Natural Fishing Lures

ScanDgrind

Banned
Mar 18, 2004
63
3
56
Cornwall
Hi guys and girls of course,

I just wondered if anyone had any ideas for any fishing lures made of some natural material found in the natural environment for fresh water fish perch, trout etc.

I fancy doing a bit of hobo fishing in the evenings while back packing and have been racking my brain (took 5 seconds at least :shock: ) to try and think of something which would be sucsessful. Any ideas?

Cheers,

Tony.
 

steve a

Settler
Oct 2, 2003
821
14
south bedfordshire
You should be able to create Lures/flies from feathers,fur,wool etc.
One of my top flies for 2003 was a Barney, he's a long coated jack russell that belongs to a mate of mine,when he was moulting we tried a bit of his fur and I've been nicking it ever since.
Far easier to take along a small box with some assorted weighted lures, go to a flyfishing shop and ask for tinheads or dognobblers, not joking,
these will catch Trout,Perch, Pike etc
 

C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
Mod
Oct 6, 2003
7,629
2,703
Bedfordshire
:lol: worms :lol:
Stuart you beat me to it!!!!

I usually have enough problems getting trout, perch and pike to bite my home tied flies and store bought lures. I am not sure how keen I would be to try whipping up some lure on the river bank instead of using a Mepps!

How primitive do you want this fishing to be? I mean, you could make a kind of fly with feathers, wool, fur, thread from your cloths, an elastic band, foil, all sorts of things. The problem is in casting it and presenting it at the right depth.

You could probably make something like a spoon out of old cans.

If you are going to be CHOOSING to carry nylon fishing line, why not choose to carry some little spinners or jigs :wink:
 

steve a

Settler
Oct 2, 2003
821
14
south bedfordshire
Stuart, worms are bait !!! not Lures, I am not a dry fly/nymph v Lure snob but if we are going down that line might as well get that red gill net out.
Make sure no one's looking.
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
Lures aren't too hard ... lots have already been mentioned. Natural hooks are harder. Harder still is line.
 

Stuart

Full Member
Sep 12, 2003
4,141
51
**********************
Stuart, worms are bait !!! not Lures, I am not a dry fly/nymph v Lure snob but if we are going down that line might as well get that red gill net out.
Make sure no one's looking.

NO! do not use a gill net!!!!!! :nono: Illegal and enviromentaly damaging
in this country

Your right though worms are bait not lures :)

You could borrow my fishing set (or make your own) its a carved wooden reel with 20 feet of nettle cordage line, a stone weight, carved wooden float and a wood/bone hook

you could attach a feather to the hook for a lure

I've never caught anything with it though so i dont know if it would work
 

steve a

Settler
Oct 2, 2003
821
14
south bedfordshire
Quite right too, wrist still stinging.
Thanks for the offer of the loan of your fishing gear Stuart,might take you up on that !!. I'll try it out next time I'm up on Rutland water, should get all the gear nuts talking in the clubhouse.
Never know, might open up a whole new market.
 

Ed

Admin
Admin
Aug 27, 2003
5,977
38
51
South Wales Valleys
Thanks for the offer of the loan of your fishing gear Stuart,might take you up on that !!
Yep.... just cut yourself a nice pole (with the land owners permission of course) and experience the joys of pole fishing.

:)
Ed
 

ScanDgrind

Banned
Mar 18, 2004
63
3
56
Cornwall
"Worms" eh! :twisted:

Maybe I should have been a little more precise when asking the question :) .

What I was really wanted to know was if anyone had made their own lures out of natural materials and is so what did they use and did it work. After all most of us could fashion a fly or lure, spinner of some sort but it doesn't mean your going to catch a fish.

I wondered if anyone had found that a particular colour or mixture of colourse worked etc.

As to the other equipment I intend to use well..... I've carved a wooden reel I'm going to use man made line as I've already tried nettle cordage with no success :cry: . Hooks will also be carried with me. I have made my own hooks for sea fishing and they have worked on occassion but I just can't make them small enough for fresh water fish such as trout. I wont be using a pole or anything just a hand line off the reel.

C'mon you fly tying experts give me a clue I don't want to starve you know :-( . Course hopefully I'll come across a chippy if the weathers wrong and the fish don't bite :-D .

Cheers,

Tony

P.S. any ideas for spinners would be good as well.
 

steve a

Settler
Oct 2, 2003
821
14
south bedfordshire
Depending on water colour, best lure colours to use are :-for trout
Black
Black/ green
Orange
Red
These will also catch perch and pike
For fishing on a static line try boobies ( check rules) as some waters/ authories bann them as they are so effective.
 

Raz

Nomad
Sep 3, 2003
280
0
43
all over
Well, "natural" is difficult. Will "found" do? :)
You can make some pretty cool lures from litter I would imagine.
I only use spinners myself, I'm sure you could rig somthing similar from some bits of shiney crisp packet and a plastic cup.
 

mr dazzler

Native
Aug 28, 2004
1,722
83
uk
I know you mentioned strictly natural materials but heres a few thoughts on emergency lures anyway.
I once heard of a bloke who used a fag end slid on the shank of a hook to get mackrel (I know theyre ravenous feeding sea fish but it might help!)
Small sliver of surgical rubber tubeing (artificial worm-again floated or sunk with ballast)?
Little bits of colored rope/colored tape/polar fleece whipped on to hook shank-(might float -try small ball of clay or stone wrapped in a bit of thin cloth & tied in as weights)If you cant drill through small stones that is.
Tiny shreds of mylar space blanket/crisp packet to use as whipping (bright silver reflective)
Film canister wrapped/decorated/embellished/filled with various ballast (jig or perk)
Slivers of CD cut, gentle heat shaped small reflective spoons, lures
Might be able to make a hook or gorge out of bone (cow sheep rabbit etc), (but I don't know fully how a gorge works, or what sort of bone to use/how to fashion it.)
(Mostly stuff you might be carrying-you might "find" bits of wire (to build a spinner), hex nuts (sinkers) inch or so of barbed wire (Type of gorge??)

Just a few Sunday morning ideas off the top of me 'ead :wink:
Of course the best tackle is knowledge of the various species, habits, feeding styles etc. To study a bit of that well in advance would be very useful.
Oh and I hear slugs make a great bait for catfish.
 

Dave Barker

Nomad
Sep 15, 2003
302
3
53
Norway
www.brukskniver.net
Lures will take things like tout, perch pike zander and the other real predators.. things like roach, brewam etc will almost certainly only take bait.

I have seen a gut use an ear pøugb ( bright yellow) and skip it ove the surface.. he caught some great trout too.

As for depths, pike, perch and zander are not common as bottom fish ( just the biggies) and you'll get these mid water. the warmer it is they higher they are.
 

Realgar

Nomad
Aug 12, 2004
327
1
W.midlands
Get yourself a fly catalogue and have a look - pike flies are a bit of an eye opener, there are even 'flies' made from fur designed to look like a rat swimming through the water.

Since there are artifical maggot available, I wondered about carving some from antler and giving that a go. Perch will reputedly go for just a bit of red wool, roach and the others will take wet flies.
Realgar
 

R-Bowskill

Forager
Sep 16, 2004
195
0
60
Norwich
mr dazzler said:
searching about on't web, came across a spinner type lure made of mother of pearl (don't know if we have that here) on a natural cordage line and bone hook (like a flounder spoon)

Mother of pearl is oyster shell, but other shell is similar, because until recently oysters were a poor mans food you can get loads of them anywhere people have lived since roman times by looking at their rubbish dumps. The victorians scattered their rubbish from the towns over the surrounding countryside as fertilizer so thery turn up on most fields withing 10 miles of a town. Or ask a resturant to save you some bits after people have had a romantic meal if you want it fresher.
 

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