The first step, cutting out blocks and drawing out the shapes for the lures, these were then cut with a jigsaw, the block held in a vice on a workbench...
Next stage was whitling down the edge with a pocket knife...
Sanding was quite time consuming until I began to use a long strip of grip tape, effectively sandpaper on a vinyl belt. The wood was held in a vice during early sanding, before it was fine tuned in the palm of the hand...
Wire eyes were twisted together using a power drill and a nail driven into a block of wood in the vice. A layer of epoxy resin followed this and then it was dried out...
Next the careful proceess of working out how much lead to use inside the body. This depends on how fast you want the lure to sink. Generally I use shallow running lures, so this process can be quite fiddly, though eventually I worked it out, drilled into the bait and set the lead bars inside the wood. This was then filled over with wood filler and sanded down after it dried out...
Handpainted, rather garish lure for spring fishing in murky water, a slow sinker...
Another batch drying. These all came after the lure above, which I learned a lot from. I used copper glitter in all these baits to varying degrees. Also, proper plastic 3D eyes with fitted, superglued and then given three coats of epoxy resin...
Lure 1. A large tailbait with a slow zink. Hi visibility bait for murky water...
Lure 2. Another large tail bait, a very slow sinker, for use in shallow water,,,
Lure 3. A simple glidebait, shallow running, with a little sparkle due to use of copper glitter over the paint..
Lure 4. Yellow was a very good colour for me in 2017. This was handpainted with a little copper glitter sprinkled over the paint job. This lure can be fished as a tailbait, or if removed, as a simple glidebait.
With winter stretching out rather late into the spring months, my thoughts have turned to fishing. It has been frustrating waiting for this cold period to pass over and the waters around Stockholm remain frozen solid, so I decided to involve myself in a little project while waiting for spring to arrive. Building Pike lures is something that I have wanted to try for a few years, though never had the space to try it. Having changed jobs and suddenly having access to a full range of woodworking tools it was time to try my hand at a few baits.
In 2017 I made a bait from Balsa wood which didnt work so well due to a few errors I made. There is no such thing as time wasted in this regard though, as I had learnt a great deal making this single lure and I knew exactly what was required this time around. Access to the tools meant I could work with precision, the sanding went really well this time round and the crucial adding in weight in a balanced fashion was now possible. No access to an airbrush was no great handicap and to be honest, I was quite happy with the first bait. After that I went back and didi three more baits at the same time and once again, the knowledge I had picked up by making the first large tailbait stood to me and I felt these were, if nothing else, given a more professional paint job. Having made these baits, I can't wait to get out on the water and try to catch a fish on them. Will they work? If they do, I will be absolutely stoked! Watch this space...
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