Once Upon A Time There Was A Spyderco Lure
Once Upon A Time There Was A Spyderco Lure
I have engraved a number of small Spyderco knives to take as gifts when I hunted Scotland. The UK restricts blade length and locking ability for publicly carried knives. Spyderco makes a specific model to meet their requirements.
My Scotland host gave me a pair of Spyderco Bugs for possible engraving. I was looking at them a couple of months ago, and it struck me they looked somewhat like a chub minnow in shape. It wasn’t a huge leap to think in terms of making a fishing lure.
I could have just added a split ring to the finger hole, but I was afraid it would position leverage from the hook too far forward. It might open under strain. I was able to use a carbide bit and drill a hole in the blade for a better location. With the addition of some scales, a tail, fin, and gills, I had a a decent looking body. The hook and swivel completed my lure. I was rather pleased with it.
I'm not much of a fisherman and was too busy this summer to take it for a spin. Andy Hawk, my Anchorage gunsmith friend often fishes salt water out of Seward. He agreed to see if he could catch a few fish with it.
I told him I wanted him to use stronger than normal tackle so I’d get my expensive lure back! He’s one of those guys who can always catch fish, so I had little doubt he’d succeed. He knows some islands where he can drift up close and always catch a variety.
Several years ago he took me out on a special trip for me. My grandfather died when I was nine years old and I inherited his old fiberglas fishing rod. It was an old bait caster that I used for a number of years to catch bullheads in a local Kansas pond. I decided I’d take it out on a nostalgia trip and catch a few fish larger than he could have dreamed (no one in my family including me ever dreamed I’d end up in AK!). I caught a salmon or two, some black and yellow rockfish, and a few greenlings. It was a great day. On the August trip where he used my Spidylure, he caught several nice black rockfish and kelp greenlings in about 40 feet of water. The pictures he took tell that tale. The fillet knife is by Lance Knives of Wasilla. Andy wanted me to rig up the much larger 4.5” engraved Spyderco of earlier posts, but I just couldn’t bring myself to risk a $400 lure
