Great 'making of' -video of one of the traditional Finnish salmon lures. May I add a little background info - as a knowledge junkie - for the non-Finnish audience or others who haven't heard about 'nirha' -type lures before: Nirha is a traditional Finnish plug lure, kinda in between jerkbaits and popper lures, originally mostly used for fishing salmon in currents. Nirha swims just a tiny bit deeper than a popper - just inside the surface water - but not as deep as a jerkbait and, is also worked similarly in the water with little pulls and twitches to make straight slides and sideway slides like a jerkbait but, it should not splash the water like a popper. Originally, just like in this video, nirhas were made from scots pine bark (Pinus sylvestris). Pine bark is very soft so the nirhas weren't very durable but, they were very easy to make for the same reason and they were cheap to make too. Nowadays the coatings are better and harder so even from bark they should be somewhat more durable. Characteristic for the 'nirha' -type lure is that the loop where the line is tied is under the head and the nose of the lure comes a bit over the loop and there is no swimming plate. In some nirhas the nose comes as much as half an inch over the loop. Nirha is tied with an open loop knot - for example with a Rapala knot - to the line to give it more lively swim. Another charasteristic thing for the 'nirha' -type lure is that fish tend to miss hits on it a lot. On average maybe as low as every fourth strike leads to a succesful hooking. Nirha has also been used in traditional trolling with a row boat in currents, not just spin fishing.
So glad to see a new video from you! And bark? I never would have thought of that. Here in Florida we have so many different pine trees....I've gotta try this. As always; thanks for inspiration!!!!!
you dont see people using bark that much anymore but in the early days of lure making it sounds like it was used pretty often according to literature i've read.
Very nice job,I would have never thought to use pine bark as a lure body. I think I'm going to try to make a jump frog such as that they use in S.E. ASIA of pine bark
I could only imagine the excitement of a salmon smashing a top water bait. I love top water and have caught salmon from my kayak in Toronto but never combined the two.
I was listening to Made To Cast and you mentioned this bait as an all time favorite. It is very hard to research in America. I found your video of course and an online seller with a Nils Master Nirha. It has a similar design but very different fish shape. Another commenter said the Nirha should slowly sink but you have noted a tail down 45° Float. I'm attempting to build one but not sure if I am on the right track or if I have made something completely different.
Good job bud, you make some sick lures. Really like these hand carved ones. The barra over here would go crazy for something like this. Have you ever tried making a popper with this technique? Cheers
Tein ohjeillas nirhan eka heitto ja kg toutain.hauska peli kalastaa mut voisitko valasta mikkä vaikuttaa uintiin ja painotuksesta ja kuinka sais pitemmän liuun uintiin.kiitos hyvistä videoista!!
Hi solarbaits which season is it best to pick this bark (maybe doesnt matter)? I picked some today in Oslo but i didnt look closely at it and was full of bugs and holes and pretty dried out when i looked at it at home.
Hello Mikko, greetings from Peru... As always, your work was amazing and generates tons of new ideas. I spent this week travelling for work in Argentina without having any free time, I’m just back home and wanted to see something to relax. Then I found your last video. These 21:26 minutes ran very fast following all your flawless steps for doing this lure. I’ve never thought to carve a tree bark to do a lure, I love it. It was incredible to see how easily you carve the wood. Just some questions to help me a little: did the epoxy you used to glue the two halves was the same 5min one that you used to glue the foil???; what kind of lure varnish did you used to coat and seal the wood?? How long did you let it dry between each one of your six coats? … thank you for your incredible video and sharing your tips…
Hello Mikko, thanks a lot for your reply. I've just looked for the CAB coating in Amazon and I found an urethane acrylic coat... I will buy a can of that Urethane for sealing my lures instead using Epoxy... Until next time, thanks again for your tips...
Filming fishing is extremely boring to me and my set up is not really good for that so if i do end up documenting my fishing exploits i just take photos now a days
its normal clear coat from Cab coatings mixed with titanium oxside ( the stuff they use as pigment to make the color white) 5 minute epoxy is not all that fantastic on lure coating something that has a longer set time is better, like envirotex lite like i used there
Hello What is the name of the white liquid that dipped the wood before placing the aluminum do you mean 1-CAB Beteslack Matt 1L with titanium dioxide 2-/CAB Beteslack White 1L .CAB Beteslack Hard 1L .CAB Beteslack Regular 1L / with titanium dioxide The other question The varnish you use before drawing is it 1-water based varnish 2- polyurethane varnish The last question Why did not sealed the lure be with epoxy?
I usually use cab hard with my own mix of titanium white. its polyurethane based if my memory serves me right lts the same stuff i use ontop of the foil minus the titan white. Why use that instead of epoxy? Its simple, the stuff i use cures much quicker than epoxy.
i have a question how much weight shoud be given to the lure .I tried myself to make some stickbaits but always had the problem that they dont swim very well because of not having the right weight at the right position
well you could have just asked for spesifics in your original guestion to avoid confusion haha. anyways, I used 1.0mm stainless steel wire for this build.
hmm once i get to the wire stages, i would take my wood burner and trace out the impressions of wire instead of cutting them out, much easier process and safer for my fingers. (older guy)
I already did one give away earlier in the spring, i do sell too but very rarely and in small quantities and basically when i get the itch to make something for sale
I mean from bart my Dad did a lot of them for sale in Poland we had like 100 shops across in 1989 in small cities You cud not buy nothing like today Peace Mikko.
The original idea of a nirha is not to be walk the dog type of topwater bait but a lure that basically splashes water without being as loud as a popper and imitate an injured or dying fish. I caught probably 50 pikes and few dosen perch with this lure last summer so i guess the action is fine ;)
sometimes looks can be decieving, years ago my brother made a lure that had barely no action, we both laught at how badly it swam but the early spring pikes were crazy over it and he caught probably 15 pikes in 3 hours with that lure until he lost it to a snag
Николай, не огорчайтесь! В принципе все понятно, просто есть повод учить английский. А для общения через подобный сервис достаточно гугл переводчика. Пишите вопрос на русском, потом перевод на английский язык текст еще раз прогоняете в обратную сторону, на русский. Проверяете, не получился ли каламбур. И так, пока не выйдет нормальное предложение. Лучше создавать короткие, простые предложения. Удачи!
