Turning An Old School Fishing Lure On The Lathe

Image Above: The Fat Head Wiggler

I went a bit mad with the power tools and finally dusted off the lathe to make my own take on that old school classic ‘the wiggler’. I suppose my next project should be an earlier lure maybe something made from bone with its origins in the Stone Age. What interests me about these types of lures is their birth within that period when mass production was making products affordable or at least within reach of  ordinary working people.  These are lures born out a machine both in terms of design and production; they don’t look like anything I have ever seen swimming in a lake but then not a lot of lures do.

  

  The decal on the side was something from my school days when hip-hop was just emerging and I spent all my free periods at school drawing graffiti in the back pages of my school books while wishing I lived in New York and had a posse. At the time one of my school friends owned the biggest Ghetto Blaster in Liverpool which used about the same amount of battery power as electric outboard and required its own seating on the buses, despite its size it did nothing to help us to become cool. I was truly un-gifted as a break dancer but it didn't stop me putting on displays at family weddings which I am still try to live down. Thankfully I have now reached an age were rap music has become noise and I no longer dance at weddings. 

  Fat Head Wiggler Fishing Lure Template by Paul Adams

  Fat Head Wiggler fishing lure Materials List by Paul Adams

Birth of a swimbait

Image Above: Mackerel swim bait drawings 

I seem to be in the mist of at least half a dozen new (new to me) lure building projects at the moment and wondering which one to make a video out of or if I will every go fishing again to catch fish rather than to test prototypes. So far, ahead of the pack is a swim bait I am working on which is a first for me and I am quickly learning it is all about the joints so rather than try and construct something from wire I am experimenting with a polycarbon chassis and hinges with a balsa body or maybe foam. The trouble with experimenting is it often leads to other places and the original lure gets lost so I am trying to concentrate and also simplify some of the my more ridiculous ideas.  Eventually I hope to make a lure that looks like a mackerel and I can finally use if I ever get to do any sea bass fishing.  

Image Below: First attempt to make a polycarbon lure chassis, (a little rough)  

How To Make A Balsa Crankbait Part 2

I took my little crankbaits for a testing session at one of my favorite lakes, what I hadn’t figured was that while I have been away from fishing the rain has also managed to hold off and the lake had shrunk a little. Not being a very deep lake to start with its shallow margins which reach a way out into the lake had become very shallow; down to inches in places. The cold had also kept the weed growth down leaving any would be pike practically naked if it had chosen to leave deeper water.

Well it was water and water is a good place to test lures. The crankbaits surprised me casting cleanly with only the occasional tumble and reaching distances I had not expected. Even as the wind began gusting enough to push up some waves I had no problems cutting in. The retrieve really threw up some god vibrations although the waves made it a little hard to check out the action and once again they ran straight out of the box without any tuning.  Despite the obvious lack of fish I was happy, well who wouldn't be stood in water holding a fishing rod and casting homemade lures. I hung around for stupidly long period of time before realizing I could safely walk out in my wellington boots and nearly reach the distance of casts.