Rigging Soft Plastics, The Through Wire

Through wiring soft plastic lures is something I first came across with savage gear lures. It is a great idea allowing the lure to move away from the hook which saves on baits and I am guessing it gives the fish less to pry the hook out with.

It took a few experiments to get the process down to tee but I think I have cracked it with this video, it would be great to see how other people get on with this method

Making a soft plastic lure from start to fish

Well it has been a while and I have been off in search of myself and found a tall fat guy wearing a beard so decided to come back for bit. This is my latest video

Lure painting a basic pike pattern and using decals

It has been a while since I have used any decals but it was worth it to a add a personal touch to this lure.

Big Irish Pike and Some Little Jacks

I managed to grab another cheap flight to Ireland and get some fishing done with Maciej of Mel lures.

Beneath British Waters, Pike Spawing

A rare glimpse into the world of pike love from a relativity new youtube channel that is doing some great things underwater Beneath British Waters Don't forget to share the love and their channel

Test Tank Tuesday

From the UK Barry Robinson with a new tench bait, and already it has got the fish interested. This is a polyurethane casting from a hand carved original. Barry not only makes for himself he also sells and makes other stunning lures (RobisonLures.co.uk) as well as finding time to write articles which you can find on his website.

Is that one pissed looking pike or what?

Making A solid Titanium Glide Bait Leader (Trace)

I am in the middle of half a dozen things at the moment project wise so I thought I would just make a simple video in the hopes that it would let people know I am still alive. I have been testing these leaders for just over a year now and I think to be honest I cannot see myself going back to stainless steel other than for special lure rigging like stingers. Sadly for lighter lures these are a little on the heavy side so they tend to kill the action of wobblers but are great for large baits and obviously glide baits.

Northern Scripture

A bit of animation and lure making, does it get any better than this

Rockstar Lifestyle

An old video but it shows Clive of Rockstar Lures (http://www.rockstarlures.com/buy-rockstar-lures/) rebuilding a giant spinner on the water

Making soft plastic paddle tails part 2

I think all this messing around with soft plastic is making me long for a knife and a block of wood.

Making Paddletail fishing Lures and messing with lollipop sticks

So the final thing I have to shoot to finish this film is some footage in the bath, not of me thank god but the lures. The only problem being is my small underwater camera is dead, it flicks on and off randomly, then it demands a charge and shortly after refuses it. I resort to finding a clear watertight box I can fit another camera into. The only other problem is I have only one very wide angle lens and my youngest son decided to throw it across the room so it no longer focuses. I sit down with lens and some micro screw drivers and an hour later after finding which piece of glass inside was out of its seating and putting it back the lens is working.  For the enclosure I empty one of my wife’s clear acrylic storage boxes that houses a collection of tea that smells like it has been stored since the opium wars. On request my son brings me a pair of underpants to pad out the box and I press the movie button, place the camera inside, close the lid and hold it just under the surface of the water. Lights, action, camera and I am sitting on the toilet holding a camera  while pulling a piece of soft plastic through the water as my fingers go numb; all the glamour of Hollywood.

Later when I have finished editing and six hours have past while it uploads I sit down once again with my micro screwdrivers and this time with my original broken underwater camera. When it is stripped down I remove the battery, it is a Samsung and looks like a mobile phone battery. I ask my wife for her old mobile and take the back off it.

The new battery from the phone is the same length and width, it even has the pins in the same place, its voltage is the same, but its amp hours are a little lower and it is 2mm thinner. Having made a film about lollipop sticks I know that they are about 2mm thick. I reach for the tub of sticks and snap one in half and slide it under the battery then put the camera back together. When I press the button the camera fires up, it has all its bars and I wait for it to fail, but no it is working perfectly. 

Lollipop sticks, bloody lollipop sticks, I have decided to carry them on my person at all times. 

Making Soft plastic Fishing Lures

A very bad fisherman

    When the pike hit the lure I did what I have been telling myself I shouldn’t do, instead of striking and setting the hook I reached for the button on my camera. The pike needless to say was camera shy and just as I got the video going it threw the hook and buggered off to recover. I gave a few more casts just in case it was having second thoughts but I guessed it had better things to do. Well this was my first outing with my new Sushi Whip Tailed Grubs, I hadn’t actually caught a fish but at least I had proved to myself that it had attracted or annoyed one enough for it to take a swing at it.

                Despite being five in the morning other anglers had begun to arrive and my open water was quickly reduced to small patch which felt only a little larger than the bath tub I had tested the lures in. Before long I was into something again and this time I managed to strike. Whatever was on the end of the line shot off stripping line from reel as the drag buzzed. Despite thudding away at my rod I was not convinced it was a pike, I thought maybe it was one of the fabled catfish or a foul hooked carp.  A few mutes later I was gaining on it and the back end of a very large eel emerged from the weeds.  

I suppose an eel foul hooked doesn’t count unless you are a really bad fisherman. The only compensation was that I didn’t have to get my forceps down its mouth to unhook it.  

Making a Beetle Fishing Lure From Plastic Spoons

I am not sure this lure project really made sense until I added water and then when a pair of eyes swam towards the camera I knew it had that spark.  The plastic spoon lure was an idea I had, had a long while ago and never got to building; mainly because I knew I could make the beetle part but I had no clue how to turn it into a lure. In the end I made the beetle last week and after working over the weekend in the city at the river festival, I came back to it with a plan. Rather just create another wobbler I thought about a drop shot rig which I have been using for pike in the winter when they tend to sit in the mud. As always I am a few seasons behind with my lure making but when weed dies back I should be able to bounce this baby a foot or so off the bottom without the constant fear of losing it. 

A Pike Breaks The Stillness

Another 5.30 am and another lake and this time the mist was up early softening the lines of fence posts and hedgerow trees. I drove with the sun pushing long tinted rays through it all on the road above the lake which had disappeared under a weight of haze. I felt that overriding sense of anticipation I sometimes enjoy before arriving at the waterside as if the moment of that first cast is akin to the feeling of hooking a monster.

The view from the water’s edge was limited a little by the softness and bolts of sunlight, only the crested grebes cutting ripples in the distance gave any movement to the glass that lay before me. I was a little uneasy about throwing a lure into a lake that looked like it was expecting a sword. Out of respect I clipped on one of my balsa weight shifting minnows to give me some distance without beating at the surface.

I could have stood there all morning watching the light change and mist creep up over the fields but a flash struck at the lure and I was into a pike. It ran a little and then took to the air tail walking its way through the shallows until it calmed a little and I slipped the hook out while it was still in the water.

I worked my way along the bank as the display out on the lake gave way to the force of the day and a bright sun. The magic had gone. I missed another couple of tugs and watched the bow wave of a powerful fish chase down my lure and lunge only to miss it and roll at the surface.   When I left the day had hardly begun………..

A Mouth Full Of Crankbait

Image Above: A Pike Breakfasting On My Homemade Crankbait

I arrived at the lake a little after 5:30am and found the carp crew who had been camped out for a couple of days were in the process of landing a lump of a fish. It turned out to be a rather large tench but not a carp and the crew were not happy. I stopped to inquire where their web of lines stretched to so as to avoid setting off another bite alarm and creating some more disappointment for them.

Two days earlier I had been out for an evening’s float fishing session when the crew had turned up carrying all their equipment in a supermarket trolley. Knowing I would be required home they set up around my swim with banks of rods laid out like cannons on the deck of a destroyer. With guns to the left of me and guns to the right, I hung on for an hour and then left them to it.

This morning I had two small patches of water to myself to hunt for pike and fling some new lures and prototypes about. I clipped on a fat head wiggler knowing that this really wasn’t the best location for hurling big bits of wood about. The plug flew but landed with the poise and grace of a scud missile scaring the moorhens and their chicks. I let it swim for a bit and then put it away saving it for a trip to a bigger water and then clipped on a Balsa Crankbait.

Despite the smaller size and lightness the lure flew to almost three quarters of the distance covered by its bigger cousin but also landed with less of a thud. It wasn't long before something was kicking up swirls in pursuit but after a couple of lunges whatever was out there gave up. I moved to my other free stretch of water just as a pike broke the surface in the shallows. Three casts later it had taken my crankbait and when it surfaced the lure was firmly wedged in its jaws. I switched on the mini video camera and then not thinking stupidly landed it in the net instead of picking it out the water from under its chin, instantly the belly hook snagged up and I had two hooks to untangle.

With some minor surgery the hook came out of the fish ok and I slipped him back while I dealt with the bigger problem of the net. When I finally got back off my knees I realized that my little lure had caught its first fish and had the rash to prove it. Unfortunately the video was unusable but I managed to salvage a still from the junk.

After deciding previously to limit myself to one pike per visit to my local water I set about testing some other little creations.  Despite some design successes the lake is the place to come and find flaws and test ideas some of which should of never have left the drawing board but it is often only when I have added water that my failings become apparent. One particular prototype swam off in a direction that almost made me believe it was autonomous. I still have a lot to learn about lures and filming especially in the great outdoors