Every handcrafted wooden topwater lure is unique. Each one reacts different. They have their own personal attitude. That is what makes handcrafted wooden topwater lures so popular with weekend and professional anglers. It’s the wiggle, hunting, splashing, gurgling, and drifting action of handcrafted wooden lures that drives bass wild. True handcrafted wooden topwater lures are not mass produced. No, it takes a skilled craftsman to carve finely tuned wooden baits out of a block of wood. For Larry Mayer, owner of Side Stepper Bait Company, it’s about making that special handcrafted wooden topwater lure. In 2000, Mayer started Side Stepper Bait Company, he was making baits in his basement and the garage; now, Mayer rents a couple office spaces in a local mall to build, paint, and store his lures.
Being an avid topwater fisherman, Mayer always wanted to improve the topwater lures he was fishing with. The only solution was for him to build his own, the only question was what material. In the end, Mayer found that white pine, redwood, and western cedar provided the results he was looking for in wooden topwater lures. Side Stepper Baits come in a number of models including the Side-Stepper, Half-Stepper, Water Churner Jr., Disturber, Burbler, 24-Seven, Butt Dragger, Water Churner, and the just released Herk’s Go-To. A number of the Side Stepper Baits are throw-backs to the old style topwater lures with side treble hooks on its side along with belly hooks. All the lures in the Side Stepper Baits are built to react and perform a certain way in the water. The flagship bait is the Side-Stepper. The Side-Stepper works best when the angler makes repeated twitches with slack line that makes the lure take one “step” left to right, right to left in virtually a 180-degree arc. “This is my favorite for daytime use for huge bass when the water surface is smooth or nearly calm,” explained Mayer’s. The Side-Stepper comes in a variety of color patterns and sizes from 4 ½- to 7-inches with diameters on the small ones the size of a penny or a nickel to more than a quarter on the muskie and saltwater models.
When you think of Tennessee, two things come to mind: the University of Tennessee students singing Rocky Top when they win and hand-crafted, hand-painted custom built balsa wood crankbaits. No other region in the United States produces more high quality, in demand, hand-crafted, hand-painted custom built balsa wood crankbait. The craftsmanship is second to none and jack the jaws of thousands of fish.
Once again, the weatherman completely missed the forecast... not a cloud in the sky and without a breath of wind. So much for this morning’s forecast of heavy rain today, some local down pours could cause possible local flooding. Fishing in these conditions, bluebird sky and no wind during the summertime, usually sends anglers packing till the sun goes down. However, I have a new plan of attack to catch these bass, one which has been around since anglers began fishing for bass.
It’s a killer! You heard me right. A killer and its targets are bass. To be specific, post-spawn bass looking for an easy meal after exhausting themselves from courting; however, this wake bait is not made of molded plastic. No, the Killer V by Basshunter Baits in Knoxville, Tennessee, is made from handpicked balsa wood. It only makes sense that the Killer V would come from the heart of hand crafted balsa wood lures. The owner of Basshunter Baits, Brian K. Moore, spent over two years researching, designing, building, and testing the Killer V before it finally made it to any store shelves. It was well worth the time Moore put into it to ensure that his wake bait would have the correct buoyancy and running depth.
All crankbaits, no matter what material they are made out of have one thing in common, they are built to mimic forage. The majority are made to resemble shad, blueback herring, or crawfish. The bulk of these lures are made by an injection molding process while a number of custom built crankbaits are made from some type of wood. Popular choices include cedar, poplar, cherry, sugar pine, and balsa. Similar to the injection mold crankbaits, custom built wooden crankbaits come in either flat and round sided.
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.
Every handcrafted wooden topwater lure is unique. Each one reacts different. They have their own personal attitude. That is what makes handcrafted wooden topwater lures so popular with weekend and professional anglers. It’s the wiggle, hunting, splashing, gurgling, and drifting action of handcrafted wooden lures that drives bass wild. True handcrafted wooden topwater lures are not mass produced. No, it takes a skilled craftsman to carve finely tuned wooden baits out of a block of wood. For Larry Mayer, owner of Side Stepper Bait Company, it’s about making that special handcrafted wooden topwater lure. In 2000, Mayer started Side Stepper Bait Company, he was making baits in his basement and the garage; now, Mayer rents a couple office spaces in a local mall to build, paint, and store his lures. 
Once again, the weatherman completely missed the forecast... not a cloud in the sky and without a breath of wind. So much for this morning’s forecast of heavy rain today, some local down pours could cause possible local flooding. Fishing in these conditions, bluebird sky and no wind during the summertime, usually sends anglers packing till the sun goes down. However, I have a new plan of attack to catch these bass, one which has been around since anglers began fishing for bass.
