welcome to lure making 101 a simple tutorial series for beginners to lure making
with minimal tools, material and experience.
In today's tutorial we'll make "Poppin Doc", a 60mm balsa popper lure
you may have seen this lure before in fishing monthly magazines if not check them out
www.fishingmonthly.com.au
and for tips and templates visit my web site
MakeWoodenLures.com/fishing-monthly/
now as we've done for all the lures in this series we start by outlining the side profile of our popper
onto a piece of balsa. This is 12 millimeter or half-inch thick balsa
I'm just marking it out with the side profile so I can cut the lure bodies out from the plank
Next I'll slice the poppers apart using a sharp utility knife
and then I'll trim away most the waste being careful not to go right down to the line.
We're going to clean up the blank shortly.
Obviously this is a popper, so the front of the lure is going to be kept nice and square
I'll do that in several cuts to make it nice and clean
Now I'm going to use a square sanding block and flat surface to square up all
the edges and make sure that the lure is the square in cross-section
once I'm done with the convex surfaces I'll start on the concave surface around the
belly of the lure with a curved sanding block
I'm gonna mark a center line down the long sides of the lure just by eye
You can make this out with a marking gauge or some other jig for more accuracy
I find I can get it accurate enough by eye
then I'll lay the template back on the lure blank and mark the location of
the hook hangers and tow point and the weight.
Now it's time to go to work with the battery drill and a three millimeter drill bit.
Drill the holes for the hook hangers and tow point,
which we're going to make in just a moment. Get these nicely centered so everything's
aligned properly to give your popper lure the best action
now to keep our lure properly oriented on the water
I'm gonna add some weight to the belly.
So I'm drilling a hole with a five millimeter Brad point bit
Now we're ready to shape the top profile so we'll put the template back on the
lure and mark out the shape. One of the great things about handmade poppers
is that you can make unusual and complex shapes you can't get
when you turn a popper on a lathe
Trim away the waste in light cuts, get everything reasonably square and we'll
clean things up after this step.
Next I'll mark carving guidelines so I'll start
by putting a centerline along each of the long edges of the lure
and another line halfway between centerline and the edge of the wood
this popper is going to be fairly round in cross-section so you should find all the
lines are fairly symmetrical. Number the sharp utility knife I'll just trim away
the waste between those carving lines
it's better to take off too little wood rather be too much. you can
always take off more a little bit later or refine the shape with sandpaper
Remember to work with the grain and work away from your hands to prevent cutting yourself
Now I'm going to finish the shaping with a little piece of sandpaper
As you sand, check the shape of the lure regularly because it is easy
to remove too much timber and spoil the popper body.
Don't press too hard and use a nice fresh piece of sandpaper to get the best results
I'll use a sanding block to square the front face before I make the popper mouth
To shape the mouth of the popper I'm going to use a bull nose rotary burr
You'll find these at hardware shops and you can get them online if you can't find them locally
Start with a bit angled at 45 degrees unless you get the mouth shaped
Rotate the drill so the burr is moving perpendicular to the lure
This will give you a nice clean, even, smooth face
when it comes to assembly we have three options for our to tow point and hook hangers
Screw eyes, twist eyes or a through wire. Throughout this series we've used twist eyes
And I'm going to continue to use these eyes for this particular lure.
The reason being is the twist eyes are quick and easy to make, they don't require any
special materials you'll find hard to get, and they're strong enough for our purposes.
But if you are planning on fishing this lure on line classes of six kilos (12lb)
or higher I suggest switching to a through wire
here's how to make twist eyes using a three millimeter drill bit to make the initial loop
and a couple pairs of pliers to twist it up make it nice and strong and give the
glue plenty to hold on to
and there it is.
So I'm going to go ahead and glue the twist eyes into the
tail and the belly of the lure. I'm not going to add the tow point just yet because it
makes it difficult to clean out that concave mouth later on if you need to
After you harden the wood you'll probably find there's some resin in there that needs
to be cleaned out with the rotary burr and you can't do that if there's a tow point installed
Whilst I'm assembling the lure I'll also add the ball sinker
Put a little bit of glue over the top of that to fill the hole.
I'll smooth that off later ready for painting
Remember to use 24-hour epoxy for this. it'll give you a much longer lasting result
Next I'm going to harden the balsa. You'll find instructions for doing this on my website.
Basically I've warmed the wood, thinned down some epoxy and I'm
brushing it on so that it soaks into the timber, fills up the grain and goes hard
to make the wood waterproof and tough
All right, time to paint our popper. Now of course, you can go to the
automotive shop pick up some auto touch-up paint or you can go to the art
shop and pick up some acrylic artist paints. They'll be just fine for lure
painting but if you want to do a really professional job the best thing is to
get yourself an airbrush I'm going to use an airbrush to finish this lure off
We're going to paint a very simple pattern on this popper, so I'll start
firstly by giving it a coat of Autoborne white sealer
This is going to be good adhesive base for the subsequent color coats
Next I'll paint some white and then I'll paint the sides and back of the lure in a yellow
Once I'm happy with the yellow I'll go over the top of the back using AutoAir
pearl lime green to give lots of sheen and color
then I'll paint some white spots around the popper lure body to accentuate
the Frog like pattern I'm gonna paint next
Once I'm happy with the white spots I'll put a black spot in the center of each one
This will give me a simple frog pattern that's attractive and the fish love it
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial
Remember, for the templates and tips go to my website
MakeWoodenLures.com/fishing-monthly/
I'll see you there, bye for now!