There is no greater thrill to me then catching fish on lures that I have made from scratch. I never considered myself an artist until I made my first lure and actually caught fish with it. There is no bigger critic then a fish, because if your offering is not realistic or has the wrong action they will tell you really quick by not biting.
The first step is to pick out the kind of material you would like to use. I use basswood or balsa for most of my lures. The next step is to carve out the shape that you want your lure to be. I try to make lures based on the forage in the lakes I fish. Once I get the basic shape I sand it with a heavy sand paper first, then progressively finer paper until its ready for painting. I then drill the holes for the eyes using a power drill on low speed.
The next step is to figure out how much weight and in what position in the body of the lure. I hang a fixed amount of weight on the hook hangers and test the sink rate in a pool. I then add or subtract weight based on how fast i want the particular lure to sink. I then drill holes in those spots and add the weight to the interior of the lure. I then fill the hole with a wood dowl the size of the hole, cut it off, and sand it flush.
Once everything is smooth again I get out the airbrush and custom paint the lure to match the forage in my area. Big bass love rainbow trout, especially the dumb trout stocked in our lakes that have been hand fed there entire life. Once that dries for a day I add a layer of 5 min cure clear epoxy. I brush on the epoxy and then rotate it for about 3 min and the epoxy will dry evenly and will cure fully in about an hour. I usually give it a few days to fully harden
I do practice catch and release on all fish except Salmon, which are going to die anyway when returning to the river and I don't eat fish but share them with family,friends, and neighbors.
