Behind the scenes at the Handmade Fisherman and a knife style lure

The new year is upon us and I have been a little busy making plans and videos. This is a look behind the scenes and I did not brush up first.

Hopefully this is going to be another big year for the Handmade Fisherman Youtube channel. Some people say you should set goals, but I say bollocks to them sitting in offices setting goals all day when they should get out fishing instead of hiding behind desks laughing about some shit they watched on last night’s tv. (viva la revolution)

Anyway back to them goals, I think my school teacher said it best when he wrote on my report, “Paul, must try harder.” So that is what I will be doing, trying harder and more importantly trying new things. I want to get out and go fishing with some new people, go to some new places and meet some new fish and make some new things and get it all on camera so you can come along.

I need help, watch the video it will explain.Thanks

This the other video I made before Christmas as a bonus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAg89monyZY

Making Stick Baits with Shigenaga of Japan

For me the perfect holiday would be spending a week locked in another lure makers workshop; I would be happy just to brush up and catch the odd glimpse of them working. On the other hand it is great when lure builders make videos of what they do, saving me from all that nasty travelling and hanging about in airports. This is a two part video from Shenanigan a Japanese lure maker, it really gets into the detail of how he works. I think there is always a fear with lure makers that sharing a process will somehow give the competition a foot up. Watching these videos and the way he makes lures I kind of realized no matter how much he gives away, there will be few who can give the commitment required to produce these amazing lures.



check out the action



Link to Shigenaga Facebook page

Urban Lures

Urban Fishing Lures - Making of from Giorgio Nasti on Vimeo.

From a basement in Italy, Urban Lures has started a little empire based on quality handmade balsa fishing lures. This is a really beautiful glimpse into his workshop by Giorgio Nasti a film maker based in Rome, lets hope he keeps pointing is camera at fishy subjects.

Currently Urban lures is selling through his facbook page (https://www.facebook.com/urbanfishinglures/) ,but a website is in the making. Meanwhile if the video doesn't wet you appetite enough check out the lure porn below.

Alabama Rig homestyle

Make it

Nike "The Making of Making" from Dana Shaw on Vimeo.

The Fish Carver

A nice profile of an American fish carver

Making A Weight Shift Balsa Fishing Lure Part 2 of 3

It is Boxing Day and it is cold enough to snow, even the weather reports are predicting a drop of the white stuff but as usual they have overdone things and are calling it the start of the next ice age. I am testing my weight shift lure while my wife complains about the loss of feeling in her extremities. There are no pike in this lake and no perch of any size; a winter fish kill a few seasons ago took its toll so I am casting for leaves, pleasure and the camera.

  Phox Minnow Weight Shift Balsa Fishing Lure Drawing

  Phox Minnow Weight Shift Tools and Materials

Scanout

This is a really nice bit of film from the people at Scanout.com Normally I hate Mission Statements, even the idea of it makes me a little uneasy but I think I could work with theirs

Old Red Eyes Is Back

Image Above: Balsa Crankbait Prototype, foiled and waiting for paint and epoxy

Crankbaits are as American as a certain type of pie; so it is with a bit of apprehension that I have begun messing round with my own little version of a trusted classic. Regrettably in the UK we don’t have that other American Classic to accompany the lure, freshwater bass. We do have the humble Perch and then there is always a chance that a pike may be in the market for a snack rather than a full meal. 

Why a crankbait? I was looking for a lure to work at close range on a particular type of water we seem to have a lot of in this country, old industrial canals. As man-made structures I often get the feeling when fishing them I am somehow just testing lures in an overly large bathtub and to certain extent because of that uniformity I find them very hard to read, but water is water and needs to be fished. Depth wise my local stretch is a maximum of  4’3” or 1.3m and anything from 15ft wide to double that, on the plus side it does run for 127 miles and at times it has felt like I have walked or possibly trudged every mile. Structure can be sparse with long sections of aquatic motorway hemmed in by concrete or reinforced banks. But then there can be narrow sections under bridges or turning bays for long boats, sometimes wild sections spring up with reeds and water lilies but still conforming to an engineered geometry.

To date my forays to the ‘cut’ (slang for canal) have not been particularly fruitful but then winter can bunch fish together create whole swathes of canal that are almost devoid of fish, so I make my excuses. Part of the problem has been making lures for open water fishing and expecting them to translate easily into more restricted situations, here working with short casts is the norm but not just short they also have to be a little more accurate.  

Like all bits of water that skirt urban and industrial areas the canal seems to attract  almost surrealist debris, I have found whole desktop computers with screens happily bobbing along still tethered with cables to the keyboard and hub. Supermarket trolleys are almost a staple hazard but a more common and unseen one is the plastic bag, half filled with silt they line the bottom ready to grab stray hooks and hold them until the little sack can be dragged to the bank. All inviting stuff; but then there can be sections so steeped in that Victorian past with cobble stones and brick warehousing that it would not seem out of sorts to bump into Dickens enjoying a constitutional.

I suppose I should know the basics of what makes a crankbait, but no matter how many lines I lay down on paper or re-plot on the computer the test and then the refinement comes only after I have had a good chance to throw it in some water; even then I devote more time than is healthy wondering if I should tweak it a little. So my latest crankbait balsa prototype is waiting for some coats of epoxy, paint and a lip. It’s through wire is reinforced by a brass weight so if I should find a monster or a monster plastic bag the wire will hold up. Rather than make it in two halves I have gone for the simpler slot approach with a hole for the belly weight.  It should end up about 65mm (2 1/2”) long and 10g (1/3oz) just on the light end of what my rod will cast. The shape is standard stuff but rather than taper to the tail or head I have gone for a flat sided approach to make it pump a bit more water and also simplify the design, should anyone else want to have a go at building it.

For finishes, well I have been experimenting again with resin additives and new ways of laying up foil to create some depth in the facial features.

So next comes a little more testing and the start of another How-to video with hopefully some fish catching footage or bag retrieval. 

Making Jointed Sand Eel Lures

Making Jointed Sand Eel Lures, The Movie.

This is what I get up to when honest folk are in bed.