Homemade Fishing Lures
Enhance the Rewards of Fishing Using Homemade Fishing Lures
By Jim Loter
A lure is something that tempts and entices and a fishing lure is enticing and tempting to a fish. This description may apply to live baits, but we generally do not mean something live when talking about fishing lures.
We mean something which acts as if it were alive, that appears alive, that creates, for the fish, an illusion.
You might think that since fish have tiny brains, they are easily fooled into thinking a lure is a living, edible thing, but fish are one of the oldest creatures on earth with a past that has sharpened their instincts, their eyes, their ability to detect real from the fake when it comes to food.
They have an innate memory of the way their prey moves through the water, the way it wiggles and squirms and moves its appendages, its natural form and face, its oils, its smell.
To fool a fish with a lure is not as simple as you might think, but yet, with the correct combination of elements, the larger brain of man can create a lure that will not only fool a fish, but spark its appetite.
Many lures for specific kinds of fish can be found for sale, and the most successful have been scientifically designed and tested for optimal results.
Most fisherman have boxes of such lures, each having been purchased at a modest price. Looking at such a collection, you immediately recognize that what attracts a fish is colorful, shaggy, winged, eyed. If you’re the inventive type, maybe you have the intelligence to make a lure yourself. What do you need to know, after all?
You need to realize that not all fish eat the same things, they all have their own favorite foods. If you’re going to make a lure, make it for a specific fish.
Study the fish, its foods, the environment of its foods, and then study the prey itself. Fishing lures are made to look and behave as the prey does. Try to be exact; don’t add another color that isn’t part of the prey just because it fits with the color scheme.
A fish does not eat something out of an aesthetic appreciation. It goes for it because its color matches the color of all the other similar prey it has eaten. Something in the bait alerts the fish that this is not what it is seeking.
Once you know the various preys, their appearance and behaviours, you can create your own lures with materials easily obtained from sports or hardware stores or even from your junk drawer.
You can even make your lures out of such common material as corks, buttons, odourless paints, plastic beads, propellers, rubber shags, and, of course, fishing hooks.
Many fishermen avoid commercial fishing lures altogether. They look at fishing as an intricate art calling for their own intelligence and creativeness, for their own innate hunting skills which, like the fish, has a deep history, perhaps as old as a 100,000 years.
One thing is certain when using fishing lures you’ve created yourself: you’ll feel the maximum joy possible when you get that first bite on a lure you’ve crafted yourself. Somehow, that fish will taste just a little bit better than all the others you’ve caught. Man over nature, with your own lure, it a seasoning like no other, aged a 100,000 years in the heart of man.