I can't find cheep lures that work! all the lures are $7 and up. can anyone tell me where to get cheep lures.

Thanks for all, Down East

Don't know where you fish, how you fish, whether you fish from the surf or from a boat, so it's tough to answer that question. I use one of the cheepest lures around, a plastic jerk bait. I also hand pour my own designs, and melt the old baits down to be used again, so the cost per baits is less than 0.15 cents each. I've got 6 plano 3700 boxes full of swimmers, jigs, poppers, all of which haven't seen the light of day in 6 years or more, except for the poppers. Almost 90% of my fishing is with plastics nowadays, for two reasons. First, which is obviously important to you, is cost. Second, they catch not only numbers of fish, but also big fish. Can't comment further, without knowing more about your preferred style of fishing, but you can't beat plastic for cost and effectiveness.

Tight lines.

Thanks Got Stripers. Here are the answers to your ?'s. I fish in maine in coves. I fish poppers and shallow divers. I fish from a dock and from boats.

I hope you can give me more info.

Tight lines, Down East

If you fish from boats and docks, I would go with something like a WindCheater. They work really well in deeper water. Rebel makes them and if you need any proof if they work, the current world record was caught on a black over silver one.
If you want to go cheaper, get some bucktails or pour your own. You will increase your chances if you use a trailer like a fin-s or a mister twister or a pork rind. Bucktails work at all times of the day and night while other lures have a better time. For example, swimmers work better at night and poppers are best at dawn or dusk. Bucktails will catch fish at any time. You can get by with a ball jig but if I am fishing calm water, I like to use a smiling bill jig. If I am fishing a current, I like to use a lima bean jig. The lima bean jig has less drag in a current so that means I can use a lighter jig then if I went with a round jig head.

A smiling bill has a lip in it that gives it good action in calm water. Plus, if you are fishing a beach, the v-notch lip kicks up sand.

The downside of jigs are that if you are fishing one right, you will lose it sooner or later. And you also need to carry a variety of sizes. I carry anything from 1/2 oz to 1 and a 1/2 oz. I fish LI sound so that is all I need. Some open water surfcasters use up to 4 0z.
Important things to consider are how the jigheads are painted, how they attach the bucktail hair, and what kind of hooks they use. On a cheap bucktail, the paint will chip off in one crack to rocks, the bucktail hair will fall out of the threads and hooks will straighten out.
I know of one site where they sell jigs that these two guys make. They say they use forged hooks, they secure the bucktail not only with thread but Zap-A-Gap glue and I think they bake the jigheads. Now I have never used their jigs before but if what they say is true, they make one high quality jig. I once bought a pack of 15 bucktails for 6 bucks. What a mistake. Half the jigs fell apart. And then I got one big sea robin on one of the jigs and the hook straightend out on me!

Jigs work!

Thanks Patrick for the info. how do you pour your own lures? can someone tell me how and what is needed.

thanks and tight lines to all, Down East

Creek Chub poppers are fairly cheap, price-wise, but work pretty well. Pretty decent construction, thru-wired and a good swivel for the belly hook. I haven't bought one in a LOT of years, but they used to come thru with good hooks, too.

Thanks. I don't want to spend a lot of money on fishing tackle so where can I get the stuff you are talking about cheep?

Tight lines, Down East

You should be able to get Creek Chub Poppers at any tackleshop along the coast and almost any catalog. They are heavy so as soon as that sucker hits the water, start working it.

To pour your own jigs, you need a mold, forged jig hooks, bucktail, paint, thread and zap-a-gap (Krazy Glue or Zap Ca will work too)

The type of mold you need is one for tying bucktail jigs, not softplastic jig heads. Where the barb would be on a softplastic jig head, this has a groove where the thread will lie.

For making anything with lead, be careful. Lead is bad stuff. A good pair of welder's gloves or abestos gloves will protect your fingers. Hot lead is nothing to play with.
First coat the inside of the mold with baby powder. I don't know why but my dad has been making those lead figurines for years and he told me to do it so I did.

Close the mold. Pour the hot lead in. I recommend doing a few trys without a hook in there because when you pour hot lead into a cold mold(hey that rhymes), the lead will harden before it has a chance to fill the depths of the mold. Keep doing this until you get a full jig head. This means your mold is hot enough. Then remelt the trials. Put a hook in the jig molds, close the mold, pour the lead in, wait about 15 seconds, open the mold and drop the new jigs on newspaper. Keep making the jigs until you are satisfied. Take a look at your jigs. you might have a few rough edges, file the rough edges down or snap them off with a pair of pliers. Do this outside.

So now you have a bunch of unfinished jig heads. There are paints on the market that are made just for this. I think one brand is called Powder Tech or something like that. It is available through Cabelas. What you do is you take a lighter, heat up the jig head, dip it in the poweder. The granules melt and adhere to the lead. If you are making a white jig head thats fine. If you are making a different color, you want to put a primer coat on. Hang them up by the hooks. A piece of fishing line strung taut between two points makes a great drying rack. Then take a cookie sheet and line it with tinfoil. Spread the jigs out on the tinfoil and pop them in the oven. I don't know the temps or the duration offhand but the bottle should tell you. This hardens the paint so it won't chip so easy. Take them out and let them cool.

Next, a fly tying vice is handy. What you want to do is put the hook in the vice. This is very similiar to whipping the ends of a line or doing the wraps to a fishing rod. Take a piece of masking tape and tape the end of the line to the back the jig head. Then go to the far end of the groove and start wrapping over the tag end. Put some bucktail hair in and if you want to get fancy, some mylar flash. Work back over the bucktail towards the far end. Not too tight! Spread the hair evenly around. Tighten down the wraps and put a drop of glue down on it. Spread out the glue once it begins to dry. Now take a seperate piece of thread. Double this thread over so you have a "U". Put the connected side towards the jig head. Continue your wraps over the U. When you get to the end, cut the thread free from the spool. Feed it through the U. Take the two ends of the U that are hanging out and pull. This brings the the end underneath the top wrap. Put another drop of glue and as it drys, spread it out along the threads. Trim all the tag ends as well as any bucktail hairs coming out near the jig head. Take it out of the vice and you have a completed jig!

I know this is a lot of work. But you know exactly whats going into that jig. Too many companys are making these crappy jigs that will fall apart on you. Your bucktail will hold up. Lead is pretty inexpensive. I bought about 150lbs of finished sinkers for 12 bucks at a tag sale! And if you don't believe me when I say 150lbs, I'll let you lug the chest they reside in around for a while. I even found a few cool things in there, like a 20 oz sinker. I think there are a few more even bigger than that in there.

Give it a try and be careful. Make sure you wash your hands and all the stuff you used. Try to line everything with something you can throw out. Lead poisoning will kill your brain cells and if you plan to have kids or anymore kids, it might mess with your swimmers so be careful

Down East, if your interested in pouring your own plastics to cut your costs, I wrote an article to get you started. Go to my Fishing Page http://www.rgsiroisco.com/fishingpage.htm
and then to the articles board.

Tight lines.

Down East, alot of the smaller schoolie striper lures are on the cheap side. Poppers like the creek chub and striper swipers should not cost 7$ anywhere. Get a good hunt through some of the tackle shops and you'll probably see them for around 5 bucks. Also, be sure to rummage through the clearance bins as you will often find something good cheap... Not knowing where you live, some of the shops in the more touristy areas can get expensive for lures and such but a little searching will do you well. Always fish a teaser like a bucktail or small fly at the same time your using that popper or soft plastic. You'll find a major increase in fish taking one or the other and often both!!

Thanks And Tight lines to all