real soon, it's been to long since I've thrown paint around on lures!!! 
Happy painting guys!!


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## K gonefishin

John I have some old original Jig a whopper lead blanks (a ton of them) if you want to play around with painting some, I have more than I'll ever use, I contacted the guy who originally made them before HT took over the company these are the last remaining ones but if you want to paint and epoxy them let me know and I'll send you some to play around with. I painted some they look very cool. They are good for Erie when not much current and they work great on inland lakes as well.


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## TIGGER

Hey Kevin , I would be interested ... thanks. 
I was messing around with sheet lead , folding and hammering . Hoping for some goby and shad patterns with swimming tails maybe. Tinkering for now.

Nice job on the hawg for the Fall Brawl Kevin ! KGone's crew took 2nd place with a 12.75 ish pound walleye. Tanker!!!


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## All Eyes

Many Eyes put some of his trolling board lights on E-Bay if anyone is interested. Only asking $5 per pair! Under the heading "Custom Made, Inline Planer Board LED Waterproof Light". Just thought someone may have interest in them.


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