One of my hobbies is fly tying; I’d also like to try making crankbaits. It seems like a pretty simple thing to do. I’ve had pretty good luck with jointed shad type lures for bass in the late summer months so I want to try to make some of those kind of crankbaits (carving them out of wood.) Has anyone else tried doing this? What kind of wood do you use? Balsa? Basswood?
Any recommendation for paints to paint them with, that will stand up to (fresh) water?
I notice you can get packs of clear plastic diving bills with metal loops, like the kind on professionally made crankbaits (I’d rather use these than the cheap looking metal lips I’ve seen on other handmade lures.) What is the best method for attaching these? Carving a groove into the head of the lure, then epoxying it in? Or something else?
as for paint, you can use basically any paint that you want - the trick is to seal them well with an epoxy after the fact - there is a company called ‘dicknite’ (i kid you not) that sells good stuff for this. Some people also coat them in 2-ton epoxy available from walmart - its an art for sure.
An excellent resource for information on this is http://www.tackleunderground.com/ - most start with repainting existing lure bodies or buying ready made ‘blanks’ before moving to handcarving - takes lots of practice to get those lips ‘just right’, not to mention the thru-body harnesses and other things that actually make a crankbait ‘work’.
What little I do to crankbaits is in the re-painters category, I do make just about all my own lead based creations (jigs, spinnerbaits, etc) and dabble with tieing, but I mostly bass fish, so I’m tying relatively larger things (craw patterns, etc) for use on spinning and heavier equipment than most ‘flies’.
as for wood - yeah - balsa and basswood seem to be the most common.
I did as a kid. I kind of lost the fishing bug when I discovered girls. Then I moved to the middle of the desert, so fishing is now a rare treat.
Just start carving. I’d use anything I could get my hands on. Mostly just random scrap wood and sticks in the back yard. If you’re feeling particularly randy carve the lip right in. My metal working skills at the time were pretty pathetic, so I’d just use pieces of plastic (soda bottles or whatnot). Maybe a soda can or two.
Paint, whatever I could get my hands on, Testor’s model paints since I had them handy.
My home made lures looked like pure garbage, they were not pretty, but I had fun making them. I did catch some fish on them, not many though.
If its something you want to do, just start messing around with it. If your first 20 crankbaits look like crap, who cares?