Do It Yourself Saucy Spoon
Tricked Out, Hand Crafted Stickbaits
Imagine dragging one of your favorite balsa wood stickbait out of your tackle box and giving it to a self confessed trophy fish hunter, Jake Bunio to trick out. He would start by taking out the original bill and replacing it with a beefed up lip that could take some major abuse. Next, he would change out the hooks and rings replacing them with extra strong hardware sturdy enough to land a trophy fish. Finally, he would completely remove the generic finish and replace it with a highly realistic finish that imitated a Rainbow Trout, Tui Chub, or Kokanee Salmon. Sweet Sugar Pine Topwater Lures Few lures can match the excitement of a bass striking a topwater lure. While the majority of topwater lures are made out of plastic, one lure manufacture, Gilmore Tackle Company, located in Pelsor, Arkansas, still makes wooden topwater lures. In fact, Gilmore Lures makes every one of their hand crafted, topwater lures out of sugar pine. Gilmore Lures began in 1950, when Luney Gilmore moved back to Arkansas and expanded his line of lures to include hard baits. Luney Gilmore designed and made hand crafted lures to catch bass in lakes, ponds, rivers, and creeks in central and north central Arkansas. Like all lures that catch fish, the word spread quickly and anglers across the nation had to have one. More on Gilmore Custom Baits... |
Infatuation with Lures Drives Vanndalizer
There are some anglers who like to tinker with lures; pouring and painting their own jig heads or making spinnerbait skirts. On the other hand, there are anglers who push the envelope... they are infatuated with making the perfect crankbait or topwater lure. In addition to giving every one of their baits a custom paint finish before using it. Mike Vann, owner of Vanndalizer Custom Tackle, has been infatuated with lure design, building, and doing custom paint finishes for over 20 years. His degree in mechanical design has only enhanced his ability to produce works of art that anglers can fish with. Hand Crafted, Balsa Wood Crankbaits Rule
When it comes to fishing lures, nothing has been attempted to be copied more than a high quality, hand crafted, balsa wood crankbait. The low standard knock-offs come and go. Even manufactures of plastic molded crankbaits have tried to reproduce the action balsa crankbaits but have yet to be successful duplicating it. Although there is a high demand for hand crafted, custom painted, balsa wood baits few companies or individuals produce enough for anglers to purchase. One family owned business, BassHunters Custom Crankbaits in Knoxville, Tennessee specializes in custom, hand crafted, balsa wood crankbaits and custom paint jobs. More on Balsa Wood Crankbaits... Worm Gets Big Bites Every angler has a certain style of fishing that they can always catch bass on. I have a buddy that fishes topwater baits almost year round and always seems to catch bass. Bassmaster Elite Series pro Jeff Kriet is renowned for his talent when deep water structure fishing. Kriet from Ardmore, Oklahoma, has won over $626,000 and qualified 5 times for the Bassmaster Championship; in fact, many of his top finishes and big sacks of bass have been caught on a big 10-inch worm fishing deep structure.
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