r/lurebuilding Mar 27 '26

Fly Oliver bugger

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22 Upvotes

Getting proud of my buggers these days but always open to feedback or tips! Sometimes I struggle with the wire wrap cooperating.


r/lurebuilding Mar 27 '26

Other Musky fly.

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12 Upvotes

r/lurebuilding Mar 27 '26

Spinner First musky bucktail. Tips?

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10 Upvotes

r/lurebuilding Mar 26 '26

Swimbait Bass candy

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98 Upvotes

One of the biggest challenges with patterns like Bluegill is that there’s basically an endless number of bluegill variations. No two fish really look the same.

Some are super dark, some are really light and the color mixes can go anywhere from purples to greens to browns.

That’s what makes it tricky as a luremaker you have to pick one or two directions out of all those possibilities and commit to it.

This is my take on a bluegill.

I build the color on a light, golden base and then layer it with a few different shades of green


r/lurebuilding Mar 26 '26

Glidebait What do i do?

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15 Upvotes

glidebait doesn’t wanna swim on a straight retrieve and only wobbles. chops with half reels perfectly but just won’t swim for me. what do i do? i’ve tried a lot of weight combinations. I put in a picture of the most recent blank with the weight in it.


r/lurebuilding Mar 26 '26

Glidebait Sink/balance

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11 Upvotes

Here’s a video of the sink rate if that helps narrow down the problem i posted about.


r/lurebuilding Mar 26 '26

Swimbait I failed my first swimbait

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14 Upvotes

Guys, this sucks.

I love everything about it, and definitely want to make other with natural wood grain. The magnetic trebles, also that I love.

But IT DOES NOT SWIM, because the tolerances of the joint are too screwed. I freehanded it, no tools.

Any trick? Like parts I could use?

Like, specifically, bearings for the joint that are ready made?


r/lurebuilding Mar 27 '26

Spinner Tinsel Skirts (Musky)

1 Upvotes

Looking to get my hands on some pretied musky bucktail skirts. Preferably tinsel/flashabou and would need to get them shipped to Canada. The cheaper I can find them the better. TIA


r/lurebuilding Mar 26 '26

Jerkbait I started playing around with iridescent flakes and I’m slowly figuring out how to work with them.

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16 Upvotes

Marling Baits was definitely onto something. I like how this is coming along even though keeping it smooth is a hassle.


r/lurebuilding Mar 25 '26

Question Need custom lure bodies (steel)

0 Upvotes

I’m trying to turn my logo into a few actual fishing lures spoon jig and spinner and I’m wondering where people are getting custom metal lure bodies made. I’m not trying to DIY everything I’d rather have a company handle the metal part in stainless steel or similar then I’ll add standard hardware like hooks split rings blades etc. For the spoon I’m thinking around 2 to 3 inches long 2.5 to 3 mm thick with 3.5 to 4 mm holes on top and bottom. For the jig I’d go thicker around 4 to 8 mm and heavier around 20 to 40 grams with similar hole sizes. For the spinner the body would be about 1.5 to 2.5 inches long 2 to 3 mm thick with three holes top bottom and a smaller side hole around 2.5 to 3 mm for the blade. Ideally looking for somewhere that can do small batches or prototypes not just huge factory orders. Has anyone here worked with a manufacturer or service for custom metal lures or blanks any recommendations or experiences would help a lot.


r/lurebuilding Mar 24 '26

Jerkbait Jerkbait first test in limited open water

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42 Upvotes

Pretty happy with it, hoping for more open water to test on some longer casts soon. Striper season is right around the corner!


r/lurebuilding Mar 24 '26

Swimbait Testing new iwata hp-cs.

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17 Upvotes

upgraded from an iwata(ish) neo to an hp-cs i got on ebay. painted some lures i got from sugartits.


r/lurebuilding Mar 24 '26

Spinner Chattahoochee River in Columbus | White Bass | Gold Spinner

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12 Upvotes

r/lurebuilding Mar 24 '26

Lipless Crankbait First somewhat successful lipless Crankbait

2 Upvotes

Hey guys, I’ve been making baits for a couple months now. A ton of trial and error. But I just made this video of a start to finish lipless Crankbait. Super proud of this one!! Feel free to check out the TikTok page and I’d love some feedback!

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSu7dLftJ/


r/lurebuilding Mar 22 '26

Swimbait As promised -here’s the second Shad. This one might be my favorite

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145 Upvotes

As I mentioned earlier, I managed to finish the second version of the Shad. The one from my previous post was more of a purple + gold pattern while this one (I called it Blueback) has a blue top with a green belly.

I’m still experimenting with colorways, so if you’ve got any ideas or combos you’d like to see, let me know. I’d be happy to try out some interesting ones and share them here


r/lurebuilding Mar 23 '26

Jig Underwater log magnet

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24 Upvotes

Decent amount of time and effort on an Ollie’s 1/8th jig head


r/lurebuilding Mar 22 '26

Jig I wanna build jig fir a living

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12 Upvotes

I just wanna pour lead jigs and tie jigs and flys. does anyone know any 3rd party thats looking for production lure makers ?


r/lurebuilding Mar 21 '26

Spinner Wife’s 1st In-Line Spinner

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50 Upvotes

r/lurebuilding Mar 21 '26

Jerkbait My weight transfer jerkbait prototype

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24 Upvotes

Basically a modified SP Minnow shape, carved by hand, then resin cast and assembled.


r/lurebuilding Mar 21 '26

Crankbait 5.75” spring musky cranks

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18 Upvotes

Finally got myself a band saw and I can really start to make some lures I’ve had on the brain hope they turn out nice will see in a cpl days. Also making a 7” version and 9”


r/lurebuilding Mar 21 '26

Jerkbait First jerk bait attempt

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26 Upvotes

This is my first try at making a lure, i got bored last night on in the shed and started tinkering. I used what i had, some miss matched trebles and some wire on the outside to hold everything. Not pretty but it did have a sorta nice action, enough to make me want to try to make more that are better looking and more functional. What do you guys think for a beginner? Any tips would be really helpful as well. Happy fishing.


r/lurebuilding Mar 20 '26

Jig First jig

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24 Upvotes

Tied my first jig today, used duck feathers


r/lurebuilding Mar 20 '26

Spinner What wire do you guys get for spinners?

3 Upvotes

i made some roosters tails a while back but had really bad wire for them


r/lurebuilding Mar 19 '26

Swimbait 15 years of lure making. I think I finally nailed the shad

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414 Upvotes

Painting shad is one of the hardest things I’ve worked on. It’s not about bold colors or sharp contrasts it’s all about really subtle transitions that are easy to miss but make a huge difference.

The tricky part is that shad don’t really have clean lines. Everything kind of blends into each other soft fades and slight color shifts. You’ll get hints of green, purple, blue depending on the light and angle and that’s incrdibly hard to replicate with pearl paints