Every hand crafted balsa wood crankbait has its own distinctive appearance and action when fished. Every one of them is cut and shaped by skilled hands. It’s a time consuming process that only a handful of skilled artisans ever conquer. There is even fewer of these craftsmen that compete competitively in tour-level bass tournaments. One of these craftsmen is Craig Powers. Known as CP by his friends, Powers started learning the art of hand crafting balsa wood crankbaits over 12 years ago from his mentor and one of the most respected balsa wood crankbait builders. Powers’ knowledge and skill of building balsa wood crankbaits combined with his angling expertise has made him a threat to win every tournament he fishes in along with driving sales of CP Series Crankbaits well beyond his own expectations.

When not fishing tournaments, Powers spends his time designing lures. “Building a homemade hand crafted balsa wood crankbait is very time consuming, but I have developed ways to increase my production without compromising quality. As of right now I have one body style with three different lips,” said Powers. On an average each one of these balsa wood crankbaits gets touched 20 times before being sold. “My baits are not massed produced; they are built by hand and I do all the process from start to finish,” explained Powers. CP Series Crankbaits are built from balsa wood with a belly weight inserted into the bait to keep it running correctly, Lexan lips, and rigged with super sharp VMC hooks. “The reason I use balsa wood is obvious; it’s easy to work with and no other material or wood reacts like balsa wood. The belly weight is added to allow anglers to cast it farther. The clear coat I use is no secret, but I do allow the lures to completely dry before attaching the hardware to them. As for the Lexan lips, I like them because they don’t wear out as fast as computer chipboard lips will; I have never broken a Lexan bill, and it looks better,” said Powers. Powers also prides himself on being able to reproduce his hand crafted balsa wood baits identically. That’s important because anglers want their balsa wood crankbaits to react similar when fishing with them.

CP Series Crankbaits (http://www.cpbaits.com/) come in three sizes including the Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3. All of them measure 2¾-inches in length. “Although there are certain times of year that are better to fish with each one of my balsa wood crankbaits, an angler should always keep an open mind when fishing. Lures like Balsa wood crankbaits are just tools that help you find and catch fish,” explained Powers. Powers likes to fish with the Series 1 similar to a lipless crankbait. “The Series 1 is a great search bait and can be used to cover lots of water really fast,” said Powers. Key areas that Powers like to fish the Series 1 crankbait is around flats, clay, or mud banks in the spring and during the fall. “The Series 2 crankbait has a wide bill that is angled down making it perfect to cast around cover like stumps, trees, chuck rock, or brush piles without getting hung up,” said Powers. Powers noted that there was really no special time of year to fish with the Series 2 crankbait. “I fish it anytime, any season along as there is cover to fish it around,” Powers said. “The Series 3 crankbait I like to fish before the bass get up on the banks shallow,” said Powers. Powers pointed out that 45 degree banks in the late winter or early spring and again in the late fall or early winter were key times to fish the Series 3 crankbait.

Besides being built one at a time every CP Series Crankbait is hand painted by Powers. They are available in 10 colors including chart/black, chart/brown, lime green, root beer, firetiger, foil, citrus, sexy shad, silver shad, and spring craw.
Building a hand crafted balsa wood crankbait take skills that few people have attained. Each one goes through an extensive process before an angler ever gets to fish with it. Powers takes each one of his crankbaits from start to finish. That’s the building process, but to have success when fishing with a balsa wood crankbait an angler needs to think of the balsa wood crankbait as a tool. Using the correct tool means an angler will catch more fish. Powers knows this and that’s what makes him a successful tour-level professional angler who also designs and builds hand crafted balsa wood crankbaits.

Hand Crafted Balsa Wood Crankbaits provided by Brad Wiegmann for CP Series Crankbaits.