Can An Ebook Really Teach You How To Make Fishing Lures?

Looking For Lure Making Information?

Lure Making Ebooks

If you've just been bitten by or are about to be bitten by the lure making bug then you are most likely on a quest for lure making knowledge - good information that will show you exactly how to make quality fishing lures that will catch fish for you in the various waters where you cast your line. When I myself got into lure making the first place I looked for information was the internet. It quickly became evident that there were a number of ebooks for sale on the internet all claiming to teach you how to make the most perfect fishing lures in the shortest time possible.

No Reviews To Be Found

When I searched for reviews of these lure making ebooks to find out what people were saying about them all I could find were editorial type reviews on websites that were simply trying to sell a copy of whichever ebook they had chosen to review. There were no reviews to be found (none that I could find anyway) that were written by real fishermen who had actually bought the ebooks, made some lures and caught some fish with them! 

My aim with this blog post is to fill that gap on the internet by providing useful reviews of the lure making ebooks that I have bought. By doing so I will hopefully help some people who are considering the purchase of a lure making ebook to make a more informed decision before parting with their cash.  So, can an ebook actually teach you how to make fishing lures? - read on to find out . . . . . . . . . 

Two Ways To Learn Something New

When trying to learn a new skill of any kind there are probably two main ways to go about it. One way (which is probably the best way) is to find someone who is already proficient in the skill we are trying to learn and get them to teach us that skill. The other way to learn a new skill is to find a way to teach ourselves. In the case of learning how to make fishing lures there's probably not that many of us who know someone that could or would take the time to show us how it's done. So it would be fairly safe to say that the majority of us who are trying to learn the skills of lure making are figuring it out for ourselves.

One of the most traditional ways of learning how to do something for yourself is to buy a good book on the subject and learn from that book. In more recent times of course the internet has replaced the more traditional 'hard copy' book as one of the first places people will look for information on any subject. Information that is available on the internet comes in many forms - there are you tube videos, informational websites, podcasts, blogs (like this one), forums, webinars and downloadable ebooks to name but a few. It is the later (ebooks that is) that are a particular favourite of mine.

Why Buy A Lure Making Ebook Anyway?

Whether or not you like the idea of buying a downloadable ebook from some website on the internet will of course be entirely a matter of personal preference. I myself have have over the last number of years bought quite a number of ebooks on a range of subjects from various websites across the net. There are a number of reasons why I like ebooks so much and I have outlined the main ones as follows:

• Ebooks are instant. What I mean by this is that when you buy an ebook it is usually only a matter of  minutes or even seconds before you receive the download instructions and can start to read your new book. There's no waiting for something to be delivered. You could buy an instructional ebook (about lure making in our case) today and put what you learn from it into action tomorrow - very convenient.
  
  
• Ebooks are very portable. Now of course regular books are quite portable too but with ebooks you can store them online to easily access them from any computer anywhere. You could access a copy of your ebook on your work computer, home computer, laptop, e-reader, iphone, etc.


• You can print out the bit you need or are most interested in and leave the rest - I do this myself quite often with ebooks. For example if you had bought a how to make fishing lures ebook and were working on painting some homemade lures you could print out the relevant chapter or pages in the ebook about painting fishing lures and take them to your garage or workshop with you.

Lure Making Ebook Review 1

Ebook Title:

Make Your Own Fishing Lures - Wooden Lures

Author:

Dr. Greg Vinall

Chapters/Sections:

10

Pages:

50 (53 including cover and contents)

So Who is the Author And Where Did This Ebook Come From

The author of this ebook is an Australian Fisherman named Greg Vinall. Greg is a professional aquatic scientist and as such has made a career as a consultant who safeguards the health of aquatic environments which of course includes fish. His career path is one which has allowed him to develop a huge understanding of fish behavior and fish environments. Greg started making his own lures at a very young age and quickly realized, as most lure makers do, that he could build his own lures specifically for his local waters that could easily out-fish those lures that were available from the local fishing tackle shops. 

Over the last three decades Greg has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge on the subject of lure making and has now turned that knowledge into educational material on the internet in the form of lure making articles, lure making websites, a lure making blog and of course lure making ebooks. With over thirty years of lure making experience behind him and a career that involves the understanding of fish and fish environments I think you'll agree that Greg is more than qualified to write an ebook on the subject of wooden lure making.

So What Exactly Is In This Lure Making Ebook?

This ebook about making wooden fishing lures is laid out in ten sections and also comes with a number of 'bonus' ebooks. I have outlined briefly below what you will find in the various sections of the ebook. This is something that the author surprisingly does not do on his website - there's a lot of what I suppose you could call  'hype' on his site about how great the ebook is but he fails to tell us exactly what is or is not in the book.

A preview of the table of contents for example would be nice, just like they do over at Amazon.com but it's just not on the authors site anywhere. Anyway I've laid out a very brief description of the general contents of the ebook here so that anyone who is considering buying this book can get a better feel for what the ebook is all about.

Section 1:
Introduction - the author gives a brief introduction to the ebook and as you would expect outlines the main advantages associated with making your own homemade wooden fishing lures.

Section 2:
The Basics of Fishing Lures - this section of the ebook describes the different types of fishing lures and goes through the 'anatomy' of a fishing lure. Covered in detail in this chapter you will find the 'how' and the 'why' a lure swims. Topics covered include lure design, lure body shape, diving lips (angle, size, and shape and it's effect on lure action), position of the tow point and it's effect on the action of a lure and even water density (fresh water vs salt water) and how it might affect the buoyancy and hence action of your lures. Altogether a very comprehensive chapter of the ebook with a lot of colour pictures and diagrams.

Section 3:
Tools That You'll Need - in this part of the ebook the author outlines all the various hand tool you will need for lure making and what each one will be needed for. Although power tools are not needed to make the lures described in this ebook the author has included a section on power tools here and illustrates the point that though they are not necessary, if you have them they can be used to speed up the lure making process. If you were to purchase just one power tool for lure making the author tells you what that should be and why.  A fairly basic chapter of the book but all bases are covered as far as tools go.

Section 4:
Materials For Making Lures - in this section of the ebook you will find detailed information on the various woods for luremaking, their availability and suitability. Also covered are metals and plastics for making diving lips, types of wire for making through wires and tow points and advice on choosing split rings and hooks.

Section 5:

Wood Blanks and Templates - the author outlines the importance of using templates for making your lures and shows you how to make them. You are shown how to make a wooden lure blank - square it up, mark it out and transfer the template. The way you set up your lure blank will differ depending on whether you are using through-wire construction, two part construction or screw in eyelets - this is all fully explained in this chapter.

Section 6:
How to Make a Throughwire - this is a fairly short chapter showing you how to make throughwires for your lures. There are lots of colour pictures here and you are shown how to make a very simple jig which will allow you to make all of your throughwires exactly the same shape and size every time.

Section 7:
Throughwire Slot Construction Method - in this chapter we finally get down to the lure making itself. This section details the 'slot construction method' - where the throughwire is fitted to a lure by cutting a slot into the belly of the lure. There are lots of colour pictures in this section and you are shown how to cut the slot for the throughwire, how to cut the slot for the diving lip and of course how to turn your square shaped lure blank into a perfect 'fish shaped' lure body. At the end of this chapter you are shown how to glue in the throughwire and finish off the lure body.

Section 8:
Two Part Construction Method - this section of the ebook is similar to the previous chapter but shows you an alternative method for fitting the internal throughwire and also internal weights. Basically the lure body is made in such a way as that it can be 'opened' along it's centre line to fit the hardware internally and you are shown exactly how to do this. Again plenty of colour pictures in this section.

Section 9:
Decorating and Finishing Lures - the author explains that there are many different methods and products that you can use to seal, paint and finish your lures and that all lure makers generally develop their own preferences and techniques based on their available time and budget. The author then goes on to outline his preferred method and techniques for painting/finishing lures and explains in detail how he goes about them. Topics covered in this section of the ebook include painting equipment, primers/undercoats, top coats, dipped finishes, using crackle medium, masking, spray can painting, making and using stencils, spraying scale patterns, painting on eyes and finishing clear coats.

Section 10:
The Final Fitout - this chapter of the ebook deals with 'finishing off' your lures. Instructions on how to make and fit diving lips are given. More advice on split rings and hooks is given and on how to 'chop and change' them to achieve different actions with your lures. And finally a few tips are given on what you can do to fine tune your lures if they are not quite swimming perfectly.

So Did This Ebook Teach Me How To Make Fishing Lures?

Well . . . no . . . and yes - let me explain. Before I had bought a copy of this ebook I had already almost completed my first few homemade lures - a set of four jerkbaits for pike fishing. Also I had done a hell of a lot of lure making research online at various forums, blogs and lure fishing sites. This, together with the fact that I come from a carpentry and cabinet making background meant that the basic skills of shaping pieces of wood into fishing lures was something that I already knew how to do. You might think then that I had very little left to learn - you would be wrong! In fact, and to my surprise I learned quite a lot from this ebook.

The main things of value that I learned about in the ebook are as follows:

• In chapter two of the book I learned how the combination of the size and shape of the lure body, the angle, size and shape of the diving lip and position of tow point and hooks all affect the action of a lure. If, for example I want a lure that dives down deep and quickly with a wide rolling wobble or conversly a lure that stays near the surface with a tight wiggling action this chapter of the ebook tells me how to do it. Basically you are taught how to design your own crankbait. This information I had not come across anywhere before.


• As for shaping lure bodies, I learned the method of two part construction which I had not seen before. Basically the lure body is made in such a way as that it can be taken apart (splitting down it's centreline) into two halves to allow for the fitting of the throughwire and internal weights.


• I learned how to make a jig for my throughwires so that I could get them all exactly the same shape and size every time.


• I learned a very neat way of making moulded plastic stencils for spraying patterns on your lures - again something I have not seen anywhere else.


• I also learned about a few products that can be used for creating special effect painted finishes on lures that I had previously no knowledge of.

What Others Are Saying About This Guide

As I mentioned earlier in this post there is very little to be found anywhere online in the way of a review or advice relating to this ebook. I had to take two little snippets from the authors' website to give you an idea of what others who have bought this book are saying about it.

One fisherman from Queensland, Australia says:

 ". . . . The layout and step by step process make it really easy to understand and replicate . . . "

I myself would tend to agree with the above statement. In particular the section of the ebook that shows you how to shape your wooden lure bodies has quite a few good quality colour pictures to illustrate the sequence you must follow when shaping your lures.

Another fisherman from Wisconsin in the U.S. has this to say about the templates supplied with the ebook:

" . . . . . When built correctly all of the designs have caught fish here in Wisconsin, everything from bluegills to musky. . . .. "

He goes on to mention his favourite lures from the ebook:

". . ..  . . .My particular favourites are the 'Hot Diggity' and the 'Bombadier' designs. The Hot Diggity has been really good for bass . . . ."

Of all the lure designs that come with the ebook I myself have only made two of them and properly tested one and as such can't really vouch for all of the designs. The ones that I have built are known as the 'Dover' and 'Styx'. The Styx is a shallow diver with a nice tight wiggling action and with it I have caught a few small pike from shallow weedy lake and river margins while trying to catch a perch!

What's Not In The Ebook and What I Did Not Like About It

In writing this review I have tried to remain as neutral and unbiased towards the ebook in question as possible. If you have read all of the page above however you've probably got a feeling that I'm about to recommend the book - and to be fair you'd be right. However before I write my glowing recommendation I must tell you that I did have a 'few bones to pick' with this ebook so to speak and here's a few things I did not like about it:

• Before I criticise the ebook I must comment on the authors website though. You know when you walk into a store and before you are even fully inside the door you are met by a smiling eager beaver sales rep who says something like "hello sir . . . how are you today sir . . can I help you with anything sir" - you know what I mean. Personally I hate that - enough to make me want to leave the store sometimes!
  
  Well, on the internet there are websites that are a lot like that, you know the ones, as soon as you arrive on the webpage everything about it is trying to get you to click some link, submit your email address or buy some product. The website from which the author sells the ebook we're talking about here is a little bit like that.
  
  There's quite a few big red 'click here to buy it now' sort of buttons, a fair few attention grabbing headlines and one or two attention grabbing flashing images. Personally I would like to have seen maybe a few pictures of lures built by people who had bought the ebook and perhaps a few more customer testimonials on the site. So, if you head over to the authors website to check out the ebook for yourself you will notice quite a bit of 'hype' about the ebook and a very much 'sales' orientated feel to the site.

As for the lure making ebook itself, it's not so much something that I did not like about the ebook but rather some things that were missing from the book that I must tell you about. 

• There are absolutely no instructions whatsoever in the ebook on how to balance your wooden lures. By balancing a lure I mean the process of placing the sealed wooden lure body in water, with fittings attached, and hanging some weights from it in order to find out how much weight needs to be fitted internally to the lure and at what position(s) along the length of it's body. So just to be clear, the ebook does not give instructions on how to figure out how much weighting your lure will need, what location within the lure to fit that weight and for the 'throughwire slot construction method' you are not shown how to 'drill out' the lure body for the weight or how to go about fitting that weight.
  
  To be fair to the author though not every lure you build will need internal weighting fitted. Also the author also provides you with twelve proven lure templates which you can work from without actually needing to balance the lures - follow the instructions exactly ie. same wood, same hooks, same finish etc and the lures will balance because they have been designed that way by the author. So without knowing how to balance a lure you will still be able to make plenty of lures by following the instructions given in this ebook. Having said that though I personally feel that learning the skill of balancing a wooden lure is a very important part of learning wooden lure making and as such any book or manual written on the subject should teach you how to do it!


• Another thing that I found to be missing from the ebook was a series of pictures showing you how to fit the diving lips to your crankbaits. The procedure for making and fitting diving lips to your lures and the different materials for making them is actually well described in the book, however there are no pictures at all to show you how it's done.
  
  Since the fitting of a diving lip to a crankbait is one of the most important parts of the crankbait making process I feel that a sequence of pictures showing you the steps involved should be included in any chapter in any book on the subject. This is of course just my personal opinion but I was surprised at the lack of pictures in this section of the book since other sections of the book had plenty of pictures.


• I'm not quite sure if I'm right about this one but it looks like the last page of the ebook is missing. At the very end of the last chapter in the book the author describes the last step in the lure making process  - testing your lures in the water and what to do if your lure is not swimming correctly.
  
  During the paragraph where we learn how to correct a crankbait that is not swimming in a straight line back to us the author refers to a diagram that illustrates the procedure involved, however there is no diagram included on the page and at the end of that paragraph the ebook ends. I suspect that there is probably one more page to the ebook that contains the diagram mentioned in the text and probably also a closing comment of some sort from the author which is also absent from the ebook. This looks to be a fairly minor editing error in what is an otherwise very complete ebook.

Some Buying Advice

If you are considering buying this ebook then there are a few things I can tell you before you do:

There's only one place to buy this ebook.
The current price of the Wooden Lures Ebook is $29.95 (EDIT - since I wrote this review Greg has unfortunately increased the price of this e-book to $47. This I feel is just a little on the expensive side for a downloadable e-book. He has however included a few more lure making resources in the package, some of which address the things I did not like about the e-book. For me although the price of $47 is a bit on the high side I would still consider this e-book package to be of good value - whether or not you agree with me is entirely up to you!) and it can only be purchased from the authors website (link provided below). There are sites on the internet that claim to offer this ebook (and many others) as a free download in order to trick you into downloading some other software (which can be harmful to your computer) or signing up to an account of some sort with them. If you see this ebook on offer cheaper than the stated price or from any site other than the authors website it will most likely be a scam of some sort.

You can buy this ebook safely and with confidence.
The author uses a company called Clickbank to accept payment and process all orders for the sale of his ebook. Clickbank is a well established (founded in 1998) and very trustworthy company with a great online track record. I have bought numerous ebooks (more than a dozen) from various sites around the internet who have used Clickbank to process their orders and have never had a problem with them.

Another thing that makes your purchase of this ebook a safe transaction is the fact that the author offers a full  60 day money back guarantee. If for some reason you were not happy with your purchase then you have 60 days to claim a full refund.

This ebook comes with some great bonuses.
When you think of receiving a bonus with a product you are buying you would be inclined to think of something small, a little something 'on the side' to sweeten the deal so to speak. In most cases you would be right. However in the case of this ebook the author actually over delivers on the bonuses and in my opinion the bonuses are worth far more than the original ebook itself!

Some of The Bonuses - Email Support, 12 Lure Proven Lure Templates, Fishing Tips Ebook and Lure Colours Guide

Four of the five bonuses that come with the ebook are fairly self explanitory:

1. You get three months of email support from the author. 
2. You get an ebook with 12 templates for proven lures that the author has designed. 
3. You get a mini ebook with 65 general lure fishing tips.
4. You get a mini ebook on the subject of lure colours and how fish see and react to them.

The Best Bonus
The fifth bonus however- 30 days access to the authors lure making membership site I found to be of real value. The best part of the membership site is access to the authors Wooden Lures System manual. Basically this manual is an updated version of the original ebook that I am actually writing this review for. However the updated version is more than twice the length of the original ebook and covers an awful lot more lure making ground than the original.

Some of the additional topics covered in the Wooden Lures System Manual are:

• Detailed descriptions of every kind of wooden lure and the design considerations specific to each one.
• Through wires, homemade eyelets and screw in eyelets are covered in a lot more detail.
• Using a wood working lathe to shape wooden lure bodies.
• Making moulds and moulding lead for the internal weights for your lures.
• Choosing and using an airbrush for painting your lures.
• An additional collection of lure templates with individual instructions on how to make each one of twenty four different wooden lure designs.

This promotional video by the author  shows all of the lures that you get templates for as part of one of the bonuses:

What's My Verdict?

Thumbs Up From Me

When I first downloaded this ebook over a year ago (early 2012) I must admit that due to all the hype on the authors website I was not quite sure what to expect. On my first read through the ebook I learned quite a lot of 'new' luremaking techniques and ideas and having referred back to the ebook now and again over the year or so I can honestly give this book a positive thumbs up! I did point out a few things earlier in my review that I felt are missing from this ebook. In my opinion however the generous package of bonuses that are included with the download more than make up for this.

The author claims that if you can't make make professional quality lures in 6 weeks he'll give you your money back. In truth you will easily be able to knock out your first few lures in your first week, assuming you already have some tools that is. If you are a complete lure making beginner looking for a guide to teach you the skills of lure making then this ebook is a great place to start. Or if like myself you have already made a lure or two and are looking to expand your knowledge on the subject of lure making then this ebook will not dissapoint you. The big bright link below will take you to the authors website so you can check out this ebook for yourself.

CLICK HERE To Shorten Your Lure Making Learning Curve And Check Out This Wooden Luremaking Ebook And Generous Package of Bonuses

Well there's my first ebook review. As I mentioned earlier in this post I have actually bought a few lure making ebooks and have at least two others that I will be writing reviews for and adding to this page when I get the time. I hope you found this review useful and if you have any questions about this review feel free to post a comment below.