Thread: Lure Making

Beautiful work! Let me think on it.

Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

Beautiful work! Let me think on it.

Finishing up his natural themed jigs. Done soon. I can do some really cool heavy jigs. Got some excellent larger sized plastic baits to fit right on, too.





Studying trolled jigs. Maybe I can fashion on a feather, set it just so, and make the jig head then wobble it’s way forward. Use the feather materials themselves to create action. Instead of a straight line fashion swim, an odd behavior. A stiffy feathering, of one, two, or three might could resist enough water to then impart some sort of action. A wing perhaps could do that.

Instead of tying similar sized and matched feathers down each side…..maybe feathering down just on one side. Design an obvious issue to it’s travel, then observe whatever that behavior is at 1 mph.

A little more than just a jingling tail. Make them look like easy marks as they go.

Made up some heavies. This is a Freestyle with 1/0 sickle. About three inches long. The head was painted with clear powder paint with gold laser sparkles, and I added a 1/4” Super Pearl 3d eye with epoxy.

I also made some Herring Heads and some Bat jigs in the 1/4 ounce size. I think i’m fishing too shallow in this heat.


I tried to study some more on jigs designed to be trolled. These seem to be mostly fashioned on overly long hook shanks. Bummer. I will need to figure out something. A slight wobble is interesting to me.

Originally Posted by Micanopy

I bet this has great action. Curly tail would work well too

Great read, nice jigs and delicious looking bacon. I haven 't heard of fatguys before... going to go check em out

We took the boat for a ride, no fishing, too hot. Anyways, around and around we went with the wind in our hair. Nice and cool. We also used the TM to spot alligators in the lilly pads. Only spotted one, but he was a good one. Headed out to the middle of the lake at a steady pace. We could see his entire length, which was over 8 feet.




I been reading about trolling, and discovered that they make flies that are designed to be trolled. Who knew?

Eagle Lake, California I think, had a guide that was famous for trolling flies for rainbow trout. Large rainbow trout. His name was Jay Fair, and you can google him and watch videos of him fishing. He is dead now, but someone is selling stuff based on his name. He made flies that are very similar to some jigs I made a few months back. I listened to his commentary and got some ideas for trolling my jigs.

A lady named Carrie Stevens also created flies meant to be trolled. She invented……the Grey Ghost. Caught a huge trout with it and became famous. Field & Stream magazine featured her and she sold many many flies. This started in the 20’s and ran until she died in the 60’s. There is also another famous fly that she is credited with creating.

Each of these tyers imparted an action to the fly. One by design, using wing sets, the other by rod movements. So their flies did not just pull along in a straight line fashion. No straight pull, rather an erratic dodging type of motion. They wanted their flies to be lures.

Here is one I made a while back.







Here is a Jay Fair trolling fly.







I figure to explore some more.









Jay Fair would pull his jig in rhythmic movements with his rod. There is a video showing underwater views of the fly. Well worth seeing. He held the rod, and only used one rod. I like to use 10 rods, so sweeping each back and forth will not work.


Then I stumbled onto the Action Disc. This is a plastic disc that threads on the line ahead of the fly, and generates a chaotic movement which gets imparted onto the fly. I suspect it will create wild movements to my jigs. Make them wiggle dance along, like a lure. Again there are videos showing these things underwater.

Mine arrive Tuesday except we are having a hurricane.


Current forecast has my huge live oaks looking at 70 mph winds. I’m hoping it will veer west and save my trees. Irma did a number on my smaller trees. It sounded like Vietnam- crack pow boom. The last cane Ian was supposed to get us but dodged at the last minute and destroyed the unsuspecting people who were told it was going to miss them. Just never know.

!/4 ounce Herring Heads and Bat Jigs. Can’t see it but they have crinkle finish. Monster Green Slime under silver crinkle. The UV light really shows the finish nicely, but I simply can’t photo the effects. The eyes glow nicely.


Some will be ties, some will get plastics. I use these close in to the boat, and just off the bottom a few feet.