Season's Greetings

Happy Christmas to all,


I hope you are enjoying this time with your family's...


I managed to get out with my father on Christmas Eve for a spot of bottom fishing, it is not often our work schedules allow us to get out fishing together so it was a great day on the water.


Next year is looking even better for RAL as more lures are put through testing to ensure I have a quality product.


Enjoy the Holidays and all the best for 2012 from RAL!

Sup bro...Check this out.

Nomad NZ HQ checked in today, it seems they have been having some insane fishing. 


Ben also had some feedback on one of the stick baits I made for swimming singles, Ben had mentioned he liked the lure earlier and was putting it through its paces...It is really great to have a Charter Capt' thrash the lures, it has shown a few improvements that can be further made to the lure but overall it's swimming great and catching fish.


I will be making some tweaks and trying some new cosmetic changes to the lure then sending some more back out to be tested again...In the end it will be a great lure, good things take time is what I keep telling myself and lessons learnt can be applied later on as the range of lures grow. 


Some of the changes will halt progress I am making with other lures until I hear how certain components and products perform in real world conditions.


Here's some photo's courtesy of Nomad Sportfishing NZ.

Great to see the bait swimming single's well! Nice fish!

Schools of Kahawai, YTK candy!

Ben putting these guys onto some more fish! 

Fat fish, Big smile = Wicked!

This way to the fish! 

Diving Baits

I thought it would be good to give those interested an insight into what goes into making a stick bait. Not all stick baits are the same and this is my take on one style of lure. These will be diving baits, they sit at 90 degrees to the water surface at rest with some practise and well timed rod work they swim with a diving, bubbling erratic action. They are what I would call a "finesse" bait, you do need co-ordination and favourable sea conditions to get the most out of these lures, but when you get it right....They are fish magnets! 

200mm Blanks

When finished these will be 200mm/95g baits. They start out as blanks cut from a clear straight grained piece of wood, wood species varies depending on the intended action of the lure. Good quality, well seasoned and a reliable source of wood should see baits that swim with a close action, they won't be identical as they are wood but that's what makes wooden lures great, every now and then you get one that is just "different".

The blanks are marked out using a template, they are also already drilled to accept the through-wire later on. The template is a shape I have tested and what I think looks good to the eye, no real science to it. 

Next stop.... The bandsaw.

Now I have an idea of the baits shape we can go to the bandsaw. This is a quick way for me to reduce the blank to a starting point for carving. Once cut I then can mark out other important features like belly swivel holes etc... I do this after the blank as I have found it to be more accurate. 

Ready for shaping.

With a shape to work to I can start carving/shaping the lure blank. I have adapted a tool to suit my purpose, the angled blade helps shear the timber as it's cut improving the finish. I have yet to spoil myself with a purpose built carving/whittling knife but I will one day. The chisel/knife has got to be sharp and I mean razor sharp. 

Ready for sanding.

The key here is keeping it symmetrical, sure it's not going to be machine perfect but your eye is a very good tool and is very accurate, getting your hands to do what the eyes see is another thing all together! 

I have been toying with the idea of making a machine that will produce these shapes for me, multiple axis and funny shapes it should be a fun/weird machine. Carving lures is great but my hands cramp after carving / sanding many lures. I have yet to start building this contraption but I have some ideas in my head that could work.... It could be safer that I carve them!

I will try and follow these lures through the process as I work on them, there is a lot to go yet! 

Update

With the weather being unkind and stopping what chances I have had to get out to the local inshore reef, I have been preparing blanks and testing patterns. The silly season is well upon us now and time is in short supply but I will do my best to keep you all updated. 


There has been a large amount of interest in "light" tackle lures, so I have been concentrating on the BOMBER Jr. It's big brother has been fishing well of late with many reports of "reefings" coming in from GT anglers, so it makes perfect sense to down size the lure.


I am also aiming to have a small supply of stick baits ready for next year, these are extremely time consuming with each blank being hand carved so I won't have a large amount for sale. It will need a name so I will be hitting the forums for ideas also. 

BOMBER Jr. Test samples

Grey Day

With a small break in the weather I took the chance to head down to my local marina entrance channel, yesterday saw white caps rolling in with very strong winds. As the weather and the water starts to warm up this channel attracts all kinds of species of fish.

Marina Entrance

In between the spits of rain I made some casts from the rocky shore, first up I wanted to try a new size "Bomber" popper. I scaled the Bomber down to 90mm/40g and its a great little popper! 

Casts well, pops and still has the sub-surface swim it's bigger brother produces. I now need to spend some time finishing a few and get them out for testing. I will get some photo's up of the popper as I complete some. 

Also took the time to cast the "Cuban". I rigged a solid black 75g Cuban with 2x ST66 3/0 Barb-less trebles this will have the lure suspending with a slow sink to it. A fast sweep and retrieve will keep the lure up popping/splashing on the surface and then swimmer just below the surface.

Hoping to get a chance to head out to the local inshore reef to see if the YTK are out there in numbers yet, may be a while looking at the forecast...

Some finished poppers ready for testing...

Raspberry Nemo

These are from the cedar blanks I turned earlier in the month, I decided to finish these in two differing weights, 50/55g and 70/75g. The 70/75g will be good for when conditions are not ideal as it has a more subsurface action diving below the wind chop creating a nice smoke trail of bubbles. The lighter 50/55g popper has a nice walk and splash, with some well timed rod work it will also go subsurface with a great trail of bubbles.

Built tough

These are a smaller lure but they are still built tough, the same Stainless Steel wire that is used for the larger poppers and stick baits has been used in these smaller poppers. They are 145mm long and have a 25mm cupped face. I decided to lock the front tow point eye with a wrap as you can see in the photo for ultimate strength.

A NT 5/0 swivel has been used in the belly, this gives the angler 540kg of confidence in their swivel connection, fully through wired and locked up with a double wrap. I also pre-tension the wire to lessen the affect of the wire stretching from skull dragging big fish. 

"Nekid Cuban"

The grain and colour on some of the pieces of Cedar is too nice to hide, the popper looks like a Cuban cigar in colour and shape, ready to smoke some fish! 

I will be testing these myself over the coming weeks, I have also sent off some to be inspected, critiqued and fished by Charter Captain Ben Pokaia from NOMAD NZ .

Ben's input and honesty is helping shape some great lures, nothing beats experience and time on the water! 

Test bait feedback

Just heard from our friends at Nomad Sport Fishing NZ about the test bait. The bait swims real good so I will making this model in the future. Currently preparing blanks for shaping.


Rigged with SJ41's / SJ51's size 11/0 and a 8/0 or 9/0 Jobu in a "Baker" rig setup see's the lure swimming nicely with fish crawling over it! 

Behind the scenes

The not so glamorous side of lure making...Marking out blanks.


This is a rather robotic, repetitive task but it needs to be done. After marking out they need to be drilled and made ready for the lathe. I hand turn each of these lures so there is a little variation but accurate marking out of blanks limits the variation also. 


These are some cedar blanks, this wood is beautiful plus it has a nice sweet smell that fills the shop. Each of these will be made into a hybrid popper/stick bait lure targeted at Yellowtail Kingfish. 

The cedar is extremely stable and makes a great lure, I find the occasional piece with something different i.e. figured grain, different colours etc and I set these aside, these pieces I will not paint and leave the lure with a natural finish.

I find using wood for lures much more appealing than plastic or resins etc... There is something about using mother nature to fool mother nature.

Test Bait

I just took the Single Bait for a swim at a local estuary... Its blowin' a gusty westerly here so there was some wind chop on the water which was great, pond like conditions aren't ideal for testing...

So I rigged up the lure with a couple of SJ41's on the belly and a JOBU on the rear, decided to attach the leader via NT 1/0 and a split...

Quick check on the lures static position, it was sitting around 50-60 degrees ( could go slightly larger on the belly hooks ) ... First up simple retrieve, rod tip down, no rod work and a steady wind... Success it swims with no input, once the lure starts weaving and hunting the large single hook on the rear really starts to wag and add to the action... No roll out, but plenty of flash from the aluminium finish.

Tried some "sweeping" retrieves imparting some rod work on the lure, has a nice slide that is unpredictable on the end of the sweep...

That's enough for now, it needs to be tested in anger and cast at some fish... Will be sending it out to Nomad NZ HQ tomorrow. 

Putting ideas onto wood

Over the coming weeks I will be putting a few new ideas onto wood, these new lures will mostly be pencils and stick baits. There is a new popper I would like to try out also for those casting at GT's but this may have to wait until current customers lures are finished.


I will post details and images of the lures as they evolve from a simple idea into a working lure. I have a few new species of wood to try out with some great characteristics to each species.


Sam.

Yet to have a name for this bait but it is ready for testing....


95g and 200mm long it has been designed to swim single hooks ( Baker Rig ). With the ever increasing effort from anglers for fish conservation this is a step in the right direction...

Aluminium foil finish for some added flash.

Welcome to Reel Appeal Lures

Welcome and thank you for visiting RAL,


Over time I will add to the site to give anglers an "inside look" into the small world of my handcrafted lures.


If you would like to contact me you can via - reelappeallures@xtra.co.nz