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...