When none of the tried and true are working, whaddaya do? Throw your hands in the air and say, "I quit," or knuckle down and do what a fella I read about online today does: Come up with a homemade lure or two of your own...something none of the fish likely have seen before.
This guy very well may be a one-of-a-kind. After all, how many people do you know who owns a Liz Claiborne lure?
It seems that several years ago, the guy's wife purchased a new purse with a 2-by-2-inch brass "Liz" insignia that was fastened to it by a key chain. Upon seeing that insignia, his devious mind immediately thought: fishing lure! Since it already had one hole in it, 'twas an easy matter to drill another and attach a split ring and a No. 6 treble hook. Voila! A new lure was born.
"Does it work?" you may be asking. How about this: Check out the accompanying photo carefully and decide for yourself.
Like a lot of men, this guy was one to never throw away anything. He subsequently spied the handle of an old silver spoon gathering dust on his workbench. Once again, a light bulb went off in his head, and another lure soon was born.
A friend used a drill press to poke two small holes in the very hard metal, then a split ring was attached, and a No. 6 Daiichi bleeding-bait hook was added. Why red? There are two prevailing schools of thought. The first is that red duplicates the gill flash of a wounded or fleeing baitfish, and this in turn provokes an aggressive response from predatory fish. The second is that red disappears in the water, and that since the fish can't see it, the hooks don't spook them away from the lure.
This do-it-yourselfer believes the first theory. He thinks the fish can see the hooks, and the red color provokes them into striking. As pro walleye angler Mark Martin once stated, "All I know is that I have cashed a lot more checks since I began putting red Daiichi hooks on my Rapalas."
The DIY guy also decided to add red hooks to his "Ol' Liz" lure the next time he used it. At the same time, he further came up with a way to customize an old Road Runner lure that he found laying on his workbench. For the past 10 years or so, he had had great success catching bass on bubblegum pink artificial worms. So he snipped off about four-and-a-half inches of an old, chewed-up pink worm, attached it to the hook of a 1/8-ounce red-headed Road Runner and set forth to try his luck.
With two small ponds located within easy walking distance of his house, which the DIYer likes to think of as his "laboratories," he walked over one early, chilly morning and put his wacky new idea to the test.
Within a very short period, he had landed eight largemouth that literally had destroyed his new lure...so much so that he had to bite off about the first half-inch of the worm and reattach it. Their zeal told him that they liked the look, action, smell, and whatever else of the lure and wanted to eat it, rather than just chase it out of the area.
If any of you other DIYers out there find these ideas appealing, why not try coming up with some homemade lures of your own? Let your imagination be your guide and create something unique. Whatever you do, don't forget to take some pictures as a reminder of your creative talent.
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