My Dad The Lure Builder

[Joshua Fifis]

A couple of months ago my dad found that he was a little short of work. We'd been talking about lure building here and there for a bit of time so he thought he'd give it a crack. Within a few days he had carved out a few stickbaits. He soon realised that it was far too slow so he bought himself a lathe and soon after an airbrush kit. Within a matter weeks he was was sending me up a heap to start weighting, rigging and testing. I have weighted and rigged a few and some dad has done himself just need to get out there and start putting them through their paces. 

[Boerris Polakowski]

Nice work , they will catch fish

[Khai Huang]

Nice, do they swim well?

[Joshua Fifis]

Nice, do they swim well?

Sadly I have done very little real life testing. Weighting has been done in a bucket of water kind of thing. I have weighed a few slightly different to each other to get a feel on how they will perform differently. I was pretty happy with the couple of stickbaits I have tested in real life. Both floating sat well in the water nose up, on the sweep they ducked down well taking some air leaving a good bubble trail, good swim action and return to the surface nose up to go again.

I am extremely new to the sport of throwing big sticks and pops so only time will tell how these lures really perform.

[Hendrik Lubbe]

For a beginner those lures look the business!

Some of us folk will be more than willing to assist and support testing them in waters abroad. I would gladly assist with a un-rigged batch all the way down in South Africa, you can contact me at [email protected] to swap out some thoughts

Regards
Henno

[Brandon Khoo]

It's great to see! There is always a bit of work to do in getting the balancing right but shape-wise, they look fine

[Ross Smith]

G'day Joshua

I find when l'm casting stickbaits or poppers l always go to the ones that cast like a bullet every time and work well through the water every time.
l have a box full of poppers and stick baits that l call my sacrificial lures that l don't mind if l loose as they fail on these two points.

I think if you succeed on these two points you will have a winner 

Cheers Ross

[Joshua Fifis]

It's great to see! There is always a bit of work to do in getting the balancing right but shape-wise, they look fine

Going through that fun balancing part now. Struggling with some of the more rounder shaped stickbaits. Even with a fair amount of belly weight they still want to spin at higher speeds. A slow constant retrieve has them swimming ok but jerks and faster retrieves makes them spin. My thoughts are to give them flat sides. Any other ideas?

[Brandon Khoo]

Joshua, do you mean they are going around in circles or pulling to one side? Surface stickbaits are mongrel thinga to get balanced right. Sinking ones are much more forgiving.

Try getting more weight on the tail rather than the belly and see how you go

[Joshua Fifis]

Joshua, do you mean they are going around in circles or pulling to one side? Surface stickbaits are mongrel thinga to get balanced right. Sinking ones are much more forgiving.

Try getting more weight on the tail rather than the belly and see how you go

They are going around in circles. I wish they were only pulling to one side! I started off with almost all the weight in the tail (some only weight in the tail, none in the belly). I'm adding weight to the belly now to try and keep the belly facing down instead of the lure rolling all the way over.

Maybe I'll try and master some sinking ones first if they are a bit easier.

[Brandon Khoo]

If that is happening, I would suggest that the lure is not symmetrical, the weight is biased to one side or the tow point isn't straight.

[Joshua Fifis]

If that is happening, I would suggest that the lure is not symmetrical, the weight is biased to one side or the tow point isn't straight.

That's the hard thing I guess, trying to find out the cause. I will investigate further. Thanks for the input Brandon.

[Brandon Khoo]

I would encourage you to persevere - you will get there!

[Ross Smith]

I agree with Brandon, every creative genius failed many times before finally achieving success, keep at it Joshua you will get there.

cheers Ross

[Brandon Khoo]

I have seen many anglers make lures successfully for GTs. Fullscale originally started this way before becoming a lure manufacture before it was ultimately sold