Tailbait Fever

I think I might have a bad case of 'Tailbait Fever!

..and my shoal of BBZs..

Spent an hour this afternoon making some solid stainless steel traces using 1mm 316 welding rods and Bucher split rings from Chico. Flexible wire and FC can be prone to part when driving a trolled lure into the Earth's crust beneath Windermere! I reckon these are about as bullet proof a trace as can made. Phil Blakey uses these all the time casting from the bank and the many big pike he catches don't seem to mind. Small loop for tying the braid to and a larger one to fit the split ring and I added a little epoxy to smooth out the twist after I took the pics.

Nearly ready for the river season and a few LAS boat events!

Dressed to Kill

Finally finished my urban camo spro/tailbait hybrid. Spent the morning working on the boat so I'm hoping to use these new lures on some Lakeland pike later in the week!

Barry Robinson Custom Lures

Look what the postie brought me today! - one of Barry Robinsons gorgeous custom lures - a jacktail in his fantastic black and white livery - absolutely over the moon with this and can't wait to show itto my river pike! Cheers Baz!

Tips On Rigging the Fiiish Black Minnow

After comments that they can be fiddly to rig I thought I'd pass on a few tips for easy rigging!

Apologies for the out of focus shots - it was a rush job

Treat the hanger as a 90 degree bend and push in through the ready made hole...

..it looks like this...

..gently pushing towards the tail rotate through 90 degrees until the hanger appears through the belly slit..

... offer the hook up like this... 

...and slide it round until itsits in the 'u' shaped part of the hanger..

..open the belly slit slightly and tuck the top of the hanger underneath..

..and keep rotating until the head is the right way up..

..bend the body so that you can put the hook point straight through the body..

.. it can be fished with the hook point exposed in less weedy or snaggy swims..

..or truly weedless with the hook point nipped into the skin of the body

Tie on, cast into water .....hang on!!!!

Shallow Fiiish

As some of you may know I've had more than a fair bit of success on the Fiiish, taking perch, pike, chub, trout, salmon and even a 9lb plus barbel on them. I've been waiting for these to become available for a while now and finally got some today - the shallow 6g heads for the 120mm Fiiish Black Minnow bodies. The 12g heads are just too heavy for most of my waters and I'm looking forward to being able to use the in shallow water more easily. The pike won't know what's hit them!
Thanks to Andrew at 'The Pike Shop' for getting them to me so quickly after getting stock in!

http://www.thepikeshop.co.uk/

Slip Sliding Away

One of my all time faves gets the camo treatment - a sinking Salmo Slider.

Tigger

Starting to get some lures ready to fish for the river opening and some of the LAS summer events.
This is a spro swimbait with a tail added. I think I prefer the urban camo colour scheme but wanted to try the same technique in other colours!

Poxy Epoxy!

First complete with epoxy - a 16cm urban camo butch hybrid  :lol:

   

Hard to photograph to show the finish !

..and one with big brother for scale.

Windermere

Todays fishing had to be timed around a rolling programme of road closures around the lake to accomodate the Windermere marathon. Consequently I was fishing before 7am. This weedy bay, where I started and finished, was stuffed with small fish. I had follow after follow - sometimes in groups but I despite going through the box I couldn't persuade any to take. I suspect these fish are either still spawning or still recovering before going on the feed.

Working along the shoreline I did eventually find fish in a taking mood and ended up with half a dozen jacks. These fish are beautifully marked and fight well above their weight, the 5lb fish hit and fight like 15lbers!

One of my favourite places on Earth- beauty on an epic scale and as I walk its banks I dream of monsters swimming in its depths!

Tailbait

This is the floating tailbait version of my slowsinkurbancamobengaltigerzebraprisonmonkeyface lure !

I can see this pattern in various colours becoming my 'signature' pattern! I enjoy the process so much - you never quite know what it's going to look like until the unwrapping - that I can see quite a few of my faves getting the treatment.

Spray that Again?

I have no air brush and no man cave and usually resort to using a brush and hand painting but wanted a quick result with this one - it also makes it less painful to lose them!
This was three spray cans, white primer, grey primer and matt black and various bits of wire, string, pipe cleaner and tin foil - absolutely chuffed with this one - the colour scheme was inspired by Baz Robinsons black and white jacktail jerk baits.
Early days but I think I'm going to like this one!

Just Devcon, hooks, water and a big pike needed!

Went to Market....

..to buy a cow and came back with these..

Magic beans!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chimera Lures

Still tinkering! After the success of my butch/real eel combo I decided I needed a couple more - one with a little less cut off the lip and one unmolested to cover a greater range of depths!

Rear cut off and corkscrews epoxied in..

..and tails fitted..

Also wanted a more natural version of my crazy actioned topwater salmo fatso/real eel..

..rear cut off and hanger turned into a spike..

..butcher the eel..

..apply super glue liberally to the cut end and fit the tail..

..quick bit of wire forming...

..and ready to blank..!!!!!!!!

..well it kept me off the streets for an hour or two!!!!!!!

Now just need to get back on the river with them!