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Lure Making and Painting: Part I (Guest Article)
by Ron Buffington

First, you will need to select a wood type. For crank baits, popper’s, or spooks, most lure maker’s use a soft type of wood such as cedar, pine, poplar, etc. For jerk baits, most like to use a harder wood like oak. Each wood has different actions and wobbles as well as floating/sinking characteristics. My best advice is to make a few test lures in different types of wood until you decide which you like the best.

Now that you have selected a wood type you will need to decide how you want your lure body to look. Do you want a flat-sided lure or a round lure? The shape of your lure will also determine what action the lure will have. You can copy your favorite bait or design your own. You will want to make a pattern and the trace it onto your wood of choice. Next, you will need to cut the body out. I use a jig saw, but a scroll saw or band saw will also work. Some people even use a coping saw.

Now that your body is cut out, you need to sketch the shape of the lure on the top and bottom. I have patterns made that I drew on paper and laminated so that my baits will be close to the same every time. What I like to do also, and is very important, is to also draw a center line all the way around the bait. This helps to keep the bait balanced when you are carving and also gives a good center line when installing your screw eyes. It is important to have them as close to center as possible so that the bait can be tuned and runs properly.

Now that your lure body is cut out and you have drawn your body lines top and bottom, you are ready to start carving and sanding. I like to use a bench sander to rough my body shape. Then, if needed, I will carve any other extra wood off with a knife (being careful not take off too much wood). Now my bait is very close so I start off with 50 grit sandpaper and start to smooth the wood - very careful again not to oversand and take too much off of one spot. When I have my lure shaped exactly how I want it, I will go to 100 grit sandpaper to remove any rough marks left by the 50 grit. Then I sand again with 150 grit to get the body real smooth.

The next thing is to decide how deep you want your lure to dive. The more your bill sticks straight out from the bait, the deeper it will dive. If your bill is pointing down more, the shallower it will dive. Also, the length of your lip will determine how deep your lure dives. A long lip dives deeper and a shorter lip will dive shallower. You can find some nice lip patterns at www.tacklemaking.com. For making your lip, you will want to use a type of Plexiglas called Lexan. This can be found at hardware stores and some hobby shops. We use Lexan because it is unbreakable. Plexiglas and other types of clear plastic will not hold up and will break. That is why most lure makers use Lexan exclusively.

Now that you have determined how deep you want your lure to dive and have a lip style picked out, you will need to cut a slit in your bait to glue the lip in. The slit should be at least 3/8” deep in order to keep the lip glued in and strong. I like to trace the angle and depth out on the side of the bait then cut it out with a scroll saw. After the lip is cut out, I will lightly sand the slot just to smooth it and get any burs that might have been made in the cutting process. I then check to make sure my lip fits tightly because you don’t want it too loose. I then set the lip aside as it will be glued in after all painting is done and I am ready to clear coat, which I will get to later.

The lip is now cut and we need to make or buy eyes, hooks, and a line tie. You can use eye screws from your local hardware store, but it is hard to find small ones needed for bass lures. So what I do is go to my local home improvement store and buy stainless steel wire. It is important to use stainless steel so that they don’t rust. I buy mine at Lowes, but I have seen it everywhere - it is easy to find. I use Hillman brand and it comes in a yellow package and even has a cutter on the box. I prefer the 20 gauge size for bass lures, but for bigger fish you might want to use a bigger size. To make the screw eye I take a small nail and cut a length of the wire about 2 ½” long. I then bend the wire in half over the nail and take a pair of pliers and twist the wire so that it is like a screw. Pull it off the end of the nail and you now have a screw eye. Trim the end off leaving the eye and tail about 1 ½” long.

Now you will need to drill your holes for the screw eyes to be glued in. I use a drill bit just a little bigger than the wire itself, but not too loose. I like it to be snug, but not too tight as to wipe off all of the epoxy when gluing the eye in. Now that the holes are drilled, you will glue the eyes in the lure. I use Devcon 5 Minute epoxy for this which can be purchased at Wal-mart for about 2 dollars a tube. I mix the epoxy and force a little down the drilled hole then apply a little to the screw eye and insert it into the hole and repeat the process until all eyes are glued in. Then I wipe the excess epoxy off the bait and let it dry for at least an hour or two. If you are going to add weight to your bait this is also the time to do so. You will want to determine the amount of weight you want and drill a hole just behind the screw eye on the belly. Insert the lead and patch with a wood filler and sand smooth so that when you finish the bait there is no uneven marks or holes that can be seen.

Now that you have a final body shape and a lip slot cut and your screw eyes glued in, you will need to seal the wood to keep it from drawing water and cracking. If any water at all gets to your wood it will be ruined. The sealer I like to use is called clear acrylic sealer made by Plaid and can be bought at Wal-mart or any craft store and is pretty cheap. I think I paid around 3 or 4 dollars for the can. I spray on the sealer and make sure I coat both sides good and get it in the lip slot, then let it dry for and hour or so. You may need to lightly sand with 150 grit paper in a spot or two if the wood grain raised any from the sealer. I then reapply a second coat and let dry. I like 2 coats so that I make sure the bait is sealed good.

Okay, you're doing good! Now you have your bait cut and shaped, and it has screw eye’s glued in, and the bait is sealed. Now you are ready to prime your bait. This gives it added protection from water and also gives a good base for your paint. I like to use Krylon primer in a spray can. You need to use white and only white. This is so your paint will cover properly. Any other colors will be hard to cover with your paint. I also only use spray cans for this because brushed on paints will leave little brush marks and I don’t like that. I like my baits to look as professional as possible. After the bait has been sprayed with primer I hang it to dry. I prefer to let it dry overnight.

In Part II, I will cover painting and all the supplies needed to do this. I will take pictures so that the process is easy to understand. I will also cover clear coating the lure and gluing in the diving lip.