Got to hang out at the Indiana Fishin Expo for a couple hours yesterday. Was cool meeting a bunch of guys who regularly drop in to the site. Sorry I didn't have enough time to talk with everbody I wanted to. I did get to spend quite a bit of time chatting with John Mills, a.k.a. "Whittler", a custom lure builder, tinkerer, and owner of JM Woodcraft. We got on a good roll about bait design, high dollar knock-offs, colors, etc., and I'll be posting a lot of what we discussed over the next few weeks.
One thing I did find out is that John likes to know what makes a bait "tick", which helps him with designing his own stuff. He'll be sharing some cool pics and descriptions of some popular baits that he's taken his tools to. In the past I've done this a little on my own, see previous posts on:
- Matt Lures Bluegill
- Spro Bronzeye Jr.
Here's a new one to add to the list, courtesy of John; the internal anatomy of a Rat-L-Trap.
Do you have a link to John's site? I'm interested in some of his cranks but didn't grab a card from him.
I didn't get to go until Sunday afternoon when things were winding down but it was a great show. Too bad I didn't get a chance to run into you and say hello!
Posted by: aaronb | January 31, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Honestly Aaron, I'm not sure John has a site, or if he does, I'm not aware of it. I do know that he posts his stuff on most of the major forums in the tackle making section (Tackle Tour, BBC, IN Smallmouth, Bass Resource, etc.), so you could easily catch him with a PM or an e-mail via his profile to get in touch with him on any of those mentioned. He might even see it here...
Posted by: Big Indiana Bass | January 31, 2011 at 12:11 PM
John does a good job with his repaints...and I have caught some fish on HIS cranks. I picked up one of his swimbaits at the show...same as last year...but I never threw the one I got last year (too purdy) so....
Posted by: Terry Anderson | February 01, 2011 at 03:24 PM