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John Venn

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CaptainCranky View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote CaptainCranky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: John Venn
    Posted: 08 May 2012 at 9:31pm
The maker of JVN lures has always lived in Townsville.He and his wife Launa have resided in the same house for over 53 years.John was born on the 24/8/37.
Most of his fishing has been in FNQ.
John was heavily influenced by Eric Moller with his luremaking when he started making them in the early 70's.
On asking John why he started to make them I indicated to him that a lot of the older makers made them because of the cost of the bought ones and unavailability of good strong lures.
His answer to me was very interesting.
I was obsessed with the things (lures) and I loved putting life into a piece of Timber.
What John said to me was indeed a great inspirational few lines that I had not heard another maker say.
Like Eric ,John was a great bushman and keen hunter both with rod and rifle.As well as fishing John loved his duck hunting.
Back to his wonderful lures now.Around early 1980 John took some lures up to Jack Erskine's Tackle Shop and introduced himself and his lures.Jack could see that they were high quality and had selling potential so started to order them from John.
The processes John used to make a lure were as follows-
Select a piece of White Beech or Red Cedar and Bandsaw a shape to a Template.
A few pencil lines were then added and then the timber was whittled with a pocket knife to the desired shape.
The lure was then sanded by hand and the wires for the eyes were drilled with a manual hand drill.
The wires for all his lures were twisted with a pair of pliers and a pair of multi-grips.
All his minnows and small poppers had stainless steel wires while the larger poppers had gal wires.
Most of John's lures have exceptional rattles even the Poppers.
The rattles were made very much like JM lures with 2 alloy washers and a ball bearing.The difference with John however was a small piece of alloy tube with a slot cut in it.This was pushed into the hole and gave the ball bearing it's high click sound that John has perfected.
A hole was drilled through the lure and then a washer was glued on one side,the ball bearing placed in the hole and then the other washer glued to the other side of the hole.Drying time for the glue was required for one side at a time so as to make sure the ball bearing did not stick.
John had a home made compressor which he used an airbrush with an Achylic Laquer.A clear coat was then applied after drying had been achieved with the base colours.
John put the eyes on his lures with a Fitch and was very particular with eyes and their colour.He always liked his eyes to stand out so a predator knows that he fish has seen it about to attack and is startled.
Bibs used were alloy or stainless depending on availability and the lure it had to go on.John used good quality Eagle Claw hooks as well as strong split rings.
John stopped making lures in about 2003 due to health issues.
It was a pleasure to stay overnight with John and Launa and hope to catch up again.
 
I have put a picture of John below and sometime this week will put some pics of his lures up.



Some of John's Bibs,Twisted wires and Alloy tubes for Rattles.

John's Templates as well as some of his pocket knives he used to carve with.

A few Red Cedar and White Beech blanks ready for carving.


Some undercoated Lures ready for colours.



The Journey is the Reward


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote simon bruce Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2012 at 9:50pm
Barry
 
another fantastic effort to put together the details on John and his lures
 
Thumbs Up
the fish aren't art critics
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bignanny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2012 at 9:57pm
Thanks for the bio there Barry, certainly interesting to read about these great lure makers. Regards Chris
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote goldtrev68 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2012 at 10:00pm
Barry,,I would like to thankyou,for bringing this True gentalman to life,I loved the read very interesting to a Johnny come lately into the lure sence..I know nothing about the history of Australian lures & or the peolpe that make them,,who knows what will happen when this post is read,,these types of posts could well plant the seed for a whole new generation of wood rats,please keep them coming,,I for one only started making lures from reading articals on this web site,,I am a wood rat now & love getting some fish to eat a bit of painted wood,,,thankyou again Barry this is the best post keep the history coming,,Gary
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nicho Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2012 at 10:23pm
great story again barry, and johns lures look great!.......love his answer  of why he made lures...so true! thats what its all aboutThumbs Up
Im sure the old timers get a lot of pleasure learning that lots of people are interested in what they have done, and would be happy to know that all those hrs in the shed were appreciated.Clap
 
Jas
Nichos Maulers Homemade timber lures....THEY CATCH FISH!

YA DONT KNOW...IF YA DONT GO...SO GET OUT THERE AND... FISH IT
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Red Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 May 2012 at 5:45am
Being a lover of all things fishing , leaning about these true craftsmen is a please , Barry you are very lucky to beable to meet these men , Thank you for posting for us all to see .
 
                    Ian
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RAVA Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 May 2012 at 8:27am
Thankyou Barry I love reading about all the lure makers and their history, great story and the lures that he is holding are just magic Clap look foreward to seeing more pics mate
Fish hate me!!!

Cheers Gary
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fishaholic5 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 May 2012 at 9:07am
Great Bio on an old school luremaker BarryThumbs Up
Originally posted by Nicho Nicho wrote:

great story again barry, and johns lures look great!.......love his answer  of why he made lures...so true! thats what its all aboutThumbs Up
Im sure the old timers get a lot of pleasure learning that lots of people are interested in what they have done, and would be happy to know that all those hrs in the shed were appreciated.Clap
 
Jas
I'll second that Nicho, I think the best lures are made by those that have a true passion for their craftClap
 
Cheers
Wal
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 May 2012 at 8:39pm
Passion definetly is a pre-requisit for a good lure maker, and a good rod maker. Great bio Barry.
Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fletch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2012 at 1:50am
Good stuff ... Needs to be a bigger read .... I can say that's my problem with making lures since I started .. I love making and painting the things and improving on everyone I do ... Addicted and have a hell of alot of new shapes happening ..... Barry is that where the awesome big batch come from that's been getting posted ... Love to go through that lot ...... Good stuff keep more bios coming ....... Cheers aaron
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CaptainCranky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2012 at 7:14am
I was lucky enough to get 2 good lots of lures on the weekend.From John I  aquired quite a lot of his lures as well as the 2 Mollers and an Edwards.The majority (160 odd lures) came from a fellow on my way back to Cairns.Last year I got about 100 lures from him but did not have enough time to really look at everything he had.This time I got to see about %95 of his lures.He was an older guy that has fished FNQ all his life and not into collecting.When he found a good fishing lure he used to buy quite a few of them at a time to store.With all the new variations on the market now he has decded to let a lot of the older lures go.He still buys a lot of Leads lures when available.He would have had maybe 40 Leads Hyjackers and 30 Shads in his fishing boxes.It certainly was great to catch up to him again.
The Journey is the Reward


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote CaptainCranky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2012 at 7:37pm
Just posted up some more pics re John's Bio.
The Journey is the Reward


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bassnbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Mar 2015 at 3:24pm
AWESOME stuff great readClapClapClapClapBig smileBig smileregards bob
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote peter am Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2015 at 12:14pm
Great read Cranky. Who else collects Johns lures, I would like to know.

peter
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