A Little Video On A Homemade Trout Spoon !

[diemai]

Hi , people ,

Shot this little clip this morning at the fishing club's pond , ......thought that I would share this little metal lure in here as well , ........it's just so easy to make , only few metal working skills and gear required .

Not sure , whether different species but trout would also frequently take this lure , ......nevertheless I've caught a smallie pike on it last year as well .

But in that angling magazine mentioned in the video they wrote , that the original 1940's/50's vintage spoon had a very good reputation back then to reliably catch trout in smaller creeks .

For those interested , ......here is the magazine article , in which I came across this lure for the first time :

http://www.raubfisch.de/454,765/

Thanks a lot for your interest in my humble lure work , ........cheers , diemai

[Musky Glenn]

Great looking lures. Thanks for sharing with us. My wife pitches a fit when I cut the handles off our spoons! lol

[diemai]

Great looking lures. Thanks for sharing with us. My wife pitches a fit when I cut the handles off our spoons! lol

..................I buy them on local fleamarkets , .....much better for the missus' nerves , I guess .

They're pretty cheap , as obviously nobody likes to buy used spoons , ....private vendors are often happy to get rid of them at all just for some change .

Look for ordinary stainless alloys , ...not this highly alloyed stainless steel spoons containing more of chrome , manganese and stuff , ...these are too hard to work down and are more expensive , anyway !

Geetz , Dieter

[slabslayer76]

This is a great thanks for sharing .

[mark poulson]

The Metal Meister strikes again!!!

[diemai]

Thanks once again , folks ,

.................forgot to mention , that for bending these "Bachteufel" versions in a vise , you'd need a little assisting tool , .....made at home in a minute !

This is a hardwood square dowel about 1/2" X 1/2" X 6" or for bigger and wider lures one of 1/2" X 1" X 6" . Work a wedge of 20° to 25° onto one of flat sides , ...but not a pointed one , .....still leaving a bit more than 1/10" of the endgrain's plane untouched .

After having kinked your spoon for the first time in your vise , this tool comes in handy to furnish the other kinks , ....just fix your spoon blank into the vise vertically , .....the first bend standing above the vise's upper edge in required distance , .....now place the wedge plane of the dowel onto the top of the vise pointing it's end grain plane against the workpiece , ..........with a few hammer hits on the rear end of the dowel you'd now gently bend the new kink to required angle onto the spoon blank .

To do the attachement holes use a center punch to mark hole locations prior to drilling , ......such an indent lets the drill bit find instant bite into the metal and pevents the bit from wandering .

There also are versions of the "Bachteufel" , that do not have these angled kinks on the belly side but are bend to a halfround belly (pictured are original vintage ones made by the designer himself) :

http://www.fischundf...el_lightbox.jpg

These might probably be even easier to shape than the kinked ones , .......just take a strip of metal sheet , clamp it vertically together with the shaft portion of a matching drill bit ,..... in a way that the drill bit gets about to be located at the very upper edge of the vise clamp with it's thickest diameter , it would protrude over the vise for about half diameter this way .

Now use a plastic hammer to beat the upper end of the metal strip around the horizontally clamped drill bit shaft to make up for an angled piece of a bit more than 90° .

Bent this 90° closer together by hand or in the more opened vise , .......when boths ends of this "U" shape get close together , place your drill bit into the bottom halfround bend and fix in your vise again(drill bit horizontally , metal "U" vertically , .......gently tighten the vise ,...... always taking care that the drill bit would remain down in the halfround bottom bend , not sliding upward(this would result into a sharper radius or even a kink) .

If you have achieved a good looking "U" shape this way , fix it at the upper edge of the vise again , metal strip 90° vertical , drill bit horizontal , ........the bit down in the "U" bend should sit in a way , that 1/4 of it's dia. still protrudes over the vise's upper edge , ........maybe even flush , if you want a deeper belly on your spoon .

Now bend the two ends of your "U" strip apart , use a plastic hammer to beat them down onto the vise clamps on either side , .......this is to achieve a sharp kink at the start of the belly radius , ......the spoon's ends would be trimmed upward again later .

Finally check , whether your spoonblank did not turn out somewhat sideward curved , ...if so , you can easily trim it by putting in in your vise with the opposing narrow sides of the spoon , pressing them into paralellity or using your platic hammer to gently beat them back .

I always like to leave the intitial metal strip a bit longer than required , as I find it easier this way to trim the front and rear ends to desired length after havind bent the belly shape(with both versions) rather than bent the belly shape on a marked location on a pre-cut given length .

Also if you wanna do a spoon with these head,-and tail tapers shown on picture above , I'd advise you to start out with a rectangular metal strip and furnish the sideward tapers AFTER having bent the belly kinks or radius , ....you can use metal saw and files or a powerful grinding wheel for the tapers .

Finally smoothen out and break all edges and mark and drill attachement holes .

Good luck , ...greetz , Dieter

Edited August 16, 2012 by diemai