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| What is the most expensive lure you are throwing on a regular basis(every time out or once out of every 2 trips)? The price of some of these lures has gotten so high I was wondering if people are placing lures in the $40-$100 range in danger of orbit on a regular basis. I feel alot better using a floating lure or one for trolling if it is going to be so expensive. |
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Posts: 1188
Location: Iowa | I through Hughes Rivers ($40-$60) and Trueglides ($40) on a regular basis and trolling Legend Plows ($50), 19" Talonz ($60), and a 14" Snax Sucker ($90)...other than that it's the run of mill stuff...
Big Perc |
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Posts: 4266
| I've got a few Hughes Rivers that are limited edition show colors, and I have no reservations about throwing them even if they cost $60 or so.
I've been busy working on bodies this winter. Weighting, balancing, testing, filling, sanding, installing screw eyes........
I haven't put down one drop of paint yet, and I've been working my butt off. Now that I know what it takes to make a lure from start to finish, I have no qualms about paying $30 and more for handmade lures. It takes a lot of work and is a very time consuming process. Even at todays prices, BBB's aren't making minimum wage.
You get what you pay for, I think.
The HR's I have I could probably sell for $75. But I throw them anyway. I didn't buy them to collect them.
Beav |
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | I throw a Muskie Treat almost every trip out; in fact, it's almost always on one of my rods. I use it because it works, not because of what it costs. I don't own too many 'expensive' lures (admittedly the term is VERY relative), and many of my best ones were free. 
S.
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Posts: 2085
| wow...I cry when I lose a $15 DDD.....wont find me throwin anything over say $25
Do you guys have scuba gear in the boat so you can retrieve $50 lures??? |
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Posts: 158
Location: Eagan, MN | How ever much a 10" Suick costs these days. $15 maybe? I only own 2-3 lures that cost more than that, and none over about $20, so it's not like I have expensive lures just sitting around collecting dust. If I paid $60 for an HR you can bet I'd be throwing that thing every time out! |
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Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | I want to give a rookie perspective on this. I've been a serious golfer for the last 30 years. A dozen Titleist Pro V's cost $46.00. When I'm playing well and fairly often, they might last a month. If I'm not playing so well, two weeks. I don't use them once they're dinged up, and of course its easy to lose them. A Footjoy glove is $17.00 and lasts less than a month if I play often. A top of the line Driver is $500.00 and they change the technology every other year.
I've bought some handcrafted baits up to $35.00 as I fill my tacklebox. How many do you lose in a year when you strap them on with a steel leader and eighty pound superline? I love the idea that somebody can make some of the baits I've purchased and I might have them for years. It's the same with the rods and reels. It doesn't seem to me they change that much from year to year, and with care can last a long time.
Of course I haven't used any of them yet, and I'm liable to even lose a rod or two before I get the hang of it. I read Beav's post, and if you think of the time these artists put into their baits, some of them are a steal. I think I can completely gear up with stuff that will last for quite a while for what it costs me to fill my golf bag, and I refill that puppy about every four years with clubs. The ball pocket gets filled on a regular basis. Let's not even talk about Green Fees at the newer courses in the Metro Milwaukee area.
What blows my mind is the cost of boats. And then the truck to pull it. I like the idea of a canoe on a rickshaw cart I could hire the neighbor kids to pull me around in. Easy to launch too, but maybe not so great on big water, especially for a guy my size.
Kevin
Handmade baits are a part of the plan. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | i have a weagle that i paid 1,400 bucks for on ebay..i had to have it although ill sell it for 1,500 if anyone wants to buy it!!!! ummmmm other than that i dont think i own a bait over 40 bucks! |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Soon to be the Snax baits!
Mike |
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| Musky Snax and Hughes River gliders I toss most every time out, and they are quite pricey, but worth it. True artwork  |
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| Mmm sounds fishy |
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Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Probably my #5/50 first run Weagle. |
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Posts: 462
Location: Madison Wi. Chain | Just picked up a BS Willy creeper. Unsure what it is worth. BG |
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Posts: 2089
| Uh oh!!!!!This Fall, I'll be CASTING 14" Wishmasters.Bounce,bounce, bounce the rocks! Steve |
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Posts: 354
| I fish almost every time out with a Joel Wick flaptail, creeper, globe. Most range from $40 to 60 bucks. They raise and catch fish so it doesn't bother me at all. |
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| Well, if the #5/50 first run Weagle is worth alot than I wonder what my prototype Weagle that was the first Weagle to ever catch a fish and started the madness would fetch on Ebay???
I bet if I had Hulbert sign it I could get $5,000?
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Posts: 48
| Frenchy LaMay handmades--whatever types--great baits! |
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Posts: 910
Location: Hastings, mn, 55033 | i throw alot of hand made topwater stuff thats in the $45+ range, but i dont feel skitish with them because even if one came off you'd probably find it.
i also troll some lures in the $50+ range and usually only feel nervouse at times like this WHEN I REALLY THINK ABOUT IT! in the boat when your clipping them on, its just another tool, regardless of price. |
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Posts: 207
Location: Mpls, MN | I have a Mag Treat and a bonus Treat from the auction. That cost me $225 I believe. But it was for the Kly auction and I won't use the Mag Treat in the Cheeto pattern. Otherstuff - I guess my few HRs and maybe some Trueglides. Do I worry about losing them? Sure, but I didn't buy them to collect dust. I'm was more concerned about my CJ spinner that I caught my 1st muskie on. But that's out of the box now. |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | I would agree that many of the musky lures are too expensive. Many probably feel my lures fall into this category. I live in the Northwest and if you tried to ask 40 dollars for a salmon lure people would laugh you right out of the building! The most expensive salmon lures we generally use here are 10 dollars and under. Keep in mind tho these are plastic baits mass produced overseas.
If you have a plumber come up and fix a leak in the house you will probably pay a minimum of 50 dollars an hour plus 50 for him to show up. A mechanic will run 40-100 dollars an hour and up, etc. I had some upholstery work done on my boat and he charged me 75 dollars an hour.
If you build a few lures for yourself and friends the cost really isn't a factor. But when you start to build hundreds of lures it becomes a business like anything else. There are only so many hours in the day and using some of that time to build lures is an "opportunity cost" that could be spent with your kids, your wife, working on the house, fishing, or making money in another way. If it takes you an hour or more to build a good lure, which custom lures do, you have to make it worth your time otherwise why bother? Yes lure building is fun but building thousands becomes work, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I charge less than 30 dollars each for all of my lures. Minimum wage in my state of Oregon is 7.20/hour, that is an "entry level" wage. Depending on the day (some days go good, some bad) I will make 10-20 dollars an hour on my lures. I make more than double that at my day job which also includes all the fringe benefits of vacations, sick leave, medical/dental insurance, 401k, etc....probably 75 dollars an hour in total. My point being that yes you can make a little money at building lures but not much.
If musky anglers were to refuse to pay more than 20 dollars for a lure you would see one of two things happen. Either all of the high-end custom baits would go away, or you would see all the production get shifted over-seas. Many musky lures now are made overseas (you would be surprised at which ones are) in an effort to drive down the cost per lure. Build a musky lure from beginning to end that looks like a Hughes River or Trueglide and see what you want for it when it's done.
kind regards,
jed v.
bikini bait company
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Posts: 921
Location: Apollo, PA | Jed,
You can include your lures in that category. They are one of the best made, in my opinion for dollars spent. Your lures, and especially the phantoms by Todd Cleveland, let me also include Beav's stuff, are the best quality lures in their price range.
Now, i must also admit that i am a older hughes river, and Trueglide addict.............
I just think it is great that we have quality stuff out there to get. Hey, i can't build it, so i'm gonna buy it......
I feel that there are price points for every angler to get good stuff to fish with.
When baits go overseas two things happen. Lure quality and consistency in action are lost....
Mass production takes much of the pride out of the product.
With musky equipment, you get what you pay for, and if you don't like the price, don't buy.
Simple as that... PS |
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| # 2 first run weagle..........................(KLY"S..........) actually that adds alot more to it i bet......... never loose that baby ..... briguy |
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Posts: 93
Location: Waukesha, WI. | I have a box full of my baits and some other hand made baits by some of the makers from this board. I only like to fish with hand made baits. All of my store bought lures become hand made by the time I make all of the changes. That bait is now worth $10 more. At the next Show you go to stop in and take a look at the hand made bait (wood baits) ask how they put in the screw eyes, I bet most will say something about epoxy, or it will have wire through. I am going to put my money on the handmade baits anytime. You get what you pay for |
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Posts: 32957
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I have a few that are priceless, like a couple of Beav's originals. I also have a few that cost me as much as $40, but nothing more than that. I think the Violent Strikes I like so much cost me $13. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | Original Le Lure thumpers...
and a musky snax custom cisco..... |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | .
Edited by C_Nelson 6/7/2008 8:16 AM
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| Original Frenchy Le Lure Fetch n' Catch or Le Lure Globes, best top water you can get. Marv. |
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| I have a twitch bait made by some guy in a barn that is worth more than anything else I own. |
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| Interesting list. There is sometimes an elitist tone to bait, rod, equipment, etc. threads, that I find pretty funny and I have popped balloons a couple of times. I myself have a couple of lures that I paid $75 a piece for, but not to fish with. I bought them soley as an investment and a historical collectors item. I probably have paid a max of $20 for actual fishing baits, on a per bait basis, but would gladly up my investment to 40-60 $ if someone convinced me a certain bait was productive. Wouldn't mind paying it a bit. Price is a relative thing and any bait that will produce a number of fish is worth a good deal of money to me. Luckily the market is crowded and competitive for the most productive musky lure, the bucktail. I would hate having a limited number, sources of those available. In the bait field I think gliders are probably the priciest and most underproductive segment of baits on the market, but have absolutely no qualms about what people charge for them, as it is a free market and people are not forced to buy them. If somebody ever gets in my boat and outfishes me with a glider or even shows me a new path, I will quickly invest in that bait(if I can't steal theirs)and have no qualms about it, even to the dizzying(for me) price of $60.
Talking about handmade gliders it occurs to me that they have influenced the overall bait market, and now we are paying at times, over $20 for plastic, or production run wood lures. These manufacturers, to me, have been collateral beneficiaries of the higher end, hand made bait market. We kind of get de sensitized to paying that much per bait, after emptying our pockets for some of the limited edition stuff.
I tend to have a lot of what works for me and I am glad that Mepps #5, suicks, tallywhackers and hawg wobblers are common baits, and have good production runs every year. If I lived up north, I would have a bucket full of expensive, limited edition top water baits, because I am entertained by surface hits, and being up there I could use them much more than I what I get to in a year right now. If I lived near good glider water, I would probably have several high end glidersl.
Saying all that, and not wanting to do the tasks of the day, I will continue and tell you that one of my primary baits is plastic and that it is, unfortunately, one of those baits where not all of them are created equal. I am always on the lookout for those special ones that have the "sweet" action to them. You would think they could do better with plastic baits, and many plastics are very consistent from bait to bait, but not the one I use. So, to get one bait that works correctly I often invest $40 to as much as $60 before I find one that works right. Many people don't like my favorite bait and I am pretty convinced it is because, lining the baits up in a row, most of them don't work correctly. So, my personal problem is that my favorite bait is usually in the teens off the rack, but, by the time I buy enough used baits(my normal method) to get one that works I have gone through 3-6 of them, and that really seems kind of stupid even to me, but when you find the right one and put 40-60 fish in the boat on it(twice, and would have been more except for career ending catastrophic events, LOL), in several different waters, it starts to make sense. If I saw one of these in your box or got one on a trial basis, I am not sure what I would pay for it straight out, but after fiddling with trying to procure the next "all star" for the last 4 years or so, I don't think I would hesitate to pop up with $40, 50, 60, maybe even $75 after thinking about it. Well worth it and maybe cheap even at the high end. So, whatever you want to pay for baits, pay it. If it is a great bait for you and on your waters and you will be throwing it for a major portion of your time, look at it in terms of a cost for fish basis. My belief is that any musky bait you buy that produces enough fish to get the "bait" portion of the cost per fish down under $2, is a good buy. As you can guess, I have a number of baits in my box that have not reached that figure per musky.
Oh well, to answer the question, the most expensive baits in my box are purchased for $7-10 but usually entail $40-$60 acquisiton fees by the time the sorting is done. |
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| I have a hughes river but don't throw it very much. My baits I throw regularly throw top out at abot $25. |
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| I have a Lelure Vamp which I suspect is the most valuable one I have, but I don't throw it. Second in line are a couple of HR's - also part of the scenery in the basement.
I have some trueglides which I do use regularly. I won't go higher than $40 unless it's an addition to the "museum". I won't think twice about $12-$14 range. When it gets above that I question the need and utility of it. |
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Posts: 350
Location: WESTERN WI | Lee Lures "Top H20" great throwback bait and built like a tank for BIG BRUISERS. $35 |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | I have a 10" widowmaker glider that probobly cost 30. I also had a weagle that was $30...but I got rid of it for a fraction of that. |
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Posts: 1438
| I have 1 set of lures from well known basement baitmaker that haven't seen water. I have the whole matching set and they are simply awesome looking works of art. Don't know that I could bring myself to throw them. When I bought them it was with the full intention of using them. However, after seeing them, that changed.
But, I do have an Original Turd Flaptail that I do fish with. That lure is priceless/irreplaceable. I've also got several in the 40+ range that I don't think twice about using.
Scott |
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Posts: 56
| Got esox? Where did you pay $35 for a Top H20? Just curious.
My most expensive bait that I throw by the way is a B.S. Willy custom creeper which I call the "Pink Nightmare". It is a huge bodied creeper that will run over the biggest waves! I think the custom body creepers run about $75. What is so great about any of B.S. Willy creepers is that the wings are a heavy guage stainless steel that rarely come out of tune. His regular in line (readily available) creepers are a steal at $25. They have the same heavy guage wings as his custom ones. Never used another creeper that can "keep the sound" fish after fish.
See Ya,
Lee Tauchen
Dr. TOP H2O |
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Posts: 208
Location: North East PA , 20 mins from Chautauqua | I use a Ed Latiano Ready Eddie jerkbait everytime my boats in Chautauqua Lake , They go for big bucks and aren 't made anymore and some go for as much as fifty to a $100. bucks But they catch fish for me and I'm going to keep throwing them
THE FERD |
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Posts: 408
Location: Omaha, Nebraska | mine is a snowcrest bullseye at a mere $20 bucks. lol |
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Posts: 369
Location: Omaha NE | The most expensive lures I have are American Hardwood lures. They range from $25 to $40 price range. Most of my lures cost from $15 to $20. |
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Posts: 734
| I have a large Lakeland full of Nimmer Swimmer's. They range from $20-$80. I will throw everyone of them this year, I bet within one month of being on the water. If it works use it. Now I just need a Wishmaster to waste my money on!!! |
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Posts: 1168
| Two ways to look at this...1) a creepenstein that I struggled to justify getting due to cost. Within 3 days that bait paid for itself and I am hoping to get 1 or 2 more as backups. -or- 2) The unweighted black perch burt that once got stuck in the back of my leg with a pike and boat seat attached and a year later got stuck in a partner's elbow which eventually caused a trip to the ER where he needed stitches. |
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Posts: 408
Location: Omaha, Nebraska | lol very funny |
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Posts: 921
Location: Apollo, PA | Johnny,
10 - Wishmasters????? Your a very sick dude, but i like it....
Things could be worse, you could have a drug addiction, or an addiction to exotic cars, etc...
I can tell though, that you are not married.
Best, Pikiespawn LOL  |
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| HRjohnny 4 of those babies are almost identical! Slow down. |
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| DJS,
Those two identical Perch's are different!!
One has a 54" and the other only a 51"...
LMAO. |
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | This one.
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Posts: 576
Location: Germantown, WI | just bought my most expensive lure yesterday while i was out and about. was about 5miles from smokey's muskie shop and decided to stop in. bought an H20 by lee lures $30 plus tax.
i usually don't spend over $20, but this is a quality built bait. also lee spent some time tuning another one of his baits for me at the milw muskie show this year. can't wait for the season to start!! |
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Posts: 2061
Location: Belgium | swim whizz from the 1970's, rapala magnum 1960's, pounder dawg, ... that's about it. The rest are normal, affordable lures
Edited by divani 3/9/2006 8:35 PM
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