diemai

Some medium sized spoons made out of old stainless steel soup spoons , that I purchased this winter for very little money on a local fleamarket . Many anglers know about soup spoons , with the handle cut off , to be quite useful lures for pike . I never liked their action too much , so I thought about how to get such a spoon closer to the shape of a "real" lure . Well , it takes an industrial grade , powerful grinding wheel to grind off the sides of the soup spoon , according to some felt pen outlines made after eyesight , to get into a sufficient outer shape of a pike-lure . The handle is sawed off after the shape is completed , the saw-cut also ground smooth . Now the cupping off the spoon should be flattened a bit with a plastic hammer on an anvil or a steelplate , the distinctive S-shape of a spoon is achieved by holdind the front of lure flat and under an angle onto the anvil , some hits with the plastic hammer , a bit down the front end(towards tail), that's it ! Drill the holes , assemble , decorate if you please.... and head for the waters:) ! Questions ? Feel free to mail:wink: ! diemai

Also a part of the request of one guy to make some special spoons for him , that would already wobble at the slowest speed of retrieve , and would also have a little different swimming pattern as commercial spoons . He came up with a working instruction , that he had cut out from a magazine and so I got started . Those spoons are moderately cupped , their special feature is a weight of solder , applied onto the inner front portion of the spoon . Never made such spoons before , and I tried to keep close to those , not too accurate , instructions . In fact , the wobble of the finished spoons was in a way different , they "swing" from one side-edge to the other , don't have much of a "wave"-pattern , but also cause some vibration , felt down to the rod tip . I am still uncertain about these spoons , but after I sent out the spoons to that guy , he called and told me , that they turned out exactly the way , that he imagined them to be , so now , after closing time on the 1st of May over here , the local pike are going to have the last word about my creations:wink: ! Questions ? You're welcome ! diemai

Also a part of the request of one guy to make some special spoons for him , that would already wobble at the slowest speed of retrieve , and would also have a little different swimming pattern as commercial spoons . He came up with a working instruction , that he had cut out from a magazine and so I got started . Those spoons are moderately cupped , their special feature is a weight of solder , applied onto the inner front portion of the spoon . Never made such spoons before , and I tried to keep close to those , not too accurate , instructions . In fact , the wobble of the finished spoons was in a way different , they "swing" from one side-edge to the other , don't have much of a "wave"-pattern , but also cause some vibration , felt down to the rod tip . I am still uncertain about these spoons , but after I sent out the spoons to that guy , he called and told me , that they turned out exactly the way , that he imagined them to be , so now , after closing time on the 1st of May over here , the local pike are going to have the last word about my creations:wink: ! Questions ? You're welcome ! diemai

This two lures are the result of some trial and error spoon-making I went through during the past weeks . Someone had asked me to make some spoons for him shaped after a German vintage spoon called "Maus-Blinker"(English "Mouse-Spoon") , he was quite in despare , since he had lost the last one inherited from his father:( ! Didn't have any idea about that lures shape , so I searched the web and I was lucky to find some assistance on a German luremaking site . Refering to the demands of that guy , I made those prototypes bigger than the old originals , they are about 4" in length and more moderately cupped , made of 1,0mm stainless steel sheet(25,4mm = 1") . The one with yellow bead-eyes was heated to red glow with a soldering torch to achieve this distinctive blue/purple/brown color . These spoons turned out to look much like an "Eppinger Red Eye Spoon" , as I noticed later , but their action is more pronounced , they "edge" from one side to the other , almost overturning , whilst swimming in a narrow "wave"-pattern , even on a slow retrieve , but don't run to deep . Questions ? You're welcome:wink: ! greetings , diemai

Here are some spoons , I guess , in America you call this type "shoehorn"- spoon . Made these for a picture story in a German angling magazine well over one year ago . They are all shaped of 1,5mm brass sheet(25,4mm equals 1") , the largest ones are a bit longer than 4 1/2 " . They all sport a special finish of metal glitter flakes , applied with a special two-component laquer . Several coats of that paint are essential for a rigid finish , for further decoration I also sprayed on a touch of color by means of a cardboard template . Questions ? You're welcome:wink: . Greetings , diemai

Years ago I came across a so-called "Jigspinner" in a mailorder catalog , I found it to be a good thing to soup up ordinary plastic grubs and shads , that are very popular over here for perch-pike(in German "Zander" , very similar to American walleye , only gets bigger) . Those jigspinners in the catalog did not seem to be very reliable to me with their thin wire and simple snap-lock , so I had the idea to employ a coil spring lock for them , that I already knew from heavy wire leaders for jerkbaits . Anyway , this rig worked out well for me , though it is meant to be slowly tossed along the bottom for those perch-pikes , it also proved to be attractive for pike fished a bit shallower . For shallow fishing a round blade , providing more lift , should be used , for bottom-located target fish a slim , smaller blade is a better option , off course the weights of the leadheads may also be varied for this purpose , pictured here are 6" to 7" grubs with 3/4 to 1 1/4 ounces leadheads in the number one color for the local stained river waters . For short-striking fish a stinger-treble is attached in a widely used fashion over here . This rig is not as versatile as a pure spinnerbait , but this was not my goal of design , those are not too popular over here , anyway .

Years ago I came across a so-called "Jigspinner" in a mailorder catalog , I found it to be a good thing to soup up ordinary plastic grubs and shads , that are very popular over here for perch-pike(in German "Zander" , very similar to American walleye , only gets bigger) . Those jigspinners in the catalog did not seem to be very reliable to me with their thin wire and simple snap-lock , so I had the idea to employ a coil spring lock for them , that I already knew from heavy wire leaders for jerkbaits . Anyway , this rig worked out well for me , though it is meant to be slowly tossed along the bottom for those perch-pikes , it also proved to be attractive for pike fished a bit shallower . For shallow fishing a round blade , providing more lift , should be used , for bottom-located target fish a slim , smaller blade is a better option , off course the weights of the leadheads may also be varied for this purpose , pictured here are 6" to 7" grubs with 3/4 to 1 1/4 ounces leadheads in the number one color for the local stained river waters . For short-striking fish a stinger-treble is attached in a widely used fashion over here . This rig is not as versatile as a pure spinnerbait , but this was not my goal of design , those are not too popular over here , anyway .

Years ago I came across a so-called "Jigspinner" in a mailorder catalog , I found it to be a good thing to soup up ordinary plastic grubs and shads , that are very popular over here for perch-pike(in German "Zander" , very similar to American walleye , only gets bigger) . Those jigspinners in the catalog did not seem to be very reliable to me with their thin wire and simple snap-lock , so I had the idea to employ a coil spring lock for them , that I already knew from heavy wire leaders for jerkbaits . Anyway , this rig worked out well for me , though it is meant to be slowly tossed along the bottom for those perch-pikes , it also proved to be attractive for pike fished a bit shallower . For shallow fishing a round blade , providing more lift , should be used , for bottom-located target fish a slim , smaller blade is a better option , off course the weights of the leadheads may also be varied for this purpose , pictured here are 6" to 7" grubs with 3/4 to 1 1/4 ounces leadheads in the number one color for the local stained river waters . For short-striking fish a stinger-treble is attached in a widely used fashion over here . This rig is not as versatile as a pure spinnerbait , but this was not my goal of design , those are not too popular over here , anyway .

I am not quite sure wether it is right to post these pics here and not under "blade baits" , but since I exclusively found spinnerblades and bucktails there , I guess , it should be alright:huh: . In fact I wonder , why I haven't found any homemade spoons on this site so far , or I just didn't look very well ? Anyway , when I started out with luremaking many years ago , spoon-making was one of my first challenges , and I still make them today , cut out and swaged to shape from 1,0mm to 2,0mm(25,4mm equals 1") copper,-brass,-or stainless steel sheets , a variety of different finishes are possible , they may be painted , plain polished , decorated with different kinds of decal foil , plated with glitter chips and even heated to red glow(stainless steel only)to achieve a blue/purple/brown color . Shown here are variations of the exellent Finnish allround spoon "R

I am not quite sure wether it is right to post these pics here and not under "blade baits" , but since I exclusively found spinnerblades and bucktails there , I guess , it should be alright:huh: . In fact I wonder , why I haven't found any homemade spoons on this site so far , or I just didn't look very well ? Anyway , when I started out with luremaking many years ago , spoon-making was one of my first challenges , and I still make them today , cut out and swaged to shape from 1,0mm to 2,0mm(25,4mm equals 1") copper,-brass,-or stainless steel sheets , a variety of different finishes are possible , they may be painted , plain polished , decorated with different kinds of decal foil , plated with glitter chips and even heated to red glow(stainless steel only)to achieve a blue/purple/brown color . Shown here are variations of the exellent Finnish allround spoon "R

I am not quite sure wether it is right to post these pics here and not under "blade baits" , but since I exclusively found spinnerblades and bucktails there , I guess , it should be alright:huh: . In fact I wonder , why I haven't found any homemade spoons on this site so far , or I just didn't look very well ? Anyway , when I started out with luremaking many years ago , spoon-making was one of my first challenges , and I still make them today , cut out and swaged to shape from 1,0mm to 2,0mm(25,4mm equals 1") copper,-brass,-or stainless steel sheets , a variety of different finishes are possible , they may be painted , plain polished , decorated with different kinds of decal foil , plated with glitter chips and even heated to red glow(stainless steel only)to achieve a blue/purple/brown color . Shown here are variations of the exellent Finnish allround spoon "R

Two "Tallywhacker" topwater lures , made of Abache-wood , years ago , out of curiousity about those "strange" American lures , that almost nobody over here was familiar with those days . Though I had mailordered some of those tailblades from Wisconsin , I assembled home-made ones of 0,5 mm stainless sheet(25,4 mm =1") on these lures , because they are lighter in weight for my down-scaled models . The "pitched" stripe on the tail-section of the smaller lure gives the optic impression of "something alive" , when tail is rotating not too fast , I have utilized that feature on some other luremodels with rotating head portions , too;) .

Two "Tallywhacker" topwater lures , made of Abache-wood , years ago , out of curiousity about those "strange" American lures , that almost nobody over here was familiar with those days . Though I had mailordered some of those tailblades from Wisconsin , I assembled home-made ones of 0,5 mm stainless sheet(25,4 mm =1") on these lures , because they are lighter in weight for my down-scaled models . The "pitched" stripe on the tail-section of the smaller lure gives the optic impression of "something alive" , when tail is rotating not too fast , I have utilized that feature on some other luremodels with rotating head portions , too;) .

A "Crawler"-type surface lure , turned down on my lathe from Abache-wood , approx. 1" dia. , 4 1/2" in length . The wings and their hinges I cut out from 0,5 mm(25,4 mm make up for 1")stainless steel sheet , filed , ground and swaged them to shape . The lure works very nice:) , but I am not quite satisfied with the hinges , It seems to me , that the water pressure on the wings during retrieve is a little bit too high , so the back-swing limiting flaps on those hinges maybe are too weak and bend backward after some time fishing:( . Well , it's just an impression(or imagination:huh: ?) that I have , but should I make another one of this type , I would choose thicker sheet metal for the hinges , maybe 0,8 to 1,0 mm .

Another lure of my own design called the "FoFoGlobe"(FoFo for "fold forward") . After having made some "Globes" with a prop-blade years ago , that I mailordered from Wisconsin , I have found , that those lures with that rigid , wide prop didn't fit into my stowaway boxes in my tackle bags:( . I was curious about these lures , and wanted to try them out over here , but also didn't want to carry a big bag along for bank-fishing . I had just made my first " Crawler" lure , so I had the idea about why not adapting those "Crawler" wing-hinges for a "Globe" lure , so that the single prop-blades would fold forward , and the lure therefore would fit into my stowaway box:wink: ! The oncoming current on retrieve and the circular force of the rotating lure-head lift the blades up at any retrieve speed , at slow speed the lure also generates a metallic , clicking sound as an after-effect of the loose play those blades and hinges have . But still I haven't caught on it yet:( , I guess , pike over here prefer different surface snacks !

A flaptail lure , that I designed a couple of years ago . It's called "FlapRat" , turned down on my lathe out of Abache-wood(two boards of approx. 1" thickness previously bonded with waterproof wood glue) . I absolutely didn't have an idea , how such flaptail lures would work , they have been fairly unknown over here in Germany , and yet they still are , I suppose:huh: . It was a period during my lurebuilding activities , when I tried to build all those American lure models , that those days hardly anybody over here has ever heard off , I only had catalog,-and bookpictures to work after , not even web access:( ! I was just curious about these , for us over here , strange looking baits , so I got started with carving them out , employing some components , that I mailordered from a Wisconsin tackle shop . The "FlapRat" is made in a way , that the wire harness , holding the two main hooks can be un-clipped from it's notches(made of hook mountig plates) on the belly , either for transport or whilst playing a fish , to minimize the danger of hook-out leverage . Haven't fished it thorougly over the years , 'cause it's too voluminous to fit into my tackleboxes(by now I have a large one , so it's going to hit the waters again this upcoming season) , but it nicely resembles a swimming mouse or rat on the surface:) .

A flaptail lure , that I designed a couple of years ago . It's called "FlapRat" , turned down on my lathe out of Abache-wood(two boards of approx. 1" thickness previously bonded with waterproof wood glue) . I absolutely didn't have an idea , how such flaptail lures would work , they have been fairly unknown over here in Germany , and yet they still are , I suppose:huh: . It was a period during my lurebuilding activities , when I tried to build all those American lure models , that those days hardly anybody over here has ever heard off , I only had catalog,-and bookpictures to work after , not even web access:( ! I was just curious about these , for us over here , strange looking baits , so I got started with carving them out , employing some components , that I mailordered from a Wisconsin tackle shop . The "FlapRat" is made in a way , that the wire harness , holding the two main hooks can be un-clipped from it's notches(made of hook mountig plates) on the belly , either for transport or whilst playing a fish , to minimize the danger of hook-out leverage . Haven't fished it thorougly over the years , 'cause it's too voluminous to fit into my tackleboxes(by now I have a large one , so it's going to hit the waters again this upcoming season) , but it nicely resembles a swimming mouse or rat on the surface:) .

These old "Spooks" are fairly easy to carve from round dowels or broomsticks , provided , that the wood is light enough to float up properly:wink: , just put screweyes and a weight in the rear belly portion , so that the lure hangs a bit "tail down" on the surface , paint and seal off , and have a real "topwater killer bait" for pike . Made my first ones years ago , when such lures where still not widely available in Germany , and already caught on them nicely , it's that easy to "walk-the-dog" that lure . The stripe pattern I sprayed through slid-on rubber-O-rings with aerosol cans , I don't utilize airbrushing , too lazy to always clean up all equippment:huh: , I'd rather take my time for testing new ideas in luremaking . greetings , diemai

The old "Lucky13" also became one of my fav's for summer piking . Saw it first in an US-lurebook and I was curious , how it would work , never came across that lure in German tackle shops , though the original design has been around in America for more than 80 years now . So I carved my first one out of a round pinewood dowel , it was'nt that hard to do:wink: . On my first trials with the finished lure a pike of approx. 32" took the lure , but due to not having had enough experience , I didn't utilize a sufficient leader , so the fish got away with my new lure:( . In anger about my own stupidity I stared out on the vortex , that the pike left behind on the surface , after a second or two my new "Lucky13" popped back onto the surface , just like an empty barrel from a sunken ship , and with some accurate casts with another lure I could pick it again:) . By now I have made a lot more of these lures , and every year they take their share of pike for me , it's their "popping" sound and the bubble trace , that they pull behind on retrieve , that make them so attractive for pike in shallow water . regards , diemai