"The lures that I make are hand carved out of white cedar or spanish cedar. Sometimes I use Teak wood if I need a very strong, solid lure for bigger fish. The ''Walk the dog'' type lures have a belly weight near the tail for balance. I use stainess steel hardware when ever possible. A 3/4'' x .062" stainless screw eye requires 40 pounds of pull to dislodge from the cedar and opens up before pulling out of the teak. The blanks are hand carved and sanded before a liberal coat of sealer is applied. Two coats of primer are then added follwed by 3 coats of base white. The final coats are either applied with spray cans ( for that real home made look ), or an airbrush. Oil based enamels are used . After 4 days of drying to ensure thorough drying, a final protective coat is used . I use either two coats of quality marine spar varnish , or if I want the white color to remain bright or require extreme durability, I use a good coat of thick set two part epoxy that is used on fishing rod guide wraps. This epoxy provides a superior as well as a highly durable coating. Plus, the epoxy does not yellow as varnish will.

At the present, I just make lures for close friends , but I'm thinking of selling them next winter. It is a great hobby and it fills the time during the long cold Northern winters. It also is very labor intensive , requiring about 2 1/2 hours to make one lure. It's hard to describe the satisfaction of having a big ol' bass grab a lure that I made from a dirty old chunk of wood that has been transformed into beautiful lure.

For any of you thinking of trying to make a few lures yourself the only hint I might give you is to be PATIENT !!! Many disasters were thrown into the trash before I was satisfied with the end result. If you do make some, and have a problem with some stage of their making, feel free to E-mail me. I will try my best to help solve your problem. Now get out that pocket knife and sand paper.................... Good luck, Mike "Bunky" Bunker