Mackeral lures

[powderpost]

Many years ago (about 30), in Cairns, I built and sold lures. Recently, after meeting an old friend, I went through the store room and came across a heap of lure blanks cut out back then. A decision was made to finish the process off. This is a photo of the first batch. These are bibless lures designed to be trolled for pelagic species. They were designed for and used by all the boats in the game fishing fleet working out of Cairns. They were used to catch the bait for catching marlin. I intend to eventually sell them.
Jim

[wheelinround]

Will we see a segmented version PP :p

Not into fishing myself but both sons are and a few friends they look really fantastic

[Black Ned]

Hello PowderPost,
Can you give some details as to the size, design, type of wood for blanks, colour scheme, particular colour combinations, etc. Would like to try and make some for own use.
Thanks, Black Ned

[powderpost]

Hi Ned,
To answer all your questions would take an all day session in the shed. About the only thing I can answer simply, is that the wood needs to be soft enough to carve and sand easily. My very early lures were made from balsa and as you can imagine they did not last very long, but is a good place to start. I now use white beech. A lot depends on the fish you are after.

Start by copying the shape and colour of the forage fish in the area you are fishing. Copy the colours. You will have to add a bib or a lead weight to make them "swim". Vary the shape of the bib or vary the weight of the lead and see what happens. I twist galvanised tie wire with a nail and pair of plier to make eyelets. These are glued into holes in the lure body with araldite. You will have to experiment with eyelet placement for balance.

So you can see there is a lot of research to be done. But it is fun and a great learning experience.

Jim

[Black Ned]

Thank you for the reply, Powderpost.
I will experiment as you have suggested.
regards, Black Ned

[powderpost]

A sample of the next batch. The first one is a 6" version of the big lure. the second photo is a 4.5 bibless trolling lure with a 4.5" bibbed lure.
Jim

[Foo]

I hope you are going to take control of the sale yourself and wish you good luck with them. They certainly look well made.:2tsup:

[Woodlee]

Quite a few years ago I met a bloke in Cooktown when I was there on holiday , he made lure by hand , his name was Carl Grist ,and his lures were called "C"Lures , the guy I was travelling with wrote articles in fishing magazines and Carl gave us a handful each of his "seconds " to try and do an article on.
Any way I still have a few to this day and had quite good results with them over the years on barra and mangrove jacks around the Kakadu area.Some are looking rather war torn and beaten up but still work ok .
Having just purchased a boat after being boat free for a number of years I'm keen to give these lures a another lease of life .
When I read your post I wondered if there was any connection with "C "lures.

Kev.

Old post I know but maybe you read this section still.

[sjm]

Very impressive! What's the finish? Some kind of poly spray? And roughly how long do you think it takes to make one from start to completion? Ever had a hook/eyelet pull out? I would be concerned about either the glue coming out, or the wood tearing.

[whitewood]

Hello PowderPost,
Can you give some details as to the size, design, type of wood for blanks, colour scheme, particular colour combinations, etc. Would like to try and make some for own use.
Thanks, Black Ned


An alternative wood to balsa for making lures is Paulownia. It's light in weight (just double that of balsa) and easy to carve. It is still softish and needs a coating of epoxy to protect it but has been used in recent times as an alternative timber.

Whitewood

[Woodlee]

Quite a few years ago I met a bloke in Cooktown when I was there on holiday , he made lure by hand , his name was Carl Grist ,and his lures were called "C"Lures , the guy I was travelling with wrote articles in fishing magazines and Carl gave us a handful each of his "seconds " to try and do an article on.
Any way I still have a few to this day and had quite good results with them over the years on barra and mangrove jacks around the Kakadu area.Some are looking rather war torn and beaten up but still work ok .
Having just purchased a boat after being boat free for a number of years I'm keen to give these lures a another lease of life .
When I read your post I wondered if there was any connection with "C "lures.

Kev.

Old post I know but maybe you read this section still.


27years since I last saw Carl Grist ,and now we are back in touch with each other ,the internet is wonderful invention. He doesn't make lures any more , bit he does collect them ,so I'm sending back the freebies for his collection.

Kev.