So, you've made a few wooden fishing lures, huh?
And hopefully you've caught a few fish on them, right? Great!
Now if you are using a system that enables you to clone your wooden lures, you are in a strong position to tweak your creations until you have a boxful of killer lures that will out-fish anything you can buy in the shops.
Here are my top five tips for supercharging your homemade wooden fishing lures:
Tip #1: Vamp Up The Volume!
Adding some extra sound to your wooden lures is a straight forward thing to do and can greatly improve the ability of fish to find the lure, particularly in the hours of darkness, in strong currents or when the water isn't so clear.
You can make all kinds of rattles to go into your lures if you want, but the easiest way is to purchase pre-made rattles in the form of small glass tubes containing ball bearings. You'll find these in the soft plastic lures section of major fishing stores. Simply drill a hole of an appropriate size into the side of the lure, insert the rattle, fill the hole and paint as normal. Wha-la!
Rattles in wooden lures tend to be deadened a little by the wood, while rattles in hollow plastic lures are louder and sharper. I have a theory that the lower frequency sound made by wooden fishing lures is more natural to fish and gets better results.
Adding rattles sound doesn't work under every circumstance. If you are fishing in small, clear mountain creeks and lakes where fish are shy a rattle may actually cost you fish.
Tip#2: Supercharge The Stickiness!
What's a sticky wooden lure?
Ever pull a lure out of it's box and it's caught in your finger? Then it's caught in your shirt? Then your hat, a bush on the streambank, then back in your shirt? What do you suppose it will do when it's inhaled by a fish?
Choosing the right hooks can make a world of difference. Small, chemically sharpened varieties are great for fish with small bony mouths, larger heavy duty hooks are required to hold tough adversaries.
Match the hooks to the lure for best results, and don't be afraid to think outside the box, even if the result may look a little strange. For example, you may get a better action from your wooden lures by dropping down a hook size at the tail. Maybe you need heavy duty hooks for fishing around snags, but you're worried the weight will spoil the action of the lure? Consider using double hooks or snipping a point of each of your trebles to give you strength without weight. Think carefully about which point you snip off and you won't even notice a difference in hookup rates.
Tip#3: Match The Hatch!
If your target fish feed mainly on shad, don't make a bunch of long, sleek minnow style lures. You want your lures to be similar in size and shape to the shad the fish are eating. It may take a little research to find out the feeding habits of your local fish, plus you'll need to find some drawings or photographs of the baitfish so you can get an idea of shape. Google is a great friend here!
Have a look at the water you'll be fishing as this will give you some clues as to what shape and style of lure to make. Fat little baitfish generally live in slow flowing or stationary water. Long skinny fish are usually the most common bait in faster flowing water. Your wooden lures should match this profile.
Lots of wooden lures are brightly colored to take advantage of aggressive fish behaviour, but if fish are being selective you may want to have some lures in your box that have some similar colors to the baitfish. Don't feel they need to match the baitfish exactly, but if your local food species has a large black spot near it's tail, so should your lures!
Tip#4: Tweak the Trebles
Most wooden lure makers tend to fit their lures out with treble hooks, so have a good look at how they are aligned on your lure. Were you aware that treble hooks can be "left and right handed"? It's true!
Try this: take a couple of treble hooks and hold them so that the eye of one hook is in tight against the point at where the bends in the other hook all meet. Make sure both eyes are vertical. Now hold the two hooks up together and look at where the points are. Then, rotate the rear hook around 180 degrees. What do you notice?
When you attach hooks to your wooden lures you can increase the hookup rates by having the rear hook aligned so that its points travel different lines to the front hooks.
It takes 30 seconds to do, so go through your box now and fix every lure you have!
Tip#5: Boost The Bib
Try temporarily gluing bibs into some of your home made wooden lures using hot glue. I do this all the time because the bibs can usually be removed (without heat) by pushing gently but firmly sideways on them. Yet they stay in place long enough to test and develop the lures.
When I'm developing wooden lures I'll go fishing with a pocket full of pre cut bibs in different shapes and sizes, plus a file, a stick of hot glue and a lighter. Why? I can remove a bib from a test lure, try a different shape, trim one down and reshape it and generally experiment with bibs until I get one or more that give me the desired dive depth, swimming action and balance that works like magic on the fish.
Of course, once I've settled on a bib that works I'll glue it into my lures using something much stronger than hot glue!
So there you have it, five simple tricks that can take your wooden lure making to the next level! Good luck with your lure making, and remember: always keep experimenting. That's how new lures are created!
Dr Greg Vinall has been hand crafting custom fishing lures for decades from both wood and plastic. Why? Because he's proven time and time again that custom fishing lures allow you to catch more fish, bigger fish and have a HUGE edge over competitors and fishing buddies who use off the shelf commercial lures.
Greg now shares the substantial lure making skills and knowledge that he has amassed over this time through his web site and articles.
If you found the content of this article informative and would like to receive similar wooden lure making information via email, you can subscribe to Greg's weekly wooden lure making tips by completing the online form at
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See my previous post:Small River And Stream Fishing Tips
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