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.