We all know this, and we all take advantage of these colorful shapes of rubber nearly every time we are out on the water, am I wrong? However, if there is ever a problem with soft plastics for bass, it is that there are nearly HUNDREDS of different brands that are all selling the same basic shapes. It is quite the problem, because there is nothing worse than being out there on the water and wondering to yourself wether you could have gotten more bites with say, a KVD brand beaver with coffee scent, rather than the salty Reaction Innovation beavers that you had in your boat.
There was a time when I struggled with this as well, but now, after discovering Paul Krew Custom Baits, this is no longer a problem for me.
Allow me to let you in on a little secret:
Who is Paul Krew? Well, it is hard to say, all I know about the man is that he hand pours the best soft plastic fishing lures that I have ever set my eyes on. If you are unaware, "hand pouring" is a process in which a lure maker creates his own soft plastics, usually one lure at a time, by pouring home cured plastisol (super high quality plastic specially for special effects and fishing lures), with dyes and flakes and powders all added in, into open face molds of say... a craw... or a worm. Hand poured baits are famous for being much, much higher quality than that of store bought plastics. In other words, the baits are more durable, and softer to the touch. One draw back to hand poured lures is usually that colors are not as unique as store bought plastics but, when it comes to Paul Krew, this is far from the case...
Paul runs his business directly through his Facebook page (link at the bottom), which is how I first discovered this hand pouring wizard. On this page, Paul tantalized my curiosity with stunning photographs of his work. Each of these pictures contained lures like none that I had seen before, containing incredibly vivid colors, creative shapes, and perfection down to the last detail. The pictures just kept on coming, worms, floating snakes, frogs like none that I had ever seen, amazing drop shot minnows, the list goes on and on. It seemed every day Paul would put up a new photograph that put on the wow factor and, quite honestly, called to my wallet. But to my dismay, I resisted! I must be loyal to my good ole "Yum Dingers" after all, right? Wrong. Christmas rolled along and what did I find in my stocking? Not Paul Krew Custom Baits, that's for sure, but there was a $50 bill from my aunt so I went to town on Paul's Facebook page... Maybe going a little over the prescribed budget...
I ordered the following:
3.5 inch DS Shimmer Shad in Watermelon/Silver Shad
4.5 inch Striker Swimbait in Natural Shad Silver Flake
4 inch Flipn/Pitchn Craw in Natural Blue Craw
4 inch Renaissance Craw in Black and Blue Flake, Blue Tips
3 inch Paddle Tail DS Minnow in Glass Minnow Purple Pearl Vein
4 inch Curly Fat Head Minnow in Watermelon Gold with Purple Pearl
Let me tell you, the baits are even better in person. They came in a big box, carefully packaged in zip lock bags and stuffed with newspaper for transport.
The first thing I noticed was the colors, WOW. Not one brand of mass produced baits on the planet comes close to these colors, and every bait seemed to take on a slightly different hue depending on the angle, or amount of light in which I was observing. They are more like little works of art that I was reluctant to stick a hook into.
The second thing that stood out to me was the feel of the baits. They are softer than Yamamoto, and as strong as a huddleston trout when you try to rip them.. Paul, if you are reading this, I promise I only broke one for scientific purposes.. Anyways, back to the point, they are almost so soft that you cannot stop playing with them in your hands, but it doesn't matter because they sure as heck aren't going to break on you!
The craws came with a special coating of fine salt, which has stuck incredibly well even to the baits that I have been messing with for a couple weeks, as well as a bottom layer of plastic with a salt formula. If a bass chomps on these, they will not want to let go for a long time. The bait fish imitations came with mirage eyes attached as well, and they are stuck on there pretty well. No "Dean Rojas Warmouth" typed glue on these eyes, they will stay fixed.
Here are some pictures of these little pieces of bass candy straight off of Paul's page:
Paul Krew Custom Baits are the top plastic that I have every used, hands down. The customer service is great, Paul really wants to please the customer, and he will do his lures in any color that you can think up. He even allows you to send him a jig, or a picture of a living creature and he will match the color scheme down to the last detail.
If you want to put more fish in your boat, and fish something other than those basic mass produced brands that the fish in your lake see all day, I urge you to try out Paul Krew Custom Baits. You will not be disappointed.
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Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or even ideas for future write ups, let me know below and I will make sure to read and respond to everybody!
Tight lines, spring will come soon enough,
"L"
"Get em' while they're hot!"
www.facebook.com/paul.krew.9
