DIY foam lures
Despite the fact that the fashion for foam lures has already ended, for many fishermen such tackles have not lost their authority in our time. Firstly, these baits are much cheaper than silicone ones, while their effectiveness is not much lower than rubber. And secondly, they have the lowest probability of breakage, since the hooks in such a tackle hide in the bait itself.
This article will consider options for how you can make foam lures yourself. As an example, the option of making a foam rubber fish will be considered.
A few words and foam rubber
There are three types of foam rubber, these are coarse-grained, fine-grained and foam rubber with an average pore size. The larger the bubbles in the foam, the softer it will be. In principle, you can make a foam rubber fish from any kind of foam rubber, but there are some nuances here.
The softest foam bait will have the most realistic play. Such foam rubber, when immersed on the bottom, will immediately absorb water and become the most flexible. The game of such a bait resembles as much as possible the moment when the fish swims above the bottom, looking for food in the silt. Of course, such a bait will seduce the predator anyway.
However, the disadvantage of such foam rubber is that at the first bite or hook, it quickly breaks, as it is too soft.
The lure made of fine-grained foam rubber is the most durable, but the game with such a tackle is not particularly attractive to a predator. The fact is that such foam rubber is poorly filled with water and is hard. This means that the game of bait will be very boring for a predator.
The best option is to use medium density foam rubber. These baits will have a pretty interesting game to tempt a predator, and the lifespan of these baits is quite long.
Materials and tools:
- foam rubber;
- sharp scissors (if the blades of the scissors are dull, the foam rubber will tear and the bait will not come out of high quality);
- pliers or pliers, round-nose pliers;
- blade;
- a piece of steel wire with a diameter of 0.5 to 1 mm;
- hooks of a suitable size (doubles or tees);
- glue that does not dissolve in water, threads;
- a set of markers and other stationery for coloring the bait.
Bait Making Process:
Step one. Making a blank
First, you need to create a blank for the future fish. To do this, you need to select a piece of foam rubber of a quadrangular shape and cut it diagonally. As a result, you should get two triangles. Further, these two pieces of foam rubber in the form of a triangle will be the blanks for making two fish.
Step two. Cut out the main contours of the bait
At this stage, the head of the future bait is made. This is a crucial moment, since the play of the whole fish will depend on the size of the front part. The wider the head of the fish, the more actively the bait will play during the posting.
After the head has been cut out, the back can be created as well.
As for the tail, it all depends on the fishing conditions. For fishing in strong currents, it is generally not worth making the rear fin. It is enough to give the back of the bait a "carrot" shape. In this case, the bait will have a more realistic play.
If the fishing takes place on water bodies or rivers with a weak current, then the rear fin will not hurt here, as it will give the bait additional animation.
Finally, the bait needs to be rounded by cutting off the sharp edges with scissors.
Step three. Introducing the hook
The first step is to lengthen the shank of the hook, this is done with a wire. It is important to understand that the location of the hook greatly affects the play of the bait. The closer the hook is to the head, the more realistic the fish will behave. But it happens that the predator attacks the bait from behind and is not spotted, in which case you need to strive to place the hook closer to the center of the bait. This will be the best option.
To install the hook, two cuts are made in the foam rubber, one across and the other along. A wire is inserted into the longitudinal cut, its end should pierce the front of the fish and get out in front of the bait. We put the hook in a cross section. In order to remove the stings, we pierce the fish with a crochet in the necessary places.
At the same stage, we make a loop for which we will hook our bait. For these purposes, round-nose pliers are used. Here the author decided to kill "two birds with one stone" at once, while fixing the foam rubber when creating a loop. If this is not done, the foam will slide off the wire. You can also use threads and glue to fix it.
Step four. Coloring the fish
However, it is not necessary to paint the fish, here everything is at the request of the fisherman, because not all fishermen believe in the colors of the bait. The only thing noticed is that the fish attack dark-colored baits much better on a light, sandy bottom, since they are more noticeable. Well, for fishing on a dark, muddy bottom, it is best to paint the lures in light colors.
In conclusion, it should be said about the sinkers. If you use ordinary pellet-type sinkers, the likelihood of the bait catching on the root or other obstacle will be quite high. The thing is that such a load will go into the narrow places of the snag and after that it will be extremely difficult to release the tackle.
Weights in the form of a bullet will make foam lures practically invulnerable. Such cone-shaped sinkers will not jam and the fisherman can easily save his tackle in the event of a hook with the help of light twitching.
As for the game of tackle, it can be different postings. Such a bait has such a realistic game that the predator is tempted even with the banal dragging of the fish along the bottom.