"Night Bite" walleye baits - Page 5

TIGGER · 11-08-2009, 11:10 AM

Here are some other smelty type of baits.

I played around with some of the foils. I used copper shielding tape. It is a product made by 3m. It is used in high tech electronics and for making electric guitars. I bought it on ebay. You can take the blank body and peel and stick it into position. Coat the lure with epoxy and it will be back to smooth to start your paint progression. The ridges go away on the top and bottom of the bait after the coating fills it in.

I also did one in the hvac metal ductwork tape. It is a shinny silver color. I got it at home depot or any other home improvement place.

A couple of others that I tried to paint a more natural smelt pattern with paints only.

Just some other odd ball ones. I hope these body style will start to go when the water gets into the low 40's. I really like the action at close to the 1 mph speed. They will stay in that top 5 foot of water and have a lively action. This body style worked great in August in the that deep water trolling at 2.4 to 2.6 mph zone. I can't wait till the full moon phase is out of here!

Big Daddy · 11-08-2009, 11:46 AM

Good thread guys and VERY informative. I had to make a couple changes in a few pics though, as they were too big. No one has done anything wrong in posting, just in the future, to keep the threads flowing smoothly, please keep the size of your pictures to 800 x 600 or lower.

Thanks guys and keep up the great work on those night bite baits. I wish you all LOTS of success in fishing them.

From allwayzfishin..."heres an attempt at repainting in a smelt pattern from an old beat up f-18 rapala. who knows, might actually work!

James F · 11-09-2009, 09:09 AM

I like the hologram paper. I was playing with some of the Easter wrap plastic, very thin and delicate but once in place it really popped.

CRAPPIE LOVER · 11-18-2009, 08:33 AM

Great looking baits ...All you guys do a great job...Tigger the one that impressed me the most was the one you made with the Copper Shield Tape...If I was a fish I would be in the cooler....I love the copper color....Keep up the good work.....JIM.....

All Eyes · 12-01-2009, 02:01 PM

Amazing Tigger! Just amazing. Between yourself and a few others on here, I have seen some baits that blow my mind. I'm going to have to get into trying this. After seeing some of yours and VC1111's, as well as a few others on here, I don't want to buy any more crappy store bought baits anymore.

TIGGER · 04-24-2010, 10:27 PM

Hey everyone, It looks like summer will be here in no time!

I started to tinker with some baits for my personal stash for the spring thru fall. I downsized the baits the post spawn feed.

Played around with a perch pattern on a shad style bait to cast the rocks with at Ladue. I worked well in the 3 to 5 foot range ticking the rock tops. I got a decent one that was just under 6 pounds.

This was a little bugger that hit a raspberry clown type of pattern in the shad style bait.

These are some 4" minnow type bodies I made last week and got to fish them last night. The bite was slow but managed one on the clown type pattern. It was 9.1 pounds and was released to fight another day. I hope to use the orange one more during the day than anything. I have a feeling the steelhead with have some fun with that one!

Here is a fish that my friend Trent caught last night on a chrome and blue husky jerk. The fish was only 26" long but weighed 9.9 pounds! It is the fattest walleye I have ever seen. We let her go to fight another day!

"Big" mark the shark · 04-24-2010, 11:14 PM

man thouse are the ticket real nice stuff

TIGGER · 04-25-2010, 04:27 PM

The other night when we caught those fish they were spitting up 3 and 4 inch shad up in the boat. Talking some of the other guys down there they were saying the same thing. I had some bodies that I started last summer but did not finish yet. After seeing that I decided to get them done and fish them the next couple of weeks. They are 3-1/2" long.

Casting the inland lakes this spring I took one along to see if I might get a bite on one. I only had the base coat colors on it but I caught a little 18" on it. I have a picture of the final paint on it also.

I have a feeling on this one for the downtown Cleveland night bite. I was looking at the spit up shad and it reminds me of this one. I can't wait to try it out!

These are the other ones I got done also. I hope the weather holds up this week to try these. Not sure what leads to run yet. They are an aggressive diver. Maybe like a 5 to 10 foot leads after dark.

TIGGER · 08-29-2010, 05:33 PM

Well I got to do some fishing for walleyes the last couple of weeks. It is the deep water bite off the North East side of Ohio on Lake Eire. It is my second favorite walleye bite behind the fall night bite. The fish are down around the 60 foot depth and are looking for large forage fish like smelt. I get to use downriggers, wire, and dipsey divers. I got alot fish the first day on this pattern in a shad type body. I caught most of my limit on this lure. The fish were just average size of 5 to 6 pounds.

I got out today and tried some other lures and stuff. I caught a very nice walleye of 8-1/2 pounds off the downrigger on the purple one with the green belly. It put up a nice fight. I like when I get the chance to fight them with no in-line weight or diver in front of them. Just 10 lb mono!

TIGGER · 08-29-2010, 06:03 PM

Last year I started playing around with bodies for the worm harnesses. I always get on the fence when to switch from the worm bite to the hard body lure bite. I thought if I make some kind of body that can replace the beads on a worm harness. It may fill a void at certain times of the year. I fished them a little out of ice-out last spring and caught some nice fish. I never really got to fish them late last summer at this time because I was experimenting with some lipped baits. Well I got to use them today. It is a solid body with a hole down the center. I thread the line down the middle and place a blade and some beads in the front. Here are some I had loose still and not on my harness wrap.

I got some nice fish with them today. This one was 8 pounds and hit the salamander pattern. When they start to get that gold color to them when they hit the seven pound mark.

This one was hot. It is a little shorter in length. I caught 4 quick fish on it. I was throwing them back at the start of the day.

The fish were very aggressive at the start of the morning. They were swallowing the hooks to the gills!

I was switching colors to see if they would get hit.

This one took a couple of fish also. I broke my first fish off in two years today. It was a real nice one on a blue and gold pattern. It was on a dipsey diver with a body. I should have known better to have just the 15 pound leader and not checking for nicks in the line

As the sun got higher in the day I noticed the fish were not taking the worm as much. I kept loosing fish and I couldn't figure out why. I would fight the fish half way to the boat and they would get off. I finally got one into netting range and could see the front hook was in the cheek. The fish started to t-bone the body and would not care about the worm. The front hook would catch the outside of the mouth and pull-out. I will have to work on that one! That is when I switched to that purple shad crankbait and caught that nice one. All in all it was fun today. Did it make a difference .........who knows. I still had fun with it. I ended up with a nice basket of fish. It is a 120 quart cooler.

JamesT · 08-29-2010, 07:00 PM

Great design!!! This thread is full of beauties, both lures and fish!!!

And I don't know how I missed this the first time around, but as far as that fish on 4-24-10,

HAWGEYE!!!!!!!! Unbelievable!!!

Now I need to find some of that copper tape with the pattern already in it...

st.slippy · 08-29-2010, 07:36 PM

That is a really great idea!!! I hope you don't mind if I steal that for a try at some inland saugeye. You really have a gift man!

jshbuckeye · 08-29-2010, 08:44 PM

very interesting thread to say the least. love the idea for the hard bodied harnesses

MadMac · 08-30-2010, 05:24 AM

Nice work John. I need to get up there and fish with you guys one of these days.

TIGGER · 08-30-2010, 09:20 PM

Thanks guys.......... I really love the walleye side of things. I know I make the musky lures but it just hasn't hooked me like the walleyes do.

James.......... You can find the suppliers for the copper. Just do a search for "copper shielding tape" You can find it on ebay or any other 3M sources.

It is amazing how big the fall bite fish can be. He is picture from last fall off downtown Cleveland. I was with my friend Scott and Jared. Jared took the photo. I am on the left and Scott is on the right. The left fish I caught on one the baits here on the thread. It was the smallest at 10.3 lbs. The middle one was caught by Scott. I was on a rapala product. It weighed I think 11.6 lbs and was in first place for one day. The right one Jared caught was 10.62 lbs. I think it may have been on another bait of mine. One heck of a night. I get a little sad keeping those big fish. It is a big fish tournament paying 10 places. You can upgrade as you go. The fall weather can turn on a dime and you could loose 2 weeks of fishing in a snap. You try to get fish on the board before the weather turns bad and temps. get to cold.

Slippy........try some of those out. I would interested in the outcome for the saugeye. I notice you are hold some hawgs in your avatar!

You have been doing some nice work. I have been watching. At times this luremaking stuff seems like a curse to me. I want to take a break from it but it keeps sucking me back in.

Steve you know you have an open invitation. I just have to pry you away from those muskies. BTW........... you are having a nice year at WB. You have to be approaching 60 plus fish for the season. Plus......... that 50 incher on an Ohio lake! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I looked at the body baits last night after they dried out. I am amazed at how many teeth marks are on the clear coat of the bodies. I am convinced that later in the day they were hitting the body and not the worm trailer. I think they did not have clue what was going on after they grabbed that thing. I may wait a little longer before grabbing the rod. I want to see what happens with that. If they will let it go and come back on the worm.

Here is one I hope to run this upcoming weekend. It may be a little early for it. I really want to run it off a bottom bouncer in the Fall perch pack. I will see how it runs in open water first. BIG walleyes love to eat perch!

MEISTERICS · 08-31-2010, 07:35 AM

Tigger,

Last week i started to smell the fall in the air, i hear its only supposed to be in the sixties this weekend! Oh boy am i getting pumped. This year i hope to be no quite as tired as last. Work has been such a bear with all the cut backs.

On a positive note i drew my big walleye baits last night. If i am not out of town this weekend i hope to shape them. i am in the midst of a balancing act between big musky baits & my drive for the night bite. Its so tough!

Nervously awaiting the NITE.

TIGGER · 08-31-2010, 09:02 PM

Here are some other patterns that I did this summer. It may give you guys some ideas on color patterns if you are painting some of your own lures.

These are in the 6" smelt bodies.

donkey · 09-01-2010, 09:58 PM

The third one from the bottom is awesome.It looks like it is on fire and glows like a hot coal.