Articles Adventure Bound Building hard body lures | Building hard body lures |
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| Written by Andrew Clark | |
| Sunday, 25 February 2007 | |
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Back in the days as a budding angler, well before owning my own boat or even owning more than one fishing rod and reel, I remember reading an article in a fishing magazine about this bloke in Queensland who built his own fishing lures. It proved to be one of those pivotal moments in my angling career and became the impetus for my own personal passion for creating and catching fish on hand made hard body lures. Twenty five years later I still dabble in this art of lure making in spite of some misgivings from my fishing contemporaries. Many of the guys I fish with can¿t understand what the attraction still is for me with lure making -'Why spend so much time making something that you could easily buy and will probably lose anyway?' Well, the answer to that, for me anyway, goes to the very heart of why we all love fishing in the first place. The easy thing to do is go and buy a lure, just as the easy thing to do is go and buy fish from the market instead of catching them. It isn't about what is easy. It's about what gives us as anglers the most satisfaction and the greatest thrill. I can guarantee this - the first time you land a fish on a lure you've hand made you get a buzz like nothing else. BUILDING THE LURE BODY This part of lure building
is probably the simplest and has the least number of pit-falls. The
lure bodies are made from timber and provided you have some basic tools
it's dead easy to carve and create the basic shape. The truth is, as
long it's not overly big or overly small, you can get a lure carved in
any shape within reason to swim. Rather than the lure shape or size,
it's the timber selection that has the greatest effect on performance
in the water. Over the years many timbers have been used for hard body
lures. While balsa has long been a popular choice for its buoyancy and
hard wood offers probably the greatest dexterity and toughness, I find
that good old plain pine gives the DIY lure builder the best of both
worlds. It's cheap, easy to get, easy to shape, has great buoyancy and
gives the lure the right weight.
After selecting a suitable piece of timber, the first step is to draw
the basic shape of the lure onto the timber. Now, as I mentioned you
can get just about any shaped lure to swim, but as a starting point,
the basic minnow design is hard to beat. To cut the shape out all that
is needed is a standard hack-saw and a vice to hold the timber.
Once the rough lure body is cut, shaping is continued using a sharp
knife, chisels, rasps or a combination. Gradually the lure is worked
into its final shape using various grades of sandpaper. It isn't rocket
science. You just keep working away at the shape until it looks like
how you initially imagined it. But remember - less haste less waste!
Once you whittle or carve something off it can't be put back on.
EYELET HOLES AND BIB SEAT
MATERIALS FOR EYELETS AND BIBS
ON THE TEST TRACKIt's difficult to test lures and make adjustments during construction, but I've found the best time to do it if you can, is a couple of hours after you've glued everything into place. This is when the glue is beginning to cure, so micro adjustments can be made to the bib or line eyelet if needed before everything sets into place permanently. Put a couple of sets of trebles on the lure and test it for buoyancy and action. While buoyancy can be tested in a small volume of water, you really need a swimming pool to be able to see if the lure will run straight and true. After a couple of casts you'll know if anything needs to be adjusted, then the lure is left so the glue on the bib and eyelets can completely cure. PAINTING AND FINISHING
TERMINALS
One final note. There is no point going to all the effort of
building your own lures only to cheapen them with poor quality treble
hooks and split rings. When I take the time to build a lure it gets the
best quality terminals when it's completed. There are a number of good
quality trebles and doubles on the market, but I generally stick to
Owner or Decoy. They are two of the best brands available and nothing
is too good for a hand crafted lure! |
Once the basic shape is done it's time to drill in eyelet holes and
make the bib seat. While you can use a hand held drill to do the eyelet
holes, a drill press makes this job much easier. Before drilling, use a
small nail to make a guider mark for drill piece so the hole goes where
it's meant to. The eyelet holes at the front and rear of the lure are
easy. Just keep the lure parallel to the drill bit and make sure you
drill deep enough so the eyelet will get enough purchase when glued
into position. The centre hole for the second set of treble hooks needs
a bit more finessing. Obviously this hole can't be made as deep and
care needs to be taken that you don't drill completely through to the
other side of the lure body. Drill the centre hole in at a 45 degree
angle. The centre eyelet is shorter, but by drilling its hole at this
angle it will provide optimal strength.
Again, over the years I've tried a heap of different materials for
eyelets and particularly bibs and this is what I've found. For eyelets,
galvanised wired or even better stainless steel wire makes the best
choice for those that secure the hooks. The material for the line
eyelet depends on the size of the lure and the depth you want it to
swim. For shallow divers and small lures, the line eyelet tends to sit
up close to the face of the lure, so gal or stainless wire is fine to
use. With bigger and deeper diving lures, the line eyelet needs to be
able to be extended down the bib to make sure it swims correctly. This
means if you use wire it's going to look untidy and also won't have
enough strength. You can get around this by using a piece of stainless
steel, drill a hole in it for an eyelet, then using a grinder shape it
into a fine long rod that can then be inserted into the nose of the
lure.
The best results for painting are achieved using spray paints as
opposed to hand painting. Before you crack out the spray cans, mask up
the bib carefully to protect it from getting covered in paint. There
are no real hard and fast rules when it comes to painting other than;
always use a primer first to seal the bare timber and always use a few
coats of clear gloss when painting is finished to protect your art
work. One process I always do is give the lure a light sand with very
fine sand paper between coats of primer and top coats and then again
between coats of clear gloss before the lure is finished. It may seem a
bit insignificant, but doing a light sand at these times gives the lure
a final finish that is hard-wearing, beautifully flat and really
glossy.