aurebu

Some times the job isn't to make a new wobbler, but touch up something old. This Rapala X-rap wobbler was found by a friend of mine. It had been caught on a branch on the bottom of a lake, and his line turned out to be stronger than the last guys. The hooks where completely rusted away, and the finish was completely gone. I washed it clean, polished it a little, and sprayed it using various spray paints before adding stick on 3D eyes, and giving it a layer of epoxy. The result wasn't that bad.

Came over a school of roach that size while out trolling for Brown trout in lake "Lofsjön" in Härjedalen in Sweden. They had gathered in a small bay, and where jumping like crazy. My buddies thought that it was trout, but didn't get a single bite. "Look here" I said, put on the smallest wobbler I could find in my tackle, and smack. A 600g roach was on my hook. For about a half an hour we where pulling up roach on every single cast. Some times the lure barely reached the water surface before they where on the hook. we where three in the boat, and Thomas thought that there might be a huge pike near by so he didn't join us on the Roach feast, but we had at least 30 roach a piece when left the bay. A little while later an even bigger roach grabbed my hand made trout wobbler. it was nearly 800g. The biggest I've ever seen. Too bad we didn't get any photo's. As for the trout, we caught two each. we also caught a few nice sized perch.

Everyone else here suggesting ABU reels. I'd suggest s Shimano in stead. Look for one with an aero wrap system that prevents dig in of the line. I've got two Shimano reels that I use regularly. the one is from 1990 (Aero GT 3000), and the other is a newer version (Stradic 1000). Both with the aero wrap system. Neither have ever caused me any problems. Also while working at a sports store for 18 years Shimano only had a fraction of the issues of all the other reel brands together.

Thank you. To be honest I've got a lot to learn yet, and still in the experimentation stage. Each batch of wobblers that I make do get a little better, and there are constantly fewer of them that have to be sorted out of the lot.

The Vanes or spoons are made made of plastic. I import them from Finland. I believe that they are made of the same kind of plastic that I use to coat the wobblers. It is sold as a granulate that I dissolve in Aceton, and then dip the wobblers in it. The Balsa wobblers have up to ten layers of plastic to make them durable enough to withstand strikes from fish, and hitting the bottom.

A small 3,5 cm wobbler. Another Model "Sniper" Color "Arctic Char".

I didn't take your post negatively, and I'm not British either LOL. Born in Joliet, Illinois, and grew up in Norway. The "3D" eyes are usually called that due to there being a small globe of resin over the eye decal. You can also get them with holographic foil. I'm pretty sure that Cabela's gets their "eyes" made in China as most manufacturers do. You can make them your self using regular stick on eyes that you air brush, and then put a glob of epoxy over. It is possible to get some equipment for making wobblers from Jann's Netcraft or Cabelas, but They lack most of the things that I use in my production. That's why I started importing key products and selling them through my webshops in Norway and Sweden. If anyone else is interested in equipment for making wobblers (Non scandinavians), Just ask, and I'll send a price list in the right currency, though it wasn't really my intention to sell stuff using this forum.

Sorry to hear about your loss Budgie.

My two latest. Directly from the dryer.

Here are a couple Photo's from the process of making them. And the absolute final step. Tuning the wobbler to swim properly in the water. Youtube Video ->

That's cheating Though Steps 2, 3 and 4 are the absolute last steps of the process.

The ones on the photo are 5,5 cm long, and weigh about 4-5g I do make smaller ones though that are about 3,5cm I can post some photo's of the smaller ones. I am also working on making a whole series of the 5,5 cm. The blue one is decorated with a photo of a Roach that I caught on Ice fishing, and then manipulated a little to fit the design. Due to the Ice and snow the photo ended up getting kind of blue, so I made it with an entire blue design. The Orange and black one is airbrushed, and I am sure that I can beat Cabela's prices hands down on the 3D eyes as soon as I get them in stock. The Perch is a combination of Air brush and a drawn decal that I found somewhere on the net and toyed a little with on the computer. A short description on how I make them. I start out with a piece of balsa or Abachi wood, and saw out the initial shape. Using a knife I widdle it down to a rough shape of the wobbler, and sand the piece further down to the finished shape. Using a saw I cut a groove for the wire which is bent to shape and wedged in place with small pieces of lead. The groove is then filled with a paste that I make of epoxy and sawdust. That's when I can start decorating the lure. One can use decals, stickers, Airbrush, Paint, foil, or real fish skin. After decorating the lure I cut a groove to fit the spoon in before giving it a final finish with several layers of Epoxy. If i use balsa to make the lure I give the lure several coats of plastic before decorating it as Balsa will not hold up very well against strikes from fish or beating up against the bottom.

I make them completely from scratch. The decoration is a mix of air brush, dacals and photo's that I have taken and manipulated on the computer. Only thing I don't make my self is the spoon. The spoons are a product that I import from Finland, and sell on my web-shop. Resizing the photo's was quite OK.

Anyone in her besides me that make their own wobblers ?? I've added a few photo's of my work, just so you know what I'm talking about. If there is any questions on how, and where to get the materials, just ask.

I'm not quite sure how things work in the UK, but by experience in Norway, and Sweden I've notised that the ground owners are the worst possible keepers of the lakes and rivers. Usually there is set an expensive fishing license to be able to fish in a lake, or river, and then they don't do much to take care of the fishing recourse. well, they might set a bag limit, or not let you take fish under a certain size. After years of studying trout, and char I've found this to be the worst way possible to take care of your lake or river. Instead of a minimum size, and a bag limit, why not try a maximum size, and no bag limit. Trout and Char can have a life span of 6 to 40 years, depending on food supply, and water quality. In a test pond we set a maximum weight just above the averagage size of the fish in the pond. After six years the over populated pond which initially had an average size of trout of 50g and agerage age of max 6 years, now had an average size of fish of 400g, and max age of 7-8 years. There also started to show up fish that where 2-3 kg. The density of fish in the pond did not change. No new fish where added, ond no net fishing was allowed. What also happened was the sediments started to change in the pond. Larger fish rummaging for food stirred up the bottom causing more nurishment to spread in the water, water creatures such as daphnia grew in numbers, the meat color of the fish went from white to red, and all insects grew in size and number. But also the number of hatchlings grew. The first years, the number of spawning fish went down, but then grew in numbers, more eggs where laid. Since there where more larger fish in the pond that had become predators, the number of hatchlings growing to mature size went down. This is an ongoing project that started in 2000. The past two years the average size of fish has gone down a little. this is natural since a gap in the population has occured. This is the fish between 200g, and 500g that there aren't that many of any more. This summer ther was a large amount of fish form newly hatched to about 200g, then a gap up to the size of 500g. and then a lot of fish from 500g and up. this is because we have set a maximum weight of fish to be 500g. However the 200g fish are all 3 year olds that haven't spawned yet, and wont spawn for the first time until they are four or five. I other words, the whole pond is more healthy than before, the fish are eating a bigger variety of prey, growing faster, and bigger, and there are more predators, and more hatchlings. now there are more people fishing in the pond because they now catch bigger fish, and can catch fish that are 2-3 kg though these are released again. What stands to se in the future is how big the population of large fish will get. How the life span of the fish in the pond will grow. when the average side of fish passes 1 kilo the max weight that people can take with them will be set to one kilo My guess is that the average size of fish in the pond will eventually settle at somewhere between 1 and 3 kg.