Making sof lures

[Ken L]

Before coming away, I had some thoughts about swimbaits for pike in my local lakes and recent attepts to catch the bigger barra fro the beach have reinforced those ideas.

What I want is a 7 or 8" swimbait with a paddle tail that runs just under the surface and is wired through. Unfortunatly, a check through the online catalogues indicates that none are available.

 

It looks like the only option is going to be to homebrew some baits. To do what I want, they'll either have to be hybrid lures with a hard body and the tail of a large shad lure stuck to the back end or hand poured swim baits with by owh prefered wirework, towpoints and weighting.

 

Does anyone have any tips for doing this ?

 

Specifically:

 

1. What's the best way of attaching shad tails to a hard lure body ? Are there glues available that will do this ?

 

2. Is soft rubber compound available in the UK (or do I just melt down the cheapest shads I can find ?) and are there any pitfalls to avoud when pouring your own baits ?

[jamie dimery-seek]

Before coming away, I had some thoughts about swimbaits for pike in my local lakes and recent attepts to catch the bigger barra fro the beach have reinforced those ideas.

What I want is a 7 or 8" swimbait with a paddle tail that runs just under the surface and is wired through. Unfortunatly, a check through the online catalogues indicates that none are available.

 

It looks like the only option is going to be to homebrew some baits. To do what I want, they'll either have to be hybrid lures with a hard body and the tail of a large shad lure stuck to the back end or hand poured swim baits with by owh prefered wirework, towpoints and weighting.

 

Does anyone have any tips for doing this ?

 

Specifically:

 

1. What's the best way of attaching shad tails to a hard lure body ? Are there glues available that will do this ?

 

2. Is soft rubber compound available in the UK (or do I just melt down the cheapest shads I can find ?) and are there any pitfalls to avoud when pouring your own baits ?

 

 

Hi Ken,these sites maybe of help to you

 

pouring softbaits

 

Materials

 

not uk im afraid,but a fair few chaps use them.

 

Think i heard somewhere that it maybe cheaper to use old shads if you are only making the odd one or two.......but dont quote me on it

[Tim Kelly]

There are quite a few swimbaits which run on or just under the surface. Bass anglers in the southern USA and Japan use them a lot, especially on stocked trout lakes. Huddleston make swimbaits ranging from full floating to various degrees of sinking, though they are pricey. Castaic make baits in two sink rates, even Andy's baits at the Lure Shack are available in slow or fast sinking versions.

 

It's fun making your own soft plastic baits, but once you get into importing plastisol from the states, along with the various coloured dyes and glitters, not to mention mold making you will be into a lot of time and money for any satisfactory results. In fact it actually makes Ken Huddleston's baits look like a bargain!

[Ken L]

Thanks Tim. Some names that I'd not heared of there and I'll have to do some looking when I get back.

I'd already looked at the castiac and Optima baits but the ones I found were silly money and far to heavy for what i want to do.

The glue mentioned in one of Jamie's links looks like it could come in very handy. I'll have to look into that for both building baits and for bankside repairs.

 

All I'm looking for is to be able to imitate the mullet and needlefish as they swim slowly just under the surface. Sick roach often do the same thing so any baits I make will be well tested on a couple of shallow weedy lakes before I bring them back out for the Barra.

[Tim Kelly]

Storm do a suspending wildeye that's about 7" long and cheap as chips. Any superglue will attach soft plastic to a hard lure body very securely. If you're making your own lures putting a corkscrew or spike of wire in the lure body where you want to mount the soft plastic tail would make it a real belt and braces job.

There are soooo many hard bodied/soft plastic tailed swimbaits out there at the moment ranging from about 4" to 12" which are mainly designed to run on or just under the surface at the moment. Have a look at TackleTour.com for a small taster.

[Ken L]

Storm do a suspending wildeye that's about 7" long and cheap as chips.

 

They do but the build quality is rubbish. The hooks are way to light, the slitrings open like paperclips and even after uprating the hardware, I've had the belly hook ripped out of these lures on no less than five occasions ! - and really hate leaving hooks in fish....

Not only that but they don't even come close to suspending (they sink - even in saltwater and when fishing without a wire leader) and they still run to deep for what I want.

 

What I really want is for the guys making those almost indestructable sandeels (I think the company was UK based and called "fishteck" or something like that) to make some proper wired through suspending Sandeel/needlefish and mullet/roach immitations and then I'd be a happy boy because they might stand up to a chomping from old Essox a bit better than standard softbaits as well as seeing me right for the tropics.

[Tim Kelly]

Fishteck make 6" and 9" shads from memory, so it would be a doddle to rig one up. The plastic they use is buoyant too, so you can easily control the sink rate.

 

If you have trouble with the hooks ripping out of the storm shads either remove the belly hook altogether or put an external bit of trace wire from the hook tie to the split ring of the belly hook as insurance against it being ripped out and the fish lost.

[Ken L]

Just checked the site and they do make a swimbait. Just one that's 9" long and only available in one colour which is a bit of a bind. It's a bit expensive to - but then again, a 9" lure uses a lot of plastic.

I had a look at their unrigged shads as well and although I really fancy the material, the colours appear to be limited to those not found in nature.

 

Actually, I think I'll drop them a line and see what they have to say.