The Custom Craze! Why Not DIY?

[Jman5626]

l Many of us would balk at paying 15 bucks for a decent set of jeans but don’t bat an eye about paying $12.95 for a custom painted top of the line crankbait.

Amen to that!!


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[wicklundrh]

Amen to that!!


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

During this time of year in Michigan, when the lake ice isn't safe, the fields are too muddy, and the streams are not fishable, we have some downtime. I pull all of my gear for walleye fishing down in my little room in the basement. I go over all the hooks on my cranks, change out my planer board clips, change pads in old clips, check crawler harness hooks for sharpness, rebuild harness leaders, and tons of other stuff.

Like many other people, I'm not a rich man. I do own several hundred crank baits however. Today's youth seem to want everything right now. Case in point: A young man that I was mentoring was asking me about trolling. He said he wanted to get in to the running cranks but that he couldn't afford it. I asked him what he did with his money during the winter. I asked him how many sodas he bought. I then told him that my collection did not start overnight. When I have a few extra dollars in my pocket and I am at a store, I purchase one or two. Some are new ones, some are extras. If I see a sale, I might stock up.

So, with that said, I look over at one of my racks and there is three or four brand new flicker minnows. On another rack is a few new Rapala DDHJ 12's. I pull a new plano box to start filling while mouthing the following words:

Hello everybody, my name is Rich, and I have a problem!!!!

[wicklundrh]

On the flip side, I have (and still use) cranks baits that were purchased back in the 80's. I have several baits that were in both of my grandfathers tackle boxes that I still utilize. Many of them have been painted multiple times. I consider those purchases a heck of an investment to get that amount of usage out of them. Almost 40 years!!!