When Rick Brouwer finishes an art project, sometimes he tosses it into the lake.
Each custom-painted fishing lure he creates is a functional work of hand-crafted art. They're beautiful to look at, but do their work under water, wobbling and wiggling to entice hard strikes from hungry fish.
Lures aren't his only specialty. Brouwer draws and paints wildlife scenes and portraits. He makes full-size costumes for stage productions. The outfits run the gamut from Disney characters to animals.
The well-rounded artist from Pea Ridge is also a well-rounded angler. Creating custom-painted lures, including crank baits, jerk baits and swim baits, is dear to his heart.
Brouwer, 52, caught the art bug early.
"I've been drawing for close to 45 years," he said. "I just picked it up one day and started doing it."
His enthusiasm hasn't waned.
"Five years ago, I challenged myself to do 50 drawings in a year," he said. "I ended up doing 65."
That's about the same time he had some beat up lures gathering dust around the house. Their finishes were cracked and chipped from years of catching fish and bumping around in tackle boxes.
He picked one up and started painting.
"That first one was a square-billed crank bait. It was beat up bad," Brouwer recalled. When finished it resembled a threadfin shad, the main forage for black bass and all game fish in Ozarks lakes.
[Don't see the gallery, click here.]
"I went out by myself and caught five bass in an hour at Beaver," he said. "The next fish broke it off."
Sad to lose that lucky lure, he went home and painted more. Now, hundreds of lures later, his works of fishing art are popular with casual anglers, but serious tournament bass fishermen are his main customers.
He wrapped up an order last month for one angler who ordered 85 of Brouwer's lures. They're available locally at Hook, Line and Sinker fishing store in Rogers. Cost is $10.99 per lure.
Some people think Brouwer has some big operation going, like a factory, to turn out his lures. Far from it. He does it all at a work bench of modest size in his unheated garage at home. That is, when he's not at his full-time job. Brouwer has worked at Zebra Technologies in Bentonville for 23 years.
When he gets going, he can paint 10 lures in an hour. Brouwer demonstrated the process one Friday morning out in his garage.
Six to 12 layers of paint are air-brushed on to each lure, depending on the pattern. Stencils that Brouwer has cut out by hand create various patterns on the lures. A hand-held hair dryer instantly dries the paint. Last, he applies a clear coat to protect the paint. The clear coat also gives the lure a shiny or flat finish, whatever the customer placing the order prefers.
Competitive bass anglers are always looking for that little something that'll help them catch the largest fish, said James Whittle, who runs the Beaver Lake Elite Series tournaments. The contests draw the area's top bass anglers.
Custom-painted baits give anglers the exact color they want, Whittle said. Unique colors and patterns show bass something different than the colors every other angler is using. That can make a difference, he said.
Anglers can order colors that match the color of the forage found in a particular lake, Brouwer said. Crawdad-colored crank baits are popular for wintertime bass fishing. But a crawdad at Beaver Lake may look different than a crawdad found in, say, Lake Ouachita.
Brouwer views his lure work as more of a pleasant pastime than a business. It's a process he enjoys that helps pay for his own fishing.
Brouwer gets a kick out of catching fish on lures he paints himself.
"But the biggest is when other people catch fish on them and share their pictures online," he said. "That's the biggest thrill."
Catch winter bass
Black bass can be slow to bite during winter when the water temperature dips into the mid-40s or colder. At Beaver Lake, some of the largest bass of the year are caught during winter. Effective winter lures include crank baits and jerk baits.
Sports on 02/18/2020