Been busy in the tackle lab.....

[MrTom]

With the snow mostly gone around here now I find myself in the tackle making shop a lot. I've had some orders start to come in and I have needed to get my goodies made for my own use. I whipped these up to try as soon as the crappies start hitting.

These shad baits are 2 1/2" in length.

Last Friday and buddy and I found some open water at a dock we like to fish in the early season, so we took rods down and sat for a couple hours. Beautiful morning to fish.... eagles, muskrats, otters, ducks.... lots of extras to watch as well. The water temp where the ice was off sat at 40 degrees and we thought maybe some crappies would be hanging around but no, they hadn't shown up yet but one nice smallie of about 4 pounds jumped all over a jig/plastic, so we didn't come home with skunk hanging on us.

 

[03mossy]

Amazing how realistic you make those!

 

[CatamountRob]

You make some beautiful baits.
I’m heading out shortly to see if I can still get on the ice. I’ve been beating up on the crappie for the past week and a half and I’m not ready for it to end.

 

[MrTom]

That's how I feel when the ice arrives. lol

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Ice is gone, for the most part, down here in south central MI now

 

[MrTom]

Our lakes still have as much as 30-36" of ice yet. Locally I fish a lake that has a line of current coming into it and the ice opens up where the current is strongest. I fish that open water the first each year. I was there Friday morning for a bit and am going again tomorrow morning. Tuesday I think my fishing buddy and I are going to check out our pet location on pool 4 of the Mississippi River for some crappies.

 

[MrTom]

In addition to the crappies I caught this morning, this big old bronze beaut hit one of the baits shown.

The bass in the picture taped at 18" and a hair. I caught one other smallie of about 14" too. I kept 5 crappies for dinner tonight but caught several in total. Crappies were running around 11-1/2".

 

[Shorty]

Mr.Tom, those baits you make are awesome. Could i buy some? We fish for crappie and perch here in n.y. TY

 

[MrTom]

Check your pm's shorty.

 

[JIMYJAC]

Caught some nice perch tis morning, ice out! The old drop shot minnow rig.

 

[MrTom]

A friend and I donned the rain gear and hit the old docks again this morning in a nice gentle rain. Air temp was 43 degrees. We got hit by the crappies real well and another nice smallie showed up on my line again. Damn it's nice to be on open water again.

 

[Tony gilbert]

That bait looks incredible

 

[U.P. Hunterman]

I bet you stack the slabs with them baits!! Nice work.

 

[Jbrown69]

You make some beautiful baits.
I’m heading out shortly to see if I can still get on the ice. I’ve been beating up on the crappie for the past week and a half and I’m not ready for it to end.

Sadly my ice is now unsafe but crappie was hot. Now open water.

 

[MrTom]

I did these a couple days prior to those shown in the opening post but just got a picture shot yesterday. I actually like these better.

 

[HC]

The Artist at work.

 

[MrTom]

Of all the little things that can trip a guy up, the eyes I use on these are hard to come by yet even though the covid crap is leaving us. I had enough eyes to play with a slightly larger bait with a different profile that called for a larger eye. This fork tail is 2-1/2" but has a much larger body profile. I've been hanging onto the 7 eyes, six of which are on these baits, for almost three years now because the party that made them is now deceased and for sure I can't get any more like them. The colors in this bait seemed like they deserved the good eyes, so......

 

[j_jim]

Don't you use a jig head with eyes or how do you rig these beauties?

 

[MrTom]

I normally do not make or use jigheads with eyes and I only put eyes on the baits shown for the camera. We did a little test by fishing with the baits in the top photo with and without eyes side by side and it made little difference, the fish were all over both. I suppose on some days eyes might make a difference but for the most part I don't use eyes on anything I am fishing and have outstanding success most of the time. I'm more inclined to think that color and profile and action have more to do with the fish hitting. Most recently water temperature has been a huge denominator. With the persistent cold temps the water doesn't get much time to warm. When we get a nice day with sun the water temps rise right up. The next morning, early, has been the best time to fish while heat remains in the shoreline rocks and bays and the fish are undisturbed by anglers yet.

99% of the water I fish is stained from high levels of tannin in the water from decaying vegetation or darkened by run-off from melting snow [pretty much gone now] or from heavy rains. I feel eyes are a moot issue. Now if I was fishing very clear water I may have a different opinion.

 

[Ron Huff]

I am starting to fish crappies in Indiana as the weather allows. Spent the last week of march fishing lake Enid Mississippi. My favorite fish to eat.