Let's head back to the workbench this week for a look at a few other homemade hooks.
The first ones are something I found thanks to a YouTube.com search late one evening.
They are simple enough to construct, but take some time, depending on the detail you want to give them.
The heart of the hook is a wine cork. I used new ones, but a used one would likely work as well.
From there you can go about making a couple of different designs easily.
One uses a metal bottle cap glued to one end of the cork. This will give you a popper lure once finished.
Once the bottle cap is set you can use a drill and put a couple of holes in what will be the belly of the hook into which you can glue some BB-sized weights, although a cork hook will also be extremely buoyant.
Next drill small holes, much smaller than the ones for the weights in the centre of both ends of the cork, one going through the metal bottle cap.
A third small holes goes into the belly.
Into each hole you will screw in an eye hook. I recommend applying super-glue, or epoxy onto the threads before putting in the eye hook to increase the strength.
Split rings will be added to the rear and belly eye hooks to attach treble hooks.
The video I saw left the corks natural, but I opted to paint. Any paint will do, as will nail polish.
The same video also worried the cork might soak in water during use, so I mixed up epoxy and coated the painted hook. It is when the epoxy is wet you can easily add some 'googly-eyes' which are available in most craft eyes.
Once set the epoxy provides a hard, shiny, basically waterproof finish.
If you prefer a nice little diver hook, go to a pop or water bottle lid, doing everything else the same. You use a sharp knife to trim off one half to create a lip and use it instead of the metal bottle cap. Just make sure the lip goes to the belly side.
You might want to forward load the belly BBs a bit more too to help the dive on a retrieve. Stop the retrieve and the cork's buoyancy will lift the hook in the water.
With all the fun I had doing hooks based on ideas gleaned from the Internet I quickly found myself looking for alternative ideas for homemade hook creation.
The first two ideas came at the bathroom sink one morning. I was shaving, using a disposable razor with a fancy orange and black handle. The engineering and design work which goes into something as mundane as a razor handle is truly amazing.
The blade was dull and as I went to toss it, I thought, wow! this could make a rather easy large lure.
As I moved to brush my teeth I realized the toothbrush handle would be just as useful.
I cut away the razor blades, and the brush head (I needed a new toothbrush anyway, really I did).
From there it was simple.
Drill small holes and epoxy in the eye hooks, one to attach to the lures, the others getting split rings and treble hooks.
You can drill for a BB, or two easily too.
While the handles are bright in their own right, it's pretty easy to add a few alternate highlight spots with nail polish too.
One other reclamation-style hook uses a brightly -coloured ball-point pen.
Throw away the refill and rest of the inner 'guts of the pen.
From there I kept it ultra simple. I bought some single hooks on a short line (used for jigging). Thread it through from the end the nip came out. Hot glue the tip, position the single hook so the fish gets it as he bites.
Once the glue sets put a few small weights in that half of the pen and fill the other end with more hot glue.
Now the line attached to the hook is pushed through the other half of the pen, with more glue hold it in place.
Pop in a couple of small weights in this half and but the pen back together. Super glue will make the connection permanent. The small weights make a rattling noise, always a good thing.
If the pen hook works there are many colors out there in dollar stores to play with.
Certainly making lures has become an interesting aspect of fishing and it does make going to yard sales and flea markets more fun as you start to envision is some strange knicknack would make a lure to catch a fish. Try it and enjoy.
