Custom Baits Magazine | Page 19

added to a lure will determine whether the lure floats, sinks or suspends and also whether it sits in the water horizontally, nose up or nose down. For my four lures I plan to make two of them slow sinkers which rest in a nose down position and the other two floaters which sit horizontally in a slightly nose down position. What I hope to achieve is two sinking jerkbaits for deeper water that work in an updown as well as side to side action (if this is possible) as I jerk them back in and two floaters that will work with a side to side action one to two feet from the water's surface. I have not really done any research into jerkbait design or balancing and since these are my first homemade lures it is quite possible that the lures I'm making will have a totally different action to that which I'm trying to achieve! Sealing the Lures Now that the throughwires have been fitted to my lures and all the filler has been sanded flush it's time to seal an balance the lures before finally painting them and getting out and doing some fishing with them. Balancing My Lures So what does it mean to balance a lure exactly? Balancing a lure is the process by which weight is added to the lure (internally) to make it sit in the water in a specific way to give it the action we require. For example the amount and positioning of the weight that is The process of balancing a lure obviously requires that it is put into water, so before I can proceed the lures need to be sealed so as to prevent the wood blanks from soaking up water. There are many different products that can be used to do this. I would opt for a poly-