Legendary Lures

Here's a little wire lure that I cooked up the other day. The head, rivet and buzz blade are aluminum. The beads are hollow metal. The wire is stainless steel. The hook is size 1/0 VMC.

Here's the easiest wayI've found to install split rings: - Grip the split ring with the tips of needlenose pliers. Make sure the opening of the split ring is facing up. - Hold the pliers firmly against your benchtop. - Carefully and firmly grasp the hook and press the ring of the hook into the splitring. It will take a little practice, but you can force the splitring to open enough to get the hook started. - Slide the hook partially around the splitring, leaving the splitring open. - Insert the wire of your crankbait. - Slide the hook and crankbait around the splitring at the same time. - Done. Go fish!

Here's a new paint pattern I worked up. I had this little perch body laying on the bench when the idea struck me. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the lure justice. I think the flash washed the colors out a little. Anyway, using acrylic paints and wet on wet brush technique, I applied a base coat of pearlized white. Next just a touch of yellow for the chin and belly. Silver for the back. Highlights of light blue for the tail and fins. After letting everything dry, details in the same light blue were applied to the tail and fins. The eye is black paint. Feelers are 30 pound monofilament.

Here a picture of some crankbaits I made. Thanks to all who have shared their knowledge in making this type of lure. The lips are Lexan scraps that I scooped up from a glass shop. The wire lineties are expoxied into the body and the bottom of the lips. The bodies are about 3 inches long. Belly weight is lead poured into the hole for the belly hook hanger. Plastic eyes. The hooks will be size 8 when I get around to putting them on. No hurry though, we still have hard water here in Ohio.

Nice lure! I've recently played with making lures with a metal core and 2 wooden sides. No easy task and I've yet to complete one. How big is this lure? Do the fins and tail give it too much rudder action? If you make another, it might work out well to paint one like a walleye. Red G8tor taught me this: you can make cloudy eyes with a little slice of hot glue stick, backed with aluminum foil. Attach the eye materials then epoxy over everything.

Nice restoration! The next great feeling this revived lure will give you is the one you'll get when you catch a few fish with it! Here's one I rescued recently. It's a Robert's Mudpuppy. It was missing most of its paint, had a couple fair sized chunks of wood missing around the eyes and teeth marks all over it. All of the original hardware was intact except the eyes. I filled the damaged areas with wood putty. I have to admit that I had second thoughts about filling the teeth marks, but I decided that I would hopefully acquire new ones. The new eyes are brass tacks with painted pupils. The new clear coat is Spar Urethane. There are some folks who frown on restoring old lures. However, I did permanently mark the lure as a repaint. Also, the paint pattern is my own Northern Pike pattern, not a duplicate of a Robert's pattern. On the other hand, I own the lure and as such, I'm free to do with it as I please. And I please to send it back on its original mission...

I wandered into our local Glass and Mirror shop. After striking up some conversation, I walked out with enough Lexan scrap to make about 75 lips. I gave the fellow a couple bucks, which he was happy with. He also said he'd set scrap aside for me. All I have to do was check back every now and then. I'll give him a lure (with a Lexan lip) the next time I visit.

I agree with Whittler, lead shot has a consistant size. You could make a little measuring scoop from a drinking straw, put some hash marks on it with a sharpy and cut the end at and angle. You could make a little wooden handle for it. In a pinch you could count the individual shots. Mix with glue and fill in the hole.

Hey Coley, I didn't know you had a stutter. Nice Idea about the removable paddles. I've been kicking this idea around myself, for a while. Here's a couple more: - Rest a round container on a set of 4 wheels. Large plastic wheels from a kid's ride-on toy should work. They are fairly large in diameter and have a wide, flat tread area. Having just one wheel motorized should be enough. - Maybe a popcorn can would work? I believe the sides are 90 degress to the ends. One end would be removable, but fit back on tightly. - A 5 gallon bucket might work, if you could find one with straighter sides. Has a snap on lid, too. - Cut two hexagons or octagons from plywood, for the ends of a drum. Make the sides from plywood and are slightly larger than a full sheet of sandpaper. Attach the sides with wingnuts into studs. This way, you could replace the sandpaper fairly easily. Looking at the drum from the end, the non-roundness would cause the lures to flip over. This one would have an axle from end to end and be driven that way. - If someone in your family has an exercise bike, get them to power it. They're bikin' anyway, right? - This idea is fun to think about, at least: Scoop up a clothes dryer off the curb. No need to worry about heat. As long as the motor runs, you're in business. You also get a timer and built-in paddles. Attach sheets of sand paper to the inside with spray on glue. One could do a VERY large load of lures. - Just guessing, but as long as the drum's diameter in fairly small, tumbling crankbaits with pre-cut lip slots may not be a problem. I'd worry about them falling too far in a large drum and braking the noses off. - I would think a tumbler would be useful for sanding lures that have already been roughed out, but not lures that are just cut from stock.

Thanks for the compliments. However, I'm having a problem with the soft rubber legs and feet. They keep falling off! Here's the background info: I drilled a hole into the duck body and it is slightly smaller in diameter than the top of the leg. I purposefully avoided coating the inside of the hole with Devcon. I did not put oil of any kind on the soft rubber parts. My mold is made of baked water putty and coated with Devcon diluted with alcohol. I didn't oil the mold. I tried a super glue. One leg stayed on, the other fell off. I tried Devcon two-part 5 minute epoxy. Both legs fell off, early squirted out of the holes. What works to hold soft rubber to unpainted, uncoated wood? BTW: Once I find out how to firmly attach the legs, I'll be making these little ducklings in other colors. I'll put a couple on eBay to try to establish a fair price and then put them on my website. So if you want one, please hang on a little while longer.

Check this out: The 3 inch cedar body is handcarved and hollow. It has rattles inside. The soft rubber legs and feet are the resdults of my first mold. I made the mode from water putty. Sat it on the furnace for a couple days to dry it out rather than baking it. Epoxy finish. The hook is on the back to make the lure more weedless, hide the hook from the fish and to keep the hook from interferring with the legs. Comments welcome.

I'm looking for a better way to weight spearing decoys so they have a nice 'swimming" action. If someone could direct me to a tutorial or be willing to share some information, it would be appreciated.

I've used redwood ( I had some old scraps onhand). It is easy to work, like cedar. It floats high. It soaks up paint like crazy. I had to apply 3 coats of primer before the decorative paints.

Perhaps Jed is asking for a decent starting point, not necessarily to have all the work done for him. I agree that an experienced lure maker can produce a good prototype in just a few trials, if the prototype's requirements are within his experience. But let's say this fellow wants to venture into new territory, for whatever reason, and doesn't want (or have another 20 years) to gain the expertise required for the new lure. Here's the basics of my dream computer program (in no particular order): - There's a "modeling" table, a tool box, a bench full of "objects" that have user configurable properties. - Rubberband property that could be applied to any object. By simply dragging and dropping, an object could be resized. Other properties would be adjusted accordingly. For example: A screweye is made 54% larger, its weight would be increased proportionally. - Be able to change the view point of the lure in progress. Maybe more easy to say: rotate the lure in 3D so the top, side, bottom, 3/4 view, whatever can be seen. - The laws of physics could be applied to the lure. For example: it could be moved through water and (based on the lure's characteristics) the computer will show how the lure behaves. Another: move the lure at x feet per second into a xx mph headwind. Optionally, lines of forces could be shown. - Design files can obviously be saved, copied and editted. This is an easy requirement since it would be a function of the computer's operating system. - A lure goal could be part of the design and the program would "understand" the goal. Example: floating/diving lure made of wood, dives to 15 feet, wiggles, rattles, blinks and beeps and looks like a perch. - Based on the goal and objects that the computer knows about, the program could offer suggestions to achieve the goal. A suggestion might be something like: The total weight should be reduced by xx amount. Substitute a 3/4" brass screweye for the 1 1/8" stainless steel screweye. Or maybe: Replace 12mm glass eyes with 8 mm plastic eyes. - A nice extra would be the ability to decorate the lure. Again, the decorations could be user configurable. Things like: various types and colors of paint, glitter, various clear coatings and eyes, ears, noses, tails, etc. - Bill of material generated at any time during development. - Produces a dimensioned drawing. - Examples of object properties: dimensions weight color specific gravity composition vendor's part number cost - Package or box template maker. Here's a walk through of usage: - Start with a blank modeling table. - Grab a lure "blob", stretch it here, pat it in there, assign the material type, rough out the side view, top view and then apply the smoothing "tool". The smoothing "tool" perfects the handdrawn curves and shapes. - Select and attach a diving lip at a starting angle. - Select some weight and place it. - Select and place hooks. - Check model against the goal. The program might suggest reshaping the lip or repositioning the weight. - "Fieldtest". - Perform the steps above until happy. - Request a Bill of Materials at any time to see how you're doing with purchased parts. - Decorate the lure and re-fieldtest to see of any of the add-ons affect performance. - Print the dimensioned drawing and head for the workshop to make a prototype. Wow. I guess I got caught-up in this.... Well, what do y'all think?

I don't think that any of the delivery services REQUIRE such a box. Whether they would use it if one were available might be up to the individual deliverymen. Perhaps you could talk to them if you get a chance. I wouldn't think that any delivery service wants their folks to have to carry around 20 pounds of keys. So maybe you could find some type of lock or latch that you could leave open when you retrieve your packages. The next time the lid is closed, it would lock by itself. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment would be a padlock and hasp. You could leave it opan and hanging in the hasp when the box is empty. Not sure if the delivery person would want to take the extra time and effort to remove the padlock, close the hasp and snap the lock. Maybe a doorknob could work if you made your reciptical more like a locker than a bin with a lid? The other issue I can think of is this: the regular guy would become familiar with your reciptical, but what about the fill-in guy?

To all my friends in The Tackleunderground! Larry Shanker

Moore's Lures has the lips, in a couple sizes. They are not shown on their website. Call them or send them an email and they'll send you a catalog. Here's the website: http://www.mooreslures.com They also have hooks, hook hangers, split rings and various other hardwares.

Here's my 2 or 3 cents worth: - Prepare to take orders, but have lots of stuff to satisfy the impulse buyers. - Watch out for pilferage. It helps to have a helper. At least you'll be able to get away for a few minutes or spend a little extra time with a customer. - Have something for kids, like wrapped candy or little cheapy toys. The kids will want to keep coming back and they'll probably bring an adult with them. Google "Rhode Island Novelty".

The closest thing I've found is a grommet. You can get various sizes of small ones in the Notions section of a fabric store. They should have brass ones and painted ones. You can see a grommet in this picture:

Yes, fins do affect the action. They cause a rudder effect and really put a damper in the wiggling. Here's a new musky lure that I'm working up. This picture is the 3rd version. I'm getting close, but it still doesn't quite suit me. I've reduced the size of the dorsal fins. I figure the read treble hook represents the anal fin.

Plastic milk jugs make good stencil material, too.

Rocky Jr. or Big Inch was a great little bait. I always like the paint patterns. The tiny size was interesting, too. You might find size 14 trebles at a fly tying supplier.

I design, print, cut, fold and glue my own cardboard boxes. This way, I have total control of all aspects of the box. I'm not limited to any particular box size. That is to say, I can custom fit the box to the lure. On the other hand, making boxes is quite time consuming. It's also sometimes boring. It seems like the box is alsways the last part of the lure that gets made. If you want to give it a try, all you need is MicroSoft PAINT, some 110 pound paper, a glue stick and a pair of scissors.

You can make a decent replica of the old-style CCBCo. eyes like this: Make an eye socket by drilling a shallow hole. Drill a tiny hole in the bottom of the eye socket. Paint the heads on some plastic head straightpins. Push a cutoff straightpin into the tiny hole. Fill the eye socket with 5 minute epoxy glue. Rotate the lure for a few minutes until the glue sets up.

Here's a couple ideas that might reduce the number of prototypes you'll have to make: 1. Do this will all of your hardware on the lure, including hooks. Buy some various sizes of those little bass sinkers that are teardrop shaped and have a brass wire loop. Tie one to a rubber band. Slip as many weights/rubberbands onto your lure body as you think you'll need. Put a couple extras in your pocket. Add/subtract weights until you achieve the bouancy that you're after. Next, slide the weights around until you get the balance. Mark the lure. Go home and make duplicates. 2. If you have a pretty good idea where you want the weight to be placed, drill a fair-size hole in the bottom of the lure body. Use lead shotgun shot to fill the hole and put a little piece of tape (duct or electrical) to hold the shot in. When fieldtesting, let a little lead out until you get what you're after. When you get home, carefully empty the lead shot out and weight it. Then you can fill the hole with with either the same amount of melted lead or a mixture of lead shot and epoxy glue. Since you'll know the weight, you can make consistant copies. Hope this helps. BTW: No offense intended, but this board is here so we can help each other. I would like to read the suggestions that the previous poster was going to email.