Welcome to Week CXLIV of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
After a good winter blow this weekend, one which made us remember that while it was Valentine’s Day it is still very much winter here on the Canadian Prairies, spring and open water fishing are still many weeks away — too many but that is life in central Canada.
But, there are still some things which we can do to make it seem more like fishing is close at hand.
One of those things is to take some time and fashion a few wooden lures.
Of course it helps to have some guidance in terms of such things. One of those is to grab a copy of Beginners Guide to Making Your Own Wooden Fishing Lures.
The book is by Dave Hudson, and is available at http://www.easyluremaking.com
The book is not overly in-depth, nor is it one which expects the person endeavouring to make their first wooden lure to have access to a fully stocked wood working shop. That is a good thing, because no one wants to have to purchase a pile of tools to try their first lures.
Sure it helps to have dremel tool, and other ‘gadgets’ but it is not essential if you are willing to do some knife whittling, and hand sanding.
The book, which can be accessed as an ebook for download, focuses on the ‘minnow’ design, which is a handy lure for pike, which is the primary fighting fish for our region.
Hudson walks one through the process is a straight forward, and highly understandable fashion, starting with the most basic concept, that of selecting the wood.
“Any wood can be used for lure-making. I have heard of lures made from dowels, broomsticks, etc. The type of wood you use will depend on the density and buoyancy you desire.
“Soft wood such as pine works fine for smaller minnow-style lures. Pine is inexpensive and easy to work with. It is a suitable choice to start with, but because it is “soft” it will not have the strength you want if you are making lures for bigger fish such as northern pike.
“A good choice is poplar. It has a greater density than pine, but is easy to work with. Being denser, it will “sink” easier (since you will be making “minnow” lures that’s desired). Oak is another choice, but it will be tougher to work with,” writes Hudson.
For complete hand carving, Hudson does suggest a particular wood option.
“If you plan on carving your lure exclusively by hand, try basswood. You can find small blocks at hobby stores. I have found them at Fred Meyers Superstores. Janns Netcraft also sells basswood blocks,” he writes.
Once the wood is in hand, it is roughly cut into the shape of the lure desired, a minnow in this case, and then the fine works takes place, mostly with sandpaper and elbow grease.
“Keep visualizing a “minnow” as you carefully sand and shape the blank. I try to use the dremel more as a “whittling knife” in how I run it across the blank.
“Remember – you should work both sides of the lure evenly. Stop and take a good look as you are shaping. This will help you keep the lures proportions equal,” writes Hudson.
After the fine work, a wooden lure will need some weight, BBs placed in drilled holes. It is an important step in the sense you want a balanced lure in the water, and the placement of weights will determine its overall buoyancy, and impacts the action of the lure.
The one thing you will need to find, from a well-stocked fishing supply store, or online, is the lure harness. The actual divining lip, is what again determines action and running depth and of course the hooks.
The ‘gear’ is usually fitted, then taken off for painting.
The painting for a beginner is easily the hardest part of the process.
Detail work on a lure can be rather trying for those without much painting skill, or experience.
That said, I am not entirely sure if the paint detail makes as much difference as we might think. Certainly, manufactured wooden lures have great detail in their paint schemes.
But then I think about metal lures. The familiar red and white spoon is a rather basic paint scheme, and I have caught a legion of fish on those hooks.
I also remember some wooden lures a fisherman shared with my Dad at Greenwater Lake some 40-plus year ago. I wasn’t very old, 10-12 maybe, and I recall being rather fascinated by the wooden lures. They were hand-made, and hand-painted. The paint jobs were what might best be called crude, but the lures caught fish.
There was one, green with yellow splotches, I suppose they might have been dots gone bad. It was what was supposed to be a leopard frog of a kind, and while even a fish brain had to register it looked little like a real frog, they still took a chance it was lunch.
So don’t sweat the painting too much.
Yes, on the slowest days of fishing, a subtle paint job which more closely mimics the prey might be an edge, but I suspect most days it comes down to lure placement, retrieve speeds, hook action, and fish whims, than on a fine brush hand.
After the paint you need a good lure seal, again well-covered by Hudson, and you are ready to try some home-fashioned wooden lures come spring.
I will add here that while books are a great source of information on making wooden lures, another option is to hit YouTube.
The online video source can be a time consuming labyrinth to travel. I have often started out connecting to watch a single five-minute video on fishing, and 90-minutes later still be there watching a badminton game, after a fan-made short of Star Trek, and a look in on the crokinole tour in Ontario, and a new golf disc review thrown in for good measure. So be forewarned.
A search does bring up some intriguing homemade lure videos though.
In terms of wooden lures a good starting point on YouTube would be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JbFpD9Vwsw/
If you are looking at lures which reuse materials, there are several good ones to check out too;
One looks at a lure from a pen shell which is quite cool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rybufuOhJpw)
Another video uses a paint brush handle as the heart of the lure (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeDDCk6zZYw)
And then there is a very nice beetle lure made from plastic spoons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdN-_-i6Cek)
