Lure Making Blog

If you are a lure maker and painter of wooden or plastic body lures you probably already know that painting stencils can be one of the most useful painting tools in your bag of lure painting skills.

If you have attempted to make you own lure stencils you also already know it can be a daunting task. It can be extremely difficult to make form fitting stencils that fit snugly to your lure for those clean painting lines.

I have found a source of custom made lure stencils that will fit many of the most popular lure bodies like a glove.

You get a left and right side custom formed stencil ready for you to cut the traditional patterns or you can create your own fish attracting paint patterns.

These lure stencils are affordable, fit the lure bodies snugly, and will help make you a better lure painter.

                    Link to Lure Making Stencils

Good fishing,

Kermett Adams

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At Grand Dad's Lures, they handcraft only the highest quality top water lures right here in USA. Located in Glen Saint Mary, FL they have ties in both the North and the South.They are very proud to be one of the few remaining American Lure Makers. They started this business with the vision to handcraft and reintroduce the lures of our forefathers, using today's technology. GrandDad's Lures provides a high quality product, a bait you can pass down.

       Take a look at his beautiful handmade wooden lures;

                                   Grand Dad's Lures.

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I have found another great Abranet sanding product since I first mentioned my discovery of the Abranet sanding strips.

I use a 5 inch disc sander to make the angled face on popper lures. Until recently I had been using a 120 grit conventional sandpaper disc on the disc sander. As with other uses of sandpaper I had the problem of the grit in the sandpaper loading up after sanding only a few popper faces. Even with frequent cleaning with a small wire brush the sanding disc was short lived at best. After I saw how great the Abranet sanding strips were for sanding lures in the lathe I bought some of the 5 inch Abranet sanding discs to try on the disc sander.

Once I received the sanding discs I discovered that they have a hook and loop type attachment and there was no adhesive backing to attach it to the metal face of my 5 inch disc sander. I contacted the site where I purchased the Abranet sanding grip discs and learned that they have a Conversion Pad made just for this.

The conversion pad has the adhesive backing to attach to the sander and the Abranet sanding disc attaches to the Conversion Pad. The Mirka Abranet 5 inch Mesh Grip Disc 100G, Qty. 10 is what I purchased at this Mirka site link;

 9A-232-1000-10, Mirka Abranet 5 in. Mesh Grip Disc 10 for only $10.95

The Mirka Conversion Pad - PSA to Grip, 5 inch, Qty 1 is what I purchased at this Mirka site link; 1105, Mirka Conversion Pad - PSA to Grip, 5, Qty 1

 You can purchase just 1 conversion pad for as little as $2.73

This Abranet sanding product is self cleaning just like the sanding strips. So far I still have the first Abranet disc I installed on my sander and after making many poppers faces with it there is no sign of wear or buildup. If you still have not tried your hand at making popper fishing lures here is a link a video I made showing how I make them;How to Make Mouth in Wooden Popper Lures

Here you can look at the rotary burr cutting tool I use to cut the popper mouths; Lure Making Parts,Kits,&Tools

Good fishing this spring,

Kermett Adams
Lure Making Parts

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Pro Lures Online is Your Complete Source For Fishing Lures and Thousands of Lure Making Parts

Pro Lures Online is America's 1 choice for top of the line,tournament grade,American made custom lures and is now open for business.

At Pro Lures Online they pride themselves in offering high quality tournament grade fishing lures. Their vision is to be the first choice of anglers when they realize the need for outstanding Spinnerbaits, Jigs, Buzzbaits, Crankbaits and other top of the line fishing supplies. They not only use what they build and sell, they have confidence in it!

Their Mission is to Provide customers with the finest lures possible and to build a lure exactly to your own specifications.

They carry many hard-to-find items from only the best vendors located throughout the United States, simply not available elsewhere. Tournament anglers will love their selection of top of the line products.

Add to this their commitment to customer satisfaction and our 100% guarantee and you have a winning combination that's hard to beat. They invite you to browse through their site and see their line up of quality lures for yourself.

          ProLuresOnline.com

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In addition to the many both wooden and plastic unpainted lure bodies that LurePartsOnline.com already offers lure makers; there are now 6 great new ones.

                                     Six New Lure Bodies

Paint your own custom colors and save big on these top quality plastic lure blanks. Choose from a variety of popular styles. Once painted, just add hooks and they are ready to fish. These bodies are premium quality and swim true. Sold per each.

6 inch Pencil Popper. Choose from plain plastic or silver plate. Super loud rattle chambers! ($5.50)

5.25 inch Slammie. Very popular topwater lure. Rattles included. ($2.99) 

 5.5 inch Deep Crankbait. Get down deep! Body section measures 3 .25 inch. Scale pattern, gills and recessed eye sockets , clear plastic. ($2.99)

6 inch Minnowbait. These lures are deadly! Why pay retail?? Premium quality and action. Shallow runner. ($2.99)

6 inch Deep Walleye Runner. Great for casting or trolling for walleyes in the deep. Rattles included. ($2.99)

4 .5 inch Jointed Swimbait. Wow , they don't come much nicer than these! Four section bait shows fine detail and tail section is made from softer plastic for unmatched action. Rattles included. ($5.99)

Lure Hardware    and  Hooks  and  Eyes  to finish off the lures.

Thanks and good fishing,

Kermett

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What is the best sandpaper for lure making if I could only pick one?

There are many kinds of sandpapers and brands made for all kinds of uses. In most of the traditional sand papers the material used for abrading the wood is usually garnet.

Grit size refers to the size of the particles of abrading materials embedded in the sand paper. Traditional grit sizes range from what are classified as  Macrogrits and Microgrits.

 Macrogrits range in grit size from extra coarse 24 grit up to a very fine 220 grit. Microgrits range in grit size from a very fine 240 grit to ultra fine 1000 grit.

After trying many of the different grit sizes for sanding wooden lures I came to the conclusion the the 3M Wet/Dry 120 grit was the best one for my use. The one I used for years comes in 9x11 flat sheets. I cut it into 1 inch wide strips to use in sanding. Most of the sanding I do is with the strips and sanding the lure body as it is turning in a lathe.

As good as the traditional sandpaper is; it has two downsides that shortens the usefulness of the sandpaper. The first is that the garnet particles on the paper load up with the wood you are abrading and makes it ineffective. Secondly, the garnet particles will get worn away from the paper making it ineffective.

After many years of using the traditional sandpaper, I will not be using it anymore.

 I recently learned of another sanding material called Abranet sanding material. It is available in strips, sheets, discs, and rolls. Most of the strips and sheets are available in either 8 inch or 5 inch lengths. The rolls come in up to 30 foot rolls and is 2.75 inches wide. The discs are available in 5 inch diameter. It is more like a sanding fabric than sandpaper. The fabric is porous and the abraded wood sifts right through the fabric and there is no buildup of abraded material. To clean it if needed you can simply shake it or blow on it. What I have used so far are the 2.75 inch  wide x 8 inch long strips. I cut the strips into 3 pieces with scissors and use it exactly as I have used traditional sandpaper. Wide ranges of grit sizes are available in Abranet including, 120,180,240,320,400, and 600.

 Abranet sanding strips can be found at a number of places but I got my first product at Rubberchucky.com where they sell kits of the 2.75 inch x 8 strips. The kit has 6 pieces and has the grit sizes listed just above.

Good fishing,

Kermett

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I recently needed to purchase a new mini lathe and I went with one that I had been thinking of for a long time. At a Harbor Freight store I bought a mini lathe made by Central Machinery. It is the 8 X 12 Bench Top Wood Lathe. This lathe is made in China as many of the shop tools are today. This high quality wood lathe is ideal for wooden lure making or many other crafts, hobbies and professional detail on woodworking projects. The 1/3 HP motor allows the wood lathe to reach speeds up to 3,200 RPM for quick and precise work on your projects. This 1/3 HP motor is more power than some other mini lathes that have ¼ HP motors. The variable speed switch allows for speed settings between 750 RPM and 3200 RPM. The lathe includes a #1 Morse taper head and tail stock. This lathe runs smoothly and is actually quieter than the Grizzly lathes I have used. This is a great wood lathe for any hobbyist or lure maker.

The price was great as well. This lathe normally sells for $150 but is on sale now at Harbor Freight for $125.It comes with a free 90 warranty. I bought an additional one year warranty for $25  . If in 14 months the belt breaks or a switch fails I can return the lathe for a brand new lathe at zero cost. A sales person  told me that you can do that process over and over again with this warranty.

Good fishing,

Kermett

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There are several woods that are nice for making wooden lures but one of my favorites is Alaska Yellow Cedar. It is reasonably priced and is available in beautiful, knot free grades. My source of the Alaska Yellow Cedar Spindles is a company by the name of Cedar-4-Sale.

The spindles are called 2 inches x 2 inches square but are in fact 1.5 inches square. They are available in #1 and #2 grades. I have only used the #1 grade. The #2 grade costs a little less and I think has a few knots. The spindles are available for sale in lengths from 12 inches to 48 inches. The minimum quantity of spindles in a single order is 25 spindles.

The Alaska Yellow Cedar is a favorite of many wooden lures makers as it turns beautifully,  sand wells, and takes sealer and paint well. The AYC is reasonably durable wood as compared to some softer woods like bass wood or Eastern Red Cedar.

Good fishing,

Kermett

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 Guess which lure will catch the most and biggest bass. Will the new, undamaged  one in the middle catch more bass than the other two ? How about the beat up one on the far left? How about the one on the far right? It  still looks to  be in pretty good shape.

If you guessed the one on the far left is still just as good as the other two; you are correct. Actually,all three lures in the pics are the same lure. I make this lure and the name of the lure is Sam's Favorite. I gave it that name because my friend Sam loves it and he has caught many, many bass on this small popper style lure. Sam has made thousands of casts with this lure and has caught hundreds of bass with it and many of them over 4 pounds. The only reason I have the lure today is that the bottom hook hanger finally broke and I am replacing it with a new one. I offered to give Sam a new lure to replace the old beat up one but he declined. Sam has learned something that a lot of fishermen don't know. For top water fishing the lure color plays a limited role in your success. It is more about size, shape, sounds, and particularly the action the fisherman imparts to the lure.

Since I am not a bass I can't say with absolute certainty, but my guess is that what a bass sees on the surface above him is a dark object silhouetted against the sky. Further evidence that top water lure color makes little difference is how bass will hit top waters like crazy on dark nights. Go figure!

There is another thing you might want to think about if you think it is the pretty colors that bass are attracted to on top water lures. Take a look at the high percentage of top water lures that are white on the belly; some are yellow. All the beautiful colors on top water lures that we think are important are where? You guessed it, on the top of the lure where no bass ever sees.

I make and paint wooden top water lures and I am much like a lot of other bass fishermen in that we all have our favorite lure color/patterns. The attractive colors I think are more for us fishermen and a hungry bass could care less.They are attracted to the top water lures for reasons other than the pretty colors.

Takeaway? If you have a magic lure that seems to catch bass better than anything you have; don't quit using it just because all the paint is chipped off. Keep casting it just as it is because it is most likely not the pretty color that is attracting those hard hitting strikes.

Good fishing,
Kermett

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