Homemade Fishing Lures

[maxingout]

As we sailed up the Red Sea, we constructed a variety of self-made fishing lures to see what we could catch. The lure in this picture consisted of a large hook, aluminum strips cut from diet coke cans, orange yacht braid, and a stainless steel hose clamp to hold the lure together. We caught mainly baracuda and tuna with this not so fancy lure.

What types of lures have you constructed for fishing offshore?

[dana-tenacity]

White garbage cut into strips for Dolphin, or the inside of bungee cord bent double to make a squid like thing.
For tuna a coin with a small hole at opposite poles for line and hook.

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

White garbage cut into strips for Dolphin, or the inside of bungee cord bent double to make a squid like thing.
For tuna a coin with a small hole at opposite poles for line and hook.

Fish eyesight must be extremely poor. If they see silver flashes and approximately the right shape, they try to eat it. I guess it must work well for them, because there are lots of fish in the sea compared with the number of fisherman out there towing lures with hooks trying to fool them.

[cat man do]

Shopping bags



Toothpaste tubes

[Sailndive345]

Strips cut from old t-shirts have worked well for me - looks like a squid going through water...

Sailndive

[Nice N Easy]

Not exactly home made, but the best lure ever for barracuda is a piece of surgical tubing, with hooks imbedded in it.

[maxingout]

Keep the ideas coming. I would love to never purchase another lure.

[barnakiel]

Classified ;-)))

Ours catch anything from the flying fish to tuna. Zero cost.

b.

[Christian Van H]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Classified ;-)))

C'mon Barnakeil! Spill your (fish) guts! What's the lure?

[td1]

The biggest problem I've had with homemade lures is their tendency to spin and twist the line into a tangled mess, even with a swivel attached- how did you prevent that problem, especially with something like that lure in the mouth of the barracuda? Second for colored surgical tube on a hook- I've caught a lot of mackerel on that type of setup.

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by td1

The biggest problem I've had with homemade lures is their tendency to spin and twist the line into a tangled mess, even with a swivel attached- how did you prevent that problem, especially with something like that lure in the mouth of the barracuda? Second for colored surgical tube on a hook- I've caught a lot of mackerel on that type of setup.

I made up long stainless steel leaders with large swivels to prevent problems from spinning.

[hummingway]

I've been trying to find a source of 12 gauge ss wire (not braid) without luck so far. I've been using galvy. Any way ... headed out today with a home made bottom bouncing jig - weight on lower leg an buzzbomb on upper. There was a promisingspot on the charts for rock fish with a good deep drop past a rock out crop. I killed the tenders motor and started to float. Bang ... got the rock out crop. Not far enough past the bouy when I started my drift. Sure wish I was using a home made lure. On the bright side the bottom bouncer survived :-)

It's too complicated for a post but Sidney Girling made his own octopus from rubber gloves. I've got some sitting on the slon table waiting for my attention. Charlie White talks about it in his "How to catch bottom fish" if you can find that. Sidney made his own rods from spirea bushes. He'd cut a branch and age ot for a year. My kind of guy.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Christian Van H

C'mon Barnakeil! Spill your (fish) guts! What's the lure?

Hehe - much fish in the oceans left, no problem, just teasin' ya.

Here:

Mustad saltwater hooks decorated with strips of aluminum-coated plastic (we use wrappers from food, candy etc.). No sinkers.

We will tow a line with 2-5 such lures some 50 yards behind the boat. The lure then looks like a bunch of skimming young flying fish.

;-)
b.

[gettinthere]

aluminum strips cut from coke cans? How do you keep from cutting yourself on the sharp edges?


do you get poor results if you don't use diet coke? "pepsi, no coke"

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by gettinthere

aluminum strips cut from coke cans? How do you keep from cutting yourself on the sharp edges?


do you get poor results if you don't use diet coke? "pepsi, no coke"

You need to be careful when cutting the soft drink cans into strips. Gloves are a good idea making up the coke can lures. Offshore, you don't want to get a cut on your hands. Infections on fingers are bad, and it's hard to work on the boat with cut fingers.

We only used diet coke cans because that's what we drank on board Exit Only.