I like fishing for pike, so most of my lures are home made. I figured out a couple years ago that I could get much better action out of a spoon made my way, than any commercial offering. The ones I make, I can make stay in one place, or even swim backwards once you learn how to use them. It can take a long time to retrieve them at the slow rate I like to fish, and they absolutely make pike mad. Nothing imitates a dying perch better.
I still see a lot of homemade bull trout plugs for sale at yard sales around here. Some are real crude, being a piece of cut off and lightly shaped broom stick, to some really artfully done lures.