Unique Aussie Lures

LureLovers.com
Ultimate Australian Fishing Lure Forum - LureLovers.com 

 

Rayna Lures

by

Pete Rayner

Got'ta show this one first

I consider myself very fortunate in receiving a very special one off symetrical Banksia lure from Pete! He has taken over a week to lovingly handcraft it from two different pieces of Banksia timber whose grain matched exactly for each half. The steps involved are illustrated below.

I washed it in vegetable turps, so I will have to wait a day for it to dry out before gluing, drilling and finishing.
After shaping it I am  pretty impressed with the grain match up, probably the best so far (of a grand total of 3  I have made).This one is 8 cm which is 1cm smaller than the one recently posted on Lure Lovers.

I have to make them in halves because they are 'Nude' and there is no way to cover up the ballast holes etc, so the inside is routed out and a few grams of lead is added then she is closed up.
This is about where I am up to today, ballast added, glued up, hangers fitted, sanded and primed tonight.

Eye sockets drilled

Sight given!

Presentation standard storage box.

Truly worthy of its own collector case made by Pete.

Look forward here to more images of Pete's beautiful work.

'an this one too!

A second Raynor stunning lure arrived to my collection, and the small cased orange Trout lure is very much at home. I thought Pete was sending me one to fish ie scratched  but apparently none of his works are ever less than perfect! Still too good to use mate.

 

Absolute eye candy!

Self Profile

About 32 years ago a mate came over one morning and said “you have this canoe, why don’t we go down the Clyde River and try and catch some Bass”.

We had few suitable lures and no spare cash “so why don’t we make some ”??. So we muddled around and made a few lures and a week or so later off we went - to my dismay, and delight we caught some Bass (and BIG Bream).
From that day on I was hooked, and have been making lures ever since, commercially through a couple of tackle shops for  about 5 years in the late 80's / early 90's, and then for FUN for the past fifteen years, making what I like, instead of being market driven.
In Autumn / Winter /Spring, I try and get up into the Snowy Mountains (Trout fishing) as much as my weary bones will allow- Spring/ Summer/ Autumn , I gravitate to the coast and estuary fish for whatever comes past.

This presents a problem, fresh and salt water in the world of lures are very different, so I spend more time then I should adjusting lure weights to compensate for these different water properties (sinking /suspending in salt, suspending /floating in fresh).


I love to paint, for me each lure is a new experiment in colour.  Rarely do I paint more than two lures in the same colours, although I have a heap of stencils and have no problem reproducing a ‘catcher’ .


I usually make lures in 4.5cm, 5 cm, 7.5 and 8cm sizes but have made bigger (up to about 12.5cm), which I find are like painting houses, but as easy as they are, the fish I'm after have no desire for these monsters.


I don’t sell lures any more, I probably make 50 - 100 a year, and I paint them however I like, because I enjoy it.
I really hope you enjoy looking at all the lure’s/ lure makers here, and maybe even better, ---------------- making some.
I hope they give you some ideas -----------BUT watch out, it’s addictive .
Pete

Pete has all the moves and is keen to share techniques /advice such as this, to help beginners like me get started.

I started out using balsa and then maple (Meranti), then went to Red Cedar (Canadian Red or Western Red)then for a short stint on Hoop Pine and now I use Kauri Pine , there should be heaps of it around there??
Go to your supplier and they will probably show you some 15cm X 3cm planks, sort through it and find the lightest (heartwood), you will know as soon as you pick it up, it's about 10% -20% lighter than the rest - this is light, soft, but hard, easy to work and has no distinctive grain, so it does not chip when you are shaping it- this is what I did not like about cedar, the  wood has a hard and soft grain and in 10 years when it shrinks the hard grain (dark wide lines) comes through the clear coating and looks like crap, and the dust is a bitch/ toxic too.
Pete

Further info shared by Pete with Jason a fellow mate  from Lure Lovers

 

Pete bought his first airbrush around 1974 at a cost of $110.00 and drove 3 hrs to Sydney to pick it up.
He now has several cheaper brushes that work fine(ALTHOUGH HE SAYS HE CANT PAINT WELL! ITS THE STENCILS THAT MAKE HIM LOOK GOOD....PLEASE!!)An artistic flair runs in the family, both his brother and sister are accomplished artists, with his younger brother having an exhibition in Paris this month at The Louvre!
He prefers to use water based acrylics(good quality ones) he claims they are cheaper to buy/safer to use/ the colour range is endless, and that way he can experiment mixing to get his exact colours, if hes not happy with a colour he can afford to throw it away, where as acrylic thinners based paint is more costly.

Pete started out making lures with Balsa, maple, Aus Beech, then moved on to Red Cedar for several years, then he discovered Kauri Pine in the early 90s and has used this predominately since.

Pete likes all types of fishing, and usually trys to fish for trout from Autumn through to spring, and then move on to the flatties, bream, whiting in the estuaries as the warmer weather comes along, if possible he likes to chase a Bass in summer.

Any of Pete's older lures with stainless hook hangers were made between 1982-87... around 87 he also used steel plates a copy of the Bennett/ McGrath, Pete was not happy with these plates, so he commissioned a guy to make up a die, and punched out 3000 brass plates, which he uses to this day.
So from 1987-90 all Pete's lures had the brass hangers.

Pete made very few lures from around the mid to late 90s(due to no money/no time) and didnt start making lures with a passion until 2005.
He now only makes a lure when he feels like it, for the love of it, not as a marketing tool, and I personally feel that is why his current lures are of a quality that not many could match,  and I'm sure that anyone that has viewed Pete's latest creations would have to agree!

Pete's best catch on one of his own lures was a 34lb cod, caught on a 5cm frog pattern lure on 6lb line when trout fishing from a canoe with a mate in a local lake, the fish towed them around the lake for sometime before eventually being dragged on board the canoe, where it preceded to try and smash a hole in the bottom of the canoe and tip both anglers out into the water. This was 20 yrs ago and Pete reckons if he caught the same fish today, he would not attempt to get it in the canoe!

A big thanks Pete for your generosity with sending me a piece of your history, and they have pride of place in the SHED.

Jason

 

 

 

back.... to Aussie Lures