2" Jerkin' Minnow Completed

[Tacklejunky]

Well, I was shooting for either a 6" dive or suspending, but looks like I ended up with a countdown. She'll dive about 1fps. (feet per second)

Materials:

Balsa, paper clips, polycarbonate plastic and "googley eyes"

Action:

It has a fairly wide wobble to it and it pivots right around the center. Jerk it a few times for random surprises. (tested it out at Lake Perris a few days ago)

Colors: (in order of application)

4 x Minwax gloss clear urethane coats (dipped and HAND SPUN, sanded with 320 grit between each coat)

Createx Opaque White 3 layer base coat

Createx Pearlized Copper for the scales

Createx Pearlized Purple for the back/top

Createx Pearlized Silver for the bottom, and a very light spritz on top.

4 more coats of Urethane to top it off.

The scales were made with some metal mesh net I picked up at Michaels.

Enjoy the pics. I'll slap some hooks on it and test it out in the trout streams and on some small bass soon. I'm about 100% positive it'll work just fine on multi-species.

Edited May 14, 2008 by Tacklejunky

[diemai]

@ Tacklejunky

Man , you're pretty fast with new lures , and all of your work is so well explained and pictured , I like it:)!

It's a pretty little thing , that you have created here , well done !

But what I like most is the idea about employing metal mesh for the scales .

I looked at the pic , thinking "where are the pegs , heck , did he somehow glue it.....!" , the next second I browsed through the text , and "BINGO" !

I find it great to think about such , little unusual(to me)things , though I don't know , for which purpose such metal mesh is used for(apart from spraying lures:)) .

To me it is just a very smart idea , hats off !

Good success , diemai

[Tacklejunky]

I believe the mesh is used for things like building mountain structures for model railroads, sculpture structure.. etc. They show pictures of shaping the mesh, then covering it with clay, foam, plaster and the likes on the packaging.

The mesh is very thin and flexible.

The only problem I really had with it is obvious. It's metal! You have to be very careful when bending the mesh around the bait so you do not scratch your undercoat.

What I did was bend the mesh around a second unpainted bait first, then slipped it right on to the bait I was gonna paint like a glove. this way I did not scratch my white undercoat applying the mesh mask.

The pictures do the paintjob no justice. It changes colors a bit when you flex it around. the top looks horrible in the photos, but in person it looks great! It looks like it is all pitted, but that is really the fine coat of silver over the purple refracting light in a funny manner. I'm pretty satisfied.. the paint only took an hour or so.

Edited May 14, 2008 by Tacklejunky

[fatfingers]

Lol, I'd cut off at least three fingers if I ventured a bait that tiny!

Really nice work.

[diemai]

@ Tacklejunky

Yeah , now as you say it , guess I've seen such mesh before on TV in a documentary film about building up Germany's biggest model railroad , located in an old warehouse in the harbor of Hamburg .

Next time , I drop by a model shop , I'm gonna check for it , and thank you very much about the hints on preparing it for spraying .

Greetz , diemai

[rofish]

What size treble hooks are you going to use on that tiny thing? Are you sure they would not get tangled? It happened to me on small lures like yours, and I've learned it the hard way (when fishing the completed lure).

Now I also want to make some small crankbaits (less than 2" long) but it will have only one hook eye, the tail one.

[mark poulson]

So how'd you do at Perris?

[Tacklejunky]

So how'd you do at Perris?

Caught 2 dinks (8-10" or so) and a 2lber from the south end on shore with the drop shot

rofish:

I'll probably use single size 10 mosquito hooks with filed down barbs on this bait. I want to be able to use it when I go wild brown trout hunting at the Owens river later this year. They have artificial barbless only regulations in that river for the wild trout section.

I'll let you know if I have any problems with tangled up hooks.

The rear hook eye isn't very round, as I made this bait before I learned how to bend a round hook eye. Hopefully that doesn't effect the rear hook in any way.. such as sticking or hangup at funny angles. I ran in to that problem on my first failed crankbait.. and learned how to fix it on the second successful crankbait.

[pizza]

nice looking bait. I mostly make smaller cranks out of basswood and have found that it really takes minimal weighting, which combined with a few layers of paint, and a single thick coat of D2T turns them into either very slow risers, suspenders (if you are lucky enough to get the weighting just right), or (slow) sinkers. The smaller the baits you make, the harder it is to keep them floaters (and cast well, be balanced, have good action, etc).

Lake Perris - the memories of climbing at Big Rock lol....

[IamSpartacus]

Lol, I'd cut off at least three fingers if I ventured a bait that tiny!

Really nice work.

One more and you'd have to be Fatfinger:lol:...

I thought it was funny, reading it now Im not so sure normal people will think so.

Oh well

Edited May 15, 2008 by IamSpartacus

[diemai]

@ Tacklejunky

Here are the smallest crankbaits , that I've ever made , about 12 years ago or so , at the beginning of my luremaking carreer .

The two tiny ones are 31mm(without tow eye) in length , the larger one is 42mm(25,4mm equals 1") made them those days of a kind of light tropical wood , but still they don't float up .

The larger lure has a long-shanked hook run through a slot in its body , also glued in some thin , flexible wire to render the crank weedless , just wanted to try this those days , had absolutely no idea about luremaking back then !

Painted them those days with model making enamels by brushing .

Such small lures don't cast well at all , to overcome this problem , in Germany we utilize some special casting weights named "Sbirulino"(they are of Italian origin) , widely available over here and most likely used in so-called "Put-And-Take" trout ponds .

These weights can be obtained in various sink rates , also floating and some even to be filled with water , they require the use of a 12 feet minimum sensitive spinning rod , because the leader behind the weight must be at least 4 1/2 to 6 feet long , not to spook the fish .

With a shorter rod the casting would be headache !

With the "Sbirulino" you can fish any small lures , that are too light to cast them far out , preferably small cranks and in-line spinners , but also small plastics or even wet flies, many use them as well with worms , maggots and trout paste .

Greetz , diemai

[captsully18]

One more and you'd have to be Fatfinger:lol:...

I thought it was funny, reading it now Im not so sure normal people will think so.

Oh well

Yeah, but who on here is "normal"?

David

[IamSpartacus]

Yeah, but who on here is "normal"?

David

Probably a pretty valid point.

Mike

[Tacklejunky]

@ Tacklejunky

Here are the smallest crankbaits , that I've ever made , about 12 years ago or so , at the beginning of my luremaking carreer .

The two tiny ones are 31mm(without tow eye) in length , the larger one is 42mm(25,4mm equals 1") made them those days of a kind of light tropical wood , but still they don't float up .

The larger lure has a long-shanked hook run through a slot in its body , also glued in some thin , flexible wire to render the crank weedless , just wanted to try this those days , had absolutely no idea about luremaking back then !

Painted them those days with model making enamels by brushing .

Such small lures don't cast well at all , to overcome this problem , in Germany we utilize some special casting weights named "Sbirulino"(they are of Italian origin) , widely available over here and most likely used in so-called "Put-And-Take" trout ponds .

These weights can be obtained in various sink rates , also floating and some even to be filled with water , they require the use of a 12 feet minimum sensitive spinning rod , because the leader behind the weight must be at least 4 1/2 to 6 feet long , not to spook the fish .

With a shorter rod the casting would be headache !

With the "Sbirulino" you can fish any small lures , that are too light to cast them far out , preferably small cranks and in-line spinners , but also small plastics or even wet flies, many use them as well with worms , maggots and trout paste .

Greetz , diemai

Nice lures there diemai! I like the single hook weedless idea

I believe here in the states we use something similar to cast light objects.

I'm not positive, but I think they are called " cast - a - bubble " or something like that. They are basically the same as what you have pictured.. a clear bubble that you can fill with water.

One thing about this minnow lure is it weighs 1/4oz!

I can cast this lure a good distance on 12lb line (although not meant for such heavy line rating!)

I used an entire mojo sinker on it, thinking the balsa would be buoyant enough to float it, but as I find now, I was wrong. The good thing about the weight of the lure is that it will cast very far on it's own.

Also, thank you "Pizza" for the tips. I definitely need to use a lighter weight on the next one. What I did was made two of them, but I only tested one before paint so I can change the second one to my needs. Also, I don't think I will add a bill on the second one. I want to see if I can use the angled nose of the lure to let it sink, and act as a riser when you jerk it because the angle of the nose will force water underneath the bait making it rise? I'll give it a shot.. it's drying now from clear coat. The next minnows I make will be designed with your tips in mind on rising and suspending baits.

I appreciate all the input I am getting on my newfound hobby. Thanks for making me feel like one of the team guys. I'm new to this and I'm sure my lures are quite under par from some of the neat stuff I have seen on this website.