Fridley Fishing Success With a Homemade Lure

After losing half a dozen lures over the course of a couple days, I was inspired to turn my drill press into a lathe so I could make my own fishing lures. After a few missteps I finally had two turned wooden lures with hooks attached.  To attach the hooks I drilled holes through the lures and used wire.

My first two turned lures

These two lures were mostly proof of concept for the lathe to see if I could get it working, but once they were turned I decided to attach hooks and try my luck with them anyways. I painted them with my son’s model rocket paint, then coated them with leftover polyurethane from when we remodeled the basement.

This morning I took my 5 year old out to go fishing at East Moore Lake to see how they worked. I only had an hour, so I wasn’t expecting too much. Both lures performed admirably. They both made a reasonable splashes when tugged, and both stayed oriented upright so the hooks were facing the right direction. We started on the docks but after 45 minutes of nothing (a few panfish nibbles on Ryan’s waxworms) we moved down to the southern end to make one last try before leaving. After just a couple of casts, this 11 inch northern pike attacked it!

Gotcha!

I’m hopeful that when I go bass fishing they’ll attack it with just as much vigor. If they do, maybe my lure buying days will be over.