Brandon Betterton shows some of the fishing lures he’s made by hand. PHOTOS BY DANNY WESTON
I’m constantly looking at the amount I’m taking off from one side to make sure it’s even on the other side. I try to mimic the game fish on various lakes. For instance, if someone wants to fish Lake Guntersville, I will research and try to make something as close as possible to the fish in that lake.” After carving, he uses a Dremel tool for rough sanding to get the approximate shape. Then, he uses sandpaper to smooth it out for the final touches. After carving and sanding to get the body shape the way he wants it, he adds components like eyes, hooks, lips and rattles. “For the lips, I buy real thin sheets of Lexan and I cut the lips by hand or with a jigsaw,” he says. “Then, I sand them to get the profile correct. I scar the Lexan with a blade so it has a bit of surface area retention for the glue. There’s a two-part epoxy outer coat that I put on to protect the paint. I normally do two or three coats of the epoxy. One coat of it is supposed to be equivalent to 60 coats of polyurethane. Once I airbrush it, it’s ready to seal.”
Each carved wooden lure takes about four hours to make. He also buys plastic bodies, adds the components to them and paints them; lures with plastic bodies don’t take nearly as long to make. Usually, Betterton carves about 20 lures at a time and then moves onto the next step. He makes about 50 hand-carved lures a month. On both body types, some steps, such as gluing and painting, require hours to dry. He can’t hang lures to dry because wet paint will drip down and clump, so he rotates lures slowly and continuously on a rotisserie-type device so the baits dry evenly across the lure body. “It’s a very tedious process, but I thoroughly enjoy making the lures,” he says. “For me, it’s more about relaxation than anything else.” Most of his sales come through wordof-mouth, but Betterton does attend events, such as the annual fall festival in his hometown, to sell his baits. Lures range from $5 to $30. For more information, call Betterton at 334-320-3360.
ALABAMA LIVING 2021 PHOTO CONTEST
Gather your best photos and get ready to enter the Alabama Living 2021 photo contest starting May 1 on alabamaliving.coop
Submit up to two entries per category:
Seasons • Animals • People • Alabama travels Entries will be accepted online only, May 1-31. All photos must have been taken in Alabama. Winning photos will be published in the August 2021 issue and periodically on our social media sites. First-place winners in each category will receive $100! 36 APRIL 2021
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Complete rules will be posted on alabamaliving.coop beginning May 1. 2020 first place in Rural Landscapes: Drew Senter of Oxford, Ala.
www.alabamaliving.coop
3/24/21 12:25 PM
