Nathan Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 I was about 10 when I used masking tape to tape some really ugly pink feathers on the back of a snelled bait hook.I then crimped a split shot ahead of it so it would sink.I took it to the pier in Santa Cruz Ca. and actually caught a Surf Perch with it...Now 44 years later I'm still addicted to this madness..lol...Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 (edited) I made a lot of stuff when I was a kid: Rods - 2 part whole cane from the garden center, top fiberglass. weighed a ton and bowed under its own weight. Floats - from just about anything that would float. Spoons - from Grandma's spoons (not happy). Flies - I went hungry and saved all my dinner money for six weeks and bought all the fly tying gear. Robbed a few books from the library and taught myself tying. Fly rod - first serious rod, from fiberglass blanks. Taught myself to cast (more starvation involved). I built so much stuff from the age of 10 and onwards, that I just cannot remember my first catch. Dave Edited July 8, 2015 by Vodkaman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt M Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 I made my first Crankbait from a scrap of treated 2x4 I found on a construction site. I used regular screw in eyes from a hardware store for hook hangers and thumb tacks for eyes. It was ugly and didn't work. That was 20 yrs ago. I've gotten a little better since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltwater Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Used an old fashion wood clothes pin, the one piece kind. Tied a kite string to it, no hook. Hey, if a clothes pin could hold up a wet towel it could easily hold a fish. I was certain it would catch a fish every time I threw it out. Didn't know how to tie a knot and it just flew off the kite string and floated away down the river. I was 21 years old but, I've learned a lot since then.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRammit Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 My 1st lure here was an ugly plastic crappie jig a litte over a year ago...... But my 1st lures ever bring back fond memories My dad introduced me to fishing as soon as i was out of diapers... He didnt use lures, his tackle box was hooks/weights/ red n white plastic corks... As i got older we began watching Roland Martin, Jimmy Houston and Bill Dance together.. So i began spending every dime i could get on lures from Walmart I lost him when i was 14 and had no one to take me fishing... So out of boredom i began taking apart many of my old lures and putting them back together to my liking......... I seem to remember things like half a power worm on a crappie jig head with moms yarn as a skirt.. Plastic craws with my own weighted belly hooks made from rubber core sinkers.. Spinners made from paper clips and bullet sinkers.. And there may have been a creepy crawler or two in there somewhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 First lures I ever made were for stripers and whites that schooled in the tail race below the Lake Livingston dam. Used white feathers from an egret that had accidentally ran into a .22 bullet from an unnamed source. Wrapped them onto the hook with either red or white crochet thread and then super glued to finish. Fished on leaders behind popping corks these "flies" caught exceptionally well. Had forgotten all about building these until getting interested here lately in tying some bucktails and feathered trebles. Looks like I've come full circle. Thanks again for everyone's advice on my recent tying questions. Now if I could just get all of you to help pay for all the tying stuff I've bought in the last few weeks. Ben 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohawkman Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Basswood popper. Swam on it's side but popped and "walked the dog" perfectly. I have it framed in my living room. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRammit Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 (edited) Basswood popper. Swam on it's side but popped and "walked the dog" perfectly. I have it framed in my living room. That was another one... I remember finding part of a dowel rod somewhere and hammering the eye of a hook shank in each end... On the back was a single hook and a curl tail grub... Didnt carve it, didnt seal it.. Just wood n rubber Edited July 9, 2015 by JRammit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy G Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 As a kid I made bobbers out of styrafoam found on the side of the road, or sections of cane that I would harvest off the creek bank and dry in the sun. Then I started getting into my mom's sewing box for thread, and chasing our game rooster to pluck some tail feathers for flies (I wonder why he hated me so much). I took a break while in the Army. First crank was made a few years ago out of a spruce 2x4, sealed and painted with my wifes fingernail polish. It worked well enough to catch an 8 lb bowfin, but is sitting on a shelf in my living room now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Hard to say what was my first lure. I started out modifying deep diving wood crankbaits by adding weight, repainting, etc. I guess my first build came after I bought a commercial balsa crankbait and it fell apart after 3 hours in the water. I decided if I had to pay bucks to fish something that lasted 3 hours, I might be able to build one for less money that lasted longer and worked just as well. It took a few tries, but eventually I did that. My first was ugly as sin and would only catch catfish, for some reason. But it was onward and upward after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNC Molds N Stuff Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 (edited) I don't recall how old I was, but my Uncle Paul and I heated some plastic up in a sauce pan, poured it into a plastic injector, and shot it into a plastic mold back in the late 1970s. Not long after that was the first time I saw a metal (I assume aluminum, but it could have been something else) injector used by one of Paul's fishing buddies with a metal mold. We thought that was awesome. A year or two later I cast my own jigs in a Parker mold, and painted them with Testors enamel model paint. I think it was Parker anyway. My dad brought me the mold a few years ago when I started making my own aluminum molds. Now that I think about it, it wasn't that long after that first casting experience as a kid that I made my first mold. I clamped two pieces of wood together and drilled a hole between them to make bullets for my .45 Pennsylvania rifle. LOL. They actually worked pretty good for what they were. A patched conical bullet instead of a maxi or a mini ball style conical bullet. I think I might have invented the Power Belt. LOL. (Please don't take that last bit seriously. I know how people can get sometimes.) Edited July 9, 2015 by Bob La Londe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonister Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 first i learned about painting, when dad decided to show me how to repaint lures with spray paint. So i got together all of the colors that looked "bad" to me in the box and started trying to peel paint off of them. luckily i got caught and was stopped from massacurring 10 or so new quik fish. I was given some bad ones in the end and access to the paint cabnet and went to town. after this i decided i would make my own from scratch so i made a glider out of some paint sticks. forget sealing and smoothing out, just wire, spray paint, wood, and devcon. Ive come along way since then.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Posted July 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Great stories guys!!!!..Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Great stories guys!!!!..Nathan Great topic Nate!!!!! Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazmail Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Still got mine- about 1978 vintage. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine_studios Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Mine was a gradual need out of necessity. We had fished for Striper for years and had only caught a couple, until one night we got 4 all on the same lure in about 2 hours (it was a magical evening that I've not seen since), but I only had the one lure that was the hot color. Since we were camping at the time, some spray paint and nail polish we dug up did the trick to modify the other lures to match. Turns out we caught 2 more on the same stupid lure and nothing on any of the modified lures. Was it coincidence? Or, was there really something special about that lure? Then, I decided to hunt for muskies a few years later and figured I'd go broke buying $25 and $30 lures to drag around the bottom of the lake. Since I was such a "pro" at repainting lures, I figured, how hard could it be? As it turns out, you don't save as much money as you'd hoped, and it's much harder than I thought it would be, but so rewarding when you catch your first fish on a homemade lure. Special thanks to all of you guys for ironing out many of the lure making kinks, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the site and all the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrubs Posted July 11, 2015 Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 Remember Herters? Bought my first fly tying & rod building stuff from there. That was right after my dad passed away so I must have been maybe 14. Then later on saw this article in In Fisherman about making micro plugs for panfish but I couldn't get them to work. Then on to jigs & spinners. bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted July 12, 2015 Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 I tied my first trout flies when I was about 10. I made my first trout spoon out of some scrap brass not long after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaw Posted July 12, 2015 Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 I guess the first lures I made would have been crappie jigs. Started with premade jig heads and sewing thread. The feathers and other material came from whatever caught my eye. Then I found a fly shop within a decent driving distance from home and accumulated drawers full of fur and feathers. Never cared much for traditional flies so I started making my own contraptions some good some bad but all fun to make. Then it was hard baits and man were they ugly I've still got the jointed bait I made first (you can't tell which end is the front and which is the back) along with 2 basswood worm baits with bills made from coffee can lids. Man I'm glad I found this site it's improved my building immensely wish I would have known about it years ago but it was fun making all that other stuff and learning from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted July 12, 2015 Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 Jaw - I too started inventing my own fly designs. It was much more interesting than turning out the olde favorites. I had an uncle who was a game warden for a trout and salmon fishery in Wales. I showed him my collection and he was amazed, saying that these were killer flies and would love it if he could have a couple. I gave him a shoe box full. For many years after, he was always raving about those flies and how successful they were. Although I tied a thousand or more flies, made my own fly rod, taught myself to cast, I never fly fished more than three or four occasions in my life. The true irony is that, the first ever fish I and my father ever caught, was on a fly, on a 2' plastic rod bought from Woolworths. A guy fishing the same stream tied it on for us and we caught a small trout. Dave 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padan Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 My first improvised lure I made was when I was about 8-9 y/o and my family was camping in the 1000 island area. I was fishing off the docks with great success catching bass. So much so I ran out of bait. So I gathered up some seaweed slime and shaped it into teardrop shapes and set it on the docks to dry a bit. Once they became firm enough i hooked them up and jigged around the edge of the docks catching several more bass. I actually caught the biggest bass of the day on this improvised seaweed jig as for my first AB painted lure. I just started this hobby 2 months ago and the first lure I painted came out very nice (it took me several days to paint it since i was, and still am a rookie). Once completed i was excited to take it out fishing. The first cast with it i caught a 15" smallmouth (true story), and I should have retired it right there while it was batting 1000. I continued to catch fish the remainder of the day with it, and then I hooked a nice big northern about 38-40". I got him up to the canoe and could see he had the lure t-boned in his mouth and was at risk of cutting my line if he turned the right way and made a run. Well he did ....... so, now i'm using version 2.0 of that pattern. But version 1.0 was special ...... i miss him 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRammit Posted July 14, 2015 Report Share Posted July 14, 2015 Seaweed???... Ha!... Now ive heard it all!!! But this is not all that surprising to me.. Many times ive walked by a stream or flowing bar ditch thinking i saw a fish swimming in the current, only to realize after a closer look that it was a piece of trash or seaweed stuck to a rock.. Perhaps demonstrating the same vortex shedding principals that make swim baits swim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whackett Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 As a rookie at making and painting lures I hope I have the same luck as Padan did without losing my lure. Still sounds like you did everything right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 The first lure I made was probably 28 years ago and was a yellow popper and a jerk bait. I caught a few fish on them the first few times but didn't fish that much then and they sat for a little while until I got in college then I had money and bought lures and the hand made stuff got stuffed in a box. I think I kept onto them up until several years ago then believe they got purged in tackle clean up process but could be wrong. They were some of the ugliest lures from what I remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrogAddict Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 My first lure was a popper made out of an Aspen dowel from Menards. I painted the whole thing white and the head red with spray paint. It didn't work worth a darn but I still have it somewhere. I'm planning on building a display case this winter to house all my failed lures.....it'll be a big display case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
