April 26, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
525 
Home-Made Lures 
By PAUL H. BYRD 
I SHALL endeavor to at once give an idea of 
what may be expected by the reader with 
a view to relieving those who may not 
care to read. Everyone may not be in sympathy 
with an enthusiasm that carries one so far 
along, but all readers want to be sure that 
they are not missing a subject which interests 
them. Those having ample means are not 
necessarily barred and those who are handi¬ 
capped by the reverse conditions are not 
necessarily included. But my endeavor is lead¬ 
ing me to shy at the use of a concise and nifty 
expression which, T am sure, all will under¬ 
stand and, respectively, be on their way or fol¬ 
low me rejoicing. It is: if you are bughouse 
on fishing and fishing tackle, this article is for 
you. 
cast and strikes the water on its back the 
weight in the bottom, being thus removed from 
the true center, will exert greater power in 
righting it, which means doing it quickly. 
Scrape the surface with the glass and im¬ 
prove the general outline in so doing. 
With the smaller drill make a hole in each 
end as far as is required by the particular 
screweye you have, or stop just short of the re¬ 
quired distance and allow the threads of the 
screw to penetrate solid wood. Sometime you 
might hook a whale and it would be humiliat¬ 
ing to reel in a dislodged screweye. 
As to the eyes for the lure your choice is 
the limit of the various sizes and colors of 
string beads handled by the 5- and lo-cent 
stores, or, which is a little cheaper, the nursery 
the exact lateral center, bore a hole with the 
wood drill almost as deep as the diameter of 
the BB shot which goes into it. Hammer the 
shot in the hole until it spreads and fills com¬ 
pletely. File flush with the surrounding sur¬ 
face and drive through it and on into the wood 
a 3^ or yi-inch wire brad. In determining the 
weight of the completed lure, regulate the amount 
of the shot placed in it by the size of the screw- 
eyes and their weight. It is not necessary to 
use the entire shot. If you are particular as 
to weight, weigh the various parts together be¬ 
fore assembling. 
There is no longer an argument among en¬ 
lightened fishermen about gang hooks being un¬ 
ethical, and when they are draped about the 
minnow fore, aft and amidships, looking like a 
cargo of anchors carried abeam, the device is 
midly termed barbarous. But relics of bar¬ 
barism still survive,, have a vogue and find a 
ready market. Education in progressiveness in 
bass fishing means to convert a benighted soul 
from a stick of dynamite or a gunnysack full of 
There will be no discussion about why bass 
strike—nor about why they do not; but an 
effort will be made to describe in detail, with a 
limited vocabulary, how to make imitations of, 
or substitutes for manufactured wooden min¬ 
nows and other lures. But only those which 
have lured bass will be described. 
The tools required to make these articles 
are not elaborate; an ordinary pocket knife, a 
small, flat file, a piece of window glass, a wood 
drill, the diameter of which is equal to that of a 
BB shot, a metal drill, the diameter of which is 
slightly greater than that of the shank of the 
screweye passing through the spinners of the 
trade product, and only very slightly less than 
that of the screweye (preferably brass) which 
you are able to find in your local hardware 
stores, and which most nearly meets the speci¬ 
fications of the special article referred to. 
These drills cost about ten to fifteen cents in 
hardware stores. 
To operate these drills, bore diametrically 
with the larger one a hole in a four-inch sec¬ 
tion of broomhandle and roughly square it—the 
hole, not the broomhandle—with a knife blade, 
and insert with some force the grip of the drill. 
Use as an auger. Speed is not a requirement. 
For the bodies of the minnows use cedar 
or cypress or white pine. I prefer cypress, be¬ 
cause it does not split easily and is not so 
susceptible to a smooth finish and will there¬ 
fore hold paint or enamel best. Small pieces of 
cypress or pine may be found in the sweepings 
at a planing mill, carpenter shop or in a build¬ 
ing nearing completion. Reduce the pieces of 
wood to a size in inches ^ x 2)4, or, if 
your rod is light and very resilient and will not 
cast a weight in excess of an ounce, reduce it 
lo X X 2. Whittle it roughly to a torpedo 
shape, maintaining the original proportions'of 
its two diameters at the center. The hand and 
eye unaided by calipers should do this with 
sufficient exactness. Its measurements ex¬ 
planatory of future references now are: Longi¬ 
tudinal, from end to end, 2 inches; lateral, from 
side to side, j4-inch; perpendicular, from top 
to bottom, which will be from back to belly of 
the minnow, 54"inch. A line drawn longi¬ 
tudinally at the lateral center should find the 
center of the ends slightly above the perpen¬ 
dicular center. When the finished product is 
you may rob. You may indulge your fancy for 
pop-eye to an extent equaled by the size of the 
bead, setting it shallow or deep, by digging a 
hole with the point of a knife blade. To fasten 
the beads, cut black, brass pins (swiped from 
that little German silver receptacle on her 
dressing table) to a length greater than the 
diameter of the bead, but not long enough to 
reach to the screweye. To aid in avoiding 
this, direct the pin from an angle forward, and 
the weird effect of a crosseyed minnow may of 
itself exert a compelling attraction for some 
otherwise disinterested bass. You know how 
this is yourself. 
Holding the cut pin by the head, make the 
blunt end sharp by drawing the file away from 
the head. Place some glue in the eye socket 
and on the pin before passing it through the 
bead. Force the pm into place by pressure, 
not by striking it. The resemblance of the 
black head of the pin to the pupil of an eye is 
startling, provided, of course, the color of the 
bead lends itself to the deception, denying a too 
great effort at nature-faking. 
In the bottom, a quarter of an inch from 
the longitudinal center, toward the tail, and in 
crushed buckeyes to a nine-gang minnow, then 
to one of three single hooks, and lastly to one 
hook, which is enough, affording the maximum 
amount of sport. The minnow we are now 
making has three single hooks, but may carry 
only one, and that at the tail, if the length of the 
minnow is decreased. 
To place the side hooks, bore a hole with 
the small drill from an angle forward far 
enough into the wood to give certain direc¬ 
tion to the screw. Let the angle be at the 
degree your fancy dictates the hook shall set. 
Bore it at a perfect right angle if you want the 
hook to lay parallel to the minnow. Some of 
mine are bored at an acute angle and the hook 
sets at nearly ninety degrees. Undoubtedly 
this is an advantage—to the fisherman. I have 
found that it does not materially aid dead limbs 
and logs and rocks in their mad rush to grab 
the lure. Th screw should be brass, flat or 
round head, three-eighths of an inch long and 
small enough to pass easily through the eye of 
the hook which will be any size you prefer, 
and of the large-eyed, straight bend shape. Any 
shape as regards the bend of the point, similar 
to Cincinnati bass, will foul oftener and appears 
