diemai

@ Hi , folks , A buddy from a German site has just pointed out this new and obviously very innovative design from Finland to me ,................... thought , that I might share it in here as well ! Please check : http://www.jigwobbler.com/products.html greetz , diemai

@ albertachar Seems to be a great instructional book with quite a few patterns to work after . Great fotos and clearly to follow , even for myself , that English is not my firts language ! Really enjoyed watching the preview , ...surely I'm gonna order for an issue ! Thanks a lot for sharing , .........greetz , diemai

@ Balls Thanks a lot for your further input on this cork material , very interesting to hear , that you are using them on your local saltwater species as well ! Seems , that there are more possibilities about them , that I could ever think of ! Apart from having started to make lures from those corks recently , I have been using them for years now to make bobbers for float fishing at night for local European eel . I'd just cut some straight and thinner hazelnut or willow rods outdoors , shave off the bark and let them dry thoroughly for a few weeks , .......drill an approbiate hole lengthwise centered through the cork and insert a piece of such wooden rod to act as a handle , so that I can grab the cork to sand it's ends to an halfround or oval shape on a coarse sanding wheel . After I'd take a fitting piece of rod , drill a hole at the thicker end to glue in a homemade "twisted wire" eye , ......the other end I would sand to taper to little less that 4,5mm diameter . Then I'd glue that wooden rod into the cork's bore , just about centered ,.......paint the top part in a hi-vis neon color(orange or red) and finally seal off with some clear laquer . The 4,5mm dia. at the tip of the bobbers "antenna" is important to stick on a chemical light for night fishing ,...... these have that very diameter and come with a fitting piece of clear plastic tubing that I can now push over the tip of the bobber and the chemical light to have both connected . These kinda floats have proven to be very suitable in waters with lots of dead wood and vegetation in it , as they are very rigid and don't break as easily as commercial floats and bobbers , when getting tossed through some kinda obstacles . I am getting supplied with cork by some workmates , as I packed up with drinking for years now , .......if I should need larger amounts , I have found a webstore in Berlin , that sells supplies for beer brewing and wine making at home , they sell corks for 20 to 30 Euro cents each , and these do not even have cork screw holes nor any imprints on them ! thanks again , ..........greetz , diemai

@ Sly41985 Forgot to mention , ........I am not sure whether that particuar shop stocks blades of your desired size , ......there are also a lot of component suppliers listed in here , that you might check out ! Though I live in Europe , I often order some stuff from My link , ........you can also find heaps of fishing related supplier's links(off course also lure components) on My link . This is a British site , click on the "links" section there , you will find a lot of web adresses listed up after British , European , American and worldwide shops . good luck , diemai

@ Sly41985 Check http://www.luremaking.com/ , there is a free download of "The Canadian Guide to Lure Making" available there , providing instructions on making different kinds of lures , also inline spinners as well . There are also some component sizing tables printed there . That guide often refers to the products of that particular company , but it still comes in quite useful for the beginner , I guess ? good luck , diemai

@ Iron Bass That "Dredger" crankbait appears to be a sinking lure rather than a floating deep diver , so it does not have the important feature to let it bounce off obstacles on bottom and climb again , when neccessary . But nevertheless a clever design for a deep water column and/or ploughing deep , plane and snagless bottoms . Thanks for posting , ........greetz , diemai

@ mudcat Welcome to TU ! I have started out my luremaking many , many years ago with making SSt blades and spoons . To do spinner blades from 0,5 mm sheet is not that hard , provided you have access to the right tools . 0,5 mm SSt sheet still cuts easily with hand shears , but for faster fine shaping of the blade outlines you'd need an industrial grade grinding wheel , also a sandpaper segment wheel to break and smoothen the edges . Filing in a vise also works , but takes considerably longer . For cupping the blades you need a steel plate or an anvil and a ballpeen hammer , sizing depending on desired blade size(small blades require small hammer) . You may also need a plastic hammer and a beating template of hardwood , but that one is done pretty fast with a round chisel and/or a "Dremel" . The blades can finally be painted , polished , annealed or decorated with decal foil , ........you may take a look at my older gallery uploads , there are a few spoons and spinners there with such blades . I have made these spinnerblades from approx. 1" to hand palm size . If you have further questions , feel free to call back in ! greetz , diemai

@ DSV Basically I mean to rig the single lure sections like beads on a string , and as I do not use PVC but wood , I need to seal the inside of all bores against water sepage , .....and this is , what the tubing is for . This water sepage problem is also the reason , why had never come to a practical solution on anchoring the connecting cords to the front and rear part , Epoxying bulky knots inbetween the halves of those sections might still lead to water sepage at the entry locations of the cord , I think , .......but probably well worth a try . With that construction string one would be quite safe against pike teeth , I guess ,..... but I would not trust any braid , not matter how thick it gets . @ Piscivorous Pike I am not familiar with that stuff "fibreglass window screening" ,..... guess , that it is to keep bugs out of the house ? We have similiar over here as well , but obviously made of plastic , so it won't hold up(at least that it is the only kind , that I saw so far , ......don't use it up here) . But sounds like a good idea , provided the stuff is rigid enough . greetz , diemai

@ mark poulson Mark , I have never thought about bonding that cord with the lure sections ! My mind is rather set on glueing in some kinda tubing pieces lengthwise through the single sections , one on top and on on bottom , so that I could aligne the lure segments onto two single lengths of cord or one long surrounding cord piece passing through both tubings , these mainly serving to reinforce the holes against wear and tear caused by the cord . As a bearing I would also rig a small bead onto the cord inbetween each of the single sections . I only haven't thought about a solution of how to anchor the cord piece(s) into the first and/or last section yet . As for the hook hangers at the belly side , I've thought to make them from wire bent into a "figure 8" shape and let the bottom tubing , made from brass in this case , pass through the inner eye of the "figure 8" , thus acting like a pin to lock it in place , ........all epoxied , off course . Your solution of glueing the cord inbetween two section halves sounds a lot easier , but would only be practical for PVC material , not wood , I guess ? just some theory .........greetz , Dieter

Here are two pictures of my latest bottle cork "Globe" lure blank , .......not much effort at all grinding the material to shape with a "Dremel" coarse sanding drum . But at first I'd furnish the fittings for the wire harness , easier that way to determine about centered holes ! Drilled them from either side freehanded and eyeballing with the "Dremel" , the exits of the bores are reinforced by glueing in some kinda small grommets , that I had found on the scrabyard of my work years ago , ......guess ,that some small pop rivets would serve the purpose as well ? Only problem is , that the small wood screws holding the homemade prop blade do not find final grip in the artificial cork material , one should twist them in very careful not to tear out material with the screw's thread . What I did to still maintain a good bond is to extend the entries of the screw holes a bit , ....for final assembly after painting I'd just twist in the screws with some epoxy glue , that would also set into these bore extentions and bond the screws sufficiently to the plastic cork material . greetz , diemai

@ wambeany Hi , ....welcome to TU ! The shape of your lure does not look bad as a glider jerkbait , I don't quite figure out , why it did not have a good glide , .........probably a ballast issue ? Anyway , now being converted into a crankbait there seem to be new issues involved , as such thin bodied crankbaits may often cause problems . At first I would try to assemble a temporary line tie somewhere below the chin of the lure ,..... just bend a piece of wire similar to a rod guide(or use a small rod ring from the start)and tape it onto desired location , ......try you lure in a bath tub pool or shallow bank , where you could easily recover it in case your assembly falls off ! This way you can determine , whether changing line tie position alone would let your lure work or you would need to make further changes . Your lure is obviously thru-wired , so for a new line tie you would have to mount a screw eye , .........extend its pilot hole entry a bit bigger for up to 1/5" deep and apply epoxy glue , when finally twisting it in ,------- this way a kinda "glue plug" evolves in the hole extension making it much stronger , .............I had boated up to 47" northern pike on lures rigged that way without any issues . A good choice of screw eyes you can find atMy link . If this line tie affair alone would not work out , the next option would be to play with ballast , .....again tape some weights to the belly at fferent locations and test the lure , ........if you're satisfied with one option , drill a hole and glue in the weight with epoxy glue , ....sand smooth and paint . But it also seems to me , that your lip is fairly large , you could also try to make it a bit narrower at its widest place , maybe even also shorten it ! I but remember to always test your lure after each working step , not that you would do "too much of a good thing" ! I strongly believe , that you could fix this lure with a change of line tie location and maybe a bit of minoring the lip plane , ........for future lure projects also check My link , there are some describtions and building plans there . It is a Dutch site , but a version in English is also available . For newbies I always recommend a glider jerkbait called "The Roach" in there(it's original name is "Heiddy") , .......it is an "easy build , easy fish" sinking glider , thatz surely won't fail to nail them pike or even musky(don't know for sure about that , don't have them in Europe) . PS : I sometimes use homemade aluminium lips as well , but I have found , that these can get quite heavy and spoil the casting performance of a lure ,..... sometimes even it's balance . I most likely build "screw-on" lips of aluminium sheet , if I want the line tie mounted onto the lip , ......in your case I would have used a lip of lexan , either homemade or purchased from the shop linked above . good luck , diemai

@ GDille That's a nice one you've made there , ..........have you put any ballast weights in it's belly ? @ mark poulson Thanks Mark , .....actually I already have a similiar design on my mind : To stay with cheap material I'm thinking to cut a curved kinda grub tail out of a plastic carrier bag with fingernail scissors and fix the base of that tail into a vertical slot at the rear of the cork body ,........locking it in place with two crosswise wire pins or even toothpicks . That bottle cork lure would off course have a diving lip as well , but only one belly treble . When making this last video , I finally figured out , that the very high buoyancy of these plastic corks just lends itself to go try making topwater lures out of the stuff , ....so yesterday I went to start out with a "Globe" style lure , ..........the biggeset effort of that one actually was cutting out the propeller blade . It consists of one whole cork for the rear part and another half cork for the spinning front portion , so it is about 2 3/5" in total , actually a very tiny "Globe" . Gonna paint and topcoat that one , so it would still take some time to finally get done ! OT : Just watched the news , seeing parts of LA flooded , ........hope that you are well and did not get your feet and especially your carpets wet ! Thanks , .........greetz , Dieter

@ DSV I had also thought about utilizing some kind of thin cord made of artificial fibres like nylon , probably the kind that bricklayers use to achieve straight and perpendicular brickwalls , ......this stuff appears to be quite tough . But still I wonder , whether toothy fish like pike or muskie could not snap it in the worst case ? greetz , diemai

Hi , folks , Yesterday I've been fooling around with some bottle corks again , went to test them in my bath tub today . Sorry for the bad quality , hopefully one day I would learn , how to handle a camera ! greetz , diemai

@ baileybassman Thanks for posting these pictures , very interesting indeed ! I remember to have seen a video in here some longer time ago , where sucha bait jointed with some kinda cord or cable like this one was displayed in a swimming pool , ....if my memory serves me right , it was made by one of our Swedish members . Ever since watching that vid I've been cracking my brain how to anchor such cable(I suppose it is some kinda stranded steel leader material)into the front and rear section of a bait , never found a good solution for myself so far . This swimbait is constructed very smart , .........I like the idea of the the thin ridges on either section to act as spacers and bearing points the same time , .......on a homemade bait jointed this way one might have to utilize small metal or plastic beads instead for the same purpose , which would be rigged onto the connecting cables inbetween either section . greetz , diemai

@ fivefishwish I was thinking about using car seatbelts from the scrabyard , but I guess , that these might be too stiff ,...........nevertheless there should be similar straps around for different purposes like carrying loads on a crane or fixing loads on the roof rack of a car , etc . ? Just a vague idea of mine , never went further into it ! good luck , diemai

@ spidergrub6 It was rather more my intention pointing out those oversized lips than these trailing blades on that particular Australian lure ! That fish there is an European perch , the Australians call it "redfin" or "reddie" , ........ like some other species(carp , rabbits) it was taken to Australia by European immigrants and turned to a pest there , .........a lot of fishermen "down under" are complaining to catch a lot of these before finally being able to hook a native Australian species of a predatory fish . You might visit the site mentioned on the end of the video to view a lot more of such deep diving lures(amongst others) . greetz , diemai

@ spidergrub6 Look out for Australian style lures for some inspiration , the fellas "Down Under" do make pretty impressive deep diving lures with real oversized diving lips ,....... this one bladed example in the video is said to go down 12-14 feet(the black lure with silver stripes) , ....and compared to others it's lip is just average sized , ........there are homemade lures of this style running more than 30 feet deep ! good luck , diemai

@ finlander Haven't used stainless steel for lips so far , as it is way too heavy for my smaller lures(4" to 6") , ........I tend to stick to aluminium sheet instead . But I am using stainless sheet for making casting spoons and spinnerblades and I can say , that it is not easy to work on with just "hobby" tools , ........f.e. 0,5 mm stainless can still be cut with hand shears , but is way too thin and instable for a crankbait lip(only usable for spinnerblades) , thicker stainless sheet absolutely requires bench shears or even a metal bladed bandsaw . To smoothen and round off the pre-cut edges one should have an industrial grade grinding wheel accessible(I have one at my work) , just belt sanders or sanding discs won't take you far , ........using a file and elbow grease instead could turn out rather exhausting , as the material is very rigid ! On the other hand aluminium sheet of 1 mm(small lures) , 1,5 mm(medium size) and 2,0 mm(8"+ size) comes in very handy , all these thicknesses can be still cut with shears , handsaws and even metal bladed jigsaws with ease , sanding and especially filing the edges is also easy and it also bends quite easy compared to stainless steel . 1,5 mm and 2,0 mm thicknesses are rigid enough to retain bended kinks without a bigger fish straightening them out and also the line ties can be attached straight to the screw -on lips without utilizing a through-wire harness . But I don't trust the 1,0 mm thickness to rig the line tie directly onto the lip , always use a screw eye or thru-wire harness passing through the lip . You can view some of such lures in my gallery uploads ,........ if you have further questions , feel free to call in ! greetz , diemai

Yeah , this is absolutely great and outstanding craftwork that demands highest admiration , ..........what more to say ? greetz ,diemai