F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

Soft plastics aint cheap, most are a £1 or more a pop, and I can lose several in a session, so to try to get the price down a bit I treated myself to a late christmas present, some lure making equipment from Lurefactors.co.uk.
A couple of moulds, a bottle of plastisol and some colours to make my own.



My first attempt was to make a Shad, so I needed a weighted hook, this was made by heating a 2.0 Aberdeen and putting a bend in it.





The copper wire was then wrapped round the hook shank to form the weight



and then soldered.



The hook weight making method was shamelessly pinched from "The handmade fisherman" series of videos by Paul Adams.

Some Plastisol was poured into a Pyrex jug, it looks like milk, and heated in the microwave oven. As you heat it, it starts to thicken and become opaque, when it gets to 170 degrees C it becomes pourable. The best method is to keep taking it out of the Microwave and giving it a stir.
Whilst the Plastisol was heating I set up the mould, first by lubricating it, you can buy the proper mold lubricant, but I just used cooking oil,



it worked fine for me.

With the mould oiled I held the weighted hook in place with a modellers hands free clamp.



When the Plastisol was hot enough I stirred in some colour and poured it in the mould



and left it to set for a couple of minutes, before removing it.



When it had cooled enough I carefully trimmed the excess bits off and stuck on a couple of eye with superglue.





Any leftover Plastisol can be peeled off the jug and saved to be reused.



To be honest, I didn't think I'd get such decent results on my first attempt, next time I'm going to try for multi coloured Shads.

NB; for the safety concious of you out there, whilst dealing with the hot plastic I wore safety glasses and heat resistant gloves, I also kept my arms and torso covered. Having worked on Polyermer making plants I've seen what plastics burns can do.

That was an interesting read mate and I didn't know there were kits out there to make your own
As you can tell I just get by with my poor attempts at fishing but to the experienced fishers I'd imagine it's a therapeutic process and very satisfying to catch fish with something that you've created from scatch

Paul

This is brilliant !!
I wouldn't have the time or patience to do that, but a brilliant idea though.
I think they've turned out really well stray.
So when's the Proof in the pudding ???

Fish, for pudding?????

So when's the Proof in the pudding ???

Around mid April, that's when the water up here usually clears of the green Algae bloom. If we don't get any late storms, I'll probably try a bit earlier.

Fish, for pudding?????

No, late summer Cod for tea.

Interesting thread.
Thanks for posting.
But like others I couldn't be arsed to make my own at this stage of my life.
Just want to tie them on, and cast them in.
When retirement arrives I could happily spend an hour or two making lures as well as tieing some flies for trout and salmon.

When retirement arrives I could happily spend an hour or two making lures as well as tieing some flies for trout and salmon.

Yup, it helps fill the endless hours of not having to work for a living, so does sitting in a boat dangling them over the side on a line.

Im with you Stray.. in that there is nothing quite so satisfying as catching fish on lures you make yourself.

I tie my own version of feather lure loosely based on a Paul Adams U Tube video. I also make my own weights ..using wood with a hole drilled in it as the mold ..just pour in the molten lead.

As for it being time consuming ? Thats just a feeble excuse Kaman ..it takes me longer to drive to the Angling Centre than tie a day's flies and pour a few leads.. but each to their own I guess

Had a play about with the colours;



Up here in my limited experience, the Cod like more translucent lures in the spring and solid coloured lures later on.

They look really good stray you should be chuffed with them!!!!!