My First Two Deep River Lures.

Hi there,

I just received two very beautiful Deep River Lures.

• They are Handmade from timber.
• The two are very different from each other.
• I won them on the FFF.
• I intend to use them to fish.

Look at what I received:

Two Deep River Lures.

So, how and why?

Well, it is pretty simple in fact.

If you post on the great fishing forum FFF, and at the end of your post use the #DeepRiver, your post could be chosen as the lucky one for the month. And you would be sent one or two lures, directly from the man who makes them himself, Mr Barney.

And boy oh boy, they are nice.

So now that you had a preview of the lures, and know how I got them, lets look at them a bit closer.

First is the Slim.

A very beautiful fishing lure, that I will use mainly in the pursuit of Barramundi.

The Deep River Lures Slim 100.

To me, this lure has Barramundi written all over it.

From the shape, the colour, the fins and the shallow bib, just like I love them.

Here is a portrait of it:

Portrait of the Deep River Lures Slim 100.

This one is the shallow version. Which to me is great, as I mainly fish shallow waters.

And now comes the Mugil:

The Deep River Lures Mugil 70.

Now if this is not a really good looking little lure, I don't know what this is...

It is well finished, with an interesting shape. I think that it would be a great lure to target the Mangrove Jack. I can't wait to see it's action in the water.

And talking about the finish, look at the bib:

Pinned bib for extra strength.

This is one of the reason I personally would feel confident to target Mangrove Jack with this lure. The bib seems solid and well attached to the lure body.

Deep River Lures are handmade in Queensland, Australia, by Barney.

There is a great selection of body shapes and colours have a look at their range. (The link is at the top of this very post, in blue)

Thank you to Barney and the FFF for organising this friendly competition, and sending me these two beautiful lures.

Here comes one last photo, for the road:

Little lure for big fish.

Now it is true that when I receive such beautiful lures I usually keep them for the collection.

But this time I will actually fish with them.

Even it they will certainly end up with a few scratch from the carnivorous fish that swim around in Darwin's waters...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My First Chilton Lure.

Hi there,

Last year I got a crazy coloured fishing lure.
A lure made by Blair Chilton from Karalee in Queensland, Australia.
Due to some unsuspected circumstance, it took me a long time to do a post about it. Also because I wanted to make some photographs that would give it the credit that it deserves.
It has already been too long, so in the end, here it comes.

But first things first: a bit about the story of this very lure.
I first saw a similar one on the internet, and contacted Blair, asking him if I could buy it.
His reply was that he had only made a single one lure in this shape and colour, and that it was a gift for his daughter.
Yet, he offered to make a second one for me, telling me that it would be the second and last one of these...
So I said yes!
He got to work on it, and I got to wait. But not for long, the lure arrived earlier than I had expected. And it was looking even better than I had hoped for.
Without further delay, here it is, my first Chilton lure:

Left side.

Right side.

View from above.

For a handmade, hand-painted lure, this is a rather uncommon shape and colour. Even the bib is unusual.

This is a lure, that I really don't want to scratch.

Signed and dated on the belly.

To think that there is only two of this one.The first one was for his daughter, and then he accepted to make the second one for me, a guy that he had and has so far never meet. It is hard to express how happy I am to have this lure.

Who is Blair Chilton you may ask... 

Well, he is a young lure maker from Queensland, the birthplace of so many great fishing lures. I first saw his lure, all crafted like little art pieces, on Instagram. This is where I saw the sibling of my lure, and made contact with him. Since then, he as opened his own FaceBook page, on which you can see more of his lures.

Close up of the paint work.

The paint job is so good, that I have to show you a last one for the road. How beautiful is that?

when you have the lure in your hand, it look like it is made of fine china, and not timber.

I know, I know, three post in a row about fishing lures, and not much in the form of fishing in the past few weeks... 

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Barra Trooper Galore.

Hi there,

Not long ago, I had the chance to meet Dave, the maker of the fishing lures Barra Trooper.
He was extremely generous, and gave me some very nice  fishing lures.
Here comes the story of them.

First is the original Barra Trooper, but in a new colour, soon to be introduced on the market. The colour is called X RAY and you will, with no doubt understand why:

Barra Trooper X RAY.

Now, this is not just any lure in the new colour, no...

This is the very first one that was made for production. It is signed on both sides of the body of the lure, on the bib, and with a hand written note on the back of the card.

Here comes a close up of it's face:

Mean looking skeleton.

You can see the signature on the cheek of the lure. And yes, as you can read on the card, it is of course, a hand made timber lure, like all the Barra Trooper.

The evening I got this lure, I could not help, but send a photo of it with my phone to another fishing lure collector in Darwin, just to show it to him, even before doing a post on the blog.

After that came a Barra Trooper in a colour that he normally do only for himself.

The special colour.

I might be wrong, and that would not be the first or last time... But I think that this would be a great colour to target Mangrove Jacks. A fish that till today has managed to elude me. Classy in burgundy and gold, with black strips, this one makes me think of an old fashioned Chicago gangster. 

Then come a smaller lure, with a different shape that than the traditional ones made by Dave.

And it is a real little beauty:

Black and yellow like a hornet.

I have already said in the past, that one of my favourite colour for timber lures, is black and yellow.

For a reason that I don't really understand, this combination of colours remind me of a cafe racer motorcycle, and I really like that. It has to me a retro feel, that I don't get with other colours.

The finish on it, is just great:

Beautiful finish.

As an icing on the cake, this lure came to me, with a very special top up.

Three wooden pieces, that show how it was crafted:

Three steps to a good lure.

This is actually the first time that I have the wooden shapes, of a lure at different stages. This to me, is a very interesting piece added to my little collection. One could say that it has an educative purpose.

Finally, Dave gave me a prototype of a lure that he had been working on.

The overall shape resemble the traditional Barra Trooper, but is a bit shorter, a tad fatter and the tail is slimmer.

Have a look at it:

New prototype of Barra Trooper.

The photograph, don't really shows the depth of the paint job. It has a brown back, with a brass belly covered in gold spots. It is a beautiful and subtle paint work.

Portrait of a fishing lure.

And of course, like all the other ones, it is signed on the belly:

Signed on the belly.

Here they are, my precious little Barra Trooper lures, a very appreciated addition to the stable.

Thank you Dave, these will never see the water, but they will still be taken care of with great attention. 

I know that fishing lures are made to swim, and that most lure makers craft them in the hope that they will catch the fish of a life time... But those four compagñeros will definitively stay dry.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

The Archerfish From BarraGuru.

Hi there,

I have been very lucky and have been offered another great handmade lure.
Carved from timber the lure was produced by BarraGuru, and this one is fashioned to look like an Archerfish.
A common prey of the Barramundi, in the top end of Australia.
And the lure do look like an Archerfish:

The BarraGuru Archerfish.

At first sight, it could be mistaken for a rattle spot or some kind of vibe lure. But the bib and tow point on the nose, are sure hints of a different type of beast.

Weighted in the belly, the lure stand upright in the water, even when not moving.

Thus it will enable these very slow, twitch and pause kind of retrieve, so effective when fishing for Barramundi. It was clearly created with one fish in mind.

The paint job, is very subtle, and the colours change in a dramatic ways, depending of the incidence of light on the lure. His large sides will send some nice flash underwater.

And should be very efficient in some of our dark and murky rivers, along some mangrove edges.

View of the belly.

It is signed under the belly, and you can see how the colours change with a different angle of view, compared with the first image.

From another angle.

I just like how the colour can change, and the overall finish of this lure.

Just imagine it shivering above a snag habited by an old, hungry mama Barramundi...

Ready for action.

This is a lure that I am very happy to have, thank you Tony.

Once again Tony, the maker of the BarraGuru lures, has worked hard to make a beautiful lure. A lure that could easily stand in a collector display, with no shame.

Yet, I think that I will have to swim this one, and give it a chance to catch me a nice fish.

I know and I fear it: it might come back full of scratch, with some very damaged colours...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Three New Scurvy Dog.

Hi there,

Today I was very lucky and was offered three more Scurvy Dog fishing lures.
By whom you may ask...
Well by no one else than Balls himself, the man who makes the Scurvy Dog lures.
How good is that?
Yes, very good I know...

So lets start with the one called Four eyes, because it has two eyes on each side of its body:

The Four Eyes.

Now comes the information about it, and then some more photos.

The colour of the Four Eyes presented here is called “The Baggy Cap”. Proudly representing the Aussies Green and Gold.

It is made of Poplar Pine. 

1.5mm Polycarbonate for the bib, it dives to a depth of 3-4metres. 

Double rattle chamber, each rattle chamber located behind the eyes, both rattles are different diameter stainless ball bearing to produce noise variation under water (different sized bearings travel at a different rate with the lures side ways action).

.09mm stainless eyelets front and two middle hangers, 1.2mm stainless rear hanger. 

Sealed then painted with a white automotive acrylic base coat, epoxy coated, then silver glitter applied to entire blank, dried and the Gold Candy Tone, then Green Candy Tone paint, cosmetics with Pink throat and lime underbelly. 

Automotive two pack clear to seal the Candy Tone. 

Finished with 3 separate individual coats of Mega Epoxy rotated on a drying machine, slow process but looks good with a tough finish to protect the amount of work involved and to lift the bling.

Green and Gold.

The underbelly.

Bib, mouth, one eye and first treble.

This is a very beautiful lure, with a great finish. In fact for a fishing lure made of timber, it has more bling factor than most plastic or metal lures.

In these colours with such a name, this lure truly is part of fishing Australiana.

One can only wonder what Don Bradman would have thought of it?

Then comes a jigging lure for pelagic fishes:

Side view.

Underbelly and hooks.

The jig is poured with a lead and tin composite.

1.2mm, 316 stainless wire in a single harness. 

The jig is covered in adhesive aluminium duct tape, Candy Tone paint, automotive two pack clear to seal the Candy Tone & finished with 3 separate individual coats of Mega Epoxy rotated on a drying machine. 

Balls make the epoxy eyes, these were made from Coke or Melbourne Bitter cans. 

This jig is great for jigging Macks, GT’’s and similar species, especially if you have a bit of water depth to work.

And the last one of the trio is a skirt:

Full length.

Green and Gold again.

This skirted lure is primarily used to target Sailfish and Marlin, but Spanish Mackerel love them too. Unfortunately they either chew the skirts to bits or bite the lure off on the strike, as they are usually rigged with Jenkaii leader & not wire. 

The head is made of a clear resin, from a hand made mould.

The diversity of these lures, all hand made, for a vast range of targets, one for Barramundi, one for pelagic fishes and one for billfish, is a testament to Balls's talent and workmanship in lure making.

This is a man who only fish with his own lures, and who last weekend was nailing some Barramundi in Darwin harbour.

Thanks again Balls, I feel very privileged to have received such a present.

Great care will be taken of them, they are now a precious part of my small collection of fishing lures.

No need to ask me when I am going to test them...

These will stay at the office, and will never swim...

But hey, it cold be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Three "Westy" Moller.

Hi there,

Here are three lures made by "Westy" Moller, the son of Eric Moller.
Eric Moller, is often regarded as the man who started the fishing lure making industry in Australia.
The tale as it that one day Eric Moller was given an American fishing lure by a fellow angler, and that it inspired him to carve one himself. This was the early 1960s, and the rest is history, as they say...
Australia has now many companies locally producing some excellent fishing lures.
And a very vibrant cottage industry, when it comes to timber lure making.

Sadly Eric Moller passed away.
Now his son, "Westy" who is in his 80's is still carving and painting wooden fishing lures, like he used to do with his father. The craft runs in the family.

Thanks to a tip from Capt. Seaweed and Top Ender from the Lure And More forum, I was able to source these three lures.
And here they are:

Large one made of Red Cedar.

Small one made of Red Cedar.

Large one made of White Beech.

Even if these look a little rough, I am really happy to have them. 

And this is certainly as close as I will ever be to own an Eric Moller lure, because the lures made by Eric are just way out of my fishing lures budget.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Three Amazing Fishing Lures.

Hi there,

Not long ago I was offered three amazing fishing lures.
The lures are Scurvy Dog Lures, and the person who gifted these lures to me, is no one else than the man who made them.

Yes one day out of the blue I received a phone call from Balls from the FFF Forum, asking me the exact address of where he could drop a few lures that he had just made for me.
I got very excited and couldn't wait to see them.
I had heard of these lures, and read an article in the local newspaper about an 85cm (33.464567 Inches) Barramundi being caught on the mighty Daly River on one of them, but was yet to own or even to see one of them.
Scurvy Dog Lures are made in Darwin, with different types of timber, depending of the effect and floatation desired.

As they say that a photograph is worth a thousand words, so lets start with the images...

The Bleeding Mullet.

This is the shape of the lures, they are without the bib, 10cm long (3.9370079 inches) and dives between 3 to 4 meters (9.84252 to 13.12336 foot). The first one is of the very traditional colour called The Bleeding Mullet. A colour that has proved many times over that it is a very efficient, and most anglers that I know have at least one lure in this colour in their tackle box. This colour could be described as an all time classic.

Then Balls said that he had read somewhere that I loved timber fishing lures, so he gave me this one, which is really for the lovers of wooden lures.

Pure wood.

Traditionally, a lure showing the timber as in this photograph, is called a naked lure.

And yes this is my first naked lure. I have sometimes seen some for sale on Ebay or other places, but they were always way out of my price range for a fishing lure.

It is then very easy to imagine how excited I become when I saw it.

For the folks keen on wood, it deserves a few close-up.

Built strong.

With a beautiful finish.

Balls then told me that he was going to give me a lure in a colour called The Classic Drop Bear. I knew what the colour called Drop Bear was, but had never seen a The Classic Drop Bear... (The Drop Bear is a mythical, very dangerous,  Australian animal).

So be ready, because here it comes:

The Classic Drop Bear.

Look at that eye.

Like the two other lures it is made of timber, even if one could easily be fooled into believing that this one is made of plastic.

The quantity of paint, glitter and coating on it, is a testament to the amount of work required to produce this very lure.

As for the eye, many Australians will recognise it...

This is three fantastic hand made fishing lures, in their construction, colours and finish.

I do feel very privileged and lucky to have them.

Thanks again Balls, this is a very nice present. 

When you collect fishing lures, not many things came close to being as good as getting a lure directly from the hands of it's maker.

These three lures will definitively stay at the office, and will never be allowed near any water. I understand that some of you may think that it is a bit sad not to swim them. But I do not want to risk loosing them, or even to scratch them. 

Forever dry, they will stay.

But hey, It could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

6 New Lures For The Collection.

Hi there,

Yes I got the very nice surprise to receive six new lures for my small collection, as a present from Angry.
Like me, Angry is a member of both the FFF forum and the Lures And More forum.
But he lives down south and me up north, so we target different kinds of fishes with different kinds of lures.
The lures that he sent me, are all Australian lures, but are impossible to find in Darwin.

Look at the little treasures I saw when I opened the surprise parcel:

Even better than a box of chocolate.

From this nice little lot, only one was from a brand that I already had, the one on the left, it is a Stuckeys. But if you look at this post on this very blog, you will be able to see that it is different, not only in size or colour, but also in the shape of the bib.

A very nice trout colour.

This lure is very beautiful, with a perfect and deep finish. There is something special in holding in your hand a wooden lure, that has been hand made. To me they are like little art works.

The lure next to it, is a Deception, and I am very happy about it, as I had looked at them on the internet for a while but was yet to own one.

My first Deception.

And when you think about it, what a better name for a fishing lure, than Deception...

And this one seems to be before Tacspo took over the company, so it would be an original Deception. How cool is that.

All the other lure I had never see before, some rudimentary research made me think that they are Custom Crafted Lures, a maker from NSW, same geographic origin than the two previous lures in this post.

The first one is called the Baby Scud, and has an unusual bib:

The Baby Scud.

Next to it was the Baby Extractor, in green too:

The Baby Extractor.

Then comes the only plastic lure of the lot. It might not be made of timber like all the other, but still have a very nice finish and shape.

The Fish stick.

Yes in green too, this must be a very good colour down south, as it is up north. To give you an idea of how popular green lures are, I have already been fishing with some friends, whose lure tray only contains green lure.

And the last one, I have been told from very good authority that this is a lure from a maker called Australian Crafted:

The Minnow 80.

A very nice colour too, I have myself been lucky on this type of colour, here in tropical north Australia. But are these ones ever going to swim? Not a chance! They are already at the office and wont get out of there before a very long time. 

So does it look like the Christmas spirit is in the air?

Yes to me it does, thanks Angry.

Honestly, I am not absolutely sure about the names or makers of most of these lures, and I could even be totally wrong.

This would not be the first time too...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.