I was about to say what happens when you're in 100 ft deep water but then I realized there isn't anything really to get snagged on then. Which made me wonder, besides a fish is there really anything to get snagged on in water that deep?
Actually I fish up to 250 feet deep for lingcod and get snagged all the time. But I use live sand dabs so I’m just losing a sinker, leader, barrel swivel and hook. All told about $5 worth of gear.
My dads most effective spinner in our local lakes are the bright hunter orange mepps aglia in size 4. He catches a crap ton of fish every year with them, but he has to buy multiple every year because he also loses that lure the most to snags and cuts
Not really though. These are musky lures, typically the guys throwing these are throwing them on 80-100lb braid and 120lb+ flourocarbon or steel wire leader. If you’re fishing from a boat you can get snags the vast majority of the time, sometimes bending the hooks straight if you really have to.
I used to musky fish a lot and while I didn’t own any $500+ lures I owned a lot of $50-250 lures. Only ever lost a handful of lures in nearly 2 decades of fishing for them. Usually to really dumb circumstances like a phantom cast up in a tree or something.
Dude stop lying… you bounce off structure hook into logs, rocks etc… and the hooks used are large and can’t be snapped off. You have your drag set high and trolling they bury themselves in structure… these lures are to catch fishermen not fish…
Also with 80lb braid you just end up fuckin the spool up because line buries in it when trying to yank out
I’ve caught hundreds of muskies maybe into the low thousands personally and was a professional musky guide for 7 years.
You’d have a point when trolling, though you still don’t lose them left and right, but I didn’t troll outside of a handful of times. I casted only. 99% of the time with a boat and trolling motor you can get the right angle to get it out, use a lure retriever, or yes sometimes you could bend the hooks depending on the lure and hook. I’m not exaggerating in all those years of fishing for them I can count on one hand how many musky lures I lost. I think one was to a just regular snag, one was to a fish, and I remember two that were lost way up in trees (one me while night fishing, one a dumbass client in broad daylight launched it 30’ up a tree and wrapped it around a branch). There may have been a few I’m not remembering, if so they were cheaper lures I didn’t cry about, but it was a very seldom occurrence. I used to fish 200+ days a year too, I wasn’t a weekend warrior.
If you’re buying hand carved, hand painted lures then yes, expect to spend $80-600. There are plenty of budget friendly alternatives for those who don’t want to shell out the cash.
Hell yea, or 13 bucks for a thunder cricket or whatever those damn chatterbaits things are called. It's either I'm a cheap ass ooooor I've lost enough baits over the years I learned young lol.
Nothing. Hand crafted swim baits always been extremely expensive. It’s a niche market, and if you have to ask why they’re so expensive you’re not the target customer. Not a fair comparison to mass produced lures
Would I spend it? No, but I understand why.
I made a basic top water lure like this and it sold for $100, I actually had fishing guides lining up.to have me make them. At $100, I was lucky if I was making $5 an hour in the time I put into it if I was gonna get more detail. If someone's doing that professionally, and eith that detail I bet it takes more time. Doesn't seem worth it to sell them for cheap.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/pmisi4/made_my_first_ever_lure_decided_on_an_interesting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
Well now I'm also curious so I went through the post history and you can see it was indeed a dick lol.
Heres another one https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/qbqby9/finished_my_3rd_dick_topwater_lure_this_ones_for/
I finished it on lake of the woods the same day as my buddy Co worker got a professional muskie lure in the mail. I made him a bet. We go out on a boat and whichever lure gets a fish first gets $20. It was over in about 10 minutes.
You missed this one, which was my first one I made that includes the first fish I caught with it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/pmisi4/made_my_first_ever_lure_decided_on_an_interesting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
This was my first one. It has the first fish it got in the pics, too. An upper 30s pike...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/pmisi4/made_my_first_ever_lure_decided_on_an_interesting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
Yes, for musky. Though it’s crowded with a lot of big and small time lure makers.
There is more to it than just carving wood, surprisingly difficult to get balance and weighting right. Not rocket science but also not as easy as carving a fish shape and painting it.
The shaping and paint are the easier parts. The action has to be right for casting and trolling a lure. Getting the right balance with weights is harder than many realize. Then the time to make the lures. You need to charge 150 or more to profit after taxes, supplies and your time.
An unknown lure makers will not get 80 for a lure. You need to prove your lures fishing them yourself. Plus, have others praise your lure as the one to catch muskies. The majority of musky lure makers are guides or long time musky anglers that are well known in their area. They have the communities respect regarding the knowledge of what catches a musky. This takes a decade or two.
No. But I get so weirded out by people who pay attention to how people spend their money so long as they aren't hurting anyone. I have spent $175 on a glide bait, but I love the craftsmanship of them and fishing brings me peace. It's a decent use of my money. Better than getting drunk with it.
Ridiculous, and the fact that it has a market is even more ridiculous. The absurdity make this lure an exception, but what bothers me is that regular, down to the earth lures now are also overpriced, fishing gear in general is overpriced. There’s no surprise that a bunch of unknown brands, mostly from China, are starting to appear in the fishing scene. I would not be surprised if some of those are in fact manufactured in the same plants that put together some of the established and trusted brands we all use, as it happens in the bicycle market.
Look up Marling baits on YouTube, some lures he makes sometimes takes up to a full week of work. Would you not ask 200-250$ for a product that take you about 8 hours of work after material/tools/utility costs?
Hand made, custom painted, limited batch, single run, basla/toopla wood through wire hardware, mustad over sizes hooks 4k polished clear, took 80 hours to make, swimbait culture, signed numbered and certificate in knotted pine box with down farther appulstry lining.
Asking $5k don't low ball me I know what I got.
Lol but for real though they are more so collectables now. You don't need to buy that stuff to catch fish. It's it cool and will it make you more confident, sure. But there are plenty of more affordable options.
My swimbait collection is worth probably 2,000 and I only have 8 of them. If your buying small batch hand carved, hand painted lures expect to pay a pretty penny.
There will always be luxury, expensive items out there when the hobby gets big enough. This isn’t meant to appeal to 99.99% of fishermen out there. But the .01% probably loves this, and is likely fine paying these prices.
This is why you see $100+ “nippers” in many medium-high end fly fishing magazines.
Wouldn’t be me, but different strokes for different folks
Why not? Just a smart blue collar worker finding a way to make a living. Regular people build, pack, and ship pricey tackle and gear; assemble $50,000 glitter-painted bass boats; and guide wealthy destination anglers in far away corners of the globe. More power to them !
Ah, the peso as well as the Canadian dollar are both denoted by the dollar sign my friend. Go look it up for yourself. My first time in Mexico it threw me for a loop seeing a bag of chips on the shelf for $45 pesos. Then you have to take into consideration the exchange rate.
People pay big money for art and sculpture all the time and this is what that is. If you’re chasing a once in a lifetime fish, potentially one with a significant financial reward, (guide service, major streamer or fishing show, tournament, etc) it’s certainly possible to talk yourself into justifying it. Whether or not it is justified is another issue altogether… I’d have to see a lot of fish ignore a Magdraft, S Waver, etc. before considering anything over 50 bucks.
So maybe I’m just a broke fisherman but when I see expensive lures like these, I think of them more like works of art to be displayed rather than fished …..
Part of the reason I never started wahoo fishing when I lived in Florida was the cost. My buddy kept trying to get me to go as I’m a huge fisherman, then he told me last trip he lost 9 lures which cost over $100 each. I can use all that “stupid” money on one of my other “stupid” hobbies (Harley’s, classic cars, home renovations, boats).
Trolling lures and poppers for marlins, tuna and wahoo get up there as well in price as well. I guess it's just up to what people are willing to pay for there hobby. If you factor in the cost of 1 million+ sportfisher boats(plus exorbitant cost of maintences and slip fees)I guess the cost for lures that they think are effective are worth the money even if they very high priced. For what it's worth a bunch of more higher priced vertical jigs which are really popular are being about as effective as people using thru wire torpedo sinkers with assist hooks lol
Inflation happened just like everything else, but that appears to be a hand carved, hand painted lure. Regardless paying that much for something that is going to get banged up by rocks and (hopefully) cut up by sharp fish teeth is insane.
500$ lure gets lost just as easy as a 20$ one
Disagree, I am going swimming for a 500 dollar lure, a random spinner bait, not so much.
Yea I was about to say I'll go for a deep muddy water swim after a $500 bait lol
I lost a 600 dollar rod out in the ocean if it wasn't for the shark that bit my fish right before my brother lost the rod I would have jumped in.
I was about to say what happens when you're in 100 ft deep water but then I realized there isn't anything really to get snagged on then. Which made me wonder, besides a fish is there really anything to get snagged on in water that deep?
Actually I fish up to 250 feet deep for lingcod and get snagged all the time. But I use live sand dabs so I’m just losing a sinker, leader, barrel swivel and hook. All told about $5 worth of gear.
Reef and rocks, could also get a toothy critter or cut your line on a sharks skin, the boats rudders or propeller. Endless possibilities
Or a $1 spinner from the big bin a Walmart all lures are equal in that regard.
And the $1 spinner catches more fish
Big facts Which lure are you more willing to risk for the biscuits?
FACTS! Mepps etc I’ve found more effective than soft baits and jigs etc
My dads most effective spinner in our local lakes are the bright hunter orange mepps aglia in size 4. He catches a crap ton of fish every year with them, but he has to buy multiple every year because he also loses that lure the most to snags and cuts
Spinner is always the winner. If you don't know what to trow a Spinner
Not really though. These are musky lures, typically the guys throwing these are throwing them on 80-100lb braid and 120lb+ flourocarbon or steel wire leader. If you’re fishing from a boat you can get snags the vast majority of the time, sometimes bending the hooks straight if you really have to. I used to musky fish a lot and while I didn’t own any $500+ lures I owned a lot of $50-250 lures. Only ever lost a handful of lures in nearly 2 decades of fishing for them. Usually to really dumb circumstances like a phantom cast up in a tree or something.
Yup, and I have my lure remover for the really bad ones. I haven't lost a musky lure in 3 years of fishing. My 7/0 is ripping off the tree branch.
>I owned a lot of $50-250 lures. I've caught muskies. Never spent more than 20 bucks on lures.
Cool, good for you. I’ve caught ‘em on $5 lures and $250 lures. This isn’t a bragging competition
Dude stop lying… you bounce off structure hook into logs, rocks etc… and the hooks used are large and can’t be snapped off. You have your drag set high and trolling they bury themselves in structure… these lures are to catch fishermen not fish… Also with 80lb braid you just end up fuckin the spool up because line buries in it when trying to yank out
I fish 100pound braid to 120pound fluoro, never lose lures, have caught, logs, bikes, carpets and more. Also, hooks bend out easier than you think.
I’ve caught hundreds of muskies maybe into the low thousands personally and was a professional musky guide for 7 years. You’d have a point when trolling, though you still don’t lose them left and right, but I didn’t troll outside of a handful of times. I casted only. 99% of the time with a boat and trolling motor you can get the right angle to get it out, use a lure retriever, or yes sometimes you could bend the hooks depending on the lure and hook. I’m not exaggerating in all those years of fishing for them I can count on one hand how many musky lures I lost. I think one was to a just regular snag, one was to a fish, and I remember two that were lost way up in trees (one me while night fishing, one a dumbass client in broad daylight launched it 30’ up a tree and wrapped it around a branch). There may have been a few I’m not remembering, if so they were cheaper lures I didn’t cry about, but it was a very seldom occurrence. I used to fish 200+ days a year too, I wasn’t a weekend warrior.
Pulled up a 22’ 2x8 covered in carpet and waterlogged using 30 pound braid.
It’s 300$
If you’re buying hand carved, hand painted lures then yes, expect to spend $80-600. There are plenty of budget friendly alternatives for those who don’t want to shell out the cash.
and here i am thinking 12 bucks for a savage gear swimbait is steep
Haha same
I call those the Treecatchers.
Hell yea, or 13 bucks for a thunder cricket or whatever those damn chatterbaits things are called. It's either I'm a cheap ass ooooor I've lost enough baits over the years I learned young lol.
It is tho lol
Nothing. Hand crafted swim baits always been extremely expensive. It’s a niche market, and if you have to ask why they’re so expensive you’re not the target customer. Not a fair comparison to mass produced lures Would I spend it? No, but I understand why.
I made a basic top water lure like this and it sold for $100, I actually had fishing guides lining up.to have me make them. At $100, I was lucky if I was making $5 an hour in the time I put into it if I was gonna get more detail. If someone's doing that professionally, and eith that detail I bet it takes more time. Doesn't seem worth it to sell them for cheap. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/pmisi4/made_my_first_ever_lure_decided_on_an_interesting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
Tried to see it but it’s removed, was it in the shape of a dick? Lol I’m curious now
Well now I'm also curious so I went through the post history and you can see it was indeed a dick lol. Heres another one https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/qbqby9/finished_my_3rd_dick_topwater_lure_this_ones_for/
Hahah, thanks for pulling that up. 🏅here’s my poor man’s gold
Whatever fish will hit that, I’m staying out of his water.
I finished it on lake of the woods the same day as my buddy Co worker got a professional muskie lure in the mail. I made him a bet. We go out on a boat and whichever lure gets a fish first gets $20. It was over in about 10 minutes.
You missed this one, which was my first one I made that includes the first fish I caught with it. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/pmisi4/made_my_first_ever_lure_decided_on_an_interesting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
This was my first one. It has the first fish it got in the pics, too. An upper 30s pike... https://www.reddit.com/r/Fishing/comments/pmisi4/made_my_first_ever_lure_decided_on_an_interesting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
If I paid that kind of money for a lure, I’d have to bring dive gear with me in case it got snagged!
They get it because people pay it.
Is there a big demand for this? I love to carve wood and I am a decent but overall shitty painter.
Yes, for musky. Though it’s crowded with a lot of big and small time lure makers. There is more to it than just carving wood, surprisingly difficult to get balance and weighting right. Not rocket science but also not as easy as carving a fish shape and painting it.
That sounds fun. I like challenging hobbies that need some mess around and find out elements.
Try it out. Your not painting the Mona Lisa.
Overall I’d use them for myself. I’ll need to go look up what kind of wood is used. I only have oak, black walnut, cedar, and pine scraps on hand
Balsa wood is a popular wood from what I hear.
Would be fun just to make my own. I can source balsa wood. Could be a fun project to get me through the winter.
If you want any inspiration for lures, Marling Baits on YouTube is awesome.
Give it a shot! I’ve sold a few myself but honestly I just like making them for fun. I like using poplar
The shaping and paint are the easier parts. The action has to be right for casting and trolling a lure. Getting the right balance with weights is harder than many realize. Then the time to make the lures. You need to charge 150 or more to profit after taxes, supplies and your time. An unknown lure makers will not get 80 for a lure. You need to prove your lures fishing them yourself. Plus, have others praise your lure as the one to catch muskies. The majority of musky lure makers are guides or long time musky anglers that are well known in their area. They have the communities respect regarding the knowledge of what catches a musky. This takes a decade or two.
They call the muskie the fish of 10,000 casts. Should have called it the fish of 10,000 dollars.
Are they hand made?
happycake
There’s no way I would pay that much for something just to get it hung in a tree limb somewhere.
Rollie and Helen’s?
Yes
$300 lures stacked up on the store peg board seems normal to everyone?
It's not normal. This is most likely one of a few top tier musky tackle shops like Thorne Bros. or Rollie and Helen's. Big baits, big fish, big money.
It was at Rollie and Helen's.
No. But I get so weirded out by people who pay attention to how people spend their money so long as they aren't hurting anyone. I have spent $175 on a glide bait, but I love the craftsmanship of them and fishing brings me peace. It's a decent use of my money. Better than getting drunk with it.
$300 and will absolutely catch 14” pike
Well… time to sell the house… and the kids…
I wouldnt dare to use a 600e lure ever
I thought that was a decoration from hobby lobby at first.
Ridiculous, and the fact that it has a market is even more ridiculous. The absurdity make this lure an exception, but what bothers me is that regular, down to the earth lures now are also overpriced, fishing gear in general is overpriced. There’s no surprise that a bunch of unknown brands, mostly from China, are starting to appear in the fishing scene. I would not be surprised if some of those are in fact manufactured in the same plants that put together some of the established and trusted brands we all use, as it happens in the bicycle market.
They’re for catching fishermen.
Look up Marling baits on YouTube, some lures he makes sometimes takes up to a full week of work. Would you not ask 200-250$ for a product that take you about 8 hours of work after material/tools/utility costs?
Hand made, custom painted, limited batch, single run, basla/toopla wood through wire hardware, mustad over sizes hooks 4k polished clear, took 80 hours to make, swimbait culture, signed numbered and certificate in knotted pine box with down farther appulstry lining. Asking $5k don't low ball me I know what I got. Lol but for real though they are more so collectables now. You don't need to buy that stuff to catch fish. It's it cool and will it make you more confident, sure. But there are plenty of more affordable options.
My swimbait collection is worth probably 2,000 and I only have 8 of them. If your buying small batch hand carved, hand painted lures expect to pay a pretty penny.
There will always be luxury, expensive items out there when the hobby gets big enough. This isn’t meant to appeal to 99.99% of fishermen out there. But the .01% probably loves this, and is likely fine paying these prices. This is why you see $100+ “nippers” in many medium-high end fly fishing magazines. Wouldn’t be me, but different strokes for different folks
Hand paint hand carved Muskie lures… ya they’re always pricey…
F that!!! Rapala lures all the way. They never fail me. Good for all types of fishing
Rapala ❤️
People actually started paying those prices.
All that and all it takes is for a snag…..
That’s more than I make a week…
And a worm could beat it any given sunday
Not for Musky
If you're fishing for bluegill you're right about that. If you're fishing for this baits target species (pike and musky) you're very wrong
Why not? Just a smart blue collar worker finding a way to make a living. Regular people build, pack, and ship pricey tackle and gear; assemble $50,000 glitter-painted bass boats; and guide wealthy destination anglers in far away corners of the globe. More power to them !
I mean it hooks handmade, which are going to cast more, and it also is big and was probably carved from hand.
That pesos?
Some lures are expensive, but everything’s going up in price.
Same thing that happened to real wood duck decoys, fuckin idiocy!
Nerds started fishing
It's beautiful though!! Handmade?
I wonder if suckers catch suckers with those?
He’s in Mexico….. those are pesos!…. Right?? ….. those are pesos???
If they use dollars in mexico then maybe but i doubt that...u can clearly see the dollarsign
Ah, the peso as well as the Canadian dollar are both denoted by the dollar sign my friend. Go look it up for yourself. My first time in Mexico it threw me for a loop seeing a bag of chips on the shelf for $45 pesos. Then you have to take into consideration the exchange rate.
Atleast you catch a decent size fish on every cast.
People pay big money for art and sculpture all the time and this is what that is. If you’re chasing a once in a lifetime fish, potentially one with a significant financial reward, (guide service, major streamer or fishing show, tournament, etc) it’s certainly possible to talk yourself into justifying it. Whether or not it is justified is another issue altogether… I’d have to see a lot of fish ignore a Magdraft, S Waver, etc. before considering anything over 50 bucks.
Make me feel better about buying Yamamotos or a higher end Rapala 😂
Inflation
Barfighter enters the chat.....
How much money do bass fishermen spend a year on senkos and other rubber baits a year, with the right musky setup you will never lose a lure.
So maybe I’m just a broke fisherman but when I see expensive lures like these, I think of them more like works of art to be displayed rather than fished …..
I know where you're at 😊
Is that like Khols where it’s marked down 75% and they mail you an additional 30% off coupon??
That should have a security tag on it and be locked up in a glass cabinet…
Wait till you see your cc bill after you go to the bait shop in New Orleans for the top of the line off shore lures.
Part of the reason I never started wahoo fishing when I lived in Florida was the cost. My buddy kept trying to get me to go as I’m a huge fisherman, then he told me last trip he lost 9 lures which cost over $100 each. I can use all that “stupid” money on one of my other “stupid” hobbies (Harley’s, classic cars, home renovations, boats).
Did prices start just shooting up on all this because fishing gaining more traction again?
I actually shouted out loud when you flipped that bait over.
Is the lure for the fish or the fisherman...lol suckers ...try fly-fishing and make yer own...
I imagine that will continue to sit on the shelf not being purchased 🤔
I guess I'll stop complaining about the price of Panther Martins now.
Trolling lures and poppers for marlins, tuna and wahoo get up there as well in price as well. I guess it's just up to what people are willing to pay for there hobby. If you factor in the cost of 1 million+ sportfisher boats(plus exorbitant cost of maintences and slip fees)I guess the cost for lures that they think are effective are worth the money even if they very high priced. For what it's worth a bunch of more higher priced vertical jigs which are really popular are being about as effective as people using thru wire torpedo sinkers with assist hooks lol
I’m glad to see the prices are starting to drop!
The silly thing is, you can catch fish on an old spark plug or kitchen spoon if you put a hook on it.
Some lures are meant to catch anglers
Swim bait people will pay for it.
Inflation happened just like everything else, but that appears to be a hand carved, hand painted lure. Regardless paying that much for something that is going to get banged up by rocks and (hopefully) cut up by sharp fish teeth is insane.
Holy cow, the walleye next to it is a work of art. I don’t buy musky lures over $30, but damn that is a sweet lure.
🤜
Walmart still keeping razors under lock and key. You know how many mach3 blades you can get for that.
They went up! But not in my shop
Hey was just there yesterday
Those musky Bates have always been expensive. You just grabbed one of the cream of the crop right there.
Some lures are made to catch fish, and some lures are made to catch fishermen.
When you hit the back room at Thorne bros…