LURES FOR LESS
by Leroy Bigler
Four decades ago SuperDupers® replaced Monti® spinners as
the hot lure for Sierra trout. As I recall, red and black chevron
painted Montis® ran 75 cents at the local store. Super Dupers®,
in hot gold and red, cost the same. When I was 13, and kid wages
ran a buck an hour, maybe, I didn't waste money buying lures that
I lost at the rate of four or five a day. I dove for snagged
lures, and rolled my own from parts and pieces. For me, this
meant Herters parts which cut my cost per spinner down to a dime,
and home-made SuperDupers® cobbled together from flattened
strips of chrome pipe only cost the price of a snap and hook.
Today, lures cost a lot more and savings are even greater.
Still, you probably will find, as I do, that taking good fish on
your own lures is reason enough sans savings. You can fine tune
lures for your favorite waters too.
For example, on tiny Elk Creek near home, I find the hot lure
is a 1/8-ounce French spinner with a black body and odd bright
green blade in front of my favorite size 10 single Siwash hook
with the barb mashed flat. This lure lets me cover pockets in
thin water and skates over weed that tangle trebles. It's about
twice as effective as similar store-bought lures. It's about a
quarter the cost too!
On the Clearwater River, I've worked out the bugs with
1/8-ounce jigs under smaller than usual home-made bobbers. My jigs
feature smaller than usual heads, ultrasharp hooks and
home-wrapped brown tails with a hint of foil flash. These take
more fish during low and clear water periods than the usual rigs.
Other favorites include Wob-L-Rite®-type thick spoons with
single hooks, spinners like Lindy Rigs® with 6X long hooks so
worms string on nicely, counter-rotating spinners to avoid line
twist and the like. I also replicate favorite store-bought
designs like Mepps®, Panther Martin® and the like.
Custom lures aren't new. Production models start as custom
types, and fishermen have always modified commercial lures. For
example, before photo imprint plugs hit the market, we painted
our own rainbow trout finish on monster saltwater plugs used in
big trout waters such as Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Today, we paint
plug blanks to match local bait fish for an exact match that
seems most important in extremely clear waters. Making plugs from
scratch or unpainted parts also lets us use single barbless hooks
for more catch and easier release.
Steelhead fishermen are usually into lure design anyhow.
Choices boggle the mind with the monster assortment of Worden
oddments, beads, hooks and other terminal tackle to thread on
lines. Cabela's even has a slide-on clevis so you can add
spinners and such to leaders. Cabela's, like Pro Bass Shops and
other outlets, sells a great many lure parts at very competitive
prices.
Spinners
Spinners are my favorite
kit lure. They offer major savings and infinite combinations of
blade type, body weight and hooks. For example, I find copper or
brown blades very effective in clear water and for brown trout
anywhere. Painted blades also work well.
Spinner designs start with blade choice. Wider blades spin
more slowly and offer more lift. So your spinner sinks more
slowly and is effective at slow speeds. Colorado Blades typify
this class. French Blades offer intermediate speeds and sink.
Willow Leave and other thin blades sink more quickly and spin
faster. These blades maximize casting distance. I should note
that, with ultralights so widely available, smaller than usual
spinners can take a lot more stream trout than you might expect.
Body types affect sink rate and casting distance. Lead bodies
-- painted worm hook heads are cheap and effective -- sink
fastest. Solid metal, hollow metal, solid metal beads, solid
plastic beads, hollow metal beads, swivel and split shot designs
and hollow plastic beads offer progressively slower sink rates.
Wooden bead bodies from the craft shop may not sink at all.
Adjusting blade and body designs so you get the right depth and
running speed can pay big dividends.
Note: if you tie spinners in pairs you can crimp the
blades so each will rotate in opposite directions to reduce line
twist. Don't trust swivels! The only ones that work well are ball
bearing models like Sampos®.
Clevis choice -- flat vs. folded -- seems a matter of choice.
I prefer the former on large spinners, the latter on smaller
types. Buy several sizes so blades move freely.
A clevis, or a blade like a Panther Martin® type that needs
one clevis, should spin on a bead or, for maximum revolutions, a
mini bead plus a larger bead in front of the spinner body. Red
beads -- I like glass better than plastic -- suit my tastes. But
I doubt they're more effective that plain metal.
I know single hooks like my favorite Siwash catch more fish
and fewer snags. Singles also cost much less than trebles and
don't develop snarls in the tackle box. Every tackle designer I
know says, "singles are more effective, but fishermen won't
buy them." You're on notice!
Spinner assembly is simple. You can use a fancy wire bender
like that sold in Worth spinner kits or through mail order. I
like to use a pair of needle nose and a pair of fine point pliers
from the tool box. Bending isn't difficult. Just avoid tag ends.
Don't worry if your wire eyes aren't perfect. I deliberately bend
off-line wire eyes to reduce line twisting.
Spinner assembly only takes a small wire bender or a pair of
needle nose pliers. Don't forget spinner baits are just spinners
with slightly different wire setups. You can buy them with jigs
cast on.
Spoons
Spoons maximize casting distances and go together easily. You
just add two split rings and one hook and you're set. You don't
even need split ring pliers! You can paint spoons, or add sparkle
bits, prismatic stick-on and other goodies very easily. Thinner
blades and wider body spoons sink faster than thicker blades and
thinner bodies.
You can make spoons from, what else, table spoons by cutting
off handles and drilling holes. I make custom spoons from sheet
metal. Thick copper beats into wonderful spoons; all you need is
a block with a dished hollow side and a ballpeen hammer. Split
chrome pipe, flatten it and cut it into strips and you can make
chrome or brass lures much like SuperDupers® -- painted
"innards" and exteriors increase options. This material
also makes decent spinner blades and great flashers.
If you want spoons to stay bright, add finish before you put
on your split rings. I don't worry about this. Mottled old brass
or copper spoons seem more productive than bright ones in clear
water.
Cast parts -- jigs, sinkers and worm
heads
Stainless steel pot on an electric or, since cast shot,
sinkers, worm weights, jig and spinner bait heads by melting lead
in a my wife tossed my lure making out of the house, a small camp
stove. PLEASE DON'T MELT LEAD IN AN ALUMINUM POT!!!! The pot may
melt and, if you heated it on the stove, your wife may move you
to the garage along with the dead stove.
All sorts of molds make casting easy enough that I cast once a
year with a buddy. Molds do need to be hot -- the first pour or
two might not work, but you can remelt them anyhow. Aside from
that,casting lead isn't difficult. Just remember to buy the right
size jig hooks for jig molds.
Plastic options
You also can find molds for plastic worms, grubs, crayfish and
other soft plastic lures. I no longer cast these because they
don't cost much to buy in bulk, but you can make all sorts of
special lures of this type most easily with kits.
What I do instead is ask buddies to save me "old
worms." I often trim these down into "trout size"
lures that cost next to nothing. These, after cross threading
using a large needle with rubber band "lively legs,"
are ideal to toss or drift into heavy cover most don't fish. I
just add a lead shot for weight. Since you can "weld"
one type of plastic lure to another by heating both surfaces with
a hot knife, your only limit is your imagination!
Plugs
A buddy turns out wooden custom plugs on a lathe. I'm not
handy enough for this. I have tried buying plugs and plug parts,
like wiggling scoops, in bulk, but when you add painting time to
assembly, it does not seem cost effective.
The exception here is the spinning plug, like the Oakie
Drifter® that's easy to assemble. Traditional Cherry Bobbers
with balsa, plastic or cork bodies are another good choice
available in bulk from sources such as Cabelas or Yakima Bait.
Flies
You need neither a $100 Orvis kit nor much manual dexterity to
tie flies. Fish don't care. Yarn flies, Glo-Bugs and the like are
so easy to make they hardly need instructions. A cheap fly-tier's
vise, some thread and yarn gets the job done fast. I also buy
Victorian Curtain edging with plush balls in a host of colors
from craft and yardage shops. These balls can be cut free and
hooked onto appropriate-sized salmon egg hooks. Buy this in
white, and you can use Pentil or other waterproof marking pens to
customize colors.
Flies need not be pretty to catch fish. Nymphs whip up fast if
you wax thread and spin on a mix of fur and flash materials.
Shaggy types often take more fish. Dry files assemble quickly if
you use the tap of your hackle as a tail, strip off a bit of
hackle, spin on a wax body and complete the fly by winding on
hackle. You can skip patterns too. With colors from white through
gray to black and whites through tan to brown, plus a few green
types, you can get the job done in most areas most of the time.
Streamers, feathered trailer hooks on lures and other oddments
wrap up quickly too. A basic fly-tying book and a few simple
tools are all you need. Unfortunately, few can stop here. So we
invest hundreds of dollars into super hackles, hooks in all sizes
and types and more exotic feathers and fur than you could find in
the San Diego Zoo.
TIP: If you live near a zoo you might provide some fiscal
support and ask about exotic hair, as such is often tossed out.
I suspect my home-made flies cost about $12.65 each, but am
afraid to cost this out. If you buy just the materials and hooks
you need to tie the few flies you use most you may, with as much
good luck as good management, get your money's worth!
Other options
You get your money's worth in other areas too. I make bobbers
out of balsa or hardwood dowels that work better than spherical
red and white store-bought plastics. Bobbers, like jig heads,
spinner bodies and, for those who want color-coordinated plastic
worm heads, get dip-painted. Fancy folks might invest in a small
air brush. Spray cans of paint -- naturally you won't buy water
soluble types at the hobby shop -- do a tidy job too. I stick
items to be painted on nails so I can spray or dip-paint them
evenly. The best place to find details on these methods is C.
Boyd Pfeiffer's Tackle Craft.
Other fish kits
Rod wrapping kits and parts let you wrap up special rods. I
like very long rods for bobber fishing, so use 12 to 15 foot
flyrod blanks. You can assemble electronics like depth finders
and such from Heath Co. and others. There are at least 100 boat
kits on the market too. Add custom clothing and vests, vehicles
and, to hold everything, a log cabin kit for your stream-side
abode, and it's easy to see why you can get hooked on fish kits.
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