Month: March 2008

Biting Off More Than He Could Chew

One afternoon last year on Lake Sonoma, I was quietly casting when I heard some splashing behind me, so I went over to see what it was all about. As you can see in the pictures below, what I found was this fish floating and twitching on the surface – a bass literally dying on the surface with a bluegill completely wedged in its mouth. I pulled the joined pair out of the water. Both were very pale from lack of oxygen, so I separated them quickly and let them both swim off. It’s one of those things I could hardly believe even though I was seeing it. Now, I have caught a lot of fish with small fish half digested in their throat before – even to the point of still hanging out of their mouth. But never quite like this.

Now it really makes me wonder every time I catch a 2 to 3 pounder on a Hudd or any other big bait – how often does a little fish like this bite off more than he can chew, and we never know?

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How to Make Your Own Big Topwater Plug Bass Lure

As promised: here is a ‘how-to’ on wooden plug making. The process is pretty easy, and it can be rewarding catching fish on a bait you have made yourself.

I’ll start by talking about materials, wood types, and tools needed. I prefer to use a few types of wood for my baits: cedar, poplar, basswood, pine, and balsa. These are all soft, highly buoyant woods that are great for top water plugs. E-bay is a great source for pieces of wood without ever leaving home.

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First and foremost you will need a lathe to start off your lure, or a round piece of wood such as a pine dowel. These can be purchased at just about any hardware store. Here is a link to Harbor Freight. They sell a lathe-6” sander combo for only $100. The quality won’t be the best in the world, but if you consider that most plugs sell from $20-$50, it will pay for itself pretty quickly.
Harbor Freight Lathe/Sander
You can also buy premade plugs such as these:
Plugs

Shaping above and beyond this is totally up to the lure maker-the possibilities are endless. This is the point at which you will want decide what you will be using for a tail. Just open up any one of your worm boxes and the ideas will start flowing. I am using a large fluke-style tail on mine. This will determine the closing tail size and shape of your bait.

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Some tools to help shape your lure further are a 6” electric sander, various files, 80 grit sandpaper (you will be surprised how fast these materials work down), and maybe an Exacto blade or wood carving set for detail. I usually finish sand with about 150 grit and then work down to 400.

As far as hardware supplies for your lures, here are few choices:

  • Jann’s NetCraft
  • LureCraft
  • Stamina, Inc

    You will need hooks, hook eyes, paint, clear-coat or epoxy coat, eyes, some sort of a tail (worm or small swimbait).

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    I have made a jointed bait here, but you can also make single-piece topwater plugs. If you choose to make a jointed bait here is a simple method. Choose your joint area and mark a 30 to 45 degree V to be cut. This can be done on a band saw or by hand using a small miter box. I used a marker here so you could see it well in the photo; however you will not want to do this as it will bleed through the final paint. Once you have cut the V you will need to cut a receiving slot for your eye hook. Make this with the band saw or by hand again. Drill a small hole and insert a pin. The pin should be made out of a stainless piece of rod so it will not rust. Remember to drill the hole just a tad smaller than the rod so it can be hammered in tight. You can also use a galvanized nail for this pin.

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    Next, decide if you want to add a lip or not. Adding one will give the bait more wobble. If you choose not to it will make for more of darting bait. Lips can be purchased at some of the above mentioned sites or cut out of a small piece of plastic from the hardware store or hobby shop. Cut a slot for it and epoxy or super glue it in place.

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    The eye hooks can be put in now or after paint. I usually prime my baits with an automotive primer. You can get this in a small can at a local automotive store, or DupliColor makes some good spray can products. The above lure suppliers will also sell various paints. The baits can be spray painted, hand painted, or airbrushed – whatever you have available to you. The possibilities are endless here. Once you are done, add some clear paint or epoxy to seal the deal and you’re ready for hooks and some topwater action. I will do a post on the steps of painting a bait next week.
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    Things you will need:

  • lathe and wood stock, dowel, or blank
  • sander
  • files
  • sandpaper
  • paint
  • hook eyes
  • stainless rod or nail
  • eyes
  • plastic for lip
  • tail

    • Clear lake Swibait testing

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    So after a couple days of fishing Clear Lake I have got a small list of final adjustments to be made to the new swimbait. Unfortunately the Swimbait bite on Clear Lake is still slow, to say the least. Two days, two small fish. The bait is working great though, a good slow steady horizontal fall on the slow sinker and great turning action on the floater as well as the sinker. I am just trying to figure out my final color schemes. I am leaning towards ayu, hitch, silver shad and trout.

    AnglerTech: YouTube for Anglers

    When ESPN and the Outdoor channel let you down, and you are jonesing for your bass fix, check out the offerings online on YouTube – I was surprised at how much there was up for the bass aficionado.

    The beauty of YouTube is not just the stolen clips from commercial TV, but also the classic clips you can’t track down anywhere else outside of a rummage sale, but even more importantly the fact that anyone, anywhere with the barest minimum of video equipment can effectively have their own broadcast channel.

    So who’s using it? Pros. Guides. Bait companies showing off their latest tests. Bass fishermen of all stripes and regular guy anglers who just want to share their video from their local lake with their buddies.

    Try these searches for a start:
    Underwater Bass Fishing
    Swimbait
    Bill Dance

    and especially this one. It doesn’t get any better than that.

    You can also try searching the name of your local lake, your favorite pro, or tournament series, and you are almost guaranteed to get results.

    The best part about it is that you can make it better by adding to it yourself. It doesn’t take much to make a YouTube video, and it’s free and easy to use. If you do upload your own videos, let us know, and if it’s cool, we’ll post it here, too.

    Sneak Preview – Snack Size Swimbaits Prototype

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    So after months of hard work there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. I am in the final stages of detail mold-making and finish testing on my new 7” three-piece hard swimbait. I am crafting these completely by hand at my shop in Novato, CA. There will be two types of floating wake baits as well as a sinking model. These things have incredible action. I will be going to Clear Lake this weekend to do some more testing. I’ll let you know how it goes.

    If things keep going well they will be available in a couple months.

    Basic Boat Repair – Part two: Fixing Minor Dings and chips

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    Now that your flake coat is in and set up, it is time to do the finish coat. For this step you will need an ultra-clear finish resin – surfboard resin will work great.

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    Step 3:
    Start by taping off around the area to create a finish border. At this stage the resin will do one of two things depending on where the chip is located. More often than not it will be on the side or bottom of your boat, you may need so several coats with set time in between to achieve the right thickness without ending up with a drippy mess. Be sure to let a this set over night.

    Depending on the overall shape of your boat you can choose to stop here, or keep going to achieve a perfect finish. . . since the boat I dinged is my new 2008 Champion I will continue.

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    Step 4 – Wet sanding:
    At least 2 different grits of sand paper are needed here. I would recommend going a step further and using 3. Start with 600 grit black Emery cloth, moving to 1200 or 1500, and then finally 2000 or higher. The higher # the paper you use for the final steps the less work the polishing will be.

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    Small sanding block: What is a block? Most of you have seen the rubber sandpaper block at the hard ware store. This is what I am referring to, but it is also a term for leveling a surface in the automotive trade. Blocking is what is done when sanding paint or Bondo during body and paint work.

    If you don’t have a small store-bought block, you can use a small, perfectly flat piece of wood, an eraser, or what I do is cannibalize one of my automotive blocks into a smaller version(see picture).

    As you get started you will see the purpose of using the block is that it focuses on taking down the high spots with out making serious contact with the low spots. By the time you reach the low spots you should shift over to the finer sandpapers and level the whole area out smooth. This is called feathering. Once the area is feathered out and you have achieved a nice smooth finish across the area you are ready for buffing (If you still have low spots you go back to the drawing board with the resin build up – more often than not I do this at least once – what’s the point in doing something if you can’t do it again right?).

    Onward:

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    Step 5 – Polishing/buffing:
    This can be done by hand or with the help of a buffing wheel. These can be picked up relatively cheap at the hardware store. I recommend a light sheep’s wool or a foam type wheel. Choose a finish-grade buffing compound that can be found at any automotive or marine shop. Every buffing compound will have slight variances in the usage, so read the bottle before using.

    For small projects, you can also use a pneumatic 90 degree grinder as well (see picture).

    Make sure you cover your boat carpet before doing this, as buffing compound gets everywhere and it will save you time with the vacuum cleaner.

    There you have it, I know this isn’t for everyone, but at the very least it will give an understanding of how it’s done.

    AnglerTech: NetVibes, RSS Feeders & You

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    Note: AnglerTech is a feature that will highlight technology assets for anglers, and will feature guest bloggers on subjects of their expertise.

    How to use virtual desktops to take all the best parts of the web with you, wherever you login.

    Net who? R what? It seems to be modern technology’s way to give everything a cryptic acronym, but really these are simple, easy to use technologies that are super helpful to people who tend to be on the road a lot. Like, say, anglers.

    So what is it? NetVibes is a website that lets you customize a webpage, using easy, drag-and-drop modules to make up a super personalized virtual web desktop. One of the main components of NetVibes is that it is an RSS Feed Aggregator. RSS (short for “Real Simple Syndication”), is a way to get headlines from your favorite news websites or blogs all in one place.

    NetVibes is only one of several virtual desktops, but I really like how easy it is to use, and some of the other components (called “widgets”) that you can add to your page. Widgets range from weather reports you can customize by city, to to-do lists, web searches or more specialized services, like eBay keyword searches.

    Why is this so helpful to anglers? Well, knowing that you can read your favorite BassMaster headlines, see all of your favorite web bookmarks, or find a weather forecast for the lake you are heading to next from on the road – whether on a laptop, or at a hotel or cafe PC – adds a little touch of the modern home on the road.

    This, like a lot of things on the web, is easier to understand when you see it, which is why I have set up a shared NetVibes page you can all log into and play with. If you like what you see, then you can set up your own account.

    Check it out:
    Go to www.netvibes.com, look for the ‘sign in’ link at the upper right
    Login: bassorific@gmail.com
    Password: wiredangler

    Feel free to mess around, add feeds, share links, etc. I’ll pop in there from time to time and make sure that havoc has not broken completely loose.

    Some special features to pay attention to:
    To add new feeds or widgets, click on the “add content” link on the upper right.
    To rearrange content on the page, mouse over any module, and you can drag and drop it anywhere on the page you want
    A whole new page can be added at the top by clicking on the grey text that reads “New Tab”

    I encourage you to add your favorite websites to the bookmarks, leave notes for fellow visitors, or add RSS feeds you may know about. Have fun.

    -A. Black