Legendary Lures

I'll jump in. Other Plug Passes have started out with about 10 lures, rather than 2. That way, people have more to choose from. The down side is the starter has some work to do to get it started. If you're thinking about starting a couple of these, I'd suggest getting the first filled first. You could also start one with hardbaits, another with soft plastics or maybe wires.

Visit your well-stock local hardware. Find the chains and ropes section. (You'll have to go to a tack shop for whips. ) It's not "sash chain", but it's in a package near it. It might be for hanging plants. The chain is made of figure-eight-shaped links and is brass. You can easily open the links and seperate them. There's a half twist in them that you can flatten with pliers, arbor press or vice. Hope this helps. Show us some of your results.

If I had 3 guesses, I'd say there's twelfty-forty, teny-hundred or eleventy-65 lure bodies. How about paintin' one up for me and sending it up north?

Look for a "tool and die" company.

Here's the Legendary Lures' Paint Depart. One needs an unclutterred, dust-free area so no "floaties" get in the finish.

Let's see, you'll need: Aluminum foil hat, so the spooks can't detect your presence. An old style ElectroLux sweeper strapped to your back and lots of hose. Hmmm, maybe some Old Style. Dark glasses, not night vision, though. The darker, the better. Night vision looks right through them and that's no good. A tiny MP3 player to broadcast some scary sounds while the customer isn't looking. Or leave it hidden at their house so you can make a second call. Change out the battery, re-hide and repeat until you think they're catching on. Then you can remove it and claim success. A light sabre in case any Jedis are encountered. A fire extringuisher to freeze them in their tracks, then wack them with a sledgehammer. That ought to kill them dead. A receipt book so your customers can deduct for your services, but you'd better use a fake tax ID number. Some duct tape so you can make your shirt look like a Buck Rogers uniform. Download some clipart to make a cool emblem for the upper left chest. Some Gack so you can run out of the room declaring that you've been Gacked! Really really freaky hair. If you're bald, maybe a wig, but stay away from the mullti-colored afro wigs. Don't forget to google the web for spook buster message boards. You can hobknob with others of your kind, trade pictures, get tips, read tutorials, post stories and chat.

Wonderful post! I think you've been taking notes!!! I put together a new fieldtest box every winter. Along with prototypes made by me and others, I pack in extra parts. Things like: screweyes, hooks, splitrings, etc. I also put in a little tool kit that has things like: sandpaper, a small pinvice (for drilling new holes), a little pinch of modeling clay and some tootpicks (to fill holes), needlenose pliers, a batter powered Dremel and some sanding wheels (for reshaping lips), a sharpie (write numbers on the lures), a little notebook (write notes on paper to match id numbers on the lures, sketch new ideas, etc), a pocket knife (might want to handcarve a lure or two from sticks), nearly evertything to make or remake a lure in the field, cabin or boat. I've made a mold to cast lead weights on the shank of screweyes. This way I can easily add weight or move them around. Just drill a new hole and screweye it in. You can also use various sized bass or Dipsy sinkers and little rubberbands to move weights around. By combining various sizes of sinkers, you can pretty well fine tune. Once a good weight and position is established, mark the lure and take notes. Do it right then and you can look back later with confidence that the info was correctly recorded. Make notes of the experiments, weather conditions, location, date and time, fish caught, etc. I happen to have a Mallard Bananna Lure that is marked #1. If you hold this lure against the screen, up to picture #16, It looks like a carbon copy. Right down to the placement of the dots. Hmmm.... I think it will be going into the fieldtest box tonight.

Belly hook only or a second hook on the face end?

I would recommend your cut being 90 degrees or larger. Maybe even 120 degrees. Since you can not turn the halves when assembling the lure, this might help: If you're going to use two screweyes as the hinge, close the one that goes into the deep vee and screweye it all the way in. Make the eye be perpendicular to the vee. Stretch the other screweye more open and screw it all the way in. Make it parallel to the cut. Now slide the open screweye into the closed one. Pinch the open eye close with needlenose pliers. Unless your lure body has no taper, you'll find that it is very difficult to make the cut symetrical. You can make pencil marks, but it's still tough. You might make a cradle-type jig for the lure to ride in while sawing the cut. The idea is to temporarily eliminate the taper. Be sure to show us your results.

Every now and then, I get a few of the plastic bodies when I order the stuff I really need. They swim well. My theory is that there is only one secret plastics plant than does injection molded lure bodies. Look closely at a well stocked lure department. You'll see the same bodies in different packages. Keep in mind that more and more of the name brand lure companies are getting bought up by just a few "umbrella" companies. Jann's seems to be getting better at being tapped into the secret source. The last batch of plastic bodies that I got had a brand name molded into the side. I guess what I'll beating around the bush about is this: Get some.

What stops spinning? Take your stock out of the lathe and look at the ends of it. Has the spurs tore out the center of the stock? If you lathe has a chuck on the drive end, it might not be tight enough. If you're using a drive spur, whack it into the stock with a hammer. Not too hard, mind you. You don't want to split the stock or peen over the end of the drive spur. Does the motor stop running? That certainly should not be happening. If so, I'd return the lathe. I've decided that there is no such thing as gouge that's too sharp. Even if it is brand new, I'd hone it. I use a regular 3/4" wood chisel and sharpen the heck out it.

I get several emails per week from people asking for free lures. Some of the emails are pretty obvious. Some have a sad story along the lines of "someone stold my handicapped siblings tacklebox...". Some are from folks professing to be tournament fishermen and the love my product (however, I have no record of selling them any) and would I sponser them. The one that I'm not so sure about is the ones that appear to be from a school. They are going to be putting on a lure show and sale of nothing but handmade lures. "All the contemporary lure makers are participating." Does anyone else get these emails and how do you respond to them? I try to donate a few lures each year. I mostly donate to Muskies, Inc. There's a local chapter and I know some of the members.

William, I sent you a Tackle Underground Private Message.

Since I don't know what "craft boxmakers" are, I guess I don't use them. What are they?

Since I make boxes as I need them, I print them on my PC's printer. It's an Epson Inkjet. The downside of using an inkjet prinhter is that the ink is water based. It will run if it gets wet. I prefer a color laser printer, but I don't have one. At the moment, I can't justify the price. I've considered using an office supply store, like Staples. We don't have a Kinko's nearby. Staples isn't close to me, either. I've not checked their prices. I've found no advantage to preprinting the boxes. Although I have a couple stacks of preprinted boxes, I rarely go through them. It seems I waste a bunch of time only to find out I don't have what I needed, anyway. I'm constantly coming up with new lures and paint patterns, so the old boxes don't work for me then, either.

If you make your own boxes, you have total control over the size and printing. Granted it takes some time to design the box, print them out, cut them out, fold them and then glue them. I use MS Paint to desing the boxes and print them on 110 pound cardstock.

Merry Christmas, one and all. When I was a kid, I wondered why people asked for "Peace on Earth". I think I know now. It sure would be nice if that's all we got this year.

Here's the easiest way I've found: Insert the tips of needlenose pliers through the splitring. Press the pliers to your benchtop. Push the eye of the hook into the splitring. Slide the hook until the splitring closes. Slip the splitring onto an open screweye. Pinch screweye shut. Done. BTW: I've not found a decent pair of splitring pliers that do a good job on smaller splitrings. Just how many times did I type "splitring" in this message?

Here's a brush painted plan: White under coat. Let it dry then lightly sand. All paints are acylics. Mother of Pearl white. While still wet, blend in a very little bit of yellow on the throat. While still wet, carmel on the top and half way down the sides. While still wet, with a stiff short bristle brush, dab on olive green on the top, head, around the eyes and make the side stripes. Smear it in with the carmel a little. While still wet, use a tootpick to make a row of olive green dots on the sides as a lateral line. Let it dry. Using a tooth pick, scratch on lines of orange, yellow and black for the tail, pectorial and belly fins. Let dry. Glue in eyes. Candy coat with a mixture of micro glitter and your favorite clear coat. Attach hardware and go catch some fish.

White seems to work well for me. We have a nearby lake with both true and hybrid stripers.

One of the definitions of FOLK ART is taking an object out of its intended context and using it for something else. Objects d'Folk Art are usually whimsical and I find them to be quite interesting. Let's use this thread to show off your previously made or even new Folk Art Lures. I'm guessing a bunch of you have at least one lure that you made which could be called Folk Art (or maybe "creative recycling"). I'll kick it off with one that I make from a disposable razor handle. It features plastic bead eyes, through wire for the line tie, belly and tail hook hangers and an internal belly weight made from a 1/10 oz. barrel sinker. The lip is purchased.

Very cool, JJ! Here's a picture of a couple Spoonplugs. The metal one is an old Buk Perry spoonplug. I think he was the originator of structure fishing or at least he's credited with naming it. Mine is a physical pun of the Spoonplug. I hammered the spoon's bowl flat. The handle is bent to follow the lure's belly. The tip of the handle is bent and drilled to serve as the rear hook hanger. I suppose you could say the lure has an external belly weight, too.

Thanks for the compliments. I'm still trying to find out some history on this pattern. At the moment, the only thing I know is that it is an old standard pattern for saltwater striped bass. 'I "borrowed" the pattern from the saltwater folks, so I suppose it's okay if anyone else wants to use it, too. If I make more, I think I'll make a stencil for the gills.

I recently discovered a saltwater paint pattern called CHICKEN SCRATCH. I made one of my Musky Pappys (Grandma clone) with it. Whatcha think of it?

micromark.com sells several different slow motors. One even has a set of gears that you can stack in different configurations to make different speeds. I don't know how much load they can bear, though. Maybe a vacuum sweeper or sewing machine motor and a set of setdown pullys could be used. If your town has "hoopy Christmas", you should be able to pick up several from the curb.