Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Darkhouse Spearing

Weighting,tuning, and DIY decoys in general

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rambo51:
For the last couple years I have been getting into pike spearing more and more and have always used store bought decoys or live suckers. So I figured why not try attempting to make my own decoys? I enjoy building stuff and I have all the tools to do so. And here are my first couple attempts.. Now I have searched high and low for tips and tricks to getting the decoys to sit right and to swim, but I haven't had much luck finding anything so I just poured enough lead to make them sink and guessed where to put the eye hook. And they both sit pretty much level in the water and I figure that it's good enough? The fins are made of sheet metal so they are easy to bend and I will do some adjustments under the ice. I guess my question is how important is to have them sit perfectly level in the water and how do you guys know how much lead and where to put it in the decoy? Also what about the eye hooks how do you know where to put those also? Lots of questions and I appreciate any help. Thank you!

esox_xtm:
My Grand-Dad started carving bass plugs back in the 40's. His favorite tool for checking finished products was the bathtub. I think that tub saw more lures than bare bottoms for a couple decades.  ;)

Seriously, I've started tinkering with some stuff I'd like to clearly see how it falls in the water column. I'm on the hunt for a tall aquarium at the second hand stores. That way I can fill it and leave it, it'll always be ready when I have the desire.

I can't help with general starting points but finding the balance point will be valuable. Rest it on a round dowel or pencil or tape some string to it and observe how it hangs in the air. The other thing about wood is there's no two pieces alike so if you get one you like and make a second it'll be close but still require fine tuning to get it just right.

Bucket Rump:
Here's a webpage that I came upon when reading up on spearing.

http://www.mi-darkhouse.org/weighing-your-fish-to-swim.html

I brought home my Father-In-Law's old spear a couple weeks ago and it's beginning to whisper to me....

rambo51:
Thank you for the link! It sounds like a lengthy process and probably gets easier the more a guy does. Guess I will just have to keep making more of them.. Darn.. ;D

Martian:
 I really need help on this, I made about 25 this year, they all look fairly good, about 10 of them are good, but some do not swim at all, in fact, one, ( which is pretty funny ) swims perfect , backwards. which I guess really doesn't matter

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