[FishHeadRic]

Man, It's been a cold winter this year eh? Haven't been able to get out on the water too much so I've been keeping busy in the Man-cave re-building the lure stocks. Doing mostly poppers so far but I decided to give a frog a try as well and I think I got it down pretty good.



Gotta get some better shots of this one. Gave it away and only got to snap a few pics the other day when I went to my buddys house.



Going over there tommorow so l'll try to get some better shots.



Here's some pics of one of the other ones I did. These pics came out a lot better.





Close up of the eye.



Good ole laundry bag scale pattern.



This one came out great. Swims and Pops like a champ!

And the latest one I did was a Fresh water Bass lure. Inspiration for one of the other Canucks on one of the boards I've been posting on down here, Etch-a-sketch. Do any of you guys know who he is or have any of his lures?



Leopard Frog with spinners for feet.





http://photos-h.ak.f...736671_8950.jpg



Enjoy !!!
FishHeadRic

[balapickerel]

nice lures, those are deffinately going to catch some good fish!

[Snypa]

Nice work Ric ! the poppers look great, and I like the detail on the frog in the last pic especially, great summertime pattern. Are they all roughly the same weight, or what do they each weigh ? kinda curious, 3/8, 1/2, 1 oz. ? thnx.

[FishHeadRic]

Hey Jon,the poppers are 5 1/2 inches weighted to exactly 1 ounce with out the hooks or hardware. They're made of AYC (alaskan yellow ceader) The frog is made from balsa wood and weighted to about 3/8 oz. They're all sealed by heating the wood blanks and then dipping them into epoxy before paint.

Ric

[YAWN]

Nice paint job.

I got a ?. U know how most crank bait are designed to be pulled down to a certain depth right.

Ever consider flipping that lip thing around on a weighted singking lure.

So cast out, sinks to the bottom, hooks on top not below to avoid snags on bottom. Lip is reversed so when u reel in the lure is jerked up to the surface.

Just thinking would be a nice way to maintain bottom witha rapala type. Anyone thoughts?

[frozenfire]

niceeeee.

[Snypa]

Again nice job Ric, just noticed the willows on the ends of the frog legs, luv that detail.

[FishHeadRic]

Thanks again guys. Yawn, even with lures that are weighted heavily the natural tendancy for the lure will be to rise up on retrieves. If you're looking to keep a lure to run at a certain depth you're going to have to play with different lure shapes (ie. rattle-l-trap, vs darters vs minnow type ect), different styles (spinners, metal spoons, big lipped divers ect), as well as different rates of retrieval. The angle you hold your fishing rod at will also dictate how high or low your lure will come in.
The lipp on a fishing lure does effect how deep the lure will run (along with the weighted charactoistics of the lure) but it aslo greately dictates the wobble of the lure. Big fat lipps cause a bigger wobble as opposed to a smaller one like on say, an x-rapp. The length of the lipp will dictate the depth more.On a minnow type lure, if you weighted the bottom of the lure and then placed the lipp on the top of it... that would cause the lure to come off the bottom a lot faster. If this is the action you're going for then yes it might work in theory but l think by putting the lip on the top of the lure you would screw up the wobble big time.. The lip needs to be placed under the weight inside the lure. If not the bait will just list to the side and not wobble for you at all. A normal bait should work a lot better for you. (Rapala count down) It's the natural reaction of the lure to come up anyways so it would be more an issue of speed of retrieval and rod action not lure action.
If you're looking for a lure to get to the bottom and keep to the bottom... l'd have to suggest using a thin profiled spoon like a Hoppkins shorty, a Gibbs Croc or even a Mepps Spinner. Cast it out and let it sink till it hits bottom. On the retrieval play with the speed and keep the rod tip as low as possible.


FHR

[birddog]

Hi I'm new to all this lure making i'm not bad at turning the lure I have about 30 of them raedy for painting I sealed them whit shalac but i cant seem to get the rest done properly .from what I see you got it donw preety good.whould you have any advice you could give me?thanks
birddog

[Esox lucius]

did yea water test them already, i think the lures look cool. id like to see what would pull out of the water with that

[FishHeadRic]

birddog said:

Hi I'm new to all this lure making i'm not bad at turning the lure I have about 30 of them raedy for painting I sealed them whit shalac but i cant seem to get the rest done properly .from what I see you got it donw preety good.whould you have any advice you could give me?thanks
birddog

Hey birddog, the schelac is ok to seal with if it's an oil based. Water based schelacks will eventually break down and let water into the wood causing the lure to swell so l'd have to advise against using it as a sealer. Even the oil based schelacks will eventually lift from the wood after time or turn yellow and peel. As a sealer l'd suggest using a 40/60 mix of mineral spirits and BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil). Dip your lures into this mix and let them sit for about 20 minutes. After this soaking wipe them down with paper towels and hang them to dry for at least a week. I do have to warn you, BLO has a habit of spontaniously combusting when put on paper towels or rags! l've had it happen twice so after you wipe these lures down put the paper towels into a jar with water. It seems to happen more during the winter when it's really dry and arid so l think these light ups have something to do with static but either way BE CARFUL!
The other alternative for sealing the wood is to heat the plugs in the oven to about 170 degrees F. and then brushing them or dipping them into a 60 min 2 ton epoxy. Devcon is the brand that l find works best. The reason for heating the wood is to open the pores and have the wood suck up as much of the epoxy as possible. After about 10 minutes of your first application wipe the plugs down send some wire thru the holes to clear them out. A coat hanger works really well for this. If you do choose this method make sure you allow at least 72 hours for the epoxy to cure. Even though it says it wil set in 60 minutes the epoxy will still be releasing vapors for some time. Let it cure so you won't have any issues with painting.
When it comes time to paint you're going to need to scuff the lures up a little bit. I use a 220 grit sandpaper or a green brillo scrubby. Only scuff up the surface of the lure. (If the lure is smooth, especially if you sealed with epoxy, the primer will not have anything to grip and just peel on you.) After you scuff it up a little you can start the primer coats. l like to get at least 2 coats of primer onto the lure before painting. As far as paint goes l'm not sure if you have an airbrush or if you're just using rattle cans. (There's absolutely nothing wrong with using rattlecans!) Either way have fun playing around and try to keep the paint as minamal as possible. Heavy build ups of paint will just allow for more layers that might come loose. If you are using rattle cans try to use the same brand of paints. Also stay away from high gloss paints. They will come loose or give you issues when trying to do the final seal coat.
Play around with scale paterns. Try wrapping the lure in and onion or garlic bag and then spraying over it to create scales. Also cut out shapes in tin foil and use it as a template to make nice distinct lines. (ie the darker parts of a perch pattern) Painting is the most fun part of the whole process. You'll basically watch all your hard work come together and really see the rewards of all your efforts. (Another word of advice would be to really let your layers dry before painting again. Spraying paint onto wet paint will cause runs or mixing that will just frustrate you. Take your time!)
For a final coat l like to use a special epoxy called E-tex lite. Enviotex l think is it's real name. You can find it at craft stores or hobbie shops. If you can't find it the Devcon 2 ton epoxy will work well also. (Just make sure when using these two part epoxy's that you mix EXACTLY EQUIL PARTS. If you don't you'l end up ruining the lure and have to scrape all of the epoxy and paint off and start over.) Mix the epoxy up very well and then cover the lure with an acid flux brush or a foam 1 inch brush. After coating the lure blow on any of the bubbles that have formed in the epoxy. The heat in your breath will bring the bubble to the top of the coat and pop them. Both of these epoxies will take about 30-45 minutes to set up so during this time you'll have to stay near the lure and keep flipping it so the epoxy won't settle on one side of the lure.(Approx. every 3-4 min) After it starts to set you'll still have to flip it but only every 10-15 min. After about 2 hours you should be good. I actually have a lure spinner fabricated out of an old BBQ rotisserie motor. I'm doing about 6-7 lures at a time so...

Hope this answers your questions about my process. I'm doing a few lures later next week so l'll try to remember to take pics and do a step by step process for the board.

Esox lucius said:

did yea water test them already, i think the lures look cool. id like to see what would pull out of the water with that

Yup, they've seen water already. Haven't fished the frog at all though. It was a gift for my friends father but I took her out for a swimm and an action check. Beautiful, just beautiful. I've already carved another and painting it next week. The poppers are copies of Don Musso's Supper Strike little neck poppers. I've done these before and they're probably my favorite lure to make and fish with. 25-30lb Striped Bass smashing them in the surf. Nothing like it!!!


FHR