Making A Weight Shift Balsa Fishing Lure Part 3 of 3

Christmas has past and while Santa may have brought some presents I am not sure he did not help himself to a chunk of cash before breaking some roof tiles and disappearing for another year. My dreams of a go-pro will just have to remain dreams. So as a stop gap I have an old-ish compact camera and after visiting the supermarket I find a sandwich box just a little larger than the camera. Despite saying that it is art tight on the label, looking at the seal I am not sure it would hold a fart, I take the seal out and use some of the dregs out of a tub of silicone to make a new one which works a lot better. For the front where the lens should look out I drill a hole and cut some Perspex to cover it and then stick it into place with some bathroom sealant, before adding some tiny screws for repairing glasses; just in case it wants to move. I mount it on a ball head with some tape and more Perspex and then mount the ball head from a tripod on a 4ft piece of 4” skirting and with a little bit of fishing rod and some string I have a lure filming rig. It works ok but I need to make some adjustments.

I am pulling my rig with a lure attached in a park pond, when a drunk emerges from the bushes and asks me what I think I am doing, for a moment I realize neither of us are on firm ground to go criticizing the others activities. 

  Magnetic Weight Shift Balsa Lure templates and drawing

  Phox Minnow Magnetic Weight Shift Tools and Materials

Shifting a bit of weight

Image Above: Phox Minnow with internal magnetic weight shift tube.

Some bits and bobs of pipe finally turned up with this afternoon’s post and I got to mess around trying to put together a weight shifting tube for the Phox Minnow. Like most lightweight balsa lures the Phox suffers from a bit of tumble on the cast, so I decided a while ago to design a magnetic weight shift. At the first opportunity after dinner I quickly bent up a new wire configuration to incorporate the tube and then carved out a balsa body. Externally the lure will look exactly the same it is only internally that things have changed. There are four balls, one external to the tube then a magnet, plastic spacer and another three balls which will hopefully pull away from the magnet with the force of the cast and then roll back when the lure dives to be held in place until the next cast.

This is all untried as far as this lure goes but fingers crossed I should get to try it out in water  in a couple of days.