Finals

Well I am currently in the middle of dead week here, getting ready for finals next week. In the time between studying for biochem II and physiology, I have found just enough time to attempt to design a new lure. Like I said before I am really wanting to create a lipless crankbait, or a lipless jerk bait as similar as those two things are, I am finding that there is more to each than meets the eye. So Every once in a while I take a long enough break from studying the numerous pathways of amino acid synthesis to jot down a quick idea for a lure. So far this is what I have for some lipless lure designs.

As you can see, I have been all over the spectrum with these drawings. There are two bodies in particularly that I am interested in trying. These would be the one in the upper right hand corner, and the rounded flathead below that one maybe just an increased size of that. I also am trying out a cork bass popper seen drawn as well. A buddy of mine goes fly fishing and has been looking for something a little larger for the local bass, so I figured I would try it out. It makes for a great stress reliever just sanding on a cork as I study for my finals. Here is a close up of my favorite body that I have so far with a small pencil sharpener for size reference. I also may increase the size of it depending on how the original prototype works out.

I am hoping to make this one about 3/8 inches thick, and weight it just enough so it stays suspended, or even just a very very slow descent. I am hoping to get to work on this after next weeks finals, and with school being out hopefully I can put together a little picture tutorial of how I go about making it. We will see how I am feeling about it, so keep checking back. If you don't see anything, just know I am just unwinding, probably out on the lake fishing. Until then, tight lines my friends. Back to the books I go.

Spring Break

Well it has been a while since I have had a chance to post anything. Between a few tests and volunteer work the past few weeks have been pretty crazy. However I did get to enjoy my Spring break. This meant throwing the finishing touches on all of my lures that I have made recently. I was able to seal, prime, and paint all my lures. I have yet to put a final coat on all of them just because of the difficulty of clearing a lot of them at one time with the set up I am currently using. I also have been experimenting with adding some glitter to the final coat to give the paint jobs just a little extra attractive look to a fish. Here are just a few examples of my new works. I am hoping to get some instructional pictures put together at some point, maybe during the summer when I have a lot more time on my hands. For now anyone reading this will just have to make due with pictures of the finished project.

First up is a few 3/8 ounce medium diver crankbaits. Excuse some of the color choices, this is what happens when you let your girlfriend pick out the colors rather than the fish.

We then have my shallow diving minnows. I haven't weighed these yet, but I am guessing only about 1/4 ounce.

We then have my two poppers. The popper on the left is my favorite paint job out of all of them. again I don't have the weight for these yet.

My next plan is to attempt a jerkbait, but this is still in the design process so far. I haven't attempted anything of the sort thus far, or anything close to this which means I am in for some trial and error for sure. Being a biology major all of the science behind making a suspended jerkbait is fairly simple, just cancel the buoyant force by adding enough weight to the lure to equal the mass of the displaced water. Sounds easy enough, until you have to decide where to add the weight in order to produce the desired action. Once I make a few test lures I'll be sure to document my findings. 

With all of my recent building I haven't had any time to try any of my lures out on the water though. I was planning on getting some time on the water over spring break, but low and behold mother nature stuck a wrench in my plans when the high was only about 40 degrees for the entire week in Kansas, which meant there was no way I was going to be able to drag my girlfriend out to the lake with me to attempt to catch some bass. I am currently looking for some small bodies of water to hit up around school to ease the tensions of a long day of class, but haven't been to successful as of yet.

New to both Blogging and Lure making please excuse any mistakes that I make on here. Growing up an avid fisher, I have continued that love for the outdoors. Although now that I am in college I don't always have the opportunity to go hit the water to pull out some fish. So instead I decided to look for something that I could do while still land locked and frozen over in the cold midwest winters. This is when I began looking at lure making. I happened to stumble upon it quite literally, as in I was on stumbleupon, and it took me to a site talking about making your own lures. Up to this point I had had some experience with wood carving along with 4 years of woodshop in high school so I would say I was fairly well versed. Little did I know that it would become an obsession quite so quickly. I studied up on the subject and made a pretty thorough library of bookmarked webpages, as well as even finding a book about the hobby in my local library. I eventually started by cutting out my first blank from some scrap basswood I had laying around. Turns out this whole lure making business was a whole lot harder than it looked. I went with a basic body style, flat sides, minnow shape, lip. Little did I know at the time  that adding a lip is the hardest part of the lure. What I ended up with was a good looking turd. That first lure just rolled and rolled and rolled. I didn't let this deter me from continuing. I revised my style of lure a little and ended up with three style of lures, that actually swam alright. Nothing great but, good enough.

This was my first lure that actually swam. At this point I left the lures blind, and still managed to over complicate the paint job. Trying to foil your second lure ever is not a good idea, I still don't know why I attempt it today and I've been doing it for 6 months.
   

This popper was a fun build. I have never fished poppers to much, however it was a fairly simple design and I decided, "if I am going to start using them, might as well try making my own too." So here I am with a Bass pattern popper with gold flake in the clear. Sits in the water a little rear heavy, but that is just what I was going for. It displaces plenty of water when it goes chugging. 

This one was one of my early failures unfortunately. The shape was near perfect, amazing color scheme, clear finish. But that lip killed the action of that plug. When I first started building I just bought some of the smallest lips I could find online to get started with. Well I didn't do my research or plan well enough cause as you can see from the picture, that lip is nearly as large as the lure is itself. Needless to say this was the same way as the first, this baby rolled more than a tire down a hill. 

All In all from these first few lures I learned that this hobby is not for the weak of heart. It also isn't for someone that loses their cool to fast. You have to remain level headed and focused on the goal. Currently I am making a batch of smaller crankbaits that swim like a dream. And once the weather warms up a bit, I am hoping to take them out and land me some fat bass. I will get to some tutorials on my newer lures soon, but for now just a teaser of some of my new body styles.

Until next time, good day and tight lines.