Homemade Jerk Bait

[wa1115]

Not posted for a while due to work commitments and a lack of fishing opportunities, but I have decided to give making wooden jerk bait's a go, so this is my first attempt.
I sourced some tulip wood for my lures as its soft enough to work with, I have never done any kind of woodwork before and had no tools, so I was given some from my grandma out of my granddad's shed as he recently passed and they wasn't getting used (Thanks Grandad!)

First I found some plans off of the interweb printed them off and got to work making some blanks.
I decided on some lead for weight and drilled the holes shoved it in and then coved the holes with wood filler and sanded down. I have used screw eyes from Lure Factors and used epoxy to seal them in tight.

I have ordered some Createx airbrush paint as I have also been given a setup for airbrushing but as the Createx isn't due until Wednesday I used a good old spray cans for the paint on this one.

Thinking outside the box as I only had white and grey I decided on a novel approach for a bit of colour, finished off with a couple of layers of epoxy to harden it off and give a shine I present the 'Pike Avenger' 40g Jerk Bait

I have just primed 4 more ready for the Arrival of my airbrush paint on Wednesday, will put some pics up (probably weekend) when completed.

 

[terry m]

They look very impressive, I like the subdued colours.

Will be interesting to understand the action once they are fully kitted with hooks and split rings.

 

[wa1115]

Cheers, I did have a little test and it jerks as expected side to side action around 2ft under the surface, the other 4 I have ready for spraying are slightly heavier and have a slow sink so hopefully a foot or 2 deeper, I expect them to do well in spring or early on a summer morning (fingers crossed)
Not sure what size split ring or hooks to use? The Jerk is 12cm.

 

[terry m]

Would advise erring on the large size for split rings to ensure that the hooks do not get hung up. I would start at 10mm then reduce to 8mm if you feel the need.

I often hear people saying that they want to reduce hook sizes on lures as the OEM's use large hooks. I am of the opposite view. having seen how quickly pike spit non natural lures - including rubbers - I would be trying to ensure that the first chomp gets hooked up. My advice would be to use a similar hook size as you would find on a shop bought lure of similar dimensions. The difficulty is that actual hook dimensions - especially in larger sizes - can vary greatly between manufacturers. So measure dimensions required rather than following a nominal size.

 

[wa1115]

Well the airbrush didn't quite go to plan, so on further searching of the internet I stumbled upon photo finishing. Therefore I have decided that this is much easier and have 3 ready for the back and belly painting (with a normal brush) and the acrylics I ordered (I will find a use for them) once done I will seal with epoxy and hopefully land a pike or 2.

 

[steve2]

I have recently put size 1/0 and 2/0 hooks on lures that look about the same sizes as yours attached to 10mm split rings.

 

[Wilko]

They're not bad at all mate, what did you finish them with and how did you secure the eyes?
I've had a long lay off too and have started making my own.