Fishing is my passion (cliche´, I know). But I guess this is obvious since I build lures. 🙂
My history in lure building goes back 30 years. I have been very fortunate and lucky to have been taught by one of the legendary lure builders in Finland, Mr. Erkki Virolainen. Erkki was the grand old man and the most famous lure builder especially among sea trout fishermen. I believe Erkki was (and still is) the world's most talented and inspiring lure builder that has ever lived, and I try to follow in his footsteps. Along my own line of pike lures, I build and paint the sea trout lures designed by Erkki under the brand E.V. Trutta. These are sold by Suomen Uistin that acquired Erkki’s brand when he retired in the early 2000’s.
Erkki had an immense passion and dedication to making lures. He experimented a lot, I mean really a lot, with different forms, colors and materials. He used different metals, woods and even bark and feathers, and designed over 100 different forms of spoons for sea trout. This open-minded approach to lure building I follow in my own work.
My lure building is heavily based on what I learned from Erkki. Each lure and detail are hand painted making them unique. I do not employ any templates in the design and details but rather use a brush for finer details and an airbrush for the larger areas. This makes every lure unique. I could use templates but I don’t want to.
Even after 30 years, I still have a huge motivation in my work. I simply like making lures. The world is full of great lures and I could just use existing lures in my fishing but making your own lures is just so fun. It’s great to challenge yourself and try something different once in a while (both in my studio and out on the water). When you catch a good pike with your own lure, it’s just so rewarding.
A lot, if not all, of current hand-made jerk baits are made from wood. That is a great, simple and sustainable material. The downside of wood is that the characteristics and weight fluctuates between batches of wood which makes wooden lures different each time. Also, if the outer shell, like epoxy, breaks, the wood can get wet and further affect the behavior of the lure.
I spent a huge amount of time studying different materials. I wanted to find a material that is sustainable but also more stable than wood. Eventually I started to use recycled ABS plastic. The reasons are that it is very stable and uniform, very durable and does not get wet. Eventually the lures will be bitten by fish or hit rocks and the outer protective shell can be punctured. My lures have a solid ABS body that does not suck in moisture.
The lure bodies are molded by hand in Finland but after this there are many manual phases before the painting can start. I need to inspect every specimen, fine tune the excess material from the molded body and add proper weights inside.
Every lure is then hand painted and unique. There are many layers of C&W epoxy around the body (thanks to Wolfcreek for the best epoxy!). I test every lure in a tank before I accept it to be available to my customers.
In my philosophy as a lure builder, I want the lure to be easy to use. It has to be so easy that you cannot really misuse the lure. Just reel in slow or fast, jerking or steady, with or without using the rod, the lure must always swim nicely and attract fish.
One of my all-time favorite lures is the old Westin Jätte. To be honest, I never had much success with it myself but it made a huge impression on a young man. Now this was back in the days before big pike lures or jerk baits. The Jätte was just huge back then, a brutal lure. Sometimes I repainted them and how great they looked! The somewhat coarse and simple form coupled with my own views on colors left an amazing, yet controversial, feeling. This same mindset I use in my own pike lures - I cannot really claim the shape of my jerk baits is that beautiful, right ?
Instead of the shape, I put my focus on the colors, sometimes even way too much effort. It might be wise to focus on a smaller color palette and limited number of series, but that is not me. It is difficult for me to lock myself in making a long series of a single color. Often if I try to paint like, say, six jerks of the same color, my mind starts drifting and at least one of them ends up being something totally different - I call this my “going nuts” phase (or going off-script) which then leads to inventing yet another color scheme. Still, it is always fun to experiment and try new things.
Push the limits!
Janne Koivisto