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History of Ron Gallo the Lure Maker

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Tony View Drop Down
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    Posted: 14 Nov 2009 at 1:38pm
This History of Lure Maker Ron Gallo was provided to me by our member CaptainCranky (Barry) to post on the site and share with our members. Ron is a personal friend of Barry's and I thank both Ron and Barry for making the effort to share this information with us.


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Biography of Ron Gallo

Ron Gallo was born in Cairns in 1935 and lived with his parents in Freshwater (a Cairns Suburb) for all of his young life.

Ron's Dad moved from Terrepolice in northern Italy to Australia when he was 10 years old and came to Far North Queensland. Ron's Dad started work on a cane farm, after that he became a commercial fisherman and netmaker.This fishing experience was passed onto Ron from an early age.

Ron Made his first lure in 1951 which comprised of buying a butter knife from Burns Philp and cutting off the handle and using the blade of shiny steel for making a spoon lure.He used to catch Barra, Jacks and Trevalley on it. As years went on Ron dabbled with different knives and spoons for lures.

He married his wife Jean in 1957 and settled down. In his young days Ron had a go at amateur boxing, club and social cricket, as well as tennis. To this day he still plays a good game of tennis. He had a lot of spare time and fishing was always at the top of his list as his second love after Jean.

Ron made his first handmade Barra lure in 1956. In those days there were very few wobbler type lures available.

Dave Fangyuen introduced Bellbrook lures to Cairns in the late 50's. He sold them out of his Rex Cafe on Sheridan St. Cairns. These were intriging to Ron and his head was full of ideas on making lures.

In 1970 Ron started work for Purcell's Sports store on Spence St. Cairns and started making quantities of Barra lures for sale in the shop. They were a little spartan in the early days but proved very effective and durable for the tropical species encountered. Ron painted them with an airbrush powered through a 240v compressor that was stepped down to 12v. His bibs on early lures were made of alloy being trays out of refridgerators. He would scribe out the shape using a master template and then use tinsnips. Nowadays he uses polycarbonate and up to a certain size uses a punch then over that size scribes the size and then uses a fine toothed bandsaw then tidies up on the sander.

Ron uses soft stainless steel no.10 wire for all but his tiniest lures. Like a lot of early FNQ makers his inspiration for shapes and sizes came from a Heddon Tiger. He first made a wooden French Flopy type lure in the late 70's.

Ron is still making lures today but only for family and friends.

Ron originally called his lures 007's meaning they were licensed to kill fish. He had a 007-1 007-2 007-3 etc. depending on style and size of lure he made. He made a huge number of models as his skills improved and demand suggested he cater for all species of northern fish.

Some of Ron's models are as follows

•    Tiger in various sizes
•    Black Albert in various sizes
•    Nilsmaster variations
•    Deep Divers in various styles and sizes
•    Elongated tiger Punkinhead deep diver
•    Poppers
•    Mackeral Lure

How Ron makes his lures

•    Start with White Beech or Red Cedar and bandsaw to rough size.
•    Using an alloy template he draws lure onto cut blank.
•    He faces the timber off to slightly oversize on a belt sander going close to the profile template line.
•    He then cuts the sharp bevels off with a knife by hand. Sanding by hand to finished product is done next.
•    Next is drill holes and make wires from no.10 soft stainless steel wire.
•    Make bibs from Polycarbonate.
•    Painting steps
    o    Coat wood with waterbased undercoat and when dry lightly sand with fine wet & dry .
    o    Apply base colour
    o    Apply pattern colours in stages.
    o    Apply eyes using templates. A black shadow is put on under white eyes on all lures now made.
    o    Apply clear two pack epoxy polymer
•    Apply hooks and splitrings as well as wire tow point on bib.
•    Next step is to tank test and adjust as necessary. If the lure is out of wack and too hard to get working it is destroyed.


Once again I wish to thank both Ron and Barry for sharing this information with us!




Cheers, Tony

For the love of Fishing Lures.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Nov 2009 at 1:47pm
Something that neither Ron nor Barry mentioned in the interview:

Here's a quote from Bransord Tackles website about Mr Gallo when he was inducted into Bransfords hall of fame in March 2007:
Quote Ron Gallo is the North's estuary expert. He was the part owner of one of Cairns first tackle shops and his generosity as a retailer almost sent him broke. His lure-making skills are superb and he always has the time to help others, particularly youngsters. His achievements as a barra fisherman speak volumes and his knowledge of Lakefield is unrivalled.


 here is a link to the Bransord Tackles website relating to the hall of fame (Barry will probably hate me for mentioning it but he's in there too!) Wink


Cheers, Tony

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Nov 2009 at 1:51pm

This is a copy of a handout that Ron used to give to kids or anyone interested in having a go at making lures:




Edited by Tony - 14 Nov 2009 at 1:51pm
Cheers, Tony

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Nov 2009 at 10:14am
Here's some more images of Ron and his work



A few of Barry's poppers Ron is about to paint

Cheers, Tony

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote goldtrev68 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 2012 at 1:29pm
I think I have seen those large poppers before,,Gary
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote simon bruce Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 2012 at 1:43pm
the fish aren't art critics
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bassnbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Dec 2016 at 5:30am
AND they are big poppers very nice tooBig smileBig smileBig smileClapClapregards bob
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MadDogLures Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Dec 2016 at 6:02am
Fantastic big poppers and a great read.

Cheers,
Dave
Life is fishing!
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