Made my own popper

[Chris W.]

I got bored today so i decided to make a lure. Grabbed my buck 110, which hasn't really been used that hard, told my brother to get off his xbox 360 and we were going to make some lures. i used a 1x1" ~3' piece of balsa wood and cut two 4" sections off. He decided he wanted to make a minnow type lure, i decided to make a popper. The only popper i own is a hula popper so i wanted to try and make another one. So we went to work. He didn't know too much about whittling so i showed him the basics and how to control the knife. He used his mini ambush. I used my swisschamp's saw to cut the pieces. Anyways, here are a few pics. I gutted an old broken hula popper of its parts. I'll post the finished product when it's done. For the record, i've never made a lure, and have limited experience whittling balsa wood, so take it easy. My girlfriend painted it, i asked her to and she gladly painted it. The first few pics got cut off in this forum for some reason.

[BIG M]

Looks good but you should have sealed the wood before painting.   

[Chris W.]

She painted it, we let it dry and then i put epoxy all over it. I figured the epoxy would seal the wood & create a tough finish as well as holding all the hardware in a bit better. We'll see how it holds up. I hope it catches something, if not i'm not out anything. Had fun with the project.

[gar-tracker]

Dude

[islandbass]

That is awesome. However, balsa is one of the woods that you really don't want to use screw eyes. It is so soft that a strong enough fish combined with an unusually tight drag can spell disaster for you.

If it isn't too late and you didn't do this the first time around, add some of the epoxy to the threads of the screw eyes and the holes and refasten back onto the bait. This will give you a fighting chance for the big uns.

I commend you for your ingenuity and creativity. You probably woke up the bait making monkey inside you. Congrats! I think you popper is going to entice some bass.

[Chris W.]

What i did was after i sanded it all down nice, i positioned all the hardware the way i wanted. Then, i had my girlfriend paint it and we let it dry. I then took a tooth pick, put some epoxy in the holes i made, then put some on the hardware threads and then epoxied over the screws and eyes and such. I just tried pulling the hooks out, good luck getting those suckers out! I painted the entire body with epoxy, then just to make sure it was all sealed, i sprayed it with a clear coat. That puppy should hold up well, Took a few hours to make, hope it works! I'll try it tomorrow if it's all dry. I carved that whole thing freehand from a 4" square block of balsa. I'm pretty proud of it. Just have to get some pics of it finished just in case something happens to it lol.

[islandbass]

Right on!  Balsa is a nice wood to work with.  If ever you think to try other wood types, consider bass wood in dowel form. They're very cheap and a 3' or so dowel at walmart is probably less than $3 and can make about 10 lures. Keep it up!

[Chris W.]

I was going to try basswood or aspen next, but working with the balsa was pretty fun. I was going to try and find some nice pine to work with on my way to my fishing spot tomorrow, i hope i'll be able to test this thing out tomorrow. Thanks for the comments. Taking bets as to if it will work or not lol. What do you guys think?

[Chris W.]

Here's the final product. A thick coat of epoxy, then a coat of clearcoat spray. it didn't come out glossy like i wanted, but at least everythings sealed up. I left the eye on the back in case i want to put a trailer hook on at some point. I don't even know if it will catch anything or hold up, but it was fun anyways.

I'm going to clean up the bottom after i get it out on the water, unless it floats fine, i'll do a better job on the next one. The clearcoat i sprayed bunched up around the hook and i didn't know it was while it was drying. Oh well!

[HopelesslyAddicted]

That's what baitmaking is all about dude.  Trial and error.  I'd say for your first bait you did a heck of a job and you should be proud.  As you continue making baits you will get better and better, and eventually you might not need any more factory produced baits! 

[Chris W.]

That's what baitmaking is all about dude. Trial and error. I'd say for your first bait you did a heck of a job and you should be proud. As you continue making baits you will get better and better, and eventually you might not need any more factory produced baits!

That's what im hoping. Thanks for the compliments, i kind of has a vision in my head and just kept checking on symmetry as i went along, trying to keep it balanced. The clearcoating leaves a lot to be desired, and next time i'll seal it before painting. Hopefully it'll be a better one next time.

[Vodkaman]

Chris, BigM is correct, should seal the wood before painting. This serves three purposes:

1. It adds another seal against water ingress should the top coat get pierced. This is especially true with soft balsa. It will allow you to keep fishing the lure without it becomming water logged.

2. If you seal with a thinned epoxy, it will add strength and hardness to the balsa, again resisting tooth penetration.

3. after the seal coat, a light sanding with 400 grit paper will remove any raised grain. This will give you a vastly improved paint finish with no visible wood grain.

Hand painting is very difficult. Do a google on painting with sponges. Their is lots you can do with paint without having to shell out for an airbrush. Rattle can paints are good too.

You have mad a good start, keep it up.

Dave