captken

Sometimes fishing tips are handed to me on a silver platter but I don't always recognize them.

Bck in early August, this photo, along with some others was posted on another website.


The other photos in the post showed a fine bunch of yak caught fish. In the text of the post the author mentioned the name of the lure. It is, of course, a Zara Pup.

When I see that many nice fish caught on a lure I do not have in my box, I make sure I have one for next trip. Oh yeah!!! The Pup has been the hottest lure I have used since I started using it, especially when the tide is really low and fish are spooky. It is probably not the best choice for windy days when there is considerable chop but under slick conditions, it has been red hot for me.

This month's Sport Fishing Magazine had an article on Redfish and a study made by Texas Parks and Wildlife was referenced. "The survey indicated that Redfish mostly feed on finfish less than 2" long." This is probably the reason I catch so many Redfish on the Mirodine too.

This morning's project is to turn a half dozen Zara Pup clones and get them ready for fall fishing.

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Captken
http://www.panhandlefishingbooks.com/

captken

The "PUP" is 3" long and 1/2" in diameter. It is duck soup to make them using hardwood dowels from Home Depot. I bought a 4' dowel this evening, enough to make 8 PUPS.

I turn the PUPS in my drill press so there is quite a bit of waste. This is a very easy project. The dowel was $1.55 so the bodies won't cost much. I have paint, screw eyes and hooks so I am good to go.

Next week I am going to pop a mold off a Mirrodine and make a bunch of them out of syntactic foam. I'll photograph the mold building process and post it here.

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Captken
http://www.panhandlefishingbooks.com/

jigslinger

I'm looking forward to it Ken. Post some pics of the lures you turned when you get them finished too if you would. Do you weight the tail?

SheYakFishr

Dangggg Ken... you come up with some cool stuff. I look forward to seeing them done. Actually.... I can't wait. :- )

captken

My day got off to a bad start when my granddaughter missed the school bus. That cost me an hour of my favorite time of day. I went to Home Depot and Wal-mart later with a list that included white primer which I forgot to pick up.

I'll get a bunch turned today and try to scratch up some primer around here. Maybe the 2 I made yesterday will work out.

Re: tail weighting. Since it is so hard to predict what a lure will do, I wait until I have one molded before making any adjustment. I add weight to hooks, move hook hangers, or change hook size to achieve balance and action. I built a small pond in my front yard just for lure testing but don't tell my wife I said that. I wish I had the test tank that Berkley uses. I watched a lot of lures as they swam by 10' down but right at eye level.

Anybody have suggestions for color/pattern? My wife is pretty good with an airbrush and pad painting too.

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Captken
http://www.panhandlefishingbooks.com/

captken

Screwup on the home made Zara Pups. I bought hardwood dowels from China. They really checked when I painted them and do not hold screw eyes well. I trashed a dozen after 6 coats of paint and a final coat of Epoxy with holographic glitter. They were pretty but worthless like a lot of other stuff from over there.

Several hours totally wasted.

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Captken
http://www.panhandlefishingbooks.com/

Framerguy

Ken,

Not to try to add to your already large list of "to do" things but, have you done any additional shaping, testing, or other R&D on the Zara Pup lure that you were working on?

I had a though about the dowel problem. You can buy good quality hardwood dowels from many of the woodworking catalogs and internet sites. When I had a real home with a workshop, I was working with birch, ash, and black walnut dowels that I think I purchased at a local woodworking show from a small vendor that had a booth at the show. I don't know if they have that kind of show down here but that would be another good source of quality dowels.

Woodcraft carries 3' hardwood dowels for .40¢ per dowel and, if you order $5.00 or more in dowels, they will deduct 15% off that price!

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=667

You could also try Woodworking Supplies of New Mexico, a very good supply company for good qualityhand tools and woodworking supplies.

Just thinking out loud.

captken

Thanks for the link. Lots of nice stuff there.

My son had some good dowels and I swiped a couple of feet for this project but I am so bogged down with the E-books that I don't see completing it any time soon.

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Captken
http://www.panhandlefishingbooks.com/